The tradition of study of the Categories in Latin, from Augustine to c. 1150: a draft, revised working catalogue

One of the aims of this draft catalogue is to provide a background to my talk at the Byron Bay conference. It stretches more widely, however, than my talk will do. I shall speak only about material up to the time of the mature Abelard (c. 1115), whereas here the list of commentaries goes up to the end of the twelfth century; I have not tried, though, to take the non-commentary presentations of the Categories beyond 1150 (for the second half of the century, there are important textbooks to consider such as the Ars Meliduna).

Many of you will notice that what I am offering is in fact a combined version of the ‘Working Catalogue’ I published first in 1993 and the addendum added when I republished it in my Aristotelian Logic in 2001. But, as well as this merely clerical work of combination, I have tried to incorporate the new discoveries and publications of the last five years. I have already benefited enormously from the generosity of scholars such as Irène Rosier-Catach, Margaret Cameron, Onno Kneepkens and Yukio Iwakuma who have allowed me to join their discussions about commentaries from c. 1100 (especially the ‘C8 complex’) and have shared their material with me. I am very much hoping that you all, as experts on this tradition, will have comments, corrections and additions to this new version of the Catalogue, which I shall be able to incorporate so as to improve it.

John Marenbon

 

Contents

 

1          Translations and paraphrases

2          Encyclopaedic and text-book presentations

3          Glosses

4          Commentaries

5          Bibliography 


1.  Translations and paraphrases

The Categories was known in two versions of Boethius’s Latin translation – one his own, final translation (AL [Aristoteles Latinus] I, 1-5, 5-41), the other a composite version, apparently derived in part from Boethius’s final translation, in part from another translation, perhaps an earlier draft by Boethius (AL I, 1-5, 47-79; cf. ibid. ix-lxiii and Minio-Paluello, ‘Note sull’Aristotele latino medievale: XV’). There was also a Latin paraphrase of the Categories, incorporating elements of commentary, known as the Categoriae Decem and usually attributed in the early Middle Ages to Augustine (AL I, 1-5, 133-75). Internal references to the fourth-century Roman philosopher Themistius suggest that it originated in his circle (cf. ibid., lxxviii), although a suggestion has recently been made, based on conjecture rather than strong evidence, that the author of the paraphrase was Marius Victorinus (Kenny, ‘Les Catégories’, 130-3).

2.       Encyclopaedic and text-book presentations

(5th C.)            Martianus Capella De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae, IV, ed. Willis, 115-29   paraphrase

(late 6th C)       Cassiodorus Institutiones, II, 9-10, ed. Mynors, 113-4 – brief, encyclopaedic presentation

(early 7th C)     Isidore of Seville Etymologiae  II, 26, ed. Lindsay – brief, encyclopaedic presentation

(late 8th C)       Alcuin, Dialectica, Patrologia Latina 101, 954-64 – textbook discussion

(c.1100?)          Tractatus Lemovicensis de praedicamentis in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale lat. 544, fold. 94r-101v – a treatise on the Categories, unfinished and anonymous, discovered by Iwakuma : cf. ‘Vocales Revisited’.

(early 12th C)   Gerlandus of Besançon Dialectica I, ed. De Rijk, 12 – 41 – detailed text-book presentation, involving his own interpretation

(c. 1110-17)    Peter Abelard Dialectica, ed. De Rijk, 51-120 (first section missing) – detailed, interpretative discussion.

3.       Glosses

(a) to the pseudo-Augustinian paraphrase (Categoriae decem)

Standard glosses (S-glosses) are found in a number of MSS; glosses linked to the thought of John Scottus Eriugena (E-glosses) are found on their own in one manuscript and mixed with S-glosses in some others. There are other sets with striking peculiarities – for example, the glosses in MS St Gallen 274.

Edition: a selection of glosses in Marenbon, From the Circle, 185-206.

