Histoire du texte des ›Parva naturalia‹ d’Aristote

This book offers a study of the history of the transmission of Aristotle’s treatises known under the collective denomination Parva naturalia on the basis of all of the available manuscripts, as well as the ancient and Byzantine receptions of the texts, with special focus on the commentary on De sensu by Alexander of Aphrodisias and the commentary on the other treatises of the collection by Michael of Ephesus, which depends on prior exegetical materials known through scholia that had not been edited so far. It uncovers a new independent branch of the transmission, hitherto unknown to editors of Aristotle’s text, for which the main witness is the neglected 15th-century manuscript Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Phillipps 1507. The existence of this branch accounts for the special status of manuscrit Vaticano, BAV, Vat. gr. 1339 and offers many opportunities to improve on the current reconstruction of Aristotle’s text.

Justin Winzenrieth, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany.