This book presents an edition of the Questiones super libro ‘De Animalibus’ Aristotelis, a work by one of the greatest philosophers and physicians of the 13th century, Peter of Spain. Preceding the critical edition, Navarro offers an introduction to Peter of Spain and a short analysis of the linguistics and form of the Questiones. She also analyses the sources on which Peter drew, Greco-Latin, Arabo-Jewish and, of course, late antique and medieval treatises, showing that the text was not exclusively zoological in nature, but discusses important medical and philosophical topics, illustrating his extensive knowledge of both the Aristotelian corpus and 13th-century medicine.
This book presents an edition of the Questiones super libro De Animalibus Aristotelis, a work by one of the greatest philosophers and physicians of the 13th century, Peter of Spain (later Pope John XXI, 1205-1277). He took as the basis for his work the translation from the Arabic made in Toledo around 1220 by Michael Scotus which included three important Aristotelian treatises. Preceding the critical edition, Dr Navarro offers an introduction to the person and works of Peter of Spain, the intellectual context of the 13th century characterized by Scholasticism and an Aristotelian Renaissance, and a short analysis of the linguistics and form of the Questiones. She also analyses the sources on which Peter drew, Greco-Latin, Arabo-Jewish and, of course, late antique and medieval treatises, showing that the text was not exclusively zoological in nature, but discusses important medical and philosophical topics, illustrating his extensive knowledge of both the Aristotelian corpus and 13th-century medicine. The text (divided into XIX books) is not a mere commentary about animals, but rather, as the title shows, a collection of questions in the Salernitan manner, the use of which was considered most appropriate for analysis and communication in the medieval scientific community to which Peter of Spain belonged. Alongside methodological and zoological problems, Peter of Spain discusses important questions disputed among the scholars of the period, including the location, hierarchy, motion, function and parts of the principal organs, the five senses, and many other medical issues such as reproduction, illnesses, or growth. Finally Dr Navarro includes a glossary that contains proper names (mainly those of the authorities and sources quoted by Petrus Hispanus), animal names (and their parts and substances), and the names of plants, metals, and the like.
This book presents an edition of the Questiones super libro De Animalibus Aristotelis, a work by one of the greatest philosophers and physicians of the 13th century, Peter of Spain (later Pope John XXI, 1205-1277). He took as the basis for his work the translation from the Arabic made in Toledo around 1220 by Michael Scotus which included three important Aristotelian treatises. Preceding the critical edition, Dr Navarro offers an introduction to the person and works of Peter of Spain, the intellectual context of the 13th century characterized by Scholasticism and an Aristotelian Renaissance, and a short analysis of the linguistics and form of the Questiones. She also analyses the sources on which Peter drew, Greco-Latin, Arabo-Jewish and, of course, late antique and medieval treatises, showing that the text was not exclusively zoological in nature, but discusses important medical and philosophical topics, illustrating his extensive knowledge of both the Aristotelian corpus and 13th-century medicine. The text (divided into XIX books) is not a mere commentary about animals, but rather, as the title shows, a collection of questions in the Salernitan manner, the use of which was considered most appropriate for analysis and communication in the medieval scientific community to which Peter of Spain belonged. Alongside methodological and zoological problems, Peter of Spain discusses important questions disputed among the scholars of the period, including the location, hierarchy, motion, function and parts of the principal organs, the five senses, and many other medical issues such as reproduction, illnesses, or growth. Finally Dr Navarro includes a glossary that contains proper names (mainly those of the authorities and sources quoted by Petrus Hispanus), animal names (and their parts and substances), and the names of plants, metals, and the like.
The Latin Middle Ages were characterised by a vast array of different representations of nature. These conceptualisations of the natural world were developed according to the specific requirements of many different disciplines, with the consequent result of producing a fragmentation of images of nature. Despite this plurality, two main tendencies emerged. On the one hand, the natural world was seen as a reflection of God’s perfection, teleologically ordered and structurally harmonious. On the other, it was also considered as a degraded version of the spiritual realm – a world of impeccable ideas, separate substances, and celestial movers. This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages. It provides a cutting-edge profile of the doctrinal and semantic richness of the medieval idea of nature, and also illustrates the structural interconnection among learned and scientific disciplines in the medieval period, stressing the fundamental bond linking together science and philosophy, on the one hand, and philosophy and theology, on the other. This book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in Medieval European History, Theology, Philosophy, and Science.
In Animal Rationality: Later Medieval Theories 1250-1350, Anselm Oelze offers the first comprehensive and systematic exploration of theories of animal rationality in the later Middle Ages.
