ARISTOTLE'S ANIMALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE n LEUVEN UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999 Illustration: London, British Library, MS. Harley 3244, fol. 39 (ca. 1255) (By permission of the Britisch Library) MEDIAEVALIA LOVANIENSIA SERIES I / STUDIA XXVII ARISTOTLE'S ANIMALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE LEUVEN UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999 ARISTOTLE'S ANIMALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE This One TH7S-Q8Q-77HL MEDIAEVALIA LOVANIENSIA Editorial Board C. Steel J. Goossens G. Latre W. Verbeke SERIESI/STUDIAXXVII Uitgegeven met steun van de Universitaire Stichting van Belgie en het Francqui-Fonds KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN INSTITUUT VOOR MIDDELEEUWSE STUDIES LEUVEN (BELGIUM) ARISTOTLE'S ANIMALS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE EDITED BY Carlos STEEL Guy GULDENTOPS Pieter BEULLENS LEUVEN UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999 1999 by Leuven University Press/Presses Universitaires de Louvain/ Universitaire Pers Leuven, Blijde-Inkomststraat 5 B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium) All rights reservecl, including Ihe right to translate or lo reproduce Ihis book or parts thereof in any form ISBN 90 6 1 86 9730 D/1999/1869/46 CONTENTS Preface l Carlos STEEL Animaux de la Bible et animaux d'Aristote. Thomas d'Aquin sur Behemoth l'elephant 11 Aafke M.I. VAN OPPENRAAY Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin Translation ofAristotle's Books on Animals. Some Remarks Concerning the Relation Between the Translation and Its Arabic and Greek Sources 3 1 Mauro ZONTA The Zoological Writings in the Hebrew Tradition. The Hebrew Approach toAristotle 's Zoological Writings and to theirAncient and Medieval Commentators in the Middle Ages 44 Pieter BEULLENS A 13th-Century Florilegiumfrom Aristotle 's Books on Animals: Auctoritates extracte de libro Aristotilis de naturis animalium 69 Remke KRUK On Animals: Excerpts of Aristotle and Ibn Sinä in Marwazi's Tabä'i' al-Hayawän 96 Isabelle DRAELANTS La transmission du De animalibus d'Aristote dans le De floribus rerum naturalium d'Arnoldus Saxo 126 Henryk ANZULEWICZ Die aristotelische Biologie in den Frühwerken des Albertus Magnus 1 59 Miguel DE AsÜA Medicine and Philosophy in Peter ofSpain 's Commentary on De animalibus 189 6 CONTENTS Silvia NAGEL Testi con due redazioni attribuite ad un medesimo autore: il caso del De animalibus dl Pietro Ispano 2 \ 2 Christian HÜNEMÖRDER Der Text des Michael Scotus um die Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts und Thomas Cantlmpratensls III 238 Theodor Wolfram KÖHLER Die wissenschaftstheoretische und inhaltliche Bedeutung der Rezeption von De animalibus für den philosophisch anthropologischen Diskurs im 13. Jahrhundert 249 Guy GULDENTOPS The Sagacity ofthe Bees. An Aristotelian Topos in Thirteenth- Century Philosophy 275 Stefano PERFETTI Three Dlfferent Ways of Interpreting Aristotle 's De partibus animalium: Pietro Pomponazzi, Niccolö Leonico Tomeo and Agostino Nifo 297 Jan PAPY The Attitude Towards Aristotelian Biological Thought in the Louvain Medical Treatises During the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century: the Case of Embryology 317 Baudouin VAN DEN ABEELE Une version moralisee du De animalibus d'Aristote (XlVe siecle) 338 Michael CAMILLE Bestiary or Biology? Aristotle 's Animals in Oxford, Merton College, MS 271 355 Allan GOTTHELF From Aristotle to Darwin. Closing Words 397 Index codicum manu scriptorum 402 Index nominum 405 PREFACE This volume contains the papers read at an international colloquium on "Aristotle's Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance". Since 1994 a research group from the De Wulf-Mansion Centre (Institute of Philo- sophy) has been working on the tradition and reception of Aristotle's biology in the Middle Ages. The principal result of this project, which is endowed by the Research Fund of the Catholic University of Leuven and the Flemish "Fund for Scientific Research", will be the edition of De historia animalium, prepared by Pieter Beullens and Fernand Bos- sier for the "Aristoteles Latinus". In June 1996 an international work- shop was organized on "The Tradition of Aristotle's De historia ani malium" (a report of which was published in the Bulletin de Philosophie Medievale 38 [1996], 169-176). This workshop launched the conference held at the Institute of Medieval Studies in May 1997. Although most contributions in this volume primarily concern scientific texts, several papers explore the integration of zoological information into a symbolical or moral discourse. For the links between "the two cultures" - between the sphere of natural science and the sphere of art and religion - were still very strong in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as is made clear in the introductory paper which analyzes Thomas