This paper examines the authorship and reception of the medieval translation of Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism. It is shown that its traditional ascription to Niccolò da Reggio (born ca. 1280) cannot be maintained, because the translation must have circulated already in the late 1270s. Its author is difficult to identify: the closest stylistic parallels are found with the anonymous translator of Aristotle’s De partibus animalium. With Alvaro of Oviedo († ca. 1282) and the otherwise unknown Johannes de Peretis two early readers can be named. Though a copy was accessible in Viterbo at this time and another copy possibly travelled around in Italy in the 1320s, no philosophical or other impact can be determined. A single reference is found in Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones-commentary on Aristotle’s Politics. Its origin is difficult to assess.
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C. Jourdain, “Sextus et la philosophie scolastique,” Journal Général de l’Instruction Publique (Paris, 1858), reprinted in his Excursions historiques et philosophiques à travers le moyenâge (Paris, 1888), 199-217; in the following I quote according to the first edition.
H. Mutschmann, “Die Überlieferung der Schriften des Sextus Empiricus,” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 64 (1909), 244-283 and 478.
W. Cavini, “Appunti sulla prima diffusione in occidente delle opere di Sesto Empirico,” Medioevo: Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale 3 (1977), 1-20.
C.B. Schmitt, “The Rediscovery of Ancient Skepticism in Modern Times,” in The Skeptical Tradition, ed. M.F. Burnyeat (Berkeley, 1983), 225-251, at 227; an earlier version of this study appeared in Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 27 (1972), 363-384.
H. Mutschmann, “Zur Übersetzertätigkeit des Nicolaus von Rhegium. Zu Paris lat. 14700,” Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 31 (1911), 691-693.
Cf., e.g., Cavini, “Appunti sulla prima diffusione,” 2; Schmitt, “The Rediscovery of Ancient Skepticism,” 243, n. 6; M. Frede, “A Medieval Source of Modern Scepticism,” in Gedankenzeichen. Festschrit für Klaus Oehler zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. R. Claussen and R. Daube-Schackat (Tübingen, 1988), 65-70, at 65; Floridi, Sextus Empiricus, 67-68.
Mutschmann, “Zur Übersetzungstätigkeit des Nicolaus von Rhegium,” 692.
See Galenus, Opera quarta impressio ornatissima, pars I et IIa, cum praefatione Rustici Placentini (Pavia: Giacomo Pocatela, 1515). (I collated from the exemplar at the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Geneva [= Geneva, bpu Nf 49].) On the transmission of this text, cf. H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci (Berlin, 1879), 235-236. Without further study I assume here that the ascription of the translation to Niccolò in the explicit is trustworthy. The characteristic close fit to the Greek, however, is not always observed, so there may be room for doubt.
Cf. Gonzálvez Ruiz, Hombres y libros de Toledo, 477-478. He was misled by the catalogue of Millás Vallicrosa in attributing the Outlines to Aulus Gellius.
Cf. item 55 in the list of 1280.
Cf. C. Burnett, “Stephen of Messina and the Translation of Astrological Texts from Greek in the Time of Manfred,” in Translating at the Court, ed. De Leemans, 123-132. The note on f. 225ra says “Hec proposiciones electe de astronomia que misse fuerunt Manffredo Regi Sicilie.”
Cf. Cavini, “Appunti sulla prima diffussione,” 3. That the document can hardly be counted as an original is clear from the missing marks of authenticity. It is more difficult to decide whether it was a draft or a copy.
See C. Flüeler, “Politischer Aristotelismus im Mittelalter. Einleitung,” Vivarium 40 (2002), 1-13, with the following hint at 9-10: “Auch hat Petrus nicht nur auf gängiges Schulwissen und Florilegien zurückgegriffen, sondern er zögerte nicht, auf seltene Quellen zurückzugreifen. So finden wir z. Bsp. in seinem Quaestionenkommentar bei der Frage, ob Inzest erlaubt werden könne, das bisher einzig bekannte Zitat aus der mittelalterlichen Übersetzung der pyrrhonischen Skepsis von Sextus Empiricus (Paris, bn, lat. 16089, f. 185ra und Bologna bu ms. 1625, f. 64rb mit Verweis auf ph iii 205).” (“f. 185ra” must be a misprint for “f. 285ra.”) An anonymous referee pointed out to me that Flüeler was indeed preceded by Conor Martin in his dissertation The Commentaries on the ‘Politics’ of Aristotle in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries, with Reference to the Thought and Political Life of the Time (unpublished PhD dissertation, Oxford University, 1949), 124; for the date of composition see ibid., 89.
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This paper examines the authorship and reception of the medieval translation of Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism. It is shown that its traditional ascription to Niccolò da Reggio (born ca. 1280) cannot be maintained, because the translation must have circulated already in the late 1270s. Its author is difficult to identify: the closest stylistic parallels are found with the anonymous translator of Aristotle’s De partibus animalium. With Alvaro of Oviedo († ca. 1282) and the otherwise unknown Johannes de Peretis two early readers can be named. Though a copy was accessible in Viterbo at this time and another copy possibly travelled around in Italy in the 1320s, no philosophical or other impact can be determined. A single reference is found in Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones-commentary on Aristotle’s Politics. Its origin is difficult to assess.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 896 | 85 | 4 |
Full Text Views | 244 | 6 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 103 | 16 | 0 |