Abstract
The first half of the twelfth century represents an end and a beginning in the rediscovery of Aristotle. The logical corpus was now complete and the new material was being gradually assimilated. The recovery of the philosophical and scientific system, on the other hand, was only beginning and what had been found was not yet part of the educational programme. The second phase of recovery and absorption lasted more than a century and proceeded along two routes, from Greek and from Arabic. Direct translations from Greek were the most important and the most enduring source of new Aristotelian texts. Although problems of circulation and particular defects meant that a demand existed too for indirect versions, these could be no more than temporary substitutes. The chief contribution of Arabic culture to the intellectual movement in western Europe lay not so much in the Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian texts which it transmitted as in the stimulus which its philosophers and commentators gave to reflection upon them. The absorption of Aristotle’s philosophy by Latin scholars is inextricably bound up with their discovery of Arabic thought. Thus the student of the western tradition finds that the path from Athens to Paris and Oxford leads through Baghdad and Cordova.
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Bibliographies
A. Bibliography of Works in English
Arabic thought and its influence: N. Daniel, The Arabs and Mediaeval Europe (2nd edn; London; New York, 1979), provides a general survey with chapters on theological and scientific influences;
see also W. Montgomery Watt, The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe (Edinburgh, 1972).
Montgomery Watt’s Islamic Philosophy and Theology (Edinburgh, 1964), is very helpful as an introduction; see also CHLGEMP, part VIII (by R. Walzer).
More detailed but still offering a clear outline is M. Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York; London, 1970).
I. Husik, A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy (New York, 1916; repr. 1974), is still useful as an introduction to this strand.
I. I. Efros, Studies in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (New York; London, 1974), is more specialised than will suit the purposes of the general reader.
F. E. Peters, Aristotle and the Arabs: the Aristotelian Tradition in Islam (New York; London, 1968), is especially valuable and may be supplemented by consulting his Aristoteles Arabus (Leiden, 1968).
R. Walzer, Greek into Arabic, Essays on Islamic Philosophy (London, 1962), is also important on the eastern translation process.
S. M. Afnan, Avicenna, his Life and Works (London, 1958), is less useful for the historian of the western scene than Goichon’s study in section
B. W. Montgomery Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of Al-Ghazali (Edinburgh, 1963)
On the development of the theory of the intellect there is little in English but see R. Walzer, ‘Aristotle’s Active Intellect vovç πoιητικoç in Greek and Early Islamic Philosophy’, in Plotino e il Neoplatonismo in Oriente e in Occidente (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; Rome, 1974), pp. 422–36.
B. H. Zedler, ‘Averroes on the Possible Intellect’, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, XXV (1951), 164–78, is a clear analysis.
Translations: there are good general accounts by D. C. Lindberg, ‘The Transmission of Greek and Arabic Learning to the West’, in Lindberg, ed., Science in the Middle Ages (Chicago; London, 1978), pp. 52–90, and M.-T. d’Alverny, ‘Translations and Translators’, in Benson et al., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, pp. 421–62.
C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge, Mass., 1927), was the pioneering work and is still important.
L. Thorndike, ‘John of Seville’, Speculum, XXXIV (1959), 20–38, is judicious.
D. H. Salman, ‘The Mediaeval Latin Translations of Alfarabi’s Works’, New Scholasticism, XIII (1939), 245–61.
J. T. Muckle, ‘Greek Works translated directly into Latin before 1350’, Mediaeval Studies, IV (1942), 34–42, is useful for the early period.
L. Minio-Paluello, ‘Iacobus Veneticus Grecus Canonist and Translator of Aristotle’, Traditio, VIII (1952), 265–304, and see his Opuscula, the Latin Aristotle (Amsterdam, 1972), for the author’s principal articles on this theme before 1969.
C. S. F. Burnett, ‘A Group of Arabic-Latin Translators Working in Northern Spain in the Mid-12th Century’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, I (1977), 62–108.
L. Thorndike, Michael Scot (London, 1965).
R. Lemay, Abu Ma’shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century: the Recovery of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy through Arabic Astrology (Beirut, 1962).
J. A. Weisheipl, The Development of Physical Theory in the Middle Ages (University of Michigan, 1959), is a useful short survey of some of the effects of the translations.
W. F. Ryan and C. B. Schmitt, eds, Pseudo-Aristotle. The Secret of Secrets. Sources and Influences (London, 1982), contains specialist studies on this, the most widely diffused of the spurious works attributed to Aristotle in the middle ages.
Universities: H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, 3 vols (Oxford, 1936), is fundamental.
A. B. Cobban, The Medieval Universities, their Development and Organization (London, 1975), is a very clear account.
Of particular relevance is G. Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. An Institutional and Intellectual History (New York, 1968).
L. J. Daly, The Medieval University 1200–1400 (New York, 1961), is also useful.
D. L. Douie, The Conflict between the Seculars and the Mendicants at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century (Aquinas Society of London, Aquinas Papers, no. 23; London, 1954), on this problem.
J. W. Baldwin, ‘Masters at Paris from 1179 to 1215: a Social Perspective’, in Benson et al., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, pp. 138–72. A. G. Little and F. Pelster, Oxford Theology and Theologians c. AD 1282–1302 (Oxford, 1934), though a little later than our period has among other aspects a good account of academic exercises.
B. Bibliography of Works in Other Languages
Arabic thought and its influence: G. Quadri, La Philosophie Arabe dans l’Europe Médiévale des Origines à Averroès (Paris, 1947) (translated from the Italian), is valuable. On Islamic theology
L. Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie Musulmane (Paris, 1948).