Aquinas' exploitation of Aristotelian zoology in his exegesis of the sacred rhetoric of Job. In fact, zoology remained for centuries a science based on texts, a corpus of commentaries on the Philosopher's books. Accordingly, the reception of Aristotle's zoologi cal works is studied in this volume from the perspectives of three disci- plines, viz. the history of texts, the history of philosophy, and cultural history. The first section of this volume is devoted to the fortune of Aristo tle's zoological treatises in the West. Michael Scot's De animalibus, and especially his translation of an Arabic version of the Historia ani malium, is the object of Aafke van Oppenraay's research. Mauro Zonta presents the most important Hebrew authors whose knowledge of Peri- patetic zoology was based on the Arabic and Arabico-Latin traditions. Pieter Beullens explains the manner in which Scot's translation of the zoological texts was transformed into a widespread florilegium. A second group of scholars study the influence of Aristotle's zoo logy on some representative philosophical and scientific texts. Remke Kruk focuses on the transmission of this zoology in the Arabic culture, PREFACE particularly in al-Marwazi's Book on the Natures ofAnimals. The pres- ence of De animalibus in Arnoldus Saxo's De floribus rerum natura- lium, the oldest scholastic encyclopedia, is investigated by Isabelle Draelants. Henryk Anzulewicz draws attention to the manner in which Albertus Magnus made use of Aristotle's zoology in his early writings. Miguel de Asüa situates Peter of Spain's Commentary on De animali bus within the context of the thirteenth-century debate between medi- cine and philosophy. Taking a different point of view, Silvia Nagel dis- tinguishes two redactions of Peter's Commentary on De animalibus. Christian Hünemörder uncovers the sources of zoological ideas in the third version of Thomas of Cantimpre's De natura rerum. Theodor Köhler demonstrates that Aristotle's zoology determined the develop- ment of scholastic epistemology and anthropology. Guy Guldentops describes the topos of the sagacious bee, as it appears in some thir teenth-century philosophical texts. Stefano Perfetti scrutinizes the hermeneutical methods that renowned Renaissance philosophers applied in their commentaries on De partibus animalium. Aristotle's apport to embryology in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is sketched by Jan Papy. Finally, two examples of the literary and artistic adaptations of Aris totle's zoological writings are introduced. Baudouin van den Abeele sheds light on a fourteenth-century moralizing allegory of De animali bus, and Michael Camille examines the relationship between Aristo tle's zoology and illuminations in medieval manuscripts. Many interesting subjects were not discussed at the Conference. To our surprise, there were few papers on the fortune of Moerbeke's new translation of the zoological corpus, even though it included the previ- ously little known treatises De motu animalium and De progressu ani malium. Scot's translation was apparently so predominant in the Latin West that Moerbeke's labour left few traces. A thorough inquiry into the influence of the latter's Graeco-Latin translations is a desideratum. Albert the Great's major commentary on De animalibus, still awaiting an adequate critical edition, deserves more attention. The reception of the biological works in Byzantium is an altogether unexplored area. However lacunous this volume may be, the editors hope it will offer an attractive survey of the current research on the medieval and early modern reception of Aristotelian zoology. If one reads through the diverse papers, then it becomes clear in how many different ways Ari stotle's books on animals have fertilized the cultural life of the Middle PREFACE Ages and the Renaissance. Thus, it is no exaggeration to claim that without the zoological doctrine of the Philosopher our culture would have lacked a great deal of its scientific realism and of its humanistic wealth. May this volume guide the reader through the fascinating world of "Aristotle's Animals", which are, as Allan Gotthelf observes in his C1osing Words, "everlasting in the way that is possible to them". We wish to express our gratitude to the "Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen" and the "Universitaire Stichting van Belgie" for their generous financial aid. We are also indebted to Werner Verbeke, the secretary of the Institute of Medieval Studies, for his careful reading of the volume. C.S. - G.G. - P.B. CARLOS STEEL ANIMAUX DE LA BIBLE ET ANIMAUX D'ARISTOTE Thomas d'Aquin sur Behemoth l'elephant Dans la preface de son encyclopedie De natura rerum, Thomas de Cantimpre raconte comment il a recherche pendant quinze ans, avec beaucoup d'effort, dans les bibliotheques de France et d'Allemagne, et meme au delä de la mer, en Angleterre, les textes les plus interessants des philosophes et des savants