Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/343

Rh Ingdad was for Asia. In Bagded the celebrated physician and philosopher, Avicenna (1036), and in the West Averrhoes (1198), and his disciple, Moses Maimonides, did most to promote the study of the Aristotelian philosophy by means of translations, or rather free paraphrases, of the philosopher's writings. Through the Spanish Christians and Jews, the knowledge of Aristotle was propagated to the other nations of the West, and translations of the writings of Avicenna, who was looked upon as the representative of Aristotelism, spread over France, Italy, England, and Germany. The logical writings of Aristotle were known to the schoolmen in western Christendom before the twelfth century, through the translations of Boethius; but it was not till after the crusades (about 1270), that they possessed translations of all the writings of Aristotle, which were made either from Arabic copies from Spain, or from Greek originals which they had brought with them from Constantinople and other Greek cities. The first western writer who translated any of the works of Aristotle into Latin, was Hermannus Alemannus, at Toledo in Spain, who translated the Ethics. Other translators, whose works are in part still preserved, were Robert, bishop of Lincoln (1253), John of Basingstoke (1252), Wilhelm of Moerbecke (1281), Gerard of Cremona (1187), Michael Scotus (1217), and Albertus Magnus. In the years 1260-1270 Thomas Aquinas, the most celebrated commentator on Aristotle in the middle ages, prepared, through the instrumentality of the monk Wilhelm of Moerbecke, a new Latin translation of the writings of Aristotle after Greek originals. He wrote commentaries on almost all the works of the Stagirite; and, together with his teacher, the celebrated Albertus Magnus, rendered the same services to the Aristotelian philosophy in the West which Avicenna and Averrhoës had done for the East and the Arabians in Spain. For the West, Paris was the seat of science and of the Aristotelian philosophy in particular. Next to it stood Oxford and Cologne. Almost all the celebrated schoolmen of the middle ages owed their education to one or other of these cities.

3. History of the writings of Aristotle since the rerirul of classical studies.-After Thomas Aquinas, distinguished schoolmen, it is true, occupied themselves with the writings of Aristotle; but the old barbaric translation was read almost exclusively. With the revival of classical studies in Italy, at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, the writings of Aristotle and the mode of treating them experienced a revolution. The struggle between liberal studies and the rigidity and empty quibbling of the scholastic Aristotelism, ended in the victory of the former. Among the first and most distinguished promoters of the study of Aristotle was the excellent Greek scholar, Joh. Argyropylus of Byzantium (A.D. 1486), from whom Lorenzo de Medici took lessons. With him should be mentioned Theodor. Gaza (1478), Francisc. Philelphus (1480), Georgius of Trapezus, Gennadius, Leonard. Aretinus (Bruni of Arezzo). The exertions of the last-named scholar were warmly seconded by the learned and accomplished pope Nicolaus V. (1447-1455), who was

himself attached to the Aristotelian philosophy. Their scholars, Angelus Politianus, Hermolaus Barbarus, Donatus Acciajolus, Bessarion, Augus- tinus Niphus, Jacob Faber Stapulensis, Laurentius Valla, Joh. Reuchlin, and others, in like manner contributed a good deal, by means of translations and commentaries, towards stripping the writings of Aristotle of the barbarous garb of scholasticism. The spread of Aristotle's writings by means of printing, first in the Aldine edition of five volumes by Ald. Pius Manutius, in Venice, 1495-1498, was mainly instrumental in bringing this about. In Germany, Rudolph Agricola, as well as Reuchlin and Melanchthon, taught publicly the Aristotelian philosophy. In Spain, Genesius Sepulveda, by means of new translations of Aristotle and his Greek commentators made immediately from Greek originals, laboured with distinguished success against the scholastic barbarism and the Aristotelism of Averrhoës. He was supported by the Jesuits at Coimbra, whose college composed commentaries on almost all the writings of the philosopher. In like manner, in France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Jacob Faber, Ludwig Vives, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Konrad Gesner, took an active part in promoting the study of the Aristotelian philosophy; and in spite of the counter-efforts of Franciscus Patritius and Petrus Ramus, who employed all the weapons of ingenuity against the writings, philosophy, and personal character of Aristotle, the study of his philosophy continued predominant in almost all the schools of Europe. Among the learned scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we find the most distinguished busied with Aristotle. Their lectures, however, which gave rise to numerous commentaries and editions of Aristotle, are confined principally to his rhetorical, ethical, political, and aesthetical works. The works on logic and natural his- tory were seldom regarded, the metaphysical trea- tises remained wholly unnoticed. In Italy we must here mention Petrus Victorius (1585), and his imitator M. Antonius Maioragius (Conti, 1555), Franc. Robortelli (1567), J. C. Scaliger (1558), Julius Pacius a Beriga (1635), Baptist. Camotius, Vincent Madius, and Barthol. Lombardus, Riccoboni, Accoramboni, Montecatinus, &c.: among the French, Muretus, Is. Casaubon, Ph. J. Maussac, Dionys. Lambinus (1572): among the Dutch, Swiss, and Germans, Obert. Giphanius (van Giffen, 1604), the physician Theod. Zwinger (a friend of and fellow-labourer with Lambinus, and a scholar of Konrad Gesner), Camerarius of Bamberg (1574), Wilh. Hilden of Berlin (1587), Joh. Sturm (1589), Fred. Sylburg (1596), &c.

Within a period of eighty years in the sixteenth century, besides innumerable editions of single writings of Aristotle, there appeared, beginning with the Basle edition, which Erasmus of Rotterdam superintended, no fewer than seven Greek editions of the entire works of the philosopher, some of which were repeatedly reprinted. There was also published a large number of Latin translations. From facts of this kind we may come to some conclusion as to the interest felt by the learned public in that age in the writings of the philosopher. In England we see no signs of such studies; and it is only in Casaubon (in the preface to his edition of the works of Aristotle) that we meet with the notice, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, under the guidance of the learned physician, Tho-