Looted Libraries and Legitimation Policies: Ptolemy, the Library of al-Arawšī and the Translation Movement in Toledo

MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, is the only extant manuscript containing a complete copy of the Isḥāq/Ṯābit version of the Almagest. Paul Kunitzsch has underlined the close similarities between the marginal notes in the Tunis manuscript and those in Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of the Almagest, so that Kunitzsch has concluded that Gerard of Cremona had a manuscript close to the Tunis manuscript before him during the revision of his translation of the Almagest. A note in MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, points out that this manuscript was copied from a model owned by al-Arawšī, a bibliophile living in Valencia famous for the size of his library, a significant part of which was looted by al-Maʾmūn b. Ḏī l-Nūn and sent to Toledo, arguably shortly before Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī wrote his Ṭabaqāt al-umam. Based on MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, the present contribution explores the significance of al-Arawšī’s looted library as an important link between Umayyad Cordoba and Toledo. It also calls attention to the highly unusual paper of MS Tunis, Dār al-kutub al-waṭaniyya, 7116, made of woven fibers, maybe flax.

The Four Signs of the Art: Edition and Translation of an Alchemical Epistle Attributed to Ḫālid b. Yazīd and its Latin Translation

In the article, the authors present a study, a critical edition and an English translation of an Arabic alchemical epistle attributed to the Umayyad prince Ḫālid b. Yazīd, together with its Latin translation recently identified by the authors. Among the many alchemical works attributed to Ḫālid b. Yazīd, this untitled Risāla (inc.: ‮إني رأيت الناس طلبوا صنعة الحكمة‬‎) is the second most represented in the manuscript tradition, with no less than twelve witnesses containing it. Its partial Latin translation, available in six manuscripts, was also attributed to Calid, but the name of the translator remains unknown.

Aristotle’s Rhetoric in the Latin West

Chapter 4 turns from following the long and varied tradition of stylistic teaching and practice to dedicated theory: now the reception of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and especially its analytic of the emotions from antiquity to the late thirteenth century. This chapter treats pathos and enthymeme in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. It contrasts other ancient philosophical traditions of the passions with Aristotle’s phenomenological treatment of emotion in the Rhetoric. It traces the post-classical reception of the Rhetoric through medieval Arabic commentators on the emotions, Moerbeke’s authoritative Latin translation, Giles of Rome’s important commentary on the Rhetoric, c.1272, and other scholastic commentators on the relevant sections of Aristotle’s text. It also contrasts other medieval philosophies of the passions with what readers would have found in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. In his first engagement with the Rhetoric, Giles did not grasp the political significance of Aristotle’s treatment of emotions because his thinking was still embedded in contemporary medieval theories of the passions.

Elegia Solona w „Chronicon regum Poloniae” Erazma Glicznera ze Żnina

In this commemorative article, the author presents the Latin translation of one of Solon’s elegies (27W) which was placed in Chronicon regum Poloniae (from Lech until Mieszko I), a 16th-century chronicle by Gliczner, who was a theologian and pedagogue born in Żnin. In addition, mentions of the Polish studies and contemporary translations of that elegy were made, and based on the Latin translation, a Polish translation was produced in prose poetry.

Precatio Terrae y la Precatio omnium herbarum a un texto inacabado: las precationes herbarum de un recetario médico tardoantiguo

The Curae herbarum is a late antique medical recipe book made up of 64 chapters; it is mostly based on a Latin translation of the De materia medica by Dioscorides. Chapters 1–32 always end with a precatio to the plant so that it ‘comes with all its healing powers’. The article argues for an erudite origin for the precationes of the Curae herbarum, which borrow epithets, phraseology, and verbs of entreaty from the Precatio Terrae and the Precatio omnium herbarum. Moreover, the study of internal references in the precationes demonstrates that they were written with the intention of being placed before the medical recipes, but, for unknown reasons, were instead copied at the end of the chapters without ever occupying the place they were intended for.

The Justification Clause of Philippians 3.12: Past and Current Appraisals of a Striking Variant Reading

A minority of witnesses to the text of Phil. 3.12 (e.g., P46, GA 06, 010, 012, Irenaeus [Latin Translation], Ambrosiaster) attest to a reading in which Paul claims he has not yet been justified (or made/found righteous [δικαιόω]). Scholars have labeled the reading ‘intriguing’, ‘very interesting’, ‘striking’, and ‘astounding’. Yet, in spite of such lofty descriptors, little extensive attention has been devoted to this textual issue. All but a handful of scholars who have addressed the reading have denied it a place in the initial text. However, its attestation in P46, the high potential for parablepsis, the difficulty of explaining the reading as a later insertion, and its coherence with Pauline references to final justification at the last judgment have resulted in reassessments of the issue in more recent scholarship. This article provides an overview of past and current scholarly appraisals of the reading and offers some suggestions for future research.

‘The whole dowry of all nature’

Chapter 12, ‘The whole dowry of all nature: Opera omnia (1676–1720)’ provides a detailed bibliography, using the system described in chapter 4, of fifteen copies of Willis’s collected works in Latin, the eighth publication, containing treatises: 1–13, variously including William Croone’s treatise De ratione motus musculorum, and with the Latin translation of A plain and easie method for preserving those that are well from the infection of the plague also present in one edition (1695). These descriptions are preceded by a narrative highlighting the main bibliographic issues that characterize the various editions, states, and issues of these copies. Of these, some are already known but others newly identified. {100 words}