ARISTOTLE; Albertus Magnus; Thomas Aquinas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Opera nuova la quale tratta della filosofia naturale, chiamata la Metaura; First edition in Italian, at the time the most complete translation of Aristotle's Meteorology in the vernacular, together with extended commentary from two prominent medieval philosophers. This edition furthers the adaptation of Aristotle by medieval thinkers to support a range of contemporary interests, most notably astrology.From its Latin translation in the 12th century until well into the 17th, the Meteorology was "the unquestioned authority on weather theory" (Frisinger, p. 638). By 1554, Renaissance astrologers had long looked to it to support their conviction that the stars influence events on earth. Albertus Magnus (c.1200-1280), among the most prominent medieval Aristotelians, was one of the first to propose this astrological interpretation, which characterizes the present edition.Following the great wave of scholarly Latin translations, vernacular manuscripts of Aristotle's works began appearing from the 13th century onwards, often commissioned by rising mercantile families. This edition is based on an anonymous translation made in 14th-century Florence. It pairs a revised and condensed version of the Meteorology with sections drawn from the commentaries of Albertus and, to a lesser extent, Thomas Aquinas. In several cases, the editor has used their translation to bring Aristotle's text in line with Albertus's interpretation, blurring the line between astronomy and astrology.

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