¹ There are, for example, several extant manuscript copies of a commentary on the Ethics by Guiu Terrena a fourteenth-century bishop of Perpignan. See Xiberta, B. M., Guiu Terrena Carmelita de Perpinyá (Barcelona 1932 ). For commentaries on the Economics see Auguste Pelzer, ‘Un traducteur inconnu: Pierre Gallego, franciscain et premier évěque de Carthagène (1250–1267),’ Etudes d'histoire sur la scolastique médiévale (Louvain and Paris 1964) 188–240 on Gallego, Pierre, and on de Hispania, Durandus, Lohr, C. H., ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries,' Traditio 23 (1967) 313–413 at 403.Google Scholar

² Antoni Genebrada translated Boethius into Catalan between 1358 and 1362 probably using an earlier version by Saplana, Pere. There is a manuscript of this work in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 18496. It was translated from Catalan into Castilian during the fifteenth century and published in Toulouse in 1488. It has been edited by Muntaner, B. and Arguiló, M., Llibre de consolació de philosophia (Barcelona 1873).Google Scholar

³ There is a complete translation of Latini's Trésor by Guillem de Copons which dates from the early fifteenth century. There are also (i) an earlier anonymous version of Bk. II, 2–48 in the episcopal library at Vich with the title ‘Aristòtil: Ètiques arromansades per Brunet, M. '; (ii) a version of the Rhetoric (III, 1–73) with the title ‘Llibre dels ensenyaments de bona parlería’ together with a fragment of the Politics in Barcelona, Biblioteca Episcopal del Seminario Conciliar MS 74 and (iii) a version of the Rhetoric in the Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 10264 which was once in the library of the Marquis of Santillana (see p. 296 below). The Copons version is being edited by Wittlin, C. J., Libre der Tresor I (Barcelona 1972 ). On the manuscript tradition and on the diffusion of the Trésor in Catalonia, see Wittlin's introduction pp. 16–20. Antonio Augustin (see p. 298 below), possessed a Catalan translation of Bk. II of the work which, according to Zarco Cuevas, J., was destroyed in the great fire in the Escorial in 1671, Catálogo de los manuscritos catalanes, valencianos, gallegos y portugueses de la biblioteca de El Escorial (Madrid 1932) no. 234. However he confuses Brunetto Latini with Leonardo Bruni.Google Scholar

⁴ This consists of Magna moralia II and Eudemian Ethics VII (VIII) 14. It enjoyed considerable popularity throughout the Middle Ages, but had declined in importance by the mid-fifteenth century. There are only three printed editions and two of the commentary by Aegidius Romanus. See Cranz, Edward, A Bibliography of Aristotle Editions 1501–1600 (Biblioteca Bibliographica Aureliana 38; Baden-Baden 1971) 119–120.Google Scholar

⁵ Four among the manuscripts of the moral writings listed in Aristoteles Latinus (pars posterior [edd. Lacombe, G. et al.; Cambridge 1955] 821–862; supplementa altera [ed. Minio-Paluello, L.; Bruges-Paris 1961] 124–131), in Spanish libraries which date from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, include the Ethics and the Politics — there are no copies of the Economics — without additional works: Toledo, Chapter Library 47.9; Valencia, Chapter Library 74; Saragossa, Chapter Library 19–88, and Barcelona, University Library 290, the last two of which are single copies of the Ethics only. There are also seven manuscript collections in which one or other of the moral triad occurs, together with other Aristotelian, or pseudo-Aristotelian, works of a similar category (Nos. 1179, 1191, 1196, 1202, 1206, 1228, 1247). For example, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 1413 is a fourteenth-century copy of the Metaphysics, the Ethics, the De bona fortuna, the Politics, the Poetics (together with Averroës's commentary), the Economics, the Magna moralia and the Rhetoric. These collections were probably intended for the use of students or, since many of them are to be found in chapter libraries, for the use of members of the chapter. Similar collections exist of the natural philosophy which frequently include the Metaphysics and the De bona fortuna, e.g. Aristoteles Latinus, nos. 1210 and 1214. The Escorial library has two single copies, one of the Ethics and the other of the Politics (V. III. 21 and F. III. 16) which date from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries; but these belonged to Diego de Mendoza (see p. 296 below) and may have been purchased by him in Italy. The Biblioteca Colombina (Seville) has a fourteenth-century Latin manuscript of the Ethics with the commentary of Geraldus Odonis (7.5.14), but as this was acquired in the sixteenth century by Ferdinand Columbus, the son of the discoverer, it may not be of Spanish origin.Google Scholar

⁶ The fourteenth-century Castilian translation is in the Escorial Library L.III.2 ff. 1–49. The fifteenth-century copies are also in the Escorial Library H. III.1 ff. 74–114 (this is the same as the version in L.III.2 and Z.I.2. ff. 254–321) (cf. J. Zarco Cuevas, Catálogo de los manuscritos castellanos de la real biblioteca de El Escorial [Madrid 1924 ]). One Catalan translation in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 921, is the work of Felipe Patrias and is dated 1385. It is bound with several other tracts, mostly chivalric, which include a version of the Epistola de cura rei familiaris ad Raymundem militem (see n. 29 below). The other Catalan version is in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Canonici Ital. 147. The title page is too badly damaged to discover for whom the copy was intended or who the translator was. The explicit, however, does not correspond with the Patrias version. There was also a late fifteenth-century Italian translation of the Secreta which was once in the royal library at Naples and is now Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ital. 447. (Cf. de Marinis, T., La biblioteca napoletana dei rei d'Aragona [Milan 1952] II.17.)Google Scholar

