Aristotelian Ethics before the Nicomachean Ethics: Alternate Sources of Aristotle's Concept of Virtue in the Twelfth Century

Aristotelian Ethics before the Nicomachean Ethics: Alternate Sources of Aristotle's Concept of Virtue in the Twelfth Century* I A m o n g the myriad of classicd influences exercised upon the intellecud life of the Latin Middle Ages, perhaps the most pronounced and dramatic impression was left by Aristotle.1 During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries dmost the entirety of the Aristotelian corpus returned to circulation in the West dter an absence of more than five hundred years. But not all of Aristotle's writings were dforded the same reception. Some of his treatises, like those comprising the Organon, were readily and uncontentiously embraced by the mdnstream of the Christian tradition.2 Other texts, such as the libri naturales (which may have been construed broadly to include De anima and perhaps the Metaphysics, as well as more strictly naturalistic tracts), were repeatedly condemned and prohibited by ecclesiasticd statute.3 In short, the reception of Aristotle's philosophicd system by the Western Middle Ages was not uniform and thereby resists A n earlier version of the present essay was read at the Ninth Conference of Australian Historians of Medieval and Early M o d e m Europe, held at the University of Auckland, 24-29 August 1987. 'Dante's judgment that Aristotle was 'maestre di color che sanno' expressed most eloquently the sentiments of the whole medieval period (Inferno, ed. J.D. Sinclair, Oxford, 1961, Canto IV, 1, 131). More recently, P.O Kristeller has explained the unique nature of the Aristotelian contribution in the following terms: 'Aristotle was not studied as a "great book", but as a textbook mat was the starting point for commentaries and questions and supplied a frame of reference for all trained philosophical thinkers even when they ventured to reinterpret him, or to depart from his doctrine, according to their own opinions. The Aristotelianism of the later Middle Ages was characterized not so much by a common system of ideas as by a common source material, a common terminology, a common set of definitions and problems, and a common method of discussing these problems', Renaissance Thought: The Classical, Scholastic and Humanist Strains, N e w York 1961, 31-32. 2 Aristotle's role at the centre of the discipline of logic during the Middle Ages is examined by M . Heren, Medieval Thought, Basingstoke, 1985, 88-90, and S. Ebbeson, Ancient Scholastic Logic as the Source of Medieval Scholastic Logic, in N. Kretzmann, A. Kenny and J. Pinborg, eds.. The Cambridge History of Later Mediaeval Philosophy, Cambridge. 1982, 101-27. 3 For the circumstances surrounding the prohibition of the libri naturales, see F. van Steenberghen, Aristotle in the West, trans. L. Johnson, Louvain, 1955, 6677 . The inclusion of the Metaphysics among the libri naturales is defended by G. Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Huntington, N e w York. 1975, 195. The texts of the 1210 and 1215 condemnations at Paris have been translated in L. Thomdike, ed.. University Records and Life in the Middle Ages, N e w York, 1944, 26-30. 56 CJ. Nederman generalizations.4 Different works (and categories of works) followed divergent patterns of diffusion, contingent upon an array of circumstances. When we approach the transmissional history of the Nicomachean Ethics, therefore, we must be sensitive to the unique path of its dissemination during the Middle Ages. This route was characterized, in particular, by reversd. Initidly, the Nicomachean Ethics was accepted and integrated into the body of medievd Christian learning; only much later did some of its central doctrines stir controversy. Scholars presently believe that the earliest Latin version of the Ethics was the so-cdled 'ethica vetus', translated anonymously during the twelfth century.5 More precise dating of the ethica vetus has thus far proved impossible. Minio-Pduello has identified a manuscript of the ethica vetus bound into several Aristotelian texts which are known to be the work of the early twelfth-century translator James the Greek (Iacobus Graecus, fl. 11251150 ).6 But no moralist of the twelfth century makes direct reference to the Nicomachean Ethics, including John of Salisbury, who is exceptiond in his familiarity with cunent translations.7 Moreover, the text of the vetus...