Transmission of the Greek Classics
The transmission of the Greek Classics to
Classical
The line between Greek scholarship and Arab scholarship in Western Europe was very blurred during the Middle Ages and the
Direct reception of Greek texts
As knowledge of Greek declined in the West with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, so did knowledge of the Greek texts, many of which had remained without a Latin translation.[3] The fragile nature of papyrus as a writing medium meant that older texts not copied onto expensive parchment would eventually crumble and be lost.
After the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the Sack of Constantinople (1204), scholars such as William of Moerbeke gained access to the original Greek texts of scientists and philosophers, including Aristotle, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Proclus, that had been preserved in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and translated them directly into Latin.[4]
The final
Armenia harbored libraries of Greek classical literature. An Armenian codex of Aristotle (†Δ) is one of the main sources in the text-critical apparatus of today's Greek text.[6]
Syriac translations
Syriac plays an important role in modern textual criticism even today. The Oxford Classical issue of the Greek text of Aristotle's Organon uses the sigla Ρ, Ι, and Γ, which are texts dating from Christian possessions from the 6th to 8th century.[6]
Western Roman Empire
Classical Greek learning was firmly found in every metropolis of the Roman empire, including in Rome itself.
In the 4th century, the Roman grammarian
The rest of Aristotle's books were eventually translated into Latin, but over 600 years later, from about the middle of the 12th century. First, the rest of the logical works were finished,[1] by using the translations of Boethius as the basis.[10] Then came the Physics, followed by the Metaphysics (12th century), and Averroes' Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics (13th century),[11] so that all works were translated by the mid-13th century.[7]
A text like On the Soul, for instance, was unavailable in Latin in Christian Europe before the middle of the twelfth century.[12] The first Latin translation is due to James of Venice (12th century), and has always been considered as the translatio vetus (ancient translation).[13] The second Latin translation (translatio nova, new translation) was made from the Arabic translation of the text around 1230, and it was accompanied by Averroes's commentary; the translator is generally thought to be Michael Scot. James's translatio vetus was then revised by William of Moerbeke in 1266–7, and became known as the "recensio nova" (new recension), which was the most widely read version.[14] On the Soul ended up becoming a component of the core curriculum of philosophical study in most medieval universities, giving birth to a very rich tradition of commentaries, especially c. 1260–1360.[15]
Although Plato had been Aristotle's teacher, most of Plato's writings were not translated into Latin until over 200 years after Aristotle.[7] In the Middle Ages, the only book of Plato in general circulation was the first part of the dialogue Timaeus (to 53c), as a translation, with commentary, by Calcidius (or Chalcidius).[7] The Timaeus describes Plato's cosmology, as his account of the origin of the universe. In the 12th century Henry Aristippus of Catania made translations of the Meno and the Phaedo, but those books were in limited circulation.[7] Some other translations of Plato's books disappeared during the Middle Ages. Finally, about 200 years after the rediscovery of Aristotle, in the wider Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino (1433–99) translated and commented on Plato's complete works.[7]
Boethius
In Rome, Boethius propagated works of Greek classical learning. Boethius intended to pass on the great Greco-Roman culture to future generations by writing manuals on music and astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic.[16]
Several of Boethius' writings, which were largely influential during the Middle Ages, drew from the thinking of
Besides these advanced philosophical works, Boethius is also reported to have translated important Greek texts for the topics of the quadrivium. His loose translation of Nicomachus's treatise on arithmetic (De institutione arithmetica libri duo) and his textbook on music (De institutione musica Libri quinque, unfinished) contributed to medieval education.[18] De arithmetica, begins with modular arithmetic, such as even and odd, evenly even, evenly odd, and oddly even. He then turns to unpredicted complexity by categorizing numbers and parts of numbers.[19]
His translations of Euclid on geometry and Ptolemy on astronomy,[20] if they were completed, no longer survive. Boethius made Latin translations of Aristotle's De interpretation and Categories with commentaries. These were widely used during the Middle Ages.
