Beschreibung:

Lower part of a large leaf from a copy of Aristotle, Metaphysica, in the Latin translation of William of Moerbeke, decorated manuscript on parchment [France, thirteenth century] Lower two-thirds of a large leaf, reused as a later limp parchment binding, and hence with losses to upper part of leaf with approximately 9 lines missing, remains of double column of 34 lines (with book 3), catchword at base ('sensus palma'), dark blue and red paragraph marks, a few contemporary marginalia, discoloured and with remains of paper labels from spine of later book on one side, some holes and scuffs, later inscriptions in lower margin on one side, overall fair condition, 272 by 223mm. Acquired from the European trade in 2019. The works of Aristotle (384-322 BC.), student of Plato, tutor to Alexander the Great and founder of the Lyceum, were described by Cicero as 'a river of gold', and have shaped over two millennia of philosophy and science. That said, with the fall of a unified Roman Empire knowledge of them was lost to the West until their rediscovery in Greek and Arabic translations in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. William of Moerbeke (d. c. 1286) was a Flemish Dominican (from Moerbeke near Geraardsbergen), and among the foremost translators from Greek in the thirteenth century. His work on Aristotle may have been at the behest of Thomas Aquinas, and certainly Aquinas' use of it popularised it among the universities of Europe. This was once part of a notably large university copy of this fundamental scholastic text. The bottom margin that survives is 101mm. in height, and taking into account the missing lines and a smaller upper margin, the original page size would have been around 360 by 220mm.