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Had Dante Read the Politics of Aristotle?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Allan H. Gilbert*
Affiliation:
Duke University

Extract

In his prose writings Dante refers to the Politics of Aristotle in such a way as to make natural the assumption that he was well-acquainted with the work. Further examination, however, suggests that this opinion has but a slight foundation; in fact, it is not impossible that Dante never saw a manuscript of the Politics.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 1928 , pp. 602 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

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References

page 602 note 1 Edward Moore, StudUs in Dante, First Stria, pp. 92-156, 342-3.

page 602 note 2 Infermo, II. 79-81.

page 603 note 3 II Giomale Dantesco, XXIX, 1926, p. 136.

page 603 note 4 Comvivio 2.15.126; 4.8.4. See Mariani, op. cit., p. 137, and Gilbert, Dante i Conception of Justice, pp. 20, 115, 148, 183. There are also further unpublished parallels.

page 604 note 5 Ugo Mariani, op.cit., p. 135.

page 604 note 6 From the Rome, 1556, edition.

page 604 note 7 L. 1, ed. Frettè, Paris, 1875.

page 604 note 8 E.g., 3.L3, 2.1.1. The word communkativum was perhaps suggested by such a sentence in the mediaeval Politics as “Horum autran communicatio facit domum rt civitatem” (1.1).

page 605 note 9 E.g., 23.11; the Florence, 1858, edition.

page 605 note 10 Contra Gentila, 3.85.10; 118.3; 128.1; 129.4; 131.3. But in none of these passages is Aristotle mentioned; perhaps it was assumed thV the idea would be recognised as his.

page 605 note 11 Politics, 1.2.

page 606 note 12 In the Italian translation occur the words “diversi uffici” (3.2.3).

page 607 note 13 E.g., II. I. 92.1.3.

page 608 note 14 I have corrected the incorrect leading 4. Polit., which appears in all the texts I have teen, to 3. PM. The words circa primipium do not appear in the 1473 (Augsburg) edition.

page 609 note 15 I have followed the editions of 1473 and 1482 in reeding virtutum rather than virtulcm.

page 610 note 16 Politics 4, lect. 7.

page 610 note 17 4.14.67.

page 611 note 18 Politics 1, lect.1.

page 611 note 19 Martin Grabmann, Forsckungen uber die laUmiscken Aristotlesubersetiunten des dreacknten Jakrkunderls (Mlinster i. W., 1916), pp. 238-40.

page 611 note 20 Martin Grabmann, Die eckten Sckriften des hl. Tkomos ton Aquino, pp. 206-7

page 612 note 21 Montague Rhodes James, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Cains College 2.578, ms. no. 508.

page 612 note 22 Lynn Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, II, 404-5.