From Edition to Exegesis: Andronicus, Commentator and Editor of the Aristotelian Corpus

Abstract

This article argues that the work of Andronicus of Rhodes did not merely fix and arrange the Aristotelian corpus; rather, it instituted an exegetical program that repositioned the Categories as a key propaedeutic to reading the Stagirite philosophically. Drawing on testimonia such as Porphyry (Vita Plotini 24) and Simplicius (In Cat.), it contends that the combination of canonical organization (division into treatises, thematic grouping) and paraphrase introduced a way of reading that, in the early Empire, became a mode of doing philosophy. The paper examines brief cases (homonymy, pros ti, and the debate over the postpraedicamenta) and shows how Andronicus’ “edition” shaped teaching and the practice of commentary, in dialogue with Peripatetic plurality (Boethus) and Platonic reception. It concludes that the Aristotelian text-commentary, as a way of doing Aristotelian philosophy, emerged as a synthesis of philology and speculation, with lasting effects in the later school.