Renaissance Thought and Its Sources

International Antiquarian BooksellersSince 1821 HERMAN H.J. LY NGE & SØN A/S Renaissance Thought and its Sources Founded in 1821 by Christian Tønder Sæbye, Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn is the oldest antiquarian book shop in Scandinavia. We are specialized in rare and important works within History of Ideas, with a main focus on Science, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, of all periods. Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn A/S, Silkegade 11, 1113 Copenhagen K., Denmark (+45) 33 15 53 35, [email protected], www.lynge.com Renaissance Thought and its Sources 2012 © Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn A/S Printed by Kailow, Denmark All prices are in Danish Kroner (DKK)/EURO and without VAT (Value Added Tax). Books exported to countries inside the EU are subject to VAT - Danish VAT of 25% must be added to our prices unless we are provided with a registered VAT-no. Books exported to countries outside the EU are free of Danish VAT. Renaissance Thought and its Sources Section I Alexander of Aphrodisias Archimedes Aristotle Xystus Betulius Jean Bodin Boethius Giordano Bruno René Budel Hieronymus Cardanus Jacques Charpentier Dante Euclid Hieronymus Fracastoro Hesychius Paolo Giovio Raimundus Lull Marsilius of Padua Francisco Maurolyco Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola Plotinus Pietro Pomponazzi Giovanni Battista Porta Proclus Diadochus Claudius Ptolemaeus Agostino Ramelli Julius Caesar Scaliger Sextus Empiricus Bernardino Telesio Themistius Peripateticus Theophrastus Franciscus Toletus Section II – Reception & Definition Jacob Burckhardt Ernst Cassirer Martin Heidegger Jean Michelet Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer Ernest Renan Preface The present catalogue is devoted to the thought of the Renaissance and its sources. In this context, sources should be taken in a twofold sense. It means both the ancient sources of learning upon which the original thought of the Renaissance is based and the sources upon which our knowledge of Renaissance thought is based, the classics of the historiography of Renaissance thought (see Section II). By Renaissance thought, we mean primarily Renaissance philosophy, albeit in a broad sense, including the Humanist movement, the Aristotelian tradition, and Renaissance Platonism. The label of Renaissance philosophy also covers fields that we would not categorize as philosophy today, such as science, medicine, politics, linguistics, and sociology. We have, however, not included any books solely relating to the fields of Religion, Art, Poetry, Natural History, and Cartography, of which we have several important Renaissance printings in stock (see www.lynge.com). The focus of this present catalogue is on works that have been determinative for the formation and development of the philosophical thought that is peculiar to the Renaissance. The present catalogue is obviously not an exhaustive list of works and editions formative for Renaissance thought, but we believe that it reflects the intellectual wealth and diversity of the Renaissance period. It also reflects our main fields of interest: important books within Science, Philosophy, and the History of Ideas. Of all the books in the present catalogue, it is true that they are highly important editions of works that have been of seminal importance to the development of Renaissance thought and to our understanding of this previously neglected period in which the formats of modern culture, modern thought, and modern man were cast. Maria Girsel Herman H.J. Lynge & Søn A/S November 2012 3 Section I 5 A PUBLICATION THAT CHANGED THE FACE OF RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS Enarratio de anima ex aristotelis institutione. interprete Hieronymo donato Patritio Veneto. [Alexander of Aphrodisia’s commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, translated by Girolamo Donato]. (Brixiae (Brescia), Bernardinus de Misintis, 1495, [on colophon]). 4to. Contemporary full vellum w. some wear, handwritten title on spine. First leaf a bit darkened, first 6 leaves w. neat repair to upper right coerner, far from affecting teaxt, last few leaves w. some brown spots, otherwise only occasional and not heavy brownspotting. Some near cont. marginal annotations, some shaved. Last end-papers renewed. Pasted down front end-paper w. long inscription in Italian, quoting from Giovio about Pomponazzi and his use of Aphrodisias’ text (ab. 1800). A neat and solid copy. Large woodcut opening initial, capital spaces throughout. 