Theophrastus of Eresus: On His Life and Work

363 Pages·1984·51.229 MB·English

by  W.W. Fortenbaugh, Pamela M. Huby, Anthony A. Long

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN CLASSICAL HUMANITIES
Volume
II
THEOPHRASTUS OF ERESUS
On His Life and Work
Edited by
William W. Fortenbaugh
together with
Pamela M. Huby and Anthony A. Long
Transaction Books
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and Oxford (U.K.)
©
Copyright 1985 by Transaction, Inc.
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
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—
addressed to Transaction Books, Rutgers The State University, New
Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.
ISSN: 0732-9814
ISBN: 0-88738-009-3 (cloth)
Printed in the United States of America
This volume was made possible in part by two grants: one by the Program
for Translations of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
other by the University of Liverpool.
Contents
Preface vii
Contributors ix
1. Diogenes Laertius 5.36-57: The Vita Theophrasti
Michael G. Sollenberger 1
2. The Life, Works, and Sayings ofTheophrastus in the Arabic
Tradition
Dimitri Gutas 63
3. A Survey of Theophrastean Texts and Ideas in Arabic:
Some New Material
Hans Daiber 103
4. The Starting Point of Philosophical Studies in Alexandrian
and Arabic Aristotelianism
Dimitri Gutas 115
5. Theophrastus and Hypothetical Syllogistic
Jonathan Barnes 125
6. Theophrastus on the Limits of Teleology
James G. Lennox 143
7. Medieval Evidence for Theophrastus1 Discussion of the
Intellect
Pamela M. Huby 165
8. Theophrastus on Tastes and Smells
W
Robert Sharpies 183
9. Three Notes on Theophrastus' Treatment of Tastes and
Smells
David N. Sedley 205
10. Theophrastus on Emotion
William W. Fortenbaugh 209
11. Theophrastus on History and Politics
Anthony Podlecki 231
J.
12. Theophrastus and the Theory of Style
Doreen C. Innes 251
13. Theophrastus on Delivery
William W. Fortenbaugh 269
14. Theophrastus on Pitch and Melody
Andrew Barker 289
Index of Ancient Sources 325

Preface
This is the second volume of Rutgers University Studies in Classical
Humanities, a biennial series under the general direction ofProfessor William
Fortenbaugh. Volume I appeared in 1983 and its subject is the ethical
epitome of Arius Didymus, court philosopher to the Emperor Augustus.
Volume II focuses on Theophrastus of Eresus, as will volume III. This
reflects the fact that Rutgers Studies was founded in close conjunction with
Project Theophrastus, an international undertaking, whose goal is to collect,
edit, and translate the fragments of Theophrastus, Aristotle's successor and
second head of the Peripatetic school. Work on the project was begun in
1979, and since 1980 it has been most generously supported by the National
Endowment for the Humanities. Rutgers Studies II has benefited from this
support and indeed would not have been possible without it.
The majority of papers contained in volume II were originally presented
at a meeting of Project Theophrastus held at the University of Liverpool
on 28-31 March 1983. This meeting was organized by Mrs. Pamela Huby,
Reader in Philosophy at Liverpool and by Professor Anthony Long, who was
at that time Gladstone Professor of Greek at Liverpool. In attendance were
some forty scholars representing seven different countries. All participants,
both the local organizers and the visiting scholars, wish to express their
thanks to the University of Liverpool for making its facilities available, and
for helping to subvent the costs oftravel and accommodation with a generous
grant from the Visiting Scholars Fund. They are equally grateful to Mrs.
Sandra Bargh, secretary of the Department of Greek at Liverpool, for all
that she did in helping to prepare for the conference and to ensure its happy
progress.
One paper in this volume is significantly different from the rest. It is
"Diogenes Laertius 5.36-57: the Vita Tbeophrasti," by Dr. Michael Sollen-
berger. This paper contains a new edition of Diogenes' Life of Theophrastus
and is the central portion of a Rutgers Ph.D. dissertation. It is expected
that this edition of the Vita together with a full collection of other texts
dealing with the life ofTheophrastus will in time form part of the complete
edition of Theophrastean fragments planned by Project Theophrastus. Pub-
lication of the larger work is still some years away, but the task ofcollecting
fragments is nearlycomplete. Interested scholars are invited to make inquiries,
directing them to Professor William Fortenbaugh, Project Theophrastus,
Alexander Library, Rutgers University.
W.W.F. P.M.H. A.A.L.
vii

Contributors
Andrew BARKER, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Cov-
entry, Warwickshire CV4 7AL, England.
Jonathan BARNES, Balliol College, Oxford OX1 3 England.
J,
Hans DAIBER, Faculteit der Letteren, Vrije Universiteit, 1007 MC Am-
sterdam, Netherlands.
William W. FORTENBAUGH, Project Theophrastus, Alexander Library,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, U.S.A.
Dimitri GUTAS, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures,
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, U.S.A.
Pamela M. HUBY, Department of Philosophy, The University of Liverpool,
P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England.
Doreen C. INNES, St. Hilda's College, Oxford OX4 1DY, England.
James G. LENNOX, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, U.S.A.
Anthony PODLECKI, Department of Classics, University of British
J.
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1WS, Canada.
David N. SEDLEY, Christ's College, Cambridge CB2 3BU, England.
Robert W. SHARPLES, Department of Greek, University College, Gower
Street, London WC1E 6BT, England.
Michael G. SOLLENBERGER, Project Theophrastus, Alexander Library,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, U.S.A.
ix