Literature: Peter Abelard, Ouvrages inedits, 618-24; Cousin, Fragments, 252-62; Hauréau, Histoire, I, 84-96 (with extracts); Barach, ‘Zur Geschichte des Nominalismus’, 5-22; Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, II, 40-1 and 44-5; Reiners, Nominalismus, 5-9 and 22-5; Van de Vyver, ‘Vroeg-Middeleeuwsche wijsgeerige verhandelingen’, pp. 175-6; Lohr, ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries’, Traditio, 24, p. 214; Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin, pp. 121-138 and 173-9 and Marenbon, ‘Glosses and Commentaries’, 25-29; Luscombe, ‘Dialectic and Rhetoric’, 5,9.

Manuscripts:

[AL 406] Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale, 229 (s. x), fols 194r-229v: mainly S

[AL 2036] Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 206 (s. x), fols 24r-39v : mainly S

[AL 1698] St. Petersburg, Publichnaja Biblioteka im. M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, E V. Class.lat. 7 (s. ix), fols 34v-40v, 1r-10r: mainly S

 [AL 2159] Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B 71 sup. (s. ix), fols 34r-68v: E

[AL 2106] Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 6373 (s. x), fols 1r-32v: mainly S

[AL 2104] Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 6367 (s. xi), fols 2r-16v: mainly S (AL mistakenly prints the number '6327')

[AL 2062] Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 1750 (s. xex/xiin), fols 12r-27r: mainly S

[AL 621] Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 12949, (s. x), fols 24r- 39v: S + E

[AL 2126] St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 274 (s. ix2), pp. 4-65: S + E and a considerable number of non-standard glosses; use of Boethius’s commentary

[AL 2190] Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 567 (s. xii), fols 53f-66v: S

[AL 2187] Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, reg. lat. 233 (s. xi), fols 1v -27r: mainly S

[AL 2023] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cvp. 843 (s. x), fols 1v - 36r: mainly S

Less fully glossed:

[AL 2090] Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phillipps 176 (s. x): abbreviated glosses, some based on S

[AL 2119J Bern, Burgerbibliothek, C 219 (s. ix ex/  xin): abbreviation of S-gIosses

[AL 2152] Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Gadd. Plut. LXXXIX sup. 80 (s.xi/xii): mainly S-glosses

[AL 20541 Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, 263 (s. x): mainly non-standard

[AL 1653J Vercelli, Archivio Capitolare Eusebiano, CXXXVIII (143) (s. ix).

(b). To the Categories in the ‘composite’  translation.

Literature: Leonardi, Catalogo di manoscritti filosofici, I, p. 38 (for the Florence MS); Ferrari, Sancti Willibrordi, (for the Luxembourg MS); Marenbon, ‘Glosses and Commentaries’, 29

Manuscripts:

 [AL 839] Cologne, Dombibliothek, 191 (s. xi), fols 23L 70v: few glosses after fol. 47r

[AL 1698] S1. Petersburg, Publichnaja Biblioteka im. M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, E V. class la1. 7 (s. ix) fols 21/23L 32/34 v

[AL 1386] Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, S. Marco 125 (s. xi/xii), fols 1 L 1 Sf: probably from school of Alberic

[---] Luxembourg, Bibliothèque Nationale I:9 (c. 1100), ff. 21v-40v, 57r-80v ; 49r-50v.

[AL 1511] Padua, Biblioteca Antoniana, Scaff. XXII, 553 (s. xii), fols 12L 32v.

(c)  to the Categories in Roethius's genuine translation

Literature: Minio-Paluello, 'The Genuine Text', 158; Bibliothèque nationale. Catalogue general des manuscrits latins, IV, 65-6; Aristotle, Categories, xiii; Senko, Repertorium, 1, 12 (where the glosses are wrongly ascribed to Peter Abelard); Marenbon, ‘Glosses and Commentaries’, 29

Manuscript: [AL 538] Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 2788 (s. xex for this section), fols 49r-50v

 

4.       Commentaries

[C2 [Richer on Gerbert, Historiarum, 101], C9, C19, C23 are merely testimonies and have been omitted]

Cl (to Categoriae decem)

Type: collected glosses.

Date: compiled in first half of the tenth century.

Edition: extracts in Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin, 181-206. Incipit: Disciplinaque a disciplina ars quaelibet...

Explicit: (incomplete; ends, badly damaged, glossing Categories, p. 147.11 if.).

Manuscript: Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, lat. 13953, fols 50L54v.

Affiliation: consists of S-glosses (see Section A above); cf. C18.

