We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 February 2016
Modern scholars of medieval philosophy have had access to the work of Abū Ḥâmid Muhammad al-Ghāzalī (1058–1111) since 1933, when Joseph T. Muckle published an edition of the great Muslim theologian's Maqāsid al-falāsifa (“The Opinions of the Philosophers”). In this work, al-Ghāzalī (known to the West as Algazel) summarized ideas proposed by Avicenna (940–1036) in his Danesh Nameh. Algazel's Maqāsid al-falāsifa was composed of three parts, the Metaphysics, Physics, and Logic; medieval authors read and referred to Algazel's work accordingly, as three separate works.
1 Indeed, the Metaphysics, Physics, and Logic were not always copied together, and were always presented as three different, complete works in the manuscripts in which they survive.Google Scholar The editor is greatly indebted to Rega Wood, Neil Lewis, and Jennifer Ottman for their contributions to the preparation of this article and edition. The edition has particularly benefited from Neil Lewis's critical acumen.Google Scholar
2 Notes in the manuscripts and elsewhere designate Gundissalinus's collaborator as “Master John,” whom Charles Lohr states was not John of Spain. John of Spain was indeed involved in the translation project at Toledo under Bishop Raimond through which many important works came to the West, but he would have been a very old man by the time Gundissalinus was translating Algazel's works. Lohr, Charles H., “Logica Algazelis: Introduction and Critical Text,” Traditio 21 (1965): 223–90, at 228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Algazel, , Physics 4.2.3.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., 4.2.2.Google Scholar
5 The common Italian abbreviation for qui during the thirteenth century when V was copied is a q with a bar through the descender, but in many other regions that abbreviation was meant to represent quod. It is easy to confuse the two or forget the Italian origin of one's manuscript.Google Scholar
6 Algazel, , Physics 4.3.4. Google Scholar
7 Lohr, , “Logica Algazelis,” 232–35; idem, “Algazel latinus: Further Manuscripts,” Traditio 22 (1966): 444–45; and d'Alverny, Marie-Thérèse, Avicenna latinus: Codices , ed. Van Riet, Simone and Jodogne, Pierre (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994).Google Scholar
8 Lohr, , “Logica Algazelis,” 223–90.Google Scholar
9 BNF 14700 employs this convention frequently, often adding an expunged i or o at the end of a line to keep columns even.Google Scholar
10 Lewis, C. and Short, C., A Latin Dictionary (repr. Oxford, 1979).Google Scholar
11 Prepared by examining common variants among the six manuscripts for all of Tractates Quartus. Distance from θ is approximately equal to the quality/dating of the manuscript. A dotted line connecting two manuscripts indicates that the lower manuscript was possibly corrected by referencing the higher manuscript or a similar tradition.Google Scholar
12 Besides the fact that he “improves” the text, he is copying at a later date from an inferior exemplar; consequently, his text is full of homoioteleuta and numerous similar errors of which he was either unaware or accidentally introduced himself.Google Scholar
13 Algazel, , Physics 4.5.10: “Una est eorum quae sunt prima et vera ad quae inducit eum natura eius ut imprimatur ei sine inquisitione.” A plural eis would obscure the meaning, as it would be unclear as onto what besides the intellect the forms could possibly be imprinting themselves.Google Scholar
14 Algazel, , Physics 4.5.23: “Et sic caro pars partes sunt caro et os et sanguis quorum nullum est caput.” Again, this is a comparison, and sicut is simply the wrong word to use here.Google Scholar
15 Algazel, , Physics 4.5.11: “Tunc enim non est quasi sapiens oblitus cogniti, sed potens scire cum voluerit.” V supplies non, while AENOP omit it. But the comparison makes more sense with the non, which is why I left it in.Google Scholar
16 Algazel, , Physics 4.4.1, 4–5.Google Scholar
17 A new hand begins numbering — the folio numbers given here continue to use the older system, according to Schum's catalogue.Google Scholar