⁷ Ethics I.3 (1095a 2–12).Google Scholar

⁸ An interesting early fifteenth-century example is Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 7321. This has the Politics and the Economics in Brum's version, together with two versions of the Rhetoric, one by Moerbeke and the other by Trapezuntius, and the De bona fortuna. On f. 175 ^v in a contemporary hand is the inscription ‘fuit de bachalarii Alvari de Muxeria.’Google Scholar

⁹ Before the great fire of 1671, the Escorial probably possessed twelve manuscripts of the Ethics in humanist versions, five copies of the Politics, one of the Economics, one of the Politics and Economics, and one of all three works. It is impossible to be certain about the attributes of all of these since the inventory is not precise and some of the manuscripts came into the library's possession after the end of the fifteenth century. Furthermore, it must be remembered that the collection at the Escorial was purchased and consequently does not represent accurately the interests of any single period or social group. But the library lists do provide some indication of an increase in the importance accorded to Aristotle's moral works for there are only five manuscripts which we can assume to have been medieval versions. The sixteenth-century inventory of the library by Jose de Sigüenza is printed in G. Antolín, Catálogo de los codices latinos de la real biblioteca del Escorial (Madrid 1923) V 331–503.Google Scholar

¹⁰ This was a collection of moral anecdotes drawn from a variety of medieval sources. During the fifteenth century it ran through fifty-seven Italian editions and was translated into Castilian (four editions) and Catalan (four editions). The only other European nation apart from Spain to show any interest in the work was France. The Livre des vices et des vertus, a text which drew most of its material from the Fiore, was twice printed during this period. See Bühler, C. F., ‘Studies in the early editions of the Fiore di Virtù,’ Papers of the American Bibliographical Society 49 (1955) 515–539.Google Scholar

¹¹ Ethics, Economics and Politics (one book only) (Valencia 1474); Economics and Politics (Saragossa 1477); Economics (Tortosa 1477); Ethics (Barcelona c. 1480); Politics (Barcelona 1480); Ethics (Saragossa 1492). In addition to these, all of which are in Bruni's translations, there are two editions of a paraphrase of the Ethics in Castilian (on this see pp. 299–302 below), (Saragossa [1488–9] and Seville 1493), and an edition of a Castilian translation of the Ethics, Economics and Politics (Saragossa 1509) (see pp. 303–305 below). (Cf. Conrad Haebler, Bibliografía ibérica del siglo XV [Leipzig and The Hague 1903] nos. 33, 34, 34(5), 28(10), 35, 29, 32, 31 [the 1509 edition is not listed].) Only ten other classical texts were printed in Spain during the fifteenth century. These were single editions of works by Caesar, Cicero, Florus, Ovid, Seneca, Virgil, and Sallust.Google Scholar

¹² 34.8% of the classical texts printed in Spain were translations, the remainder being Latin versions. There were no printings of Greek texts. The figure for England was 76.5%. Cf. George Painter, Catalogue of Books Printed in the X Vth Century in the British Museum: Pt. V. Spain and Portugal (London 1971) xv. These figures, however, may mislead, for England imported large numbers of classical texts from Italy during this period.Google Scholar

¹³ Five editions of the Proverbs of Seneca were printed between 1482 and 1500 (Haebler nos. 616–620), one of the complete works in a translation by Alonso de Cartagena (see p. 305 below) and a version of the Epistolae (Haebler nos. 621, 622). For a detailed study of these works, and of the translator of two of them, Pero Díaz, see Nicolas Round, Pero Diaz de Toledo: A Study of a Fifteenth-Century ‘Converso’ Translator and his Background (unpublished D.Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.Phil. D. 3944; 1966) cap. VII. Google Scholar

¹⁴ Invectiva M[arci] T[ulli] C[iceronis] Quatuor in Catilinam (Barcelona 1476).Google Scholar

¹⁵ On Heredia see Vives, José, Juan Fernández de Heredia, Gran Maustro de Roda (Barcelona 1927).Google Scholar

¹⁶ The translation of Valerius Maximus by Antoni Canals survives in two manuscripts, Escorial H.J.10 and R.I.11 (see Miguel y Planas, R., ‘El Valerí Máximo en Catalan,' Bibliofilia [Barcelona] 16 [ 1914] 601–615). On the Catalan versions of Heredia's Plutarch see Rubio i Lluch, Antoni, ‘Joan I humanista i el primer període de l'humanisme català,’ Estudis Universitaris Catalans 10 (1917) 1–117 at 31–33. Coluccio Salutati was enthusiastic about the Heredia manuscript and expressed a wish to translate it into Latin (ibid.). For the Catalan versions of the Secreta secretorum see n. 6 above.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Antoni Canals translated Seneca's De Providentia (ed. de Riquer, Martin [Barcelona 1935]). Antoni Vilaregut translated the tragedies into Catalan; an early fifteenth-century copy of his work is preserved in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 14702. MS. 9562 in the same library contains a fifteenth-century version of the Epistolae. A fourteenth-century Valencian translation, which once belonged to Gondomar (see p. 296 below) is now 9152. There is an early fifteenth-century translation of Cicero's Paradoxa by Ferran Valentí and another earlier and more complete unpublished, unidentified version of the same work in Barcelona, Biblioteca Central de Cataluña 296; it may, however, be the work of Nicolau Quills de Morella who was also responsible for a translation of the De officiis. See Martín de Riquer, Història de la literatura Catalana (Barcelona 1964) II 463. For translations of Boethius and Latini see nn. 2, 3 above.Google Scholar

