This paper explores the scholastic debate about antiperistasis, a mechanism in Aristotle’s dynamics described in the first book of Meteorology as an intensification of a quality caused by the action of the contrary one. After having distinguished this process from a homonymous, but totally different, principle concerning the dynamics of fluids that Aristotle describes in his Physics, I focus on the medieval reception of the former. Scholastic commentators oriented their exegetical effort in elaborating a consistent explanation of an apparently paradoxical (...) process like the intensification of a quality by the opposite one. From the fourteenth century onwards, most of the commentators resorted to the theory of the multiplication of species, according to which each entity acts through the emission of simulacra of the objects (species) that spread spherically in the medium. When these rays encounter an obstacle, such as a contrary quality, they are pushed back towards their source. The reflection of the species determined by the surrounding and opposite quality produces a concentration of the first one, which is therefore intensified. Another distinctive feature of the scholastic interpretation of Aristotle’s antiperistasis is the convergence between the discussions on inorganic and organic matter, physical and medical discourse. This convergence found its most significant expression in the adoption of the model described in the first book of Aristotle’s Meteorology to the biological context of Hippocrates’s Aphorisms I, 15. Following Galen’s exegesis of this passage, medieval commentators established a link between physics and medicine substantially extraneous to Aristotle’s theory. (shrink)

Cet article présente la première édition critique des Questions sur les Météorologiques d’Albert de Saxe. L’édition, qui couvre le premier et le début du deuxième livre des Questions, est précédée par une introduction historique et philologique. La première partie de cet article étudie les Questions d’Albert de Saxe dans leurs relations avec d’autres Questions sur les Météorologiques rédigées par des maîtres parisiens du xiv e siècle. La deuxième partie contient les descriptions des manuscrits qui transmettent le texte d’Albert et étudie (...) leurs rapports. (shrink)

This article concerns two medieval codices kept at the library of the Istituto Campana in Osimo that contain commentaries on Aristotle. The focus of the paper is the identification of a new copy of Humbertus of Preuilly’s Sententia on the Metaphysics, transmitted in manuscript 18.M.11, and of a new copy of John of Jandun’s Questions on the Physics, transmitted in manuscript 18.L.38. In addition, information is provided on two texts transmitted anonymously in manuscript 18.L.38, namely Radulphus Brito’s Questions on Aristotle’s (...) Meteorology and a commentary on the Physics by a Bolognese master of the first half of the fourteenth century. (shrink)

This article draws attention to two newly identified manuscipts transmitting Henricus Totting de Oyta’s Expositio in Meteorologica: ms. Praha, Národní Knihovna Ceské Republiky VIII.E.6 and ms. Krak...

This article draws attention to two newly identified manuscipts transmitting Henricus Totting de Oyta’s Expositio in Meteorologica: ms. Praha, Národní Knihovna Ceské Republiky VIII.E.6 and ms. Kraków, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska 674. Interestingly, in the Cracovian manuscript Henricus’ Expositio is combined with the second redaction of Nicole Oresme’s Questions on Meteorology. Based on some sample passages, I will show the nature of this compilation. This will lead to a consideration of the structure and the sources of Henricus’ Expositio. In the (...) final part of the article, I will provide some information about the witnesses of Henricus’ commentary, as well as the incipit and the explicit of each book. (shrink)

Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale, Volume 62, Issue, Page 195-211, January 2020.

Aristotelian cosmology implies the plurality of celestial motion for the process of generation and corruption in the sublunar world. In order to investigate the structure of the cosmos and the degree of dependence of the sublunar on the supralunar region, medieval Latin commentators on Aristotle explored the consequences of the cessation of celestial motion. This paper analyses the position of some philosophers of the fourteenth-century Parisian school, namely Nicole Oresme, John Buridan and Albert of Saxony.

This paper shows that the two anonymous questions transmitted on ff. 82vb-85va of ms. Vat. lat. 4082, previously ascribed to Nicole Oresme, are not by him. The ascription of this text to Oresme dat...

The aim of this paper is to show that the anonymous Questiones in Meteorologica in the manuscript München, Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4375, ff. 19ra-46r, should be attributed to Nicole Oresme. These Questiones, together with those of the manuscript Darmstadt, Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, Hs. 2197, ff. 58r-98r, prove the existence of an older and more interesting version of Nicole Oresme's Questiones in Meteorologica.