The Itinerary of the Latin Translations of "Ethica Nicomachea" during the 13th Century

Abstract

This article gathers and brings together, for the first time in a single study, the different aspects regarding the manuscript tradition, the dating and the authorships of the three translations of Ethica Nicomachea circulating among scholars during the 13th century. This work of Aristotle, of significant and enduring influence in the field of practical philosophy, eluded not only the prohibitions imposed during this period on other important treatises of the Stagirite, but was also honored by the work of three translators of recognized talent and scholarship: Burgundio of Pisa, Robert Grosseteste and William of Moerbeke. Thanks to the common work of a number of philologists, paleographers and other specialists in medieval studies, the itinerary of the latin translations of Ethica Nicomachea represents a model of scientific cooperation, whose numerous and even unexpected results are often dispersed in an extended literature. This study provides the reader with a complete and comprehensive map of them, along with a number of conclusions suggested by a more panoramic view of the different events.