¹⁸ ‘aquel pare e preceptor meu, ço es Leonardo de Areça, home insigne, glòria e honor de la lengua toscana,’ Traducció de les Paradoxa de Cicero (ed. Joseph Ma Morató i Thomàs [Barcelona 1959]) 38.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Bruni, , however, declined the invitation on the grounds, according to II Panormita, that he was too old, De dictis et factis Alphonsi regis Aragonum et Neapolis libri quatuor Antonii Panormitae (Wittenberg 1585) 60. Bruni used the same excuse to refuse an invitation from Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester; see Hans Baron, Leonardo Bruni Aretino: humanistisch-philosophische Schriften (Leipzig-Berlin 1928) 139.Google Scholar

²⁰ Escorial Library F.III.23 and Valencia, University Library 129, both copies of the Ethics, are stamped with the arms of Alfonso V. Three further manuscripts, Valencia, University Library 721, 722 (the Economics), and 828 (the Ethics, Economics, and Politics) were all once in the royal library. There was also a copy of the Politics and the Economics bound with Argyropoulos's translation of the Ethics, which is now Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Lat. 6310 (De Marinis, op. cit. [above n. 6] II, 16). In addition Alfonso V possessed an Italian version of Bruni's Ethics (now Escorial Library F.III.23). The translation was done in Florence, but the translator is not mentioned by name. A copy of the Ethics (Escorial Library P.III.22) was transcribed by one Ludovicus Ripoll who must have been a Catalan. This manuscript came to the Escorial from the library of the Count Duke of Olivares (see p. 296 below). Another manuscript of indisputable Aragonese provenance is Barcelona, Biblioteca Central de Cataluña 622 which was copied by a scribe called Michael de Sancto Romano (see Guía de la Biblioteca Central de la Deputación provincial de Barcelona [Barcelona 1959] 78). There is a large number of manuscripts of Bruni's translations in the various libraries of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, but it would require a detailed study of calligraphy and ornamentation to establish their provenance with any certainty. Matters are made no easier by the fact that many of the scribes, particularly the ones in the Aragonese royal employ, were Frenchmen. There are also at least two translations into Catalan from this period. One of these, a version of the Economics (Escorial Library, D.III.2.) is indubitably based on Bruni. It is the work of Martín de Viciana, a governor of Valencia and the probable author of a Latin compendium of the Ethics (ibid.). The Escorial Library also once owned a Catalan, or Valencian, version of the Politics which was destroyed by the fire of 1671. Unfortunately, the entry in Sigüenza's inventory (see n. 9 above) gives neither date nor attribution. Google Scholar

²¹ Printed at Valencia by Lambert Palmart, probably in 1474. Heinrich Botel of Saragossa also produced an edition in the same or the following year. The first edition of Bruni's version seems to have been printed by Johann Mentelin of Strasbourg early in 1469 (Gesamtkatalog 2367). Google Scholar

²² The most widely circulated of the medieval Latin texts were Robert Grosseteste's translation of the Ethics, William of Moerbeke's translation of the Politics, and Durand d'Auvergne's version of the Economics. Although Bruni's version declined in popularity after the beginning of the sixteenth century, they had been enormously popular in manuscript throughout the fifteenth century. Bruni's version of the Economics also fared rather better; there were only three printings of the Durand translation and seventeen of Lefèvre d'Étaples's revision of Bk. II under the title Oeconomiarum publicarum liber unus. All the others were editions of Bruni. (See Cranz op. cit. [above n. 4] viii.) Google Scholar

²³ Bruni sent a collection of tracts to John II and a number of letters to the Castilian king. Both the tracts, which are unnamed, and the letters seem to have been translated into the vernacular. Two items in the inventories of Isabel's library (nos. 359 and 361–370) are ascribed to Bruni, but are without titles; the first of these is in Latin, the second in Castilian. They are probably the tracts. Item 58 is a vernacular translation of the letters. The codex is now Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 10212 (see F. J. Sánchez Canton, Libros, tapices y cuadros que coleccionó Isabel la Católica [Madrid 1950] 39–88). Copies of these letters are printed in Leonardo Bruni Aretini Epistolarum… (ed. L. Menus; Florence 1741) II 131. Google Scholar

²⁴ Epistolarum II, 131. Pope Eugenius IV was addressed in similar terms in the preface to the Politics: ‘Nam cum omnis recte gubernandi ratio in his libris contineatur ad nullum magis eos pertinere constat quam ad te, maximum videlicet optimumque gubernatorem, qui et spiritualiter universis regis et temporaliter multis civitatibus et populis et provinciis paterno regioque imperio dominaris’ (Baron, op. cit. [above n. 19] 70).Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid. 121. Bruni justifies his definition of the purpose of the Economics by implicit reference to Aristotle's own argument that the practice of virtue depends upon a certain number of external advantages. ‘Sunt vero utiles divitiae, cum et ornamento sint possidentibus et ad virtutem exercendam suppeditent facultatem’ (Baron, op. cit. 120).Google Scholar

