Interpreting Aristotle’s cosmology through time
In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote his ‘De Caelo’ – ‘On the Heavens’ – a treatise detailing his theory of the cosmos in four books: two on the movement of the heavens and heavenly bodies and two on the movement of terrestrial elements. His theories were immediately discussed, criticised and repeatedly commented upon by other philosophers. The oldest commentary that has come down to us was written in 345 AD by the rhetorician and philosopher Themistius. “Themistius rephrased, expanded and summed up Aristotle’s text, at times rearranging the order of the topics with an explicit didactical purpose,” says Elisa Coda, research fellow at the Centre Jean Pépin National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris and lead researcher of THEIA. “He attributes to Aristotle a cosmos that he never conceived of.” Themistius’ paraphrase was written in Greek, though this original was lost. In the 10th century, it was translated into Arabic, also now lost, yet it survives in a Hebrew translation made in Rome in 1284 AD. The latter was in turn translated into Latin and published in 1573.
Drawing closer to Themistius’ original text
In the EU-funded THEIA project, Coda – whose research was undertaken with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme – interpreted the Hebrew translation of Themistius’ text, aiming to shed new light on Aristotle’s thinking during the 4th century. “I was trying to reconstruct a Greek text which is entirely lost and survives only in the form of a translation of a translation,” explains Coda. “I have highlighted the role of Themistius in shaping ‘Aristotle’s’ philosophy.” In his paraphrase, Themistius dialogues with Alexander of Aphrodisias, a celebrated Greek commentator of Aristotle who lived during the 3rd century. But Themistius’ account of Aristotle’s cosmos is inspired not only by Alexander, but also by the philosopher Plotinus.
Elucidating Themistius’ paraphrase
THEIA pursued a two-pronged approach, studying both the textual tradition of Themistius’ paraphrase itself, and the impact of his interpretation of Aristotle’s cosmology in Arabic and Latin philosophy during the Middle Ages. “THEIA was groundbreaking mostly because of the strategy of Themistius’ paraphrase: putting in Aristotle’s own mouth the solution of a problem that had been envisaged in reality only by Alexander, or Plotinus,” says Coda. “This aspect has been systematically analysed, thus serving as a model for the study of other paraphrases.”
Collecting Aristotle’s quotes
The main scientific achievement of THEIA was the collection of all the Aristotelian quotations from ‘De Caelo’, which were interspersed in Themistius’ paraphrase. “This is a relevant contribution to the state of the art, especially because I spent much effort in making the retroversion of these quotes into Greek,” Coda remarks. This collection will soon be published as an article in the Journal ‘Studia graeco-arabica’. “Within limits, because a retroversion is always an artificial practice, we may now have access to the text of Aristotle’s ‘De Caelo’ as it was read in the 4th century, five centuries before the most ancient manuscript of this work,” adds Coda. A handbook on Themistius is also soon to be published in the PATMA series, providing up-to-date research on the circulation of late ancient interpretations of Aristotelian thought.
Keywords
THEIA, Aristotle, philosophy, Themistius, Plotinus, Alexander, retroversion, translation, cosmos, theory