Literature: as for glosses to Categoriae decem (Section A above).

C3

Author: Notker Labeo.

Type: brief additions to text used in his German translation of the Categories. Date: early eleventh century.

Edition: Notker the German, Die Werke, V.

Literature: Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, II, 62-3; Van de Vyver, ‘Les Étapes’, 441; Lewry, 'Boethian Logic', 93-4.

C4

Title: Excerta Categogarum et Isagogarum

Date: probably early eleventh century.

Type: question-and-answer treatise, closely based on Boethius’s commentary

Edition:  Excerpta Isagogarum, ed. G. D’Onofrio

Literature: Van de Vyver, ‘Vroeg-Middeleeuwsche verhandelingen’, 183, 195; De Rijk, ‘On the Curriculum’, 57-64; D’Onofrio (in edition)

C 5

Author: probably, and usually assumed to be, Peter Abelard (on grounds of parallels with C10 – Logica ingredientibus; no attribution in MS)

Date: probably between 1102-9.

Type: fragment from a composite commentary. (begins commenting on Categories, p. 49.5, ends glossing Categories, p. 55.15).

Edition: Peter Abelard, Scritti di logica, 43-67 .

Literature: dal Pra, ‘Le glosse’, 147-9; Peter Abelard, Scritti di logica, xxiii-xxvi; Lohr, ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries’, Traditio, 28; Senko, Repertorium, I, 140; Barrow, Burnett and Luscombe, ‘Checklist’, 249-50; Mews, ‘Dating’, 74-5; Iwakuma, ‘Vocales Revisited’.

Remarks:  This commentary is often treated as if it formed a set with the commentaries on the Isagoge, Peri hermeneias and De divisione in the same MS, Paris, BN lat 13368, known as the ‘literal glosses’ or sometimes, probably wrongly, as the Introductiones parvulorum. But this commentary is in fact of a different type, nearer to the full commentary found in Abelard’s Logica ingredientibus

C6

Date: probably early twelfth century.

Type: literal.

Tncipit: <S>ubtilis indagator rerum Aristotiles de decem generibus que pro excellentis continentie causa...

Explicit: (unfinished; ends glossing Categories, p. 29.23-4).

Manuscript: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MacClean 165 [AL 258], fols 102L 116v. Literature: James, A Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 316-9; Marenbon, ‘Glosses and Commentaries’, 33.

 

C7  < cf. C8 complex >

This commentary (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, lat. 17813, fols 19bis-54v) is sufficiently close to the different version of C8 and to C14 to be seen as a version within a single ‘complex’.

C8 < cf. C8 complex >

This commentary in its various versions is sufficiently close to C7 and C14 to be seen as a version within a single ‘complex’.

C8 complex

Author: Iwakuma has attributed this commentary in more than one version to William of Champeaux, but the evidence suggests that these should be regarded anonymous commentaries, perhaps originating in Paris, aspects of some of which may reflect William’s teaching.

Date: probably evolving during the period c. 1100 – c. 1120

Type: composite.

Incipits: <In>tentio Aristotelis est in hoc opere de decem primis vocibus decem prima rerum genera significantibus in eo quod res significant disputare... (Vatican MS; minor differences in other MSS); Decem sunt collectiones rerum a se invicem naturaliter diverse que predicamenta vocantur . (BN 17813 – C7).

Explicit: ... [various]

Manuscripts:: (A) Assisi, Biblioteca Conv. Franc. 573, fols 15v-48r (= C14); (L) London, British Library, Royal 7. D. XXV, fols 55r-63r (incomplete); (M) Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 14458, fols 95r-102r (incomplete); (P) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 13368, fols 195r-214v; (Q) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 17813, fols 19bis-54v (very end missing; finishes glossing Categories, p. 77.19 ff.) (= C7); (V) Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, reg. lat. 230, fols  41r -71 r

Affiliation:  There is a substantial element taken from Boethius’s commentary. According to Iwakuma, ML are closely related and seem to represent the earliest state of the commentary that survives; P and V contain different, but related revisions, as do A and Q (which are more distant from ML).

