Translation or Alteration?Grosseteste's Latin Version of Aristotle's Account of Natural Justice

Medieval commentaries on Aristotle's passage on natural justice were all based on Latin translations. The thesis of this paper is that Robert Grosseteste, the author of the first non-fragmentary Latin version of the Nicomachean Ethics, altered the passage on natural justice to make it compatible with a significant philosophical claim, namely, that things that are just by nature are principally unchangeable, although change might exceptionally occur among them. In so doing, he employed a two-pronged strategy. First, he adjusted several Aristotelian assertions that clearly supported the idea that natural things are subject to change. Second, he managed to safeguard against rejection a famous claim that Aristotle articulates here on behalf of the Sophists: that everything that is by nature is unchangeable and has the same force everywhere, just as fire burns both here and in Persia (1134b25–26).