Two Implicit Sources of Judah Messer Leon’s Commentary on Physics 1–4

While he was in Mantua in 1475, the Italian Jewish philosopher Judah Messer Leon (ca. 1425–1498) wrote a wide commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 1–4. As a “Hebrew Schoolman,” he inserted into this work a number of explicit and implicit references to Latin Scholastic commentaries on the Physics. An examination of the Latin sources quoted explicitly has been given elsewhere. Here, two implicit sources are examined: Paul of Venice’s Expositio super octo libros Physicorum necnon super commentum Averrois, and Gaetano de Thiene’s Recollectae super octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis. The former was apparently employed by Judah Messer Leon only for the general structure of his work; the latter, by contrast, was widely employed as the direct source of several long passages, although the Latin author was never mentioned by name. Some of these passages, found in Book 1, Parts 1–2 of the commentary (on Aristotle, Physics 184a10–188a8), are listed and examined here. Their close relationship with Gaetano de Thiene’s work is shown.