Physiognomy, the history of racial classifications, and the interplay between natural philosophy, medicine, and ethics The idea of the body as a mirror of the soul has fascinated mankind throughout history. Being able to see through an individual, and drawing conclusions on their character solely based on a selection of external features, is the subject of physiognomy, and has a long tradition running well into recent times. However, the pre-modern, especially medieval background of this discipline has remained underexplored. The selected case studies in this volume each contribute to a better understanding of the history of physiognomy from antiquity to the Renaissance, and offer discussions on unedited treatises and on the application, development, and reception of this field of knowledge, as well as on visual sources inspired by physiognomic theory. Contributors: Enikő Békés (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Joël Biard (University of Tours), Lisa Devriese (KU Leuven), Maria Fernanda Ferrini (University of Macerata), Christophe Grellard (École Pratique des Hautes Études), Luís Campos Ribeiro (University of Lisbon), Maria Michela Sassi (University of Pisa), Oleg Voskoboynikov (Higher School of Economics Moscow), Steven J. Williams (New Mexico Highlands University), Joseph Ziegler (University of Haifa), Gabriella Zuccolin (University of Pavia)
This book contains a collection of papers devoted to the problems of body, mind and soul in medieval Europe between 1200 and 1420. Modern discussions of the mind-body relationship seldom look back into the past further than the psycho-somatic dualism of Descartes which started the mechanistic approach in biology and medicine. The authors of the volume go beyond that fault line to investigate the tradition of medieval natural philosophy and its ancient sources and analyze the issues forming a borderland between physiology and psychology. They also demonstrate that the medieval tradition was rich and diverse for it offered a wide variety of the discussed problems as well as the methodological approaches. This volume is the first attempt to cover a diversity of topics and methods employed in the medieval debates on body, mind and soul as well as their interrelationships. The Embodied Soul is a must-have for all those interested in puzzling dilemmas of how a living organism functions and how its inner life can be explained as well as for all those interested in the history of thought in general. Chapter 14 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This sourcebook explores how the Middle Ages dealt with questions related to the mental life of creatures great and small. It makes accessible a wide range of key Latin texts from the fourth to the fourteenth century in fresh English translations. Specialists and non-specialists alike will find many surprising insights in this comprehensive collection of sources on the medieval philosophy of animal minds. The book’s structure follows the distinction between the different aspects of the mental. The author has organized the material in three main parts: cognition, emotions, and volition. Each part contains translations of texts by different medieval thinkers. The philosophers chosen include well-known figures like Augustine, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas. The collection also profiles the work of less studied thinkers like John Blund, (Pseudo-)Peter of Spain, and Peter of Abano. In addition, among those featured are several translated here into English for the first time. Each text comes with a short introduction to the philosopher, the context, and the main arguments of the text plus a section with bibliographical information and recommendations for further reading. A general introduction to the entire volume presents the basic concepts and questions of the philosophy of animal minds and explains how the medieval discussion relates to the contemporary debate. This sourcebook is valuable for anyone interested in the history of philosophy, especially medieval philosophy of mind. It will also appeal to scholars and students from other fields, such as psychology, theology, and cultural studies.
This volume is a collection of essays on a special theme in Aristotelian philosophy of mind: the internal senses. The first part of the volume is devoted to the central question of whether or not any internal senses exist in Aristotle’s philosophy of mind and, if so, how many and how they are individuated. The provocative claim of chapter one is that Aristotle recognizes no such internal sense. His medieval Latin interpreters, on the other hand, very much thought that Aristotle did introduce a number of internal senses as shown in the second chapter. The second part of the volume contains a number of case studies demonstrating the philosophical background of some of the most influential topics covered by the internal senses in the Aristotelian tradition and in contemporary philosophy of mind. The focus of the case studies is on memory, imagination and estimation. Chapters introduce the underlying mechanisms of memory and recollection taking its cue from Aristotle but reaching into early modern philosophy as well as studying composite imagination in Avicenna’s philosophy of mind. Further topics include the Latin reception of Avicenna’s estimative faculty and the development of the internal senses as well as offering an account of the logic of objects of imagination.
Odors, including those of incense, spices, cooking, and refuse, were both ubiquitous and meaningful in central and late medieval Western Europe. The significance of the sense of smell is evident in scholastic Latin texts, most of which are untranslated and unedited by modern scholars. Between the late eleventh and thirteenth century, medieval scholars developed a logical theory of the workings of the sense of smell based on Greek and Arabic learning. In the thirteenth through fifteenth century, medical authors detailed practical applications of smell theory and these were communicated to individuals and governing authorities by the medical profession in the interests of personal and public health. At the same time, religious authors read philosophical and medical texts and gave their information religious meaning. This reinterpretation of scholastic philosophy and medicine led to the development of what can be termed a medically aware theology of smell that was communicated to popular audiences alongside traditional olfactory theory in sermons. Its impact on popular thought is reflected in late medieval mystical texts. While the senses have received increasing scholarly attention in recent decades, this volume presents the first detailed research into the sense of smell in the later European Middle Ages.