Early Middle Ages in the Western Provinces
In the Western Provinces (what today is considered the Western Europe's heartland), the collapsing Roman empire lost many Greek manuscripts which were not preserved by monasteries. However, due to the expense and dearth of writing materials, monastic scribes could recycle old parchments. The parchments could be reused after scraping off the ink of the old texts, and writing new books on the previously used parchment, creating what is called a palimpsest.[21] Fortunately for modern scholars, the old writing can still be retrieved, and many extremely valuable works, which would have otherwise been lost, have been recovered in this way. As the language of Roman aristocrats and scholars, Greek died off along with the Roman Empire in the West, and by 500 CE, almost no one in Western Europe was able to read (or translate) Greek texts, and with the rise of the Islamic Empire, the west was further cut off from the language. After a while, only a few monasteries in the west had Greek works, and even fewer of them copied these works (mainly the Irish).[22] Some Irish monks had been taught by Greek and Latin missionaries who probably had brought Greek texts with them.[23]
Late Middle Ages: William of Moerbeke
William of Moerbeke was one of the most prolific and influential translators of Greek philosophical texts in the middle half of the thirteenth century. Very little is known of William's life.[24] He was born probably in 1215 in the village of Moerbeke, now in Belgium, and probably entered the Dominican priory in Leuven as a young man. Most of his surviving work was done during 1259–72.
William's contribution to the "recovery" of Aristotle in the 13th century undoubtedly helped in forming a clearer picture of Greek philosophy, and particularly of Aristotle, than was given by the Arabic versions on which they had previously relied, and which had distorted or obscured the relation between Platonic and Aristotelian systems of philosophy.
According to a tradition originating in the later Middle Ages, William knew
Arabic translations and commentary
Arabic logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered
Western Arabic translations of Greek works (found in Iberia and Sicily) originates in the Greek sources preserved by the Byzantines. These transmissions to the Arab West took place in two main stages.
First period: Greek–Arabic translations
Umayyads
The first period of transmission during 8th and 9th centuries was preceded by a period of conquest, as Arabs took control of previously Hellenized areas such as
Abbasids
The main period of translation was during Abbasid rule. The 2nd Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad.[29] Here he founded a great library, The House of Wisdom, containing Greek Classical texts. Al-Mansur ordered this rich fund of world literature translated into Arabic. Under al-Mansur and by his orders, translations were made from Greek, Syriac, and Persian, the Syriac and Persian books being themselves translations from Greek or Sanskrit.[30]
The 6th-century King of Persia, Anushirvan (
Baghdad's House of Wisdom
The Caliph al-Mansur was the patron who did most to attract the
The most important work of the academy however was done by Yahya's pupils and successors, especially
Later the Caliph al-Mamun also sent emissaries to the Byzantines to gather Greek manuscripts for his new university, making it a center for Greek translation work in the Arab world.[31] At first only practical works, such as those on medicine and technology were sought after, but eventually works on philosophy became popular.[34][35]
Most scholars agree that during this period rhetoric, poetry, histories, and dramas were not translated into Arabic, since they were viewed as serving political ends which were not to be sought after in Arab states. Instead, philosophical and scientific works were almost the entire focus of translation. This has been disputed by a minority of scholars, however, who argue that stories such as the
After translation: Arabic commentary on Greek works
After Al-Kindi, several philosophers argued more radical views, some of whom even rejected
After Al-Kindi,
Decades after Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) compiled the ideas of many Muslim philosophers of the previous centuries and established a new school which is known as Avicennism.[31][37] After this period, Greek philosophy went into a decline in the Islamic world. Theologians such as Al-Ghazali argued that many realms of logic only worked in theory, not in reality.[37] His ideas would later influence Western European religious ideas.[31] The Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) refuted Al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers with his treatise The Incoherence of the Incoherence. His works led to the philosophical school of Averroism.
By 1200, when philosophy was again revived in the Islamic world, Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi were no longer remembered, while Ibn Sina's compilation work still was.[38] Ibn Sina, otherwise known as Avicenna, would later heavily influence European philosophical, theological and scientific thought, becoming known as “the most famous scientist of Islam” to many Western historians.[31]
Western European reception of Greek ideas via the Arabian tradition
While Greek ideas gradually permeated the Islamic world, Muslims conquests extended to the European continent.
As books were gathered, so were many
Prior to Averroes, many Arab philosophers had confused Aristotle with
The
Arabic: Latin or Vernacular
While Muslims were busy translating and adding their own ideas to Greek philosophies, the Latin West was still suspicious of pagan ideas. Leaders of the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire also frowned upon philosophy, and the Empire had just gone through a period of plague, famine, and war.[44] Further west, several key figures in European history who came after Boethius had strengthened the overwhelming shift away from Greek ideas. For centuries, Greek ideas in Europe were all but non-existent, until the Eastern part of the Roman Empire – Byzantium – was sacked during the crusades unlocking numerous Greek texts.[45] Within Western Europe, only a few monasteries had Greek works, and even fewer of them copied these works.[22]
There was a brief period of revival, when the
By the 12th century, European fear of Islam as a military threat had lessened somewhat.
