Averrois Cordubensis Commentarium medium in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis Categorias

207 Pages·1969·8.035 MB·English

by  Aristotle., Averroës, Davidson, Herbert Alan

THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
PUBLICATION NO. 78
CORPVS PHILOSOPHORVM MEDII AEVI
CORPVS COMMENTARIORVM
AVERROIS IN ARISTOTELEM
CORPVS
COMMENTARIORVM AVERROIS
IN ARISTOTELEM
CONSILIO ET AVSPICIIS ACADEMIAE AMERICANAE MEDIAEVALIS
ADIWANTIBVS ACADEMIIS CONSOCIATIS
Ediderunt:
HENRICVS AVSTRYN WOLFSON
SHLOMO PINES
ZEPH STEWART
Versionum Hebraicarum
VOLVMEN I, (Medium)
a
COMMENTARIUM MEDIUM IN
1. PORPHYRII ISAGOGEN
2. ARISTOTELIS CATEGORIAS
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1969
AVERROIS CORDVBENSIS
COMMENTARIVM MEDIVM IN
PORPHYRII ISAGOGEN ET
ARISTOTELIS CATEGORIAS
- •• •
TEXTVM HEBRAICVM RECENSVIT ET
ADNOTATIONIBVS 1LLVSTRAVIT
HERBERT A. DAVIDSON
Published by
THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles
1969
© 1969, by
MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-24426
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In 1931, the Mediaeval Academy of America undertook the pub-
lication of Averroes' Commentaries on Aristotle in accordance with
a "Plan for the publication of a Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in
Aristotelem" published in Speculum VI (1931), All-All, and revised in
Speculum XXXVII (1963), 88-104. The Plan provides that, besides the
required introductions, critical apparatuses, glossaries, and indexes,
editors of texts may also add notes and studies and translations into
English.
This volume is being published by the Mediaeval Academy of America
and by the University of California Press under the auspices of the Near
Eastern Center, UCLA. Publication was made possible in part by a
contribution to the Academy from Mr. Berton Steir.

CONTENTS
PAOE
English Introduction ix
HEBREW SECTION
Introduction «
Sigla IT
Text of Middle Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge 1
Text of Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Categories 31
Editor's Notes to Commentary on Isagoge 93
Editor's Notes to Commentary on Categories 113
List of Aristotle's Works Cited in Notes 139
Bibliography 140
Hebrew-Arabic-Latin-Greek Glossary 143
Greek-Hebrew Glossary 156
Index of References 161
Index of Names 164
vn

INTRODUCTION*
The present volume offers a critical edition of two of Averroes'
philosophical commentaries, one a commentary on an Aristotelian work,
and the other, one of Averroes' few philosophic commentaries on a
work not written by Aristotle.1 In the third century Porphyry, the
student of Plotinus, wrote an introduction to Aristotle's Categories
which became so popular that it was incorporated into the Organon, the
corpus of Aristotelian works on logic.2 Porphyry's introduction, or
Isagoge, took its place as the first volume in the Organon, and the
Categories followed it as the second volume. In Averroes' time the
Organon contained nine works: Isagoge, Categories, Be Interpretatione,
Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, De Sophisticis Elenchis,
Rhetoric, and Poetics. Averroes wrote an epitome3 and a middle com-
mentary for all nine books, and in the present volume we are publishing
his middle commentary on the first two: the Isagoge and Aristotle's
Categories. The exact date of the composition of these two commentaries
is not known, but there is evidence that Averroes wrote the middle
commentary on the Categories before 11684 and the commentary on the
Isagoge after the commentary on the Categories.6 No Arabic manu-
script of the middle commentary on the Isagoge is known to exist.6
Several Arabic manuscripts of the commentary on the Categories do
exist, and on the basis of them M. Bouyges published a critical edition
of the Arabic original of that work.7 In the thirteenth century both
* This introduction is a slightly abbreviated translation of the Hebrew introduction which
appears in another part of the present volume, with the omission of a section on Averroes' method
which is included in the English companion volume.
1 C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, I (Leiden, 1943), 60S, and Supplement,
I (Leiden, 1937), 834, names only a work by Galen and Plato's Republic as other non-Aristotelian
works commented on by Averroes.
1 On the name Organon, cf. E. Zeller, Die Philosophic der Griechen, Vol. II, Part II (4th ed.;
Leipzig, 1921), p. 187 n. 3.
1 Cf. M. Steinschneider, Die Hebraischen Vbersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden ah
Dolmetscher (Berlin, 1893), pp. 54-57. The Hebrew translation of the epitome was published under
the title Kol Meleket Higgayon (Riva di Trento, 1559).
4 Cf. M. Bouyges, Talkhic Kitab aUMaqoulal (Beyrouth, 1932), p. xiii.
* Cf. below, note to 31.24.
* Cf. M. Bouyges, "Notes sur les Philosophes Arabes...," Melanges de I'Universite St. Joseph,
VIII (1922), 13.
7 Talkhic Kitab al-Maqoulat (Beyrouth, 1932).
x Introduction
commentaries were translated into Hebrew by Jacob Anatolio and into
Latin by William of Luna, and it is Anatolio's translation that has
been edited here. In the sixteenth century the commentaries were re-
translated into Latin by Jacob Mantino, this time from the Hebrew.
Mantino's version is frequently helpful for understanding the text but
contributes nothing to establishing it.
Following the lines laid down for the Hebrew volumes of the Corpus
Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem, my text is based upon a colla-
tion of the Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts. It is accompanied
by three critical apparatuses containing the variants of the manu-
scripts in those three languages, and by explanatory notes and multi-
lingual glossaries. An annotated English translation is being published
in a companion volume.
ANATOLIOS COMMENTARY
All that is known concerning the circumstances of Anatolio's transla-
tion is contained in several remarks that he makes in the introduction
and epilogue to his translation. According to the introduction, he was
already engaged in translating certain astronomical works when he was
asked by acquaintances from Narbonne and Beziers, in southern France,
to translate Averroes' middle commentaries on the logical corpus.8 At
first, he writes, he hesitated to assume the added burden, but finally
agreed to "sow in the morning in the science of astronomy, and in the
evening my hands will be steady in the science of logic."9 After com-
pleting his translation of the Posterior Analytics, the fifth book in the
expanded Organon, Anatolio expresses his gratitude to God, with whose
aid he was able "to complete the translation of the works of the science
of logic at Naples, in II Adar, 1232."10 Then he continues: "I have
translated five books, four of which are Aristotelian,... and before be-
ginning to translate those remaining, I plan to make a studious review
of the translation of the aforementioned books in order to correct the
mistakes as far as I can. Then I shall undertake to complete the task
with the aid of Him Who giveth aid to all that stand in need of aid,
Who has led our lord, Emperor Frederick II, a lover of science and
students of science, to provide for me generously...."" These remarks
of Anatolio's contain all that is known about the present translations
« Cf. below, 1.21-24.
• Cf. below, 2.24-25. Anatolio is using phrases from Ecdes. 11:6 and Exod. 17:12.
10 Cited from Paris MS No. 925 by L. Dukes in Uteraturblatt dcs Orients, IX (1848), 195-196.