A Bibliography of Aristotle Editions. 1501-1600 (review)

586 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 25:4 OCT 1987 losophy. Mohr's interpretations often shed light on these passages. Though scholars will disagree with some of his conclusions, I found them basically sound. The book would have been strengthened, however, by a fuller discussion than Mohr offers of the general aspects of Plato's cosmology. In the introduction he notes that: "Plato's cosmological writing, especially the Timaeus, is the one place in Plato's work where all of the "furniture" of Platonism--gods, souls, Ideas, matter, space, properties, natural and artificial kinds--are seen related each to all within a single frame" (1). Mohr, however, devotes little space to an account of that frame and the items within it; for the most part he subordinates discussion of these major themes of Platonic cosmology to the exegesis of particular passages. As a result, one has to hunt around a bit for Mohr's interpretation of the nature of the Forms; and, though his description of them as "exemplars" and as "the fundamental individuals of Plato's ontology" (2) is intriguing, I found no explanation of how these claims could be reconciled with the claims that the Forms are not "things qualified" (43) and are universals (56). Further, Mohr gives the reader several indications that he favors a literal interpretation of the Demiurge's activity over the common view that this activity is "mythical " or otherwise not literally meant. Yet he does not offer a sustained defense of his preference or indicate how it coheres with the rest of his views on Platonic cosmology . Finally, though he devotes several essays to showing that the late Platonic dialogues contain not a single cosmology but two incompatible ones, Mohr offers no explanation of this fact. Yet surely the question why Plato would present such views in dialogues written at roughly the same time arises naturally from Mohr's conclusion and demands a comment if not a definitive answer. In summation, then, the essays in this volume will provide Plato scholars with much to think about; both the depth and breadth of their appeal would have been increased, however, if Mohr had supplemented his detailed exegesis with greater discussion of the general features of Platonic cosmology. WILLIAM J. PRIOR The University of Colorado, Boulder F. Edward Cranz. A Bibliography of Aristotle Editions. i5oi-I6oo. Second Edition with addenda and revisions by Charles B. Schmitt. Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana 38. Baden-Baden: Verlag Valentin Koerner, x984. Pp. xxiii + 247. DM x2o. The original edition of this bibliography (xii + 187) appeared in 1971 and by 1982 was being readied for reprinting. Hearing of the project, Charles Schmitt contacted the editor and publisher to express his willingness to prepare some addenda to Cranz's original listing, to incorporate references to the new entries into the indices, and to write a new introduction and bibliography. The present volume contains the results of Schmitt's reworking. As Schmitt explains in his introduction, he has added BOOK REVIEWS 587 some 43~ items to the first listing, thus expanding it by some 40%. The addenda are inserted after page 112 of the first edition and run to page 16o; the incorporation of the new entries then required new indices, which now span pages 161-247 as compared to 113-87 in the original. Schmitt acknowledges assistance from Josef Soudek, who communicated much valuable information to him, and from Charles H. Lohr, with whom he has been collaborating on the Aristotle entry scheduled to appear in the Catalogus translationum et commentariorum, the sixth volume of which appeared in March 1986 from the Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C. This second edition of Cranz's work shows, among other things, the substantial number of omissions from the Index Aureliensis. Schmitt is under no illusions that his own listing is definitive, but he estimates that future bibliograpies will augment it by not more than five or ten percent--mainly from library holdings in Eastern Europe that have not yet been properly inventoried. Schmitt also observes that the combined holdings of the British Library in London and the Biblioth~que Nationale of Paris cover only about half of the entries he records...