²⁶ See Garin, Eugenio, ‘Le traduzioni umanistiche di Aristotele nel secolo XV,' Accademia fiorentina di scienze morali ‘La Colombaria' 8 (Florence 1951) and Harth, J., ‘Leonardo Brunis Selbstverständnis als Übersetzer,' Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 50 (1968) 41–63.Google Scholar

²⁷ Madrid, Biblioteca de Palacio 380–381. The codex is dated 1461 and is written in imitation of a humanist hand. There is also a copy of the Economics in Córdoba, Chapter Library (MS. 123) copied by Antonio de Morales. See Josef Soudek, ‘Leonardo Bruni and His Public: A Statistical and Interpretive Study of His Annotated Latin Version of the (pseudo-) Aristotelian Economics,’ Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 5 (1968) 51–136 at 69. I have been unable either to see this manuscript or to verify Soudek's reference.Google Scholar

²⁸ Cantón, Sanchez, op. cit. (above n. 23) 39–88 (items 21, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 206; item 21 includes a Greek text). The descriptions of these manuscripts given in the inventories of the library are vague, if not confusing. Escorial Library F.II.5 is an ornamented copy of Bruni's translation of the Ethics, stamped with Isabel's arms, and may correspond to Item 41 or 42, which is ascribed to Bruni but referred to only as a ‘comento de las Eticas.’ Items 39 and 40 are both vernacular translations, the former being attributed to Fray Diego de Belmonte. So far, I have been unable to identify this text, but it may be identical with the one described on pp. 298.Google Scholar

²⁹ Item 205. Bruni's version of the Politics (item 204) is the one given by him to John II of Castile (see n. 23 above) and is now Escorial E.III.11. Google Scholar

³⁰ One of the Seneca works is spread over two manuscripts (items 32, 33) and is in Latin. The other two are both in the vernacular. One is described simply as ‘libro de Seneca’ (item 35) whilst the other is a version of the tragedies (item 34). The Cicero manuscripts are items 21, 22 (both De officiis), 23 (Epistolae), and 25 (Ad Herennium). There is also another unspecified manuscript (item 24). All these are Latin versions. The Plutarch, which is untitled but must certainly be the Lives, is item 48. The Epistola de cura rei (item 223) is described as ‘Regimento de la casa que hizo Bernaldo.’ This work was popular during the Middle Ages and was frequently ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The text is in PL 182. 647a–651a. Google Scholar

³¹ The Castilian translation is probably derived from Bruni. The Italian compendium begins, ‘Secondo che dice Aristotile ne lo principio de la metaphysica vecchia ciascuno huomo naturalmente desidera di savere e d'intendere,’ which suggests that it was, in fact, a translation of Aquinas's commentary. The translation of the Economics, which is bound together with the Ethics, seems to be based on Bruni, but is unlike the only other Castilian version of the work of which I know (see n. 50 below). All of these manuscripts are in fifteenth-century hands. See Mario Schiff, La Bibliothèque du Marquis de Santillane (Paris 1905) 31–32.Google Scholar

³² Rodrigo de Mendoza's collection of Aristotle manuscripts included texts of many of the natural works, manuscripts of the Problemata and the Posterior Analytics as well as Clichtove's commentary on the Ethics (in Lefèvre's edition) and of Buridan's commentary on both the Ethics and the Politics. He also owned a printed copy of the paraphrase of the Ethics discussed on pp. 299–302 below. The library reflects the interests of both Rodrigo and his father, who was probably responsible for the logical works. See F. J. Sánchez Cantón, La bibilioteca del Marqués del Cenete (Madrid 1942).Google Scholar

³³ Alonso de Pimental owned three manuscripts of the Ethics and one of the Politics as well as Aquinas's commentary on the Ethics and an unspecified work by Bruni. See James Harold Elsdon, The Library of the Counts of Benavente (Ann Arbor 1962) 23–27. Google Scholar

³⁴ Olivares owned a fourteenth-century manuscript (now Escorial Library T.I.13) of the Rhetoric and the Politics with Greek texts. He also possessed a copy of Bruni's Politics dated 1453 (Escorial Library O.II.1) and a copy of Bruni's Ethics (Escorial Library P.II.22). The Gondomar collection is now part of the Biblioteca del Palacio in Madrid. An inventory of the collection was made in 1631; this may be found in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 13593–94. Google Scholar

³⁵ Mendoza seems to have attended Nifo's lectures on mathematics at the Sapienza before the sack of Rome in 1527. His claims to have been a pupil of Pomponazzi, however, are less well established although he did own several of Pomponazzi's works, including a manuscript (dated 1520) of the De incantationibus (Escorial Library C.IV.3) as well as the 1567 edition of the same work together with the De fato. See E. Spivakovsky, Son of the Alhambra: Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza 1504–1575 (Austin 1970) 38–39.Google Scholar

³⁶ The translation of the Mechanics (Escorial Library F.III.15 and F.III.27 and a fragment in K.III.8 ff.496^r–485 ^r) was published by R. Foulché Delbosc in Revue Hispanique 5 (1898) 365–405.Google Scholar

³⁷ On this debate see E. Spivakovsky, ‘Diego Hurtado do Mendoza and Averroism,’ Journal of the History of Ideas 26 (1965) 307–326.Google Scholar

³⁸ Bound together with the Tusculanae disputationes and now Escorial Library V.III.21. Google Scholar

