EDITIO PRINCEPS
EUSTRATIUS of Nicaea, et al.
Ευστρατιου και αλλων τινων επισημων υπομνηματα εις τα δεκα των του Αριστοτελους ηθικων Νικομαχειων βιβλια μετα του υποκειμενου. Eustratii et aliorum insignium peripateticorum commentaria in libros decem Aristotelis de moribus ad Nicomachum, una cum textu suis in locis adiecto.
[(Colophon:) Venice, heirs of Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresano, July 1536.]
Folio, ff. [2], 189, [1]; text in Greek, woodcut Aldine device to title and verso of last leaf, capital spaces with guide letters; title very lightly duststained with a few slight spots, some light ink staining to lower margins of ff. 33v–34r, a few light marks elsewhere, but a very good, wide-margined copy; bound in twentieth-century dark-brown morocco (‘The French Binders Garden City N.Y.’ and ‘H. Hardy relieur 1936 G. Pilon doreur’ in gilt to turn-ins), boards panelled in blind with gilt cornerpieces, spine gilt in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges gilt; slight wear to lower corners; ‘Collegii Soc. Jesu Romani cat. inscrip. C.P.’ at head of title, twentieth-century gilt morocco booklabel to front pastedown, marginal annotations in Greek in a sixteenth-century hand to c. 100 pp. (very slightly trimmed in places).
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Ευστρατιου και αλλων τινων επισημων υπομνηματα εις τα δεκα των του Αριστοτελους ηθικων Νικομαχειων βιβλια μετα του υποκειμενου. Eustratii et aliorum insignium peripateticorum commentaria in libros decem Aristotelis de moribus ad Nicomachum, una cum textu suis in locis adiecto.
Editio princeps of the Greek commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics by Eustratius of Nicaea, Michael of Ephesus, the Peripatetic philosopher Aspasius, and other anonymous scholiasts, published by the Aldine press, annotated by a contemporary scholar.
Eustratius (c. 1050–c. 1120), bishop of Nicaea, and the twelfth-century scholar Michael of Ephesus are believed to have been encouraged to write commentaries on Aristotle by the Byzantine princess and historian Anna Komnene (1083–1153). Their respective commentaries on the first and sixth, and on the fifth, ninth, and tenth books of the Nicomachean Ethics are printed here. Eustratius’ exegeses of Books 1 and 6 ‘are commentaries in the fullest sense of the word. They are not primarily concerned with explaining particular passages, phrases, or words in the text, but with interpreting the very scope, design, and impact of Aristotle’s Ethics’ (Mercken). Albertus Magnus and Bonaventure have recently been shown to have adopted ‘a great deal of material’ (idem) and ideas from the Byzantine bishop, whose tenets recur in paraphrase not always with attribution. ‘In interpreting Aristotle, Eustratios clearly followed the late antique Neoplatonic philosophers, though at certain places, like the issue concerning the knowledge of first principles, he advocated theses which seem closer in line with his Christian beliefs … About Michael of Ephesus’ life next to nothing is known. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear that his breadth as an Aristotelian commentator is remarkable’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The Greek text is here prefaced with a Latin dedication by Paulo Manuzio addressed to Georges de Selve, who served as French ambassador to Venice and is immortalised in Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors.
A contemporary annotator has left numerous Greek marginalia to books 1 to 5, picking out key words and phrases and offering summaries to guide their reading. They engage with concepts such as goodness, happiness, skill and ignorance, upbringing, ‘ideas’, wealth, justice and injustice, and political and practical aspects in Aristotle’s thinking.
EDIT 16 CNCE 18395; USTC 828525; Adams A 1803; Renouard, p. 116.