Literature: Hauréau, Notices et extraits, V, 333-8 (with a few extracts); Wilmart, Codices reginenses Latini, I, 546-7; Senko, Repertorium, II, 93; de Rijk, Logica modernorum, II.I, 49; Peter Abelard, Scritti di logica, xix, n. 13; Senko, Repertorium, I, 140; Barrow, Burnett and Luscombe, ‘Checklist’, 268; Pseudo­Rabanus, Super Porphyrium; Marenbon, ‘Glosses and Commentaries’ 34, 36-9; Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’, 52-3; Marenbon, Abelard, 110-11, 134, 140, 145-6, 171; Biard, ‘Le langage’, 233; Iwakuma, ‘Pierre Abélard’, 101-8, 118 (extracts); Iwakuma, ‘Introductiones’, 17-25 (extracts); Iwakuma, ‘William of Champeaux’ (extracts), passim; Cameron, ‘What’s in a Name?’ (extracts); Iwakuma, ‘Vocales revisited’ (extracts)

C10

Title: Glossae magistri Petri Abaelardi super Praedicamenta Aristotelis.

Author: Peter Abelard.

Date: c. 1117-21.

Type: composite.

Edition: Peter Abelard, Philosophische Schriften, pp. I I 1- 305.

Literature:  prolific: cf.  Barrow, Burnett and Luscombe, 'Checklist', p. 250; Mews, ‘Dating’, pp. 76-92; Marenbon, Abelard, 46-8

C11

Date: probably first half of twelfth century.

Type: mainly literal; with a little fuller discussion of problems.

/ncipit: <Q>UOCIENS SOLET OPPONI. Expeditis omnibus predicamentis cur praeter

propositum suum... (lemma = Categories, p. 69, apparatus to line 12; beginning of gloss

= beginning of Book IV of Boethius's commentary).

Explicit: '" huiusmodi mutatione in contrarium qualitatis alteratur subiectum. A causa.

Finis laboris.

Manuscript: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 13368, fols l85r-19l r.

Literature: Peter Abelard, Scritti di logica, p. xix, n.13 (where it is said, wrongly, to begin on fol. l83r).

C l2

Author: a follower of Gilbert of Poitiers

Date: probably middle or later twelfth century

Type: composite

Edition : Ebbesen, ‘A Porretanean Commentary’

 

C13

Date: probably first half of twelfth century.

Type: literal (fragment).

Incipit: (only the very end of the commentary survives; first gloss is to Categories, p. 78.6).

Explicit: ... id est qui in frequentiori usu habentur. OMNES PENE ENUMERATI SUNT. Et de predicamentis ista sufficiant.

Manuscript: Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 233, fol. 127r.

C14 < cf. C8 complex >

This commentary (Assisi, Biblioteca Conv. Franc, 573, fol. 15v-48r is sufficiently close to C7 and C8 to be seen as a version within a single ‘complex’.

C15

Date: late 1130s (de Rijk).

Type: problem commentary.

Incipit: ... utile. Ergo nec divisio ilia est totius utilis ... (the commentary is missing its very beginning; but it starts in the introductory section).

Explicit: ... Aristotiles tractaverat de predic<tis>... fine pre...

Manuscripts: Padua, Biblioteca Universitaria, 2087, fols 1-48vb; Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, cvp. 2486, fol. 6v (a small section which may have been taken from the commentary found in the Padua Manuscript according to de Rijk).

Affiliation: material in common with C17 (de Rijk); and also with Cl6, C20, C21.

Literature: de Rijk, ‘Some New Evidence’, 36-9; de Rijk, Logica modernorum, 11.1, 89-90 and 214-5 (where the manuscript number is mistakenly given as 2084); Marangon, Alle origini dell' aristotelismo padovano, 14, 27; Bottin, ‘Quelques discussions’, 57-72; Ebbesen, ‘Opinion’, 72-73 (short extract); Iwakuma and Ebbesen, ‘Logico­Theological Schools’, 175 (brief extract); XIII Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’, 55, 59-60; Marenbon, Abelard, 51; Iwakuma, ‘Prologues’; Spruyt, ‘Twelfth-century glosses’, passim (extracts); Ebbesen, ‘Anonymous D’Orvillensis on the Categories’, 359 (with extract)

 

C16

Author: probably a pupil of Alberic.