³⁹ Escorial Library F.III.7. The codex is dated 1448 (G. Antolín op. cit. [above n. 9] 9). Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Escorial Library F.III.16. Mendoza also possessed a copy of the Problemata (Escorial Library F.I.II) and an Opera varia (Escorial Library F.II.4) which contains books from most of the natural writings. Mendoza's extensive library of Greek manuscripts, however, does not seem to have included a single text of a work by Aristotle, although there were several compendia, paraphrases, and commentaries, including two of the Ethics — only one of which, however, is extant (Escorial Library T.I.18.). For a description of these manuscripts see G. Antolín, op. cit. The catalogue of Mendoza's Greek books (British Museum Egerton 602 ff. 289–396) is printed by Charles Graux in his Essai sur les origines des fonds grecs de l'Escurial (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Fasc. 46; Paris 1880) Appendix 2. The contents of the manuscript are analysed in the same work on pp. 238–273. Google Scholar

⁴¹ ‘Los principes y capitanes, o es conveniente ocuparse en exercicios y empresas de guerra, o en edificios grandes y suntuosos. Para lo uno y para lo otro seria necesario o el inventar nuevas machinas y ingeños, o añadir sobre los inventados pues como la fuerza del arte mechanica consiste en este parte no pienso que dexara de ser agradable a Va. Sa. el conocimento de ella’(ed. cit. [above n. 36] 367). Google Scholar

⁴² See p. 305–306 below.Google Scholar

⁴³ Augustín's collection of Aristotle texts was extensive. He owned Greek texts of the Physics, the De anima, the De partibus animalium, the De mundo, the De caelo and the De generatione et corruptione. He also possessed Bruni's version of the Ethics and an unspecified translation of the same work, Bruni's Politics, Filelfo's Rhetoric, a copy of Mendoza's translation of the Mechanics (see n. 36 above), together with a copy of the Metaphysics and two of logic. The inventory of Augustín's library is printed in Antonii Augustini opera omnia (Lucca 1772) VII 31–161. Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Padua, , Chapter Library Cod. A.45, ff. 14^r–23 ^v. For instance, his arguments illustrating the moral obligation or non-obligation of oaths are taken from the Ethics and the Politics. Cited by Trame, Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo 1404–1470: Spanish Diplomat and Champion of the Papacy (Washington 1958) 127.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ On Humfrey's ròle as patron see Weiss, R., Humanism in England during the Fifteenth Century (Oxford 1957) 39–70 and on his library, Duke Humfrey and English Humanism in the Fifteenth Century (Bodleian Library; Oxford 1970).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Balliol College 242, a mid-fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript of Bruni's version of the Ethics and the Politics, was once the property of Grey. Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Now Escorial F.III.13. The work is a direct translation of Bruni's text. The manuscript is described by Marinis, De, op. cit. (above n. 6) II, 14.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ I am preparing, with Russell, P. E., a detailed study of this interesting text; the remarks that follow, therefore, will be only cursory.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ The manuscript describes the Ethics as ‘libro de monastica' (at a iij ^r [references are to the printed edition of 1493; see n. 50 below)), a phrase which is used in the same context by Burley, Expositio super decem libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Venice 1500) f. b i. The verbal parallels between these two texts will be discussed at greater length elsewhere.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ The manuscripts are: Oxford Bodleian Library MS. Span. d.I; Vatican, Ottob. lat. 2054; Escorial K.II.13 (this is missing the first four folios); Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 6710, 7076, and 1204. The last of these is an eighteenth-century copy bound together with a translation of the Economics. The codex is described as the first volume of the complete works of Alonso de Cartagena, but there is no evidence that either of the translations is, in fact, by him. In addition to these, there is one further copy in the possession of Norton, F. J. of Cambridge University (described in Maggs's Catalogue no. 495, p. 123. I am grateful to Mr. Norton for allowing me to see the manuscript) and another, now missing, which is recorded by Juan Bautista Muñoz as having been in the library of the Count of Gondomar (Real Academia de la Historia MS. 9/4855). The two printings were Saragossa [1488–1491] and Seville 1493.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Bertalot, Ludwig, ‘Zur Bibliographie der Übersetzungen des Leonardus Bruni Aretinus,' Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 27 (1936–7) 178–195 at 185 n. 4 accepted this description although he expressed some doubt as to the source of the original and suggested that it might, in fact, be a version of Bk. IV of Latini's Trésor. Bertalot had only seen Vatican Ottob. Lat. 2054 which is so badly damaged that it makes extensive comparison with any other work impossible. Both Kristeller, P. O. (‘Un codice padovano di Aristotele postillato da Francesco e Ermolao Barbaro: il manoscritto Plimpton 17 della Columbia University Library a New York,’ La Bibliofilia 50 [1948] 162–178 at 165 n. 1) and Fubini, R. (Tra umanesimo e concili: Note e pubblicazione recente su Francesco Pizolpasso (1370c.–1433),’ Studi Medievali 3a. Serie VII 1 [1962] 323–353) follow Bertalot. Neither, however, is very happy with the manuscript's claim to be based on Bruni, although Fubini hails it as proof of Cartagena's final capitulation to humanist eloquence.Google Scholar

⁵² Barcelona, Biblioteca Central de Cataluna 296. The manuscript is bound with an anonymous Catalan version of Cicero's Paradoxa. Google Scholar

⁵³ The Bodleian, Vatican, and Norton manuscripts are all decorated and copied in fine italic hands. The dedication to Isabel occurs on the last folio of Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 7076. The manuscript is bound with a single folio résumé of Seneca's De dementia. Google Scholar