91 leaves (of 92, —lacking first blank). DKK 105,000.00 / EURO 14,000.00 The exceedingly scarce first edition of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ hugely influential commentary on Aristotle’s “De Anima”; the enormously important first printing of Girolamo Donato’s (1457—1511) translation from the Greek, which came to influence almost all original philosophy of the Renaissance with its hugely controversial exposition of the impossibility of the immortality of the individual soul, interpreted from Aristotle’s “De Anima” —”On the Soul”— one of the most influential and commented on philosophical works of all times. If one question is to be pointed out as the main philosophical one of the Renaissance, it is that of the soul’s relation to reason or intelligence. “This was the question of his (Pomponazzi’s) time. “Anima” and “Intellectus” were then the watchwords of the schools: their relation, or the nature of “anima intellective”, was the point round which discussion moved and on which was invoked the authority of Averroes, Alexander or St Thomas. When the audiences in the Italian class-rooms called out “Quid de anima?” this was the subject which they desired to hear treated.” (Douglas, p. 74). And if the new interpretation of Aristotle that affected all of Renaissance philosophy had one representative authority, it was Alexander of Aphrodisias. “Pour couvrir cette tendance nouvelle, un nouveau nom était nécessaire: On trouva celui d’Alexandre d’Aphrodisias. Désormais Averroès ne régnera plus seul…” (Renan, Averroes, p. 282). “L’immortalité, en effet, était, vers 1500, le problem autour duquel s’agitait l’esprit philosophique en Italie…” (Renan, p. 283). The publication of this present work, the first edition of Alexander’s commentary, was of the utmost importance to Renaissance philosophy, religion, scholarship and learning, and it greatly influenced the path of Aristotelian scholarship as well as almost all original philosophy within this period. Alexander came to influence all reading of Aristotle in the Renaissance,—a period, in which the “De Anima”—like it had done earlier in the Middle Ages—occupied the central role within the field of philosophy; —few other works have been so commented on and been of such importance to theology, philosophy, psychology and natural sciences in general. The work re-evoked a great interest in the sort of philosophy that was not primarily connected to logic, and it was the cause of the greatest and most heated controversies due to the obvious consequences its doctrines could have for the Church. “With reference to those works of Aristotle which were and remained the center of instruction in logic and natural philosophy, the most important changes derived from the fact that the works of the ancient Greek 7 commentators became completely available in Latin between the late fifteenth and the end of the sixteenth centuries and were more and more used to balance the interpretations of the medieval Arabic and Latin commentators. The Middle Ages had known their works only in a very limited selection or through quotations in Averroes. Ermolao Barbaro’s complete translation of Themistius and Girolamo Donato’s version of Alexander’s “De Anima” were among the most important ones in a long line of others. When modern historians speak of Alexandrism as a current within Renaissance Aristotelianism that was opposed to Averroism, they are justified in part by the fact that the Greek commentators, that is Alexander and also Themistius, Simplicius, and many others, were increasingly drawn upon for the exposition of Aristotle. In a more particular sense, Alexander’s specific notion that the human soul was mortal received more attention from the Aristotelian philosophers.” (Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and its sources, 1979, p. 45). “The group of innovating “Alexandrists” who appear at the end of the century derive their name from Alexander of Aphrodisias, the best of the Greek commentators on Aristotle, whom they studied and cited; … but the Averroists had likewise cited Alexander; his views they found discussed by the commentator himself. … And we find strong Humanistic interests. Whereas before the “Physica” had been the center of attention, now it is the “De Anima” and the interpretation of human nature that awaken controversy. Like the Platonists, the Aristotelians began discussing God, freedom, and immortality in relation to the individual soul, but, unlike them, they arrived through Aristotle at naturalistic conclusions.” (Randall in: Cassirer, Kristeller and Randall, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, 1956, p. 260). “Of his (Alexander’s) interpretations of Aristotle (either in formal commentaries or in other writings), two are particularly famous… Alexander interprets a most difficult aspect of Aristotle’s psychology in his “On the Soul”, Book III, chapters 4 and 5… The most conspicuous result of this theory is the denial of any kind of personal immortality… The assertion or the denial of the correctness of Alexander’s interpretation of Aristotle and, even more, the correctness of the doctrine (denial of personal immortality) became one of the great controversies of the Middle Ages and early

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