Sleepwalking Through the Thirteenth Century: Some Medieval Latin Commentaries on Aristotle’s De somno et vigilia 2.456a24-27
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In De somno et vigilia, Aristotle states that sleep is an incapacitation of the first sense organ that occurs when the capacity for sensation has been exceeded. In the same treatise, however, Aristotle also mentions the phenomenon of motion and other waking acts performed in sleep and claims that sense perception is a necessary condition for such acts to occur. When the medieval exegesis on the Parva naturalia evolved in the thirteenth century, how Aristotle’s remark on motion in sleep could be reconciled with his definition of sleep as an incapacitation of the senses became one of the most frequently discussed problems. This article analyzes the theories on this subject in the most influential commentaries on Aristotle’s treatises on sleep and dreaming in the thirteenth century.
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9
Biographical overview: G. Galle, “A Comprehensive Bibliography on Peter of Auvergne,” Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 42 (2000), 53-79; W.J. Courtenay, “Peter of Auvergne, Master in Arts and Theology at Paris,” in Peter of Auvergne: University Master of the 13th Century, ed. C. Flüeler, L. Lanza, and M. Toste (Berlin, 2015), 13-27. Edition: K. White, Two Studies Related to St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Aristotle’s De sensu et sensato Together with an Edition of Peter of Auvergne’s Quaestiones super Parva naturalia (PhD dissertation, Ottawa, 1986), vol. 2, 203-220.
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23
See Aristoteles, Insomn. 3.462a15-31. Note the modifying expressions in the following passages: Somn. Vig. 1.454b12-14: “αἰσθητικὸν δὲ τὸ δυνατὸν αἰσθάνεσθαι κατʼ ἐνέργειαν ἐνεργεῖν δὲ τῇ αἰσθήσει κυρίως καὶ ἁπλῶς ἀδύνατον καθεῦδον ἄµα”; Somn. Vig. 1.454b26 (see n. 5); 2.455a9-11: “ἀδύνατον δʼ ἐστὶν ἁπλῶς ὁποιανοῦν αἴσθησιν αἰσθάνεσθαι τὸ καθεῦδον ζῷον, φανερὸν ὅτι πάσαις ἀναγκαῖον ὑπάρχειν τὸ αὐτὸ πάθος ἐν τῷ καλουµένῳ ὕπνῳ.”
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27
Cf. Aristoteles, Insomn. 3.462a25-26 and note the use of ἁπλῶς-πῃ in 3.462a26-27.
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28
See Aristoteles, Somn. Vig. 2.455a12-b2. The connection between motion and sensation is noted by Aristotle in Somn. Vig. 2.456a20-21: “κινεῖται δὲ πᾶν αἰσθήσεώς τινος γενοµένης, ἢ οἰκείας ἢ ἀλλοτρίας, ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ αἰσθητηρίῳ.”
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44
See above, p. 295. Cf. Albertus Magnus, De somnoi, tr. 2, c. 5 (ed. Borgnet, 146a): “Cuius signum est, quod membra inferiora citius moventur in talibus somniis quam superiora, et membra superiora citius moventur omnia quam oculi; illi enim tardissime aperiuntur, eo quod sunt proximi frigiditati descendenti.” Simon de Faversham, Quaestiones De somno, q. 6* (ed. Ebbesen, 118): “In talibus autem animalibus quae sic movent membra inferiora citius moventur quam superiora et superiora citius moventur quam oculi moventur, quoniam oculi propinquius sunt principio infrigidativo, puta cerebro.”
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47
Aristoteles, Insomn. 3.462a20-21: “ἀσθενικῶς µέντοι καὶ οἷον πόρρωθεν.”
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48
See below, p. 301, n. 61.
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59
Aristoteles, Somn. Vig. 2.456a27-29: “διότι δὲ τὰ µὲν ἐνύπνια µνηµονεύουσιν ἐγερθέντες, τὰς δ’ ἐγρηγορικὰς πράξεις ἀµνηµονοῦσιν, ἐν τοῖς Προβληµατικοῖς εἴρηται.”