⁵⁴ This was printed in Pamplona in 1492 and a second edition appeared in Valencia in 1498. Masparranta was the copyist of the Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional 6710, which is dated 1479. Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See n. 50 above. Google Scholar

⁵⁶ All three of the manuscripts in the Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional are unadorned; so also is the Escorial Library copy. Google Scholar

⁵⁷ MS. Span. d. 1. The manuscript is dated 1477 and came originally from the convent library in Uclés. Google Scholar

⁵⁸ ‘va subordenado en modo que cada materia denota divisiblimente la substancia particular que tracta’[f. 2 ^r].Google Scholar

⁵⁹ On student literature see M. Grabmann, ‘Methoden und Hilfsmittel des Aristotelesstudiums im Mittelalter,’. Sb Akad. Munich ( 1939) Heft 5.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ ‘E sy alguno, por la ventura, querra dezir que se devían notar las actoridades que más elegantes, o de mayor elegancia, en el dicho libro son, Respondo que non esta y sola una palabra en todos los suso dichos libros que non sean de grantissima [elegancia]. Assy que a este respecto a todas seles devían fazer notas’[f. 2 ^r].Google Scholar

⁶¹ F. 4 ^r. In the introduction to his translation of Seneca, Cartagena used the word bienaventurança in this same context, but acknowledged that felicidad was a more accurate rendering of Aristotle's term. ‘Aristotle and some others of great authority called it [the ultimate good] by the name of happiness (felicidad) but we call it blessedness (bienaventurança)' (Los cinco libros de Seneca [Seville 1491], a iii ^r-v).Google Scholar

⁶² ‘considera la final bienaventurança del hombre quier sea en esta vida si quier despues de aquella’(f. a iij ^r). Aristotle's only comments on the possibility of an afterlife (Bk. I 10; 1100a) are confined to a brief discussion of whether or not the fortune of his descendants may effect a dead man.Google Scholar

⁶³ Bk. V 7 (1134b). Google Scholar

⁶⁴ ‘ca tal cosa por natura es injusta, mas no es semefante el no andar camino en domingo, ca esta parte por ley y parte por razon es justa e persuadible’(e V^r-v). There is also an implied distinction between those who are governed by rites and those who are constrained only by natural law. Alonso de Cartagena makes a similar point in the Defensorium when he gives as exemples of proscribed rites, circumcision and the observance of the Sabbath. The translator's argument, while it omits any reference to circumcision for obvious reasons, follows closely that of Cartagena. Defensorium unitatis Christianae (ed. P. Manuel Alonso; Madrid 1943) 72–73. I am grateful to Mr. F. Fernández Armesto for bringing this point to my attention. The source for this distinction is Gratian: ‘Humanuni genus duobus regitur Naturali videlicet jure, et Moribus’ (Decretum Gratiani, distinctio I). It is interesting that the translator does not make the further point that, ‘Ius naturale est, quod in Lege et Evangelio continetur’ although his exemplum, since it conforms with Mosaic law, could be interpreted that way.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ F. iij ^r-v. See also [e vii ^r-v].Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Bk. V II (1138a-b). Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Bk. VII 3 (1146b) Bruni translates, Sunt enim qui non minus opinione sue que alii sue scientiae credunt: ut ex Heraclito patet,’ to which the Spanish version adds an explanation derived from a story about the death of Socrates [g vi ^v].Google Scholar

⁶⁸ [e vii ^r].Google Scholar

⁶⁹ [e viii ^v].Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Viana's library held several Aristotle manuscripts including a French version of the Ethics, probably Oresme's, and a copy of Aquinas's commentary on that work, as well as Bruni's De vita tiranica and De bello Gotorum. The inventory is printed in Colección de documentos inéditos del archivo general de la Corona de Aragon 26 (1864) 138–143. For an account of Viana's life see G. Desdevises du Dezert, Don Carlos d'Aragona Prince de Viane (Paris 1889).Google Scholar

⁷¹ London, British Museum Add. MS. 21, 243; Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional F. G. 2038; Madrid, Biblioteca del Palacio 2-M-10 and 2-H-7. All of these are richly illuminated. Google Scholar

⁷² La philosophia moral de Aristotel: es a saber saber Ethicas, Polithicas u Economicas en romançe (Saragossa 1509).Google Scholar

⁷³ ‘y supplio amenos desto los defectos dela griega y latina lengua que donde carecen ellas de proprios vocabulos el bienaventurado primogénito remedio, ca llama ala virtud dela fortaleza, que de proprio vocábulo enel griego y latin carece, no fortaleza, que es equívoco a tres cosas, fortaleza corporal y spiritual y a fortaleza de homenaje, mas llamala esfuerço que solo se atribuye a la verdadera virtud del coraçon fuerte’[A ^v]. The reference is to ἀνδεία which Bruni translates as fortitudo. Google Scholar

⁷⁴ For instance, the quotation from Hesiod at 1095 b 10–11: there seems to be no good reason for such omissions, and they are probably due to an oversight on the part of the translator. Google Scholar

⁷⁵ ‘e no tan solamente errores del filósofo, mas olvidanza de lo mas necesario a la felicidat humana, por ser privado de aquella lumbre de fe qua e nosotros, mediante la sacra religion cristiana, claramente muestra e ensena' (‘Carta a los letrados de España'in Jose Yangues y Miranda, Diccionario de antiqüedades del reino de Navarra [Pamplona 1840] I 187–192). Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Compare, for instance, Luís Vives on the subject of pagan natural virtue: ‘Veteres illi, sapientiae studiosi, exiguum quendam lucis radium, quem nemini divina bonitas negavit, procul intuebantur sed paulum modo si aciem atque intentionem illam cogitationis remissisent, in has tenebras recidebant, quas secum humanus animus malitia contaminatus circumfert’ (De concordia et discordia Bk. IV 10 in Joannis Ludovici Vivis Valentinii opera omnia [Valencia 1784] V 337). Google Scholar