Spain and Sicily
As early as the 10th century, scholars in Andalusia had begun to gather translated texts, and in the latter half of that century began transmitting them to the rest of Europe.[51] After the Reconquista of the 12th century, however, Spain opened even further for Christian scholars, who were now able to work in “friendly” religious territory.[52] As these Europeans encountered Islamic philosophy, their previously held fears turned to admiration, and from Spain came a wealth of Arab knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.[49] Foreigners came to Spain to translate from all over Europe,[52] and Toledo became a center for such travelers, since so many of its citizens wrote daily in both Arabic and Latin-based languages.
Although there was a huge amount of work being accomplished in Spain, there was no central school for translating and no real organized effort, as there had been at times among the Arabs.[52] Translators came from many different backgrounds and translated for many different reasons. For example, non-Christian Jewish scholars participated by translating Arabic works which had already been translated into Hebrew, into Latin and Vulgate languages.[53][54] Some scholars, however, have suggested that Raymond de Sauvetât the Archbishop of Toledo, seems to have started an organized movement of support for translations, and many scholars who seem to be associated with him in documents may have translated two-by-two, working together.[49]
Whether Raimond actually started a truly central, organized effort at translation, later generalized as the Toledo School of Translators, remains unknown. What is known is that most translations coming out of Spain dealt with either medicine or astronomy. Hugo of Santalla, for example, translated a large selection of Arabic works all dealing with astronomy, as well as tracing the history of astronomic thought through history, underscoring the work of the Greeks, Persians, Hellenists, and Arabs in one large preface to his volume.[55]
By the 13th century, translation had declined in Spain, but it was on the rise in Italy and Sicily, and from there to all of Europe.[54] Adelard of Bath, an Englishman, traveled to Sicily and the Arab world, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, including the first complete translation of Euclid's Elements.[53][52][56] Powerful Norman kings gathered men of high knowledge from Italy, and other areas, into their courts, as signs of prestige.[57] Even the Byzantines experienced an Aristotelian revival in the mid-12th century, and gathered men from Italy[who?] as well.[57]
Because some of Aristotle's newly translated views discounted the notions of a personal God, immortal soul, or creation, various leaders of the Catholic Church were inclined to censor those views for decades,[1] such as lists of forbidden books in the Condemnations of 1210–1277 at the University of Paris. Meanwhile, Thomas Aquinas (c.1225–1274), at the end of that time period, was able to reconcile the viewpoints of Aristotelianism and Christianity, primarily in his work, Summa Theologica (1265–1274).[1] [7][11]
See also
- Latin translations of the 12th century
- Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
- Science in the medieval Islamic world
- Scholasticism
- Thomism
- Toledo School of Translators
References
- ^ a b c d e
Perry, Marvin; Jacob, Margaret; Jacob, James; Chase, Myrna; Laue, Theodore Von (2008-10-29). Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society, Comprehensive Edition. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-547-14701-7.
- ^ Alexander. A. Vasiliev. History of the Byzantine Empire
- ^ Lindberg 52
- ^ Grabmann; note that many of William's works were redactions rather than original translations, as is commonly supposed
- ^ Johann Müller Regiomontanus
- ^ a b L. Minio-Paluello (ed.). Aristoteles Categoriae et liber de interpretatione recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit. Oxford Classical Texts.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Marenbon, John (2023), "Medieval Philosophy", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2023-11-15.
- ISBN 965-223-626-8.
- ISBN 965-223-626-8.
- ^ Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy, Edward Craig, 1998, p.396, webpage: BooksG-GhV.
- ^ a b "Cambridge Histories Online" (Later Medieval Philosophy), John F. Wippel, 1982, Overview, cambridge.org, 2011.
- ^ Sander Wopke de Boer, The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De Anima, C. 1260–1360, Leuven : Leuven University Press, 2013, p. 15.
- ^ Sander Wopke de Boer, The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De Anima, C. 1260–1360, Leuven : Leuven University Press, 2013, p. 16.
- ^ Sander Wopke de Boer, The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De Anima, C. 1260–1360, Leuven : Leuven University Press, 2013, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Cf. Sander Wopke de Boer, The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's De Anima, C. 1260–1360, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2013.
