Introduction

Donato Acciaiuoli (1429–78) was a Florentine humanist and statesman with a keen interest in Aristotelian philosophy. Having received training in classical Latin literature and language in his youth, he began to learn Greek in his twenties; his interest in ancient history led him to compose lives of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus the Elder. In addition, he studied logic both privately and at the University of Florence, and became familiar with the major scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages (e.g., Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus and Walter Burley) and the Renaissance (e.g., Gaetano da Thiene and Paul of Venice). Between 1457 and 1461 he attended lectures on Aristotelian philosophy given by the Byzantine scholar Johannes Argyropulos (c. 1415–87) at the University of Florence. His surviving lecture notes, covering the Physics, De anima and the Nicomachean Ethics, are extremely detailed and appear to be almost verbatim records of Argyropulos's classes. On the basis of such notes, Acciaiuoli produced commentaries on the Ethics (1464) and the Politics (1472). After 1461, he became actively involved in political life, serving the Medici-dominated government in a variety of diplomatic posts, both within Italy and abroad.

Acciaiuoli's commentary on the Ethics was written at the request of Cosimo de' Medici and was dedicated to him. In the preface, he heaps praise on Argyropulos and makes it clear that the purpose of the commentary is to make his teaching available to a wider audience.