1
Diogenes Laertius 5.36-57:
The
Vita Theophrasti
Michael G. Sollenberjjer
Diogenes' Lives and Opinions ofthe Outstanding Philosophers contains ten
books, of which the fifth is devoted to Peripatetic philosophers. The Vita
Aristotelisnaturallycomes first (5.1-35) and is followed bythe Vita Theophrasti
(5.36-57). While the former has recently been given special attention by
Ingemar During, whose 1957 edition is readily available in his Aristotle in
the Ancient Biographical Tradition, the latter has not received the attention
it deserves. Indeed, it has not received special treatment since 1497, when
it appeared, together with the Vita Aristotelis, in the second volume of the
Aldine Aristotle. The text of Aldus' edition is quite unsatisfactory, for it is
based on a reading ofan inferior manuscript1 and embodies many conjectural
emendations. Hermann Usener did publish an edition ofDiogenes' catalogue
of Theophrastean writings (5.42-50) in his Analecta Theophrastea (Diss.
Bonn 1858), but he, too, neglected much of the manuscript evidence, only
consulting Cobet's collation of a few manuscripts and some early editions
and translations.2 The complete life of Theophrastus has, of course, been
included in all editions of the whole of Diogenes' work, but the text has
never been adequately supplied with textual apparatus. My aim, then, is to
provide scholars with an edition of the Vita Theophrasti which is complete
with upper and lower apparatus and generally meets the standards ofmodern
philology.
THE MANUSCRIPTS AND THEIR GROUPING
I.
There are at least thirty-eight known manuscripts containing all or large
portions of Diogenes' work.3 Each is written in minuscule lettering and
none dates before the twelfth century. In preparing for this edition of the
Vita Theophrasti I have examined and collated nineteen manuscripts, and in
each case I have worked from microfilms most graciously loaned by Professor
1
2 Theophrastus of Eresus
Herbert Long, editor of the Oxford Classical edition of Diogenes' work
=
(Oxford 1964). For one manuscript, cod. Monacensis Gr. 159, I have
relied on the variant readings selectively recorded by Spengel in the second
volume of Hiibner's edition of Diogenes (Leipzig 1828-31) 613-745, and
also those readings provided by Usener in his Analecta Theophrastea 3-12.
Of the manuscripts not used, two (O = cod. Vaticanus Ottobonianus Gr.
355 and R = cod. Parisinus Gr. 1405) contain only Book One and part of
Book Two of the Lives, three (b = cod. Caesenensis Malatestianus 28.2,
= =
c cod. Laurentianus 85.9 and cod. Laurentianus 59.1) comprise only
Book Three on Plato, six are epitomized excerpta (Delta = cod. Athous
Monasterii S. Dionysii 163 or 166, Lambda = cod. Leidensis Bibl. publ.
= =
Gr. 75, Pi cod. Parisinus suppl. Gr. 134, Phi cod. Vaticanus Gr. 96,
Psi = cod. Vaticanus Palatinus Gr. 93, and cod. Vaticanus Gr. 1144) judged
worthless for the reconstruction of Diogenes' text4 and seven were not
available to me (J = cod. Marcianus Gr. 394, = cod. Vindobonensis hist.
= =
Gr. 59, cod. Marcianus Gr. 393, Leid. cod. Leidensis Bibl. publ.
Gr. 41a, Matr. = cod. Matritensis Gr. 4676,Mosq. = cod. Mosquensis[Musei
historici] Gr. 463, and = cod. Raudnitzianus Lobkowicensis VI F. c. 38).
The omission of these last seven is of no great importance, for all of them
are late and offer a text which is decidedly inferior.5
All manuscripts derive from a single archetype. This is especially clear
from the large lacuna at the end of Book Seven which is shared by all
manuscripts.6 My own study of errors found in the Vita Theophrasti and
common to all manuscripts investigated offers further confirmation. The
following is a list of these errors:
5.41 line 64 erchometha
5.42 line 84 omit e
5.44 line 134 Peri kataphaseos a' kai apophaseos
5.46 line 184 phusikdn
5.46 line 185 Phusikon
5.53 line 338 Meidiou (Mediou B)
5.54 line 345 omit ta
5.57 line 385 Pellaneus (Pelaneus F)
The manuscripts used may be divided into two groups. Group 1 contains
five older manuscripts: B, F, P, Q, and Co. Due to their age, the superior
quality of the text which they consistently present and their relationships
to one another, to Group 2 manuscripts, and to the archetypus unicus, these
five are considered authoritative and are always cited in the critical apparatus.
Their consensus is designated by the lower case siglurn a.