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60
Aristoteles, Insomn. 3.462a26-27: “ἐνδέχεται γὰρ τοῦ ἐγρηγορέναι καὶ καθεύδειν ἁπλῶς θατέρου ὑπάρχοντος θάτερόν πῃ ὑπάρχειν.”
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62
See Aristoteles, Peri herm. 1.16a3-4: “ἔστι µὲν οὖν τὰ ἐν τῇ φωνῇ τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ παθηµάτων σύµβολα, καὶ τὰ γραφόµενα τῶν ἐν τῇ φωνῇ.”
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66
See Donati, “Goffredo di Aspall,” 349, n. 17. C. Burnett, “The Introduction of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy into Great Britain: A Preliminary Survey of the Manuscript Evidence,” in Aristotle in Britain during the Middle Ages, ed. J. Marenbon (Turnhout, 1996), 21-50, at 40-41, dates the commentary on De somno to the late 1230s or early 1240s. For biographical data and an inventory of works and manuscripts, see Weijers, Le travail intellectuel I: A-B, 24-30. Adam’s commentary on De somno is extant in two recensions, of which the first has been printed under the name of Thomas Aquinas in the Vivès edition of Aquinas’ Opera omnia (Doctoris angelici divi Thomae Aquinatis opera omniaxxiv, ed. S.E. Fretté [Paris, 1875], 293-310), and the other is only accessible in medieval manuscripts. The former expounds Aristoteles, Somn. Vig. 2.456a24 (Drossaart Lulofs, 6.24) as follows: “Dormientes moventur et faciunt opera vigilantium propter praesentiam phantasmatum in primo sensitivo et ideo mediante sensu quodam et imaginatione, quae sensui assimilatur. Somnium enim est similitudo sensibilium, sicut dicitur inferius, et hoc est moventur autem.”
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69
See, e.g., D. Gallop, Aristotle on Sleep and Dreams, 35-36; P.J. van der Eijk, Medicine and Philosophy, 176.
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76
See, e.g., A. Zadra and J. Montplaisir, “Sleepwalking,” in The Parasomnias and Other Sleep-Related Movement Disorders, ed. M.J. Thorpy and G. Plazzi (Cambridge, 2001), 109-118, at 109.
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78
See, e.g., “Introduction,” in The Parasomnias, 8; Zadra and Pilon, “Parasomnias ii,” 578-579.
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19
oppositum . . . littera] Aristoteles, Somn. Vig. 2.456a24-27 = Drossaart Lulofs, 6.24-27 & 6.23-26.
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30
ut dicetur inferius] Aristoteles, Insomn. 3.462a27-3 = Drossaart Lulofs, 30.2-6 & 31.2-6; Iacobus de Duaco, Quaestiones De somno, q. 16 (ed. Ebbesen, 67.28-68.30).
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Sleepwalking Through the Thirteenth Century: Some Medieval Latin Commentaries on Aristotle’s De somno et vigilia 2.456a24-27
In: VivariumSearch for other papers by Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
In De somno et vigilia, Aristotle states that sleep is an incapacitation of the first sense organ that occurs when the capacity for sensation has been exceeded. In the same treatise, however, Aristotle also mentions the phenomenon of motion and other waking acts performed in sleep and claims that sense perception is a necessary condition for such acts to occur. When the medieval exegesis on the Parva naturalia evolved in the thirteenth century, how Aristotle’s remark on motion in sleep could be reconciled with his definition of sleep as an incapacitation of the senses became one of the most frequently discussed problems. This article analyzes the theories on this subject in the most influential commentaries on Aristotle’s treatises on sleep and dreaming in the thirteenth century.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 815 | 145 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 304 | 17 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 128 | 37 | 5 |