Book of the Cure

The present article analyzes the evidence available in Arabic sources (preliminary lists of contents in manuscripts; texts of manuscripts; later quotations) that supports the hypothesis according to which the Medieval Latin translation of the metaphysics of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ is rooted in its Arabic background when it conveys an account of treatise V of the work (called “Versio Latina”) alternative to the one that can be found in the majority of codices and in current printings (“Versio Vulgata”). It is argued (i) that the Versio Latina is probably more original than the Versio Vulgata, for doctrinal and philological reasons; (ii) that the Versio Vulgata might respond to a deliberate intention to make the content of treatise V more compliant with the account of universals provided by Avicenna himself in the logic of the Šifāʾ and, in general, with the traditional pre-Avicennian ways of expounding the doctrine of universals; (iii) and that the Versio Vulgata was likely the product of Avicenna’s school, rather than of Avicenna himself, as the result of shared concerns and theoretical debates that prompted the decision of modifying Avicenna’s original text through the intervention, in all likelihood, of al-Ǧūzǧānī. Two further issues are conclusively discussed: (iv) how precisely the Latin translation relates to the Arabic background of the Versio Latina, (v) and whether the Versio Latina can be taken as the outlook of treatise V intended and licensed by Avicenna, or it also conveys elements of later, non authorial modifications.

In metaphysics, Avicenna refers to the heaven as animal (ḥayawān), and to its proximate principle of motion as soul (nafs), by using the same terminology used in psychology to refer to sublunary animals and their principle. The strategy behind this approach is to account for a remote phenomenon, i.e. heavenly circular motion, through the account of an analogous but closer and thus more knowable phenomenon, i.e. animal locomotion. Thus, in metaphysics a sort of continuity between sublunary and celestial ‘animals’ seems to be posited: both are defined by means of the same terminology and share some distinctive features. However, in psychology, where this terminology is defined, Avicenna explicitly denies that sublunary and celestial ‘animals’ can be referred to in the very same way, except by equivocation. This position rests on the discontinuity between the sublunary and celestial realm that is posited in psychology.
Given that Avicenna’s attitude towards this issue is not consistent, the aim of this paper is to shed some light on the use of the terms animal and soul in psychology and in metaphysics, in order to ascertain whether they have the same meaning when they are applied to celestial and sublunary entities.

The present volume hosts the proceedings of the conference “A Crossroad between East and West: The Latin Medieval Translations of the Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (Book of the Cure) of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)”, which took place in Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore, on 1-3 July 2015 in the framework of the project “Philosophy on the Border of Civilizations and Intellectual Endeavours: Towards a Critical Edition of the Metaphysics (Ilāhiyyāt of Kitāb al-Šifāʾ) of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā)”, financed by the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant, 2014-2019, www.avicennaproject.eu). Some additional articles (N. Caminada, A. Astesiano, N. Polloni, I. Panzeca) complement the papers first presented at the conference. The decision to devote a conference expressly to the Latin translations of the various parts of Avicenna’s philosophical masterpiece produced during the Middle Ages, and, now, to publish the papers of the meeting in a self-standing volume that deals comprehensively with the topic – in both cases for the first time, to the best of our knowledge – finds its justification in the necessity of approaching this key event of the Arabic-into-Latin transmission of philosophical culture in a comprehensive rather than piecemeal way. DOCUMENTI E STUDI SULLA TRADIZIONE FILOSOFICA MEDIEVALE XXVIII, 2017: AMOS BERTOLACCI, TOMMASO ALPINA, Introduction — FRANÇOISE HUDRY, La traduction latine de la Logica Avicennae et son auteur — SILVIA DI VINCENZO, Is There a versio vulgata of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ ? On the Hypothesis of a Double Recension of Kitāb al-Madḫal — NICCOLÒ CAMINADA, A Latin Translation ? The Reception of Avicenna in Albert the Great’s De praedicamentis — RICCARDO STROBINO, Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Burhān, II.7 and its Latin Translation by Gundissalinus : Content and Text — GAIA CELLI, The Rhetoric Section of the Kitāb al-Šifāʾ : Hermannus Alemannus’ Latin Translation and the Arabic Witnesses — FRÉDÉRIQUE WOERTHER, Citer/traduire. La traduction arabo-latine de la Rhétorique d’Aristote par Hermann l’Allemand et les citations d’al-Fārābī et Averroès — JULES JANSSENS, The Liber primus naturalium, i.e., the Physics of the Avicenna latinus — ALESSIA ASTESIANO, L’inizio di un movimento nella fisica del continuo : Avicenna lettore di Aristotele (Libro della guarigione, Fisica, III, 6) — CRISTINA CERAMI, The De Caelo et Mundo of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ : An Overview of its Structure, its Goal and its Polemical Background — SILVIA DI DONATO, Les trois traductions latines de la Météorologie d’Avicenne : notes pour l’histoire du texte — ELISA RUBINO, The Commentary of Alfred of Shareshill on the pseudo-Aristotelian De mineralibus — TOMMASO ALPINA, Al‐Ǧūzǧānī Insertion of On Cardiac Remedies in Avicenna’s Book of the Soul : the Latin Translation as a Clue to his Editorial Activity on the Book of the Cure ? — AAFKE VAN OPPENRAAY, Avicenna’s Liber de animalibus (‘Abbreviatio Avicennae’). Preliminaries and State of Affairs — RÜDIGER ARNZEN, Double Translations in the Latin Version of the Metaphysics of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ — ALFONSO QUARTUCCI, Avicenna’s Notion of al-mawḍūʿ al-awwal (‘first subject’) in Ilāhiyyāt, I, 1-2 and its Latin Reception — AMOS BERTOLACCI, The Latin Translation and the Original Version of the Ilāhiyyāt (Science of Divine Things) of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ — NICOLA POLLONI, Gundissalinus and Avicenna : Some Remarks on an Intricate Philosophical Connection — IVANA PANZECA, On the Persian Translations of Avicenna’s Ilāhiyyāt — INDICE DEI MANOSCRITTI — INDICE DEI NOMI