Nicomachean Ethics, Commentaries on Aristotle’s

Abstract

The first Latin translations of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the Ethica vetus and the Ethica nova, are the object of six commentaries from the first half of the thirteenth century, presumably written by Parisian arts masters. Typical for these early commentaries is the interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine in the light of Christian religion. In 1246/1248, Robert Grosseteste achieved a complete translation of the Nicomachean Ethics. The first to write commentaries on it were Albert the Great (twice) and Thomas Aquinas. Both attempted to interpret Aristotle philosophically; the extent to which Aquinas nevertheless admitted theological views is disputed in scholarship. The commentary of Aquinas was a major source for many other commentaries of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, while his Summa theologiae influenced the commentaries written by Parisian arts masters around 1300. The most influential commentaries of the fourteenth century were those of Gerald of Odo and John Buridan, where both claimed that only the four cardinal virtues were essential for moral goodness. Buridan’s work became the object of intensive study, notably at the newly founded universities of Central Europe where it even replaced the Nicomachean Ethics itself. Meanwhile, Aristotle’s work attracted the interest of Italian humanists. Leonardo Bruni and John Argyropoulos composed new translations on which Italians and others wrote commentaries, which often betray scholastic influence.