The edition presented here is the result of many years of work. It started in 1990 as part of a project funded by NWO to produce critical editions of the Arabic translation of Aristotle’s zoological works as well as of Michael Scot’s Latin translation based on the Arabic. In the Arabic, and also in the Latin tradition, Aristotle’s three zoological works, the Historia Animalium, De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium, were combined into one work, known as the Book on Animals.
The Arabic part of the project, undertaken by myself and Han den Heijer, consisted only of the edition of the Historia Animalium, since critical editions of the other two works had already appeared: the Arabic version of De Generatione Animalium was edited by J.H. Drossaart Lulofs and J. Brugman (1971), and that of De Partibus Animalium by Remke Kruk (1979).
In the early 1960s the late John Mattock had already produced a preliminary edition of the parts of the Arabic Historia Animalium extant in the only MS of the text known at the time, BM Add. 7511, but the work remained unpublished. Mattock very kindly made his material available to the editors of the present edition, who gratefully made use of it.
Han den Heijer had to abandon work on the Historia at an early stage because he was appointed as director of the Dutch-Flemish Institute in Cairo, and after the NWO funding period ran out in 1994, I had to go back to fulltime teaching Greek and Latin in a secondary school, continuing my work on the edition in my spare time.
As a result, the completion of the work took a long time, and it is not only due to my continuous effort but also to the support and patience of a number of people, first of all my wife Annelies.
Aafke van Oppenraaij, who is responsible for the Latin part of the edition project and who after publishing editions of Scot’s De Generatione and De Partibus Animalium is currently preparing the edition of the Historia Animalium, contributed many useful suggestions on the basis of her knowledge of the Latin text. Hans Daiber was an invaluable support, available at any time to let me benefit from his vast knowledge. He also read the complete Arabic text of the edition with meticulous scrutiny, and his critical remarks and questions led to substantial improvements. Remke Kruk continued to support me over the years with encouragement and useful suggestions. Hans Peterse earned my gratitude by carefully reading and correcting my English texts. Any mistakes or slip-ups that may still be found in the edition in spite of all these combined efforts are of course completely my own responsibility.
Finally, I want to thank the Commission of the Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus project for their willingness to include the edition in its series.
Lou Filius
Culemborg, 12-10-2017