Middle Commentary on De Anima

Index

Keywords: CCAA § 32; A 19, 85f; HÜb § 70, 71.

Outline

1. Title and Date
2. Manuscripts
3. Editions
4. Hebrew Translations
5. Latin Translations
6. Super-Commentaries
7. Modern Translations
8. Research Literature

Full Text

1. Title and Date

Title

The Arabic title Talḫīṣ kitāb al-nafs (تلخيص كتاب النفس) is attested in two bibliographic lists of Averroes’s works, the so-called Barnāmaǧ (inventory) found in Ms. Escorial 884, f. 83rv (no. 10), written around ??? by Averroes’s grandson, and in ِIbn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Marrākušī’s al-Ḏail wa-l-Takmila (no. 21).

Date

At least one version of the text can be dated to Ǧumādā al-awwal 577 (September–October 1181). This date is contained in the colophon of the Hebrew translation by Moses Ibn Tibbon as contained in Ms. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.hebr. 287, fol. 46r2–3 (→View in DARE).

2. Manuscripts

The Arabic text is only preserved in two Judeo-Arabic manuscripts:

1. Modena, Biblioteca estense universitaria, 13, foll. 26r–62v; Spain, dated 1356 (→View in DARE)
2. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, héb. 1009, foll. 102v–155r; Spain, dated 1402 (→View in DARE)

The Hebrew and Latin manuscripts are listed below under the respective translations.

3. Editions

Complete Editions

1. Abū l-Walīd Ibn Rušd. Talḫīṣ kitāb al-nafs / [Parallel title:] Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De anima. Taḥqīq wa-taʿlīq Alfred ʿIbrī [=Ivry]. Al-Qāhira, 1994.
2. Averroës. Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De anima/ [Parallel title:] Talḫīṣ kitāb al-nafs li-Arisṭū. A critical Edition of the Arabic text with English translation, notes, and introduction by Alfred L. Ivry. Provo (Utah), 2002.

Partial Editions

1. Gätje, Helmut. Das Kapitel über das Begehren aus dem Mittleren Kommentar des Averroes zur Schrift über die Seele (Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus: Prolegomena et Parerga 2). Amsterdam–Oxford–New York, 1985.
2. Elamrani-Jamal, Abdelali. “Averroès: la doctrine de l’intellect matériel dans le Commentaire moyen au De anima d’Aristote. Présentation et traduction, suivie d’un lexique-index du chapitre 3, livre III: De la faculté rationnelle”. In: Alain de Libera, Abdelali Elamrani-Jamal, Alain Galonnier (eds.). Langages et philosophie. Hommage à Jean Jolivet (Etudes de philosophie médiévales 74). Paris, 1997. 281-307.

4. Hebrew Translations

4.1. Šem Ṭov ben Isaac of Tortosa

Date

Šem Ṭov ben Isaac of Tortosa was born in 1296 and has been active as a translator of medical texts in Marseilles between 1258 and 1264 (Muntner 1957). His translation of Averroes’s Middle Commentary on De Anima, although undated, is usually considered to have been composed slightly before the year 1261 when the second translation, made by Moses Ibn Tibbon, appeared (Schwab 1882; Steinschneider 1893; Zonta 1996).

Edition

Only Šem Ṭov’s prologue to his translation has been published (Šem Ṭov ben Isaac 1882).

4.2. Moses ben Samuel Ibn Tibbon

Bibliography

Primary Sources

• (Shem Ṭov ben Isaac 1882) Moritz Steinschneider in Israelietische Letterbode 8 (1882–83), 101–102.

Secondary Sources

• (Muntner 1957) Muntner, Süssmann, “R. Šem Ṭov ben Yiṣḥaq mi-Ṭorṭośa ʿal ḥayye ha-rofeʾ ha-ʿivri u-musaro be-Eyropa”, in: Y.L. ha-Kohen Maimon (ed.), Sinai, Sefer yovel: qoveṣ torani madaʿi yoṣeʾ la-or le-ṣiyun hofaʿat kereḵ ha-arbaʿim šel Sinai, yarḥon le-torah le-madaʿ u-le-sifrut, Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1957, 321–337.
• (Schwab 1882)  Schwab, Moïse, “Manuscrits hébreux de Bâle”, in: Revue des études juives 5 (1882), 250–257.
• (Steinschneider 1893) Steinschneider, Moritz, Die Hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters meist nach handschriftlichen Quellen, Berlin 1893, 148–149 (§§ 70–71).
• (Zonta 1996) Zonta, Mauro, La filosofia antica nel Medioevo ebraico. Le traduzioni ebraiche medievali die testi filosofici antichi, Brescia: Paideia, 1996, 186–187.¹

Notes

1. first Note

How to cite

Wirmer, David, “Averroes’s Middle Commentary on De Anima: A Bibliographical Survey”, Digital Averroes Research Environment (2018), ed. David Wirmer, URL=<http://sire.uni-koeln.de/dare_wordpress/middle-commentary-on-de-anima/>.