18 The table of contents is incorrect about several works of Alkindi and does not mention Thomas Aquinas at all.Google Scholar
19 This is the first work that does not have headers on the recto pages. From here on out, there are no more headers, but there are still titles written in a later hand at the top or side of the page on which the work begins.Google Scholar
20 Lacombe distinguishes this as a separate work of Gundissalinus, but the manuscript does not, and I cannot find an incipit for it.Google Scholar
1 Cf. supra 4.1.1.Google Scholar
2 Margo sinistra male secatur in P, fol. 162ra .Google Scholar
3 Cf. infra 4.5.19.Google Scholar
4 In mundo antiquo traditio erat quod Jovis infans de uberibus caprae bibit ut viveret.Google Scholar
5 Aristotles, , Praed. (2.1a24–25): “Impossibile est esse accidens sine eo in quo est.” Google Scholar 97 enim] autem E; ex om. P; cadaveribus] cadaverum P 98 interfectorum… proelio om. P; loco distante om. P; distante corr. ex distente V 99 leugis] leutis AP leucis N; locum] illo P; proelii in om. P; eius] cuius ANO illius P; leugas] leuas! A leucas N leutas P 100 et exp. A; avium] et unum N annum O 101 Aliter] Autem vero N Aristoteles P; posset] possit O; intelligi] ? P; vapor add. qui s. lin. P 102 possit diffundi usque] posset distendi P; usque] neque (lectio dubia) N 103 sonum add. est autem A; vero est om. A 104 vehementi] vehemente EP 105 inter] ? P 106 fortiter duo corpora] duo corpora fortiter O; et add. ex N 107 ea om. E corpora P; et fit sonus om. A 107–8 violenter … aer rep. sed del. V 109 usque quo pervenit om. (hom.) P 109–10 cum motus] commotus A 110 ille om. O; intus inter] motus intia N; inter om. O; concavitatem add. aeris E 111 imprimitur] AENO vel forsan imprimatur P imprimatur VM; coniunctus] commotus A; nervo] ? P; expanso] expasso! O; profundo] profundum E 112 extenditur] ostenditur A; igitur om. O; ibi] illi A intus P; tinnitus ante ibi E terremotus N terminus O 113 sita] attributa AENO corr. ex attributa mg. V 114 Motus vero] non N; aere corr. ex are V; quasi] cum in vasi corr. ex qui vasi P 115 nec] non N 115–16 et deinde debilitari om. (hom.) A 116 deficiat] defici N 117 dilatatur corr. ex dilactatur V; extremitates add. sed exp. pl P 118 qui] quod MP; mox] morum N; repercussus] repercus! V Google Scholar
6 N: nota marginalis in secunda manu: “nota?” cum lineis cinctis.Google Scholar
7 Alhacen, , Libro de aspectibus VI. 22 (ed. Smith, vol. 1, 16): “Superficies ergo humoris albuginei etiam est superficies sphaerica cuius centrum est centrum superficiei ei superpositae.” Google Scholar
8 Avicenna, , De anima III. vii (15rbA); cf. Blund, Iohannes, Tractatus de anima IX. 101 (ed. Callus, and Hunt, 27–28): “Quod bene concedimus, dicentes quod inmutatio generatur a lucido subito ex quo non invenit aliquod resistens, sicut testatur tam Avicenna quam Algazel in commento primae philosophiae, quod illuminatio subito et non gradatim generatur et pereunt tenebrae: tenebrae enim nihil aliud sunt quam privatio lucis.” Google Scholar
9 Alhacen, , Libro de aspectibus VI, 18–39 (ed. Smith, , vol. I, 20–21).Google Scholar
10 Aristotles, , De sensu (440a15–18).Google Scholar
11 Cf. supra, 4.3.9.Google Scholar
12 Cf. supra 4.3.7.Google Scholar
13 Cf. supra 4.5.2.Google Scholar
14 Cf. supra 4.3.6, 9.Google Scholar
15 Isti dativi eveniunt de arabico.Google Scholar
16 Cf. supra 4.5.1, 4.Google Scholar
17 Hic “secunda” refert ad secundam speciem (species formarum intelligibilium).Google Scholar
18 Algazel, , Metaph. I. i. (ed. Muckle, , 6).Google Scholar
19 Cf. Blund, Iohannes, IX. 101 (ed. Callus, and Hunt, 92) “Et ideo virtus activa ethicae subiacet speculationi, quoniam ab ea perficiuntur mores,” quamquam ethica hic est absurdum.Google Scholar
20 Cf. supra 4.5.26–27.Google Scholar
21 Cf. supra 4.5.30.Google Scholar
22 Cf. de Alexandria, Philo, De legum allegoria III. 18–20 (ed. Colson, and Whitaker, ); Mgazel, , Mysteria de anima humana (in arabica et anglica), V ( http://www.muslimphiloso-phy.com/gz/works/soul.htm).Google Scholar