⁷⁷ ‘[los] nescios y ignorantes, como los cuerdos y sabios, les osan judicar y dar sobre ellas sus sentencias’(A ^r [The Politics and Economics are paginated separately]).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ ‘siendo esta parte de la filosofía la que propiamente le toca y pertenece al hombre, pues es la que reforma todas sus acciones y obras. … sin cuyo conocimiento con gran dificultad pueden los que gobiernan enderezar la mira de sus obras a los verdaderos y perfectos fines, sin torcella a sus proprios ambiciones y codicias. …’ Simón Abríl also extends his argument to logic. It is, he claims, an error ‘not to teach logic as an instrument whose virtue lies in its practical application’ (‘Apuntamientos de como se deben reformor las doctrinas y la manera de eseñarlas,’ in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 68 [1877] 293–300). Simón Abríl was himself the author of translations of the Politics and the Ethics in both of which he stresses the utilitarian nature of moral philosophy. See Margherita Morreale de Castro, Pedro Simón Abríl (Madrid 1949).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ ‘explanationem quandam obscurorum verborum adiunxi …’ (Oeconomicorum Aristotelis libelli cum commentariis Leonardi Aretini [1508] a ii ^v). Bruni's commentary is, in fact, a more detailed work than this might suggest; see Soudek op. cit. [above n. 26] 95.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ On the debate see Fubini, R. op. cit. [above n. 51]. The text of Alfonso's attack is printed by Birkenmaier, A., ‘Der Streit des Alfonso von Cartagena mit Leonardo Bruni,' Festschrift Baeumker (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters XX. 5; Münster 1922) 157–210. Alfonso's objections were primarily to Bruni's condemnation of the earlier translators. Cartagena's life and background are discussed by Serrano, L., Los conversos D. Pablo de Santa Maria y D. Alfonso de Cartagena, obispos de Burgos (Madrid 1942).Google Scholar

⁸¹ Bruni claimed that Cartagena regarded the language as ‘jejune’ when compared to Spanish, ‘alioqui linguam ipsam latinam inopem, atque defectivam, putat…’ (Letter to Pizolpasso, Epistolarum II 88). Google Scholar

⁸² Ibid. Google Scholar

⁸³ Birkenmaier, , op. cit. 175. Alonso is referring to Latin used in a deliberately eloquent manner, quod scientiae rigor abhorret. He does not, as Bruni suggests, condemn the language itself but only the use to which it is put by the humanists.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Los cinco libros de Seneca a iii ^r.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ See Cranz, , op. cit. [above n. 4] 122–123, 133–134, 159. There was one vernacular translation of the Politics by Simón Abríl (see no. 78 above) and a Latin version by Ginés de Sepúlveda (Aristotelis de Republica libri VIII. Interprete et enarratore Genesio Sepulveda Cordubensi [Paris 1548]) which seems to have been held in high regard throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sepúlveda also seems to have planned, but failed to complete, a paraphrase of the Ethics based on the Argyropoulos version, for he mentions it, along with the Politics, in two letters to Matteo Giberto, bishop of Verona, Epistolarum, IX, X (Opera [Madrid 1780] 3). There is also a curious vernacular paraphrase, by Ambrosio de Morales, of part of Bk. VI of the Ethics with the title Discuso de las potencias del alma y del buen uso dellas. Morales printed this in his edition of the works of his uncle Fernán Pérez de Oliva, La obras del maestro Fernán Pérez de Oliva (Córdoba 1586) 31–37.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Salamanca 1555. Two manuscripts of the Argyropoulos version are recorded in Sigüenza's list for the Escorial (see n. 9 above) on pp. 342–343. Google Scholar

⁸⁷ ‘Quo in loco illud pro comperto dicere audeo et constanter affirmare, quod mirum cuipiam fortasse videbitur, studium eloquentiae humaniorumque litterarum Germanis hanc pestem perniciosissimam invexisse’(De fato et libero arbitrio contra Luther in Opera [Madrid 1780] IV 470). Google Scholar

⁸⁸ The place of moral philosophy in the curriculum, however, remained an insignificant one compared with that of natural philosophy. A chair of moral philosophy had been established by Pope Benedict XIII in 1411, but this served only to supply the needs for an introductory course in theology, and when the statutes of the university were reformed in 1584 no changes were made to this situation (Constitutiones tam commodae aptaeque quam sanctae almae, Salmanticensis Academiae toto terrarum orbe florentissime [Salamanca 1584] Const. XVI, p. 20). Google Scholar

⁸⁹ There were, of course, exceptions. The university of Lérida, for example, maintained high standards throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries producing at least one notably Aristotelian in Pedro de Castrovol, the author of commentaries on the Ethics, the Economics and the Politics all of which were based on Bruni's translations (see Lohr, C. H., ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries,' Traditio 28 [1972] 281–396 at 349–350). But Lérida may be said to prove the rule, for it alone had been chosen by Alfonso V to be reformed along humanist lines, ‘per insignar sa terra’ (quoted by Antonio de la Torre y del Cerro, Documentos para la historia de la Universidad de Barcelona [Barcelona 1971] I 43).Google Scholar