Date: probably 1140s or later.

Type: composite.

Incipit: (beginning probably missing) Premissis quibusdam que ad predicamenta necessaria sunt de ipsis tractare incipit. Agit autem de predicamento substantie ... Explicit: (unfinished; finishes glossing Categories, 52.1).

Manuscript: Paris, Bibliothèque de l' Arsenal, 910, fols 145r-147r.

Affiliation: material in common with C 15, C17, C20, C2l.

Literature: de Rijk, Logica modernorum, I, 116-20; Senko, Repertorium, II, 131(for description of MS; this commentary is not itself noted by either); Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’, 55

 

C17

Author: probably a pupil of Alberic (de Rijk).

 Date: late 1130s or 1140s.

Type: composite.

Incipit: <D>icit Boethius in comento predicamentorum: Intentio Aristotelis est tractare de primis vocibus . ..

Explicit: ... convenientius dicere quod quies secundum eundem locum sit contraria motui secundum locum (possibly unfinished; no discussion of Categories, 78.23 ff.)

Manuscript: Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, lat. fol. 624, fols 81r-87v.

Affiliation: material in common with C15 (de Rijk); and also Cl6, C20, C21.

Literature: Grabmann, Kommentare zur aristotelischen Logik, 18; Minio-Paluello,Twelfth-C entury Logic, II, xii-xiii; de Rijk, 'Some New Evidence', 31-6 (with extracts); Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’, 55-6; Ebbesen, ‘Opinion’, 72, 74 (short extracts); Ebbesen, ‘Anonymous D’Orvillensis on the Categories’, 363; IwakumaVocales revisited’

C18  (to Categoriae decem)

Type: collected glosses.

Date: compiled in the twelfth century; much of the material is earlier.

Edition: some of the material in Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin, 181-206, but this MS is not noted.

Incipit: <C>athegorie grece cum aspiratione latine dicuntur praedicamenta...

Explicit: (unfinished).

Manuscript: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, S. Marco 113, fols 26r-28v.

Affiliation: consists in part of S-glosses, but also contains non-standard material; cf. C1.

Literature: Leonardi, Catalogo di manoscritti filosofici, I, p. 32- 3.

C20

Author: a close follower of Alberic.

Date: probably mid-twelfth century.

Type: composite.

/ncipit: Ut ait Boethius in commento: intentio Aristotelis in hoc opere de decem primis vocibus ...

Explicit: (unfinished; ends during gloss on Categories, p. 65.13).

Manuscript: Paris, Bibliothèque de l' Arsenal, 910, fols 147L62v.

Affiliation: C15, C16, C17 and C21.

Literature: de Rijk, Logica modernorum, I,  120; Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’, 55-58; de Libera, Universaux, 50, Géneralités, 348; Iwakuma, ‘Vocales revisited’

 

C21

Author: quite probably Alberic.

Date: probably 1130s or 1140s.

Type: fragment.

Tncipit: <I>ncipiunt Cathegorie Aristotelis: quia hoc nomen predicamenta son at apud latinos hoc idcm sonat . . .

Explicit: (Only preface and beginning of first gloss survive).

Manuscript: Paris, Bibliothèque de l' Arsenal, 910, fols 143r- l44r.

Affiliation: CI5, C17 and C20.

Literature: de Rijk, Logica modernorum, I, p. 120; Senko, Repertorium, II, p. 131; Marenbon, ‘Vocalism’ 55; Iwakuma, ‘Prologues’

C22

Date: almost certainly after 1120; probably mid-twelfth century.

Type: note on logical problems (fragment).

Edition: Dal Pra, ‘Sulla dottrina’, 393- 5.

Literature: Dal Pra, ‘Sulla dottrina’, 396-9; Peter Abelard, Scritti di logica,  xix, n. 13 (Dal Pra mistakenly says that the piece is found on fol. 79v of Paris BN 13368, whereas it is on fol. 179v).

C24

Title: Incipiunt de categoriis pauce.

Date: mid- or late-twelfth century.

Type: quaestio-commentary.

Tncipit: Querendum est cur dicit Aristoteles denominativa ...

Explicit: ... et corruptio corrupto substantiale sit.

Manuscript: St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 833, pp. 7-17.