- ^ General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, Boethius and Cassiodorus; accessed November 4, 2009.
- ^ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Anicius Manlius SeverinusBoethius. Internet. Availablefrom http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boethius/; accessed November 7, 2009.
- ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ Schrader, Dorothy V. ´De Arithmetica, Book I, of Boethius.¡ Mathematics Teacher 61 (1968):615-28.
- ^ Masi, Michael. "The Liberal Arts and Gerardus Ruffus¢ Commentary on the Boethian De Arithmetica". The Sixteenth Century Journal 10 (Summer 1979): 24.
- ^ Reynolds & Wilson, Scribes and Scholars, (1991) p. 85-86 - But note that recycling of parchment did not necessarily prejudice against the genre, as Tischendorf's discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus shows.
- ^ a b Laughlin 139
- ^ Laughlin 140
- ^ see Grabmann 1946 and the short account by Minio-Paluello 1974
- ^ a b Fryde
- ^ Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2001, Macmillan Reference USA
- ^ Rosenthal 2
- ^ a b c d Rosenthal 3-4
- ^ Lindberg 55
- ^ O'Leary 1922, p. 107.
- ^ a b c d e f Brickman 84-85
- ^ Rosenthal 5
- ^ O'Leary 1922, p. 112.
- ^ Lindberg 56
- ^ Long 96
- ^ Grunebaum 277-278
- ^ a b c d e f g Laughlin 114-117
- ^ a b Laughlin 119
- ^ Lindberg 57-8
- ^ Laughlin 120
- ^ a b Laughlin 121
- ^ Laughlin 122
- ^ Laughlin 124
- ^ Laughlin 104
- ^ Transmission of the Classics
- ^ Laughlin 141
- ^ Laughlin 143-46
- ^ a b Laughlin 147-48
- ^ a b c Watt 59-60
- ^ a b c Lindberg 58-59
- ^ Lindberg 60-61
- ^ a b c d Lindberg 62-65; Palencia 270
- ^ a b Brickman 86
- ^ a b Lindberg 67
- ^ Pingree 227-9.
- ^ Clagett, 356.
- ^ a b Lindberg 70-72
Bibliography
- Brickman, William W. “The Meeting of East and West in Educational History.” Comparative Education Review. (Oct 1961) 5.2 pgs. 82-89.
- Clagett, Marshall. “William of Moerbeke: Translator of Archimedes.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. (Oct 1982) 126.5 pgs. 356-366.
- Fryde, E., The Early Palaeologan Renaissance, Brill 2000.
- Grant, E. The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages, Cambridge 1996.
- Grabmann 1946, "Guglielmo di Moerbeke, O.P., il traduttore delle opere di Aristotele", Miscellanea Historiae Pontificiae, vol. XI, fasc. 20, Rome, 1946.
- Grunebaum, Gustave E. von. “Greek Form Elements in the Arabian Nights.” Journal of the American Oriental Society. (Dec 1942) 62.4 pgs. 277-292 .
- Laughlin, Burgess. The Aristotle Adventure: a Guide to the Greek, Arabic, and Latin Scholars Who Transmitted Aristotle's Logic to the Renaissance. Flagstaff Ariz.: Albert Hale Pub., 1995.
- Lindberg, David C. (ed.). Science in the Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
- Long, Pamela O. Technology and Society in the Medieval Centuries Byzantium, Islam, and the West, 500-1300. Washington DC: American Historical Association, 2003.
- Moller, Violet. The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found. New York: Anchor Books, 2020.
- O'Leary, De Lacy (1922). Arabic Thought and its Place in History.
- Palencia, A. Gonzalez. “Islam and the Occident”, Hispania. (October 1935) 18.3 pgs. 245-276.
- Pingree, David. “Classical and Byzantine Astrology in Sassanian Persia.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers. (1989) 43 pgs. 227-239.
- Reynolds, L. D., and N. G. Wilson. Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
- Rosenthal, Franz (Ed. and trans.). The Classical Heritage in Islam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
- Walbridge, John. “Explaining Away the Greek Gods in Islam.” Journal of the History of Ideas. (Jul 1998) 59.3 pgs. 389-403.
- Watt, W. Montgomery. The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe. Edinburgh: University Press, 1972.
External links
- The Rediscovery of the Corpus Aristotelicum with an annotated bibliography