⁹⁰ A copy of Vergara's translation, which ends with Bk. VII of the Metaphysics, is said by Marcel Bataillon (Erasmo y España [Mexico City 1966] 22 n. 40) to be in the chapter library at Toledo. The only work by Vergara, however, which appears in the library catalogue is described as ‘exposicion y compendio de los ocho libros de los fisicos de Aristoteles; de anima; de los siete libros de los Metafisicos.’ I am grateful to Professor P. O. Kristeller for this reference. Google Scholar

⁹¹ See García Villoslada, R., La universidad de Paris durante los estudios de Francisco de Vitoria (Rome 1938).Google Scholar

⁹² Soudek, , op. cit. [above n. 26] 87.Google Scholar

⁹³ In Ethicorum Aristotelis libros commentarii (Salamanca 1496). Both Roa and Osma had strong ‘humanist’ connections within the university. Roa had taught the Portuguese Arias Barbosa, later to become professor of Greek and of rhetoric, and Osma was praised by the usually acidulous Nebrija in his Apologia earum rerum quae illi obficiuntur (1535, f. 5). See Arataris Cardinalis, Historia apostolica cum commentariis Arias Barbosae Lusitanii (Salamanca 1516) f. 60.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Commentarii in politicorum libros (Salamanca 1502). There is some uncertainty about the exact date of this edition, but 1502 seems more likely than the earlier possible dates of 1500 and 1501.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Becchi was a general of the Augustinian order and bishop of Fiesole. He wrote commentaries on all three moral works and dedicated one of them, the Economics, to Ferrante of Aragon in 1467. See Soudek, op. cit. [above n. 27] 85 and note. Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Op. cit. fabove n. 93] ff. y ii and y iii. See F. Elias de Tejada, ‘Derivaciones éticas y políticas del Aristotelismo salmantino del siglo XV,’ Miscellanea mediaevalia II ( 1963) 707–715.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ See Schmitt, C. B., ‘The Faculty of Arts at Pisa at the Time of Galileo' Physis 14 (1972) 243–272 at 254 and Kristeller, P. O., ‘The Moral Thought of Humanism,' Renaissance Thought (New York 1965) II 20–68 passim. Google Scholar

⁹⁸ On de Oria, Juan see Muñoz Delgado, V., ‘La Lógica en Salamanca durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI,' Salmanticensis 14 (1967) 171–207 at 188–191.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Tractatus super libros Phisicorum (Lérida 1489); Super totam philosophiam naturalem Aristotelis (Lérida 1489); Commentarius in libros phisicorum (Pamplona 1496); Logica (Lérida 1490). On this last work see V. Muñoz Delgado ‘La “Lógica'’ de Pedro de Castrovol,’ Antonianum 48 (1973) 170–208 in whose view it is ‘the finest Summa to have been written in the Iberian Peninsula during the fifteenth century.’ For Castrovol's commentaries on the moral writings see note 89 above.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ In Aristotelis Ethicam , recorded by y Pelayo, Menéndez, La ciencia española (Madrid 1888) III 180.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ De Hispaniae laudibus (Burgos 1497) f. lxx ^r. Lucius Marineus also praised Roa as ‘sine ullo competitione’ (ibid. f. lxxii ^r).Google Scholar

¹⁰² Muñoz Delgado, V., ‘La Lógica en Salamanca,' Salmanticensis 14 (1967) 171–207 at 201.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ There is, as yet, no satisfactory study of the controversy over the nature of the American Indian. Two books by Hanke, Lewis provide a useful, but scanty background, Aristotle and the American Indians (London 1959) and The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (Boston 1965).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ de Madrigal, Alonso, called ‘El Tostado,’ Las XIIII questiones del Tostado (Antwerp 1557) whose fourth question is ‘qual era mejor y mas fructuoso la philosophia moral o natural.’Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ In Ethicam , Madrid, , Biblioteca National 8588. I have been unable to consult this work. On Arias Montano's connections with the familiarists and the Plantin circle, see Rekkers, B., Benito Arias Montano, 1527–1598 (London 1972).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Sepúlveda was also the author of translations of the De Generatione et corruptione and the Parva naturalia. See Losada, Angel Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda a través de su ‘Epistolario’ y nuevos documentos (Madrid 1959).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Democrates alter sive de justis belli causis apud Indos published by y Pelayo, M. Menéndez in Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 21 (Madrid 1892) 257–369.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Basel, 1573. Morcillo recommends his work along familiar lines: ‘Haec enim divino munere non ad inanem contemplationem, sed ad vitam recte instituendam concessa nobis est’ (p. 119).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ His only other Aristotelian work was a copy of the Topics and Daniel Barbarus's commentary on the Rhetoric ( Antolín, G., La librería de Felipe II [Madrid 1927] 17, 18).Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ On Spanish neo-stoicism see Ettinghausen, Henry, Francisco de Quevedo and the Neostoic Movement (Oxford 1972 ). An example of the decline in the general interest in Aristotle is provided by the library of Juan de Lastanosa, a patron of Baltasar Gracián. Lastanosa apparently owned not a single work of Aristotle although Seneca and Cicero are both represented and there are several copies of Lipsius. See Selig, Karl-Ludwig, The Library of Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa, Patron of Gracián (Geneva 1960).Google Scholar