A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ARISTOTELES.
Bagdad was for Asia. In Bagdad the celebrated
physician and philosopher, Avicenna (1036), and
in the West Averrhoes (1198), and his disciple,
Moses Maimonides, did most to promote the study
of the Aristotelian philosophy by means of translations, or rather free paraphrases, of the philosopher's writings. Through the Spanish Christians
and Jews, the knowledge of Aristotle was propagated to the other nations of the West, and translations of the writings of Avicenna, who was
looked upon as the representative of Aristotelism,
spread over France, Italy, England, and Germany.
The logical writings of Aristotle were known to
the schoolmen in western Christendom before the
twelfth century, through the translations of Boethius; but it was not till after the crusades (about
1270), that they possessed translations of all the
writings of Aristotle, which were made either from
Arabic copies from Spain, or from Greek originals
which they had brought with them from Constantinople and other Greek cities. The first western
writer who translated any of the works of Aristotle
into Latin, was Hermannus Alemannus, at Toledo
in Spain, who translated the Ethics. Other translators, whose works are in part still preserved,
were Robert, bishop of Lincoln (1253), John of
Basingstoke (1252), Wilhelm of Moerbecke (1281),
Gerard of Cremona (1187), Michael Scotus (1217),
and Albertus Magnus. In the years 1260-1270
Thomas Aquinas, the most celebrated commentator on Aristotle in the middle ages, prepared,
through the instrumentality of the monk Wilhelm
of Moerbecke, a new Latin translation of the writings of Aristotle after Greek originals.* He wrote
commentaries on almost all the works of the Stagirite; and, together with his teacher, the celebrated
Albertus Magnus, rendered the same services to
the Aristotelian philosophy in the West which
Avicenna and Averrhois had done for the East
and the Arabians in Spain. For the West, Paris
was the seat of science and of the Aristotelian philosophy in particular. Next to it stood Oxford
and Cologne. Almost all the celebrated schoolmen
of the middle ages owed their education to one or
other of these cities.
3. History of the writings of Aristotle since the
revival of classical studies.-After Thomas Aquinas,
distinguished schoolmen, it is true, occupied themselves with the writings of Aristotle; but the old
barbaric translation was read almost exclusively.
With the revival of classical studies in Italy, at
the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the
fifteenth century, the writings of Aristotle and the
mode of treating them experienced a revolution.
The struggle between liberal studies and the rigidity and empty quibbling of.the scholastic Aristotelism, ended in the victory of the former. Among
the first and most distinguished promoters of the
study of Aristotle was the excellent Greek scholar,
Joh. Argyropylus of Byzantium (A. D. 1486), from
whom Lorenzo de Medici took lessons. With
4im should be mentioned Theodor. Gaza (1478),
Francisc. Philelphus (1480), Georgius of Tra)ezus, Gennadius, Leonard. Aretinus (Bruni of
Irezzo). The exertions of the last-named scholar
vere warmly seconded by the learned and accomdished pope Nicolaus V. (1447-1455), who was

ARISTOTELES. 325
himself attached to the Aristotelian philosophy.
Tlheir scholars, Angelus Politianus, Hermolaus
Barbarus, Donatus Acciajolus, Bessarion, Augustinus Niphus, Jacob Faber Stapulensis, Laurentius
Valla, Joh. Reuchlin, and others, in like manner
contributed a good deal, by means of translations
and commentaries, towards stripping the writings
of Aristotle of the barbarous garb of scholasticism.
The spread of Aristotle's writings by means of
printing, first in the Aldine edition of five volumes
by Aid. Pius Manutius, in Venice, 1495-1498,
was mainly instrumental in bringing this about.
In Germany, Rudolph Agricola, as well as Reuchlin
and Melanchthon, taught publicly the Aristotelian
philosophy. In Spain, Genesius Sepulveda, by
means of new translations of Aristotle and his
Greek commentators made immediately from Greek
originals, laboured with distinguished success
against the scholastic barbarism and the Aristotelism of Averrhois. He was supported by the
Jesuits at Coimbra, whose college composed commentaries on almost all the writings of the philosopher. In like manner, in France, Switzerland,
and the Netherlands, Jacob Faber, Ludwig Vives,
Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Konrad Gesner, took
an active part in promoting the study of the Aristotelian philosophy; and in spite of the counterefforts of Franciscus Patritius and Petrus Ramus,
who employed all the weapons of ingenuity against
the writings, philosophy, and personal character of
Aristotle, the study of his philosophy continued
predominant in almost all the schools of Europe.
Among the learned scholars of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, we find the most distinguished busied with Aristotle. Their lectures,
however, which gave rise to numerous commentaries and editions of Aristotle, are confined principally to his rhetorical, ethical, political, and aesthetical works. The works on logic and natural history were seldom regarded, the metaphysical treatises remained wholly unnoticed. In Italy we
must here mention Petrus Victorius (1585), and
his imitator M. Antonius Maioragius (Conti,
1555), Franc. Robortelli (1567), J. C. Scaliger
(1558), Julius Pacius a Beriga (1635), Baptist.
Camotius, Vincent Madius, and Barthol. Lombardus,
Riccoboni, Accoramboni, Montecatinus, &c.: among
the French, Muretus, Is. Casaubon, Ph. J. Maussac, Dionys. Lambinus (1572): among the Dutch,
Swiss, and Germans, Obert. Giphanius (van Giffen,
1604), the physician Theod. Zwinger (a friend of
and fellow-labourer with Lambinus, and a scholar of
Konrad Gesner), Camerarius of Bamberg (1574),
Wilh. Hilden of Berlin (1587), Joh. Sturm (1589),
Fred. Sylburg (1596), &c.
Within a period of eighty years in the sixteenth
century, besides innumerable editions of single
writings of Aristotle, there appeared, beginning
with the Basle edition, which Erasmus of Rotterdam
superintended, no fewer than seven Greek editions
of the entire works of the philosopher, some of
which were repeatedly reprinted. There was also
published a large number of Latin translations.
From facts of this kind we may come to some conclusion as to the interest felt by the learned public
in that age in the writings of the philosopher. In
England we see no signs of such studies; and it is
only in Casaubon (in the preface to his edition of
the works of Aristotle) that we meet with the notice, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century,
under the guidance of the learned physician, Theo

* This is the translation known to critics as the
etus translatio, the verbal accuracy of which places
Son a level with the best MSS.