G. C. Anawati, ‘Le Néoplatonisme dans la Pensée Musulmane: Etat Actuel des Recherches’, in Plotino e il Neoplatonismo in Oriente e in Occidente (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; Rome, 1974), pp. 339–405, is a good statement. L’Occidente e l’Islam nell’ Alto Medioevo (Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull’ Alto Medioevo, XII; Spoleto, 1965), has pertinent studies. For individual figures
A.-M. Goichon, La Philosophie d’Avicenne et son Influence en Europe Médiévale (2nd edn; Paris, 1979)
E. Gilson, ‘Avicenne en Occident au Moyen Age’, AHDLMA, XXXVI (1969), 89–121
L. Gauthier, Ibn Rochd (Paris, 1948)
J. Schlanger, La Philosophie de Salomon ibn Gabirol Etude d’un Néoplatonisme (Leiden, 1968)
H. Serouya, Maimonides, sa Vie, son Oeuvre, avec un Exposé de sa Philosophie (Paris, 1951). On the intellect there is extensive coverage
O. Hamelin, La Théorie de l’Intellect d’après Aristote et ses Commentaires (ed. E. Barbotin; Paris, 1953)
E. Barbotin, La Théorie Aristotélicienne de l’Intellect d’après Théophraste (Louvain; Paris, 1954)
P. Moraux, Alexandre d’Aphrodise Exégète de la Noétique d’Aristote (Liege; Paris, 1942).
The introductions to G. Verbeke, ed., Themistius, Commentaire sur le Traité de l’Ame d’Aristote, Traduction de Guillaume de Moerbeke (Louvain; Paris, 1957)
Verbeke, ed., Jean Philopon, Commentaire sur le De Anima d’Aristote, Traduction de Guillaume de Moerbeke (Louvain; Paris, 1966)
G. Verbeke, ‘Introduction sur la Doctrine Psychologique d’Avicenne’, in S. van Riet, ed., Avicenna Latinus, Liber de Animaseu Sextus de naturalibus IV-V (Louvain; Leiden, 1968).
The influence of the Arabic theories on the Latin tradition is studied in E. Gilson, ‘Les Sources Greco-Arabes de l’Augustinisme Avicennisant’, AHDLMA, IV (1929–30), 5–149
though the term ‘augustinisme avicennisant’ is not helpful. A. Rohner, Das Schöpfungsproblem bei Moses Maimonides, Albertus Magnus und Thomas von Aquin (BGPMA, vol. XI, Part 5; Münster, 1913), on a sensitive and central question.
Translations: M. Steinschneider, Die Europäischen Übersetzungen aus dem Arabischen bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Vienna, 1904–5; reprinted, Graz, 1956), is the basic catalogue of western translations but is outdated on many points, especially of attribution. L.
Minio-Paluello, ‘Aristotele dal Mondo Arabo a quello Latino’, in L’Occidente e l’Islam nell’ Alto Medioevo, is important for calling attention to several misinterpretations. M. Grabmann, ‘Aristoteles im Zwoelften Jahrhundert’, Mediaeval Studies, XII (1950), 123–62, is a useful review of the scene and of scholarly activity in it. For individual authors and translators
M. T. d’Alverny, ‘Notes sur les Traductions Médiévales des Oeuvres Philosophiques d’Avicenne’, AHDLMA, XIX (1952), 337–58
d’Alverny, ‘Les Traductions d’Avicenne (Moyen Age et Renaissance)’, in Avicenna nella Storia della Cultura Medievale (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; Rome, 1957), pp. 71–87 and a series of articles by her, entitled ‘Avicenna Latinus’ in AHDLMA, XXVIII-XXXIX (1961–72)
H. Bedoret, ‘Les Premières Traductions Tolédanes de Philosophie, Oeuvres d’Alfarabi’, Revue Néo-Scolastique de Philosophie, XLI (1938), 80–97
M. Alonso Alonso, ‘Traducciones del Arcediano Gundisalvo’, Al-Andalus, XII (1947), 295–338
M. T. d’Alverny, ‘Avendauth?’, Homenaje a Millàs-Vallicrosa, I (Barcelona, 1954), 19–43, which cleared cluttered ground.
R. Lemay, ‘Dans l’Espagne du XIIe Siècle. Les Traductions de l’Arabe au Latin’, Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, XVIII (1963), 639–65, is a useful survey of translators and of the geography of the process.
Universities: J. Verger, Les Universités au Moyen Age (Paris, 1973)
S. d’Irsay, Histoire des Universités Françaises et Etrangères, I (Paris, 1933)
but see principally section A, above. J. Destrez, La Pecia dans les Manuscrits Universitaires du XIIIe et du XIVe Siècle (Paris, 1935), on an aspect of book production.
P. Glorieux, La Facultè des Arts et so Maîtres au XIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1971), is mainly a listing but has a short introduction.
Glorieux, La Littérature Quodlibétique, 2 vols (Paris, 1925–35), is the fundamental work on this subject. The collection Arts Libéraux el Philosophie au Mayen Age (Actes du IVe Congrès International de Philosophie Médiévale, Montréal, 1967; Montreal: Paris, 1969) has a section on the arts in the university.
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© 1985 Michael Haren
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Haren, M. (1985). New Sources and New Institutions. In: Medieval Thought. New Studies in Medieval History. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17856-8_5
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