The ''Categoriae decem'' ('Ten Categories'), also known as the ''Paraphrasis Themistiana'', is a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
summary of the ''
Categories
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
Philosophy and general uses
*Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally
*Category of being
*Categories (Aristotle), ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
*Category (Kant)
...
'' of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
. It is thought to date to the fourth century AD. Once and traditionally attributed to
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
, it is no longer thought to be his work.
From the eighth century onwards, this text became one of the major sources of logical teaching in medieval Europe, where it was taken at times as a full translation of Aristotle's work, rather than a compression. Its importance rests in the revival of the study of logic it stimulated in the early medieval West, beginning, it would seem, at the court of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
. Those influenced included
Alcuin
Alcuin of York (; la, Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; 735 – 19 May 804) – also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin – was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student o ...
, particularly in his ''De Dialectica'',
Fridugisus Fridugisus, also known as Fredegisus or Fredegis of Tours (born in England towards the end of the 8th century; died in Tours around 834), was a monk, teacher, and writer.
An Anglo-Saxon, he was a pupil of Alcuin, first at York and afterwards at th ...
and
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot, or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877) was an Irish people, Irish Neoplatonism, Neoplatonist Philosophy, philosopher, Theology, theologian and poet of the Early M ...
.
, reference to John Marenbon, ‘John Scottus and the “Categoriae decem”’, in Werner Beierwaltes
Werner Beierwaltes (* 8 May 1931, Klingenberg am Main; † 22 February 2019, Würzburg) was a German academic best known as a historian of philosophy. His most important areas of specialization were Neoplatonism and German Idealism. He was an Em ...
(ed.), ''Eriugena: Studien zu seinen Quellen, Vorträge des III. Internationalen Eriugena-Colloquiums, Freiburg im Breisgau, 27.–30. August 1979''
From around the eleventh century the influence of the ''Categoriae decem'' waned, as translations of the original work of Aristotle gained currency in Western Europe.
Notes
References
*Edition in the ''Aristoteles Latinus'', editor Lorenzo Minio-Paluello'': Categoriae vel Praedicamenta. Translatio Boethii, Editio Composite, Translatio Guillelmi de Moerbeka, Lemmata e Simplicii commentario decerpta, Pseudo-Augustini Paraphrasis Themistiana - Desclée De Brouwer'' (Bruges-Paris 1961).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Categoriae Decem
Works about Aristotle
Translations into Latin
Ancient Roman philosophical literature