''De vita et moribus philosophorum'' ('Lives and Manners of the Philosophers')
[Lutz, 247.] is an anonymous
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 ...
biographical dictionary of 132
ancient Greek
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and
Roman
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*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
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philosophers and other luminaries from
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him ...
in the 6th century BC to
Priscian in the 6th century AD. It was written in about 1317–1320 and draws heavily on
Aristippus
Aristippus of Cyrene, Libya, Cyrene (; grc, Ἀρίστιππος ὁ Κυρηναῖος; c. 435 – c. 356 BCE) was a Hedonism, hedonistic Ancient Greece, Greek philosopher and the founder of the Cyrenaics, Cyrenaic school of philosophy. He w ...
's Latin translation of the
Greek ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' of
Diogenes Laertius. It was formerly attributed to
Walter Burley
Walter Burley (or Burleigh; 1275 – 1344/45) was an English scholastic philosopher and logician with at least 50 works attributed to him. He studied under Thomas WiltonHarjeet Singh Gill, ''Signification in language and culture'', Indian Inst ...
, but is now recognized as anonymous. Its author may be known as "Pseudo-Walter Burley".
There are over 150
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
copies of ''De vita et moribus philosophorum'', mostly from France and Italy. It was a popular early printed book, going through 30 editions by 1530. A
Spanish translation was made in the early 15th century, an
Italian translation by 1475 and three in
Polish
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by the early 16th century.
Two
German
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**Germania (historical use)
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**Ger ...
translations, one by and another by
Anton Sorg
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, had appared by 1490.
''De vita et moribus philosophorum'' was used as a source by
Giovanni Colonna in his ''De viris illustribus'' begun in 1329.
[Surdich.]
Editions
*Stigall, John Oliver H., ed. ''The 'De vita et moribus philosophorum' of Walter Burley: An Edition with Introduction''. PhD diss. University of Colorado at Boulder, 1956.
*Crosas López, Francisco, ed. ''Vida y costumbres de los viejos filósofos : la traducción castellana cuatrocentista del De vita et moribus philosophorum atribuido a Walter Burley''. Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert, 2002.
Notes
Bibliography
*Copeland, Rita. (2016
"Behind the ''Lives of Philosophers'': Reading Diogenes Laertius in the Western Middle Ages."''Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures'' 3: 245–263.
*Crosas López, Francisco. (2000
"Traducción castellana medieval del ''De vita et moribus philosophorum'' de Walter Burley."''Rilce: Revista de Filología Hispánica'' 16(1): 38–45.
*Ferrer Santanach, Montserrat. (2011) "Diogenes Laertius's ''Lives'' in the Fifteenth-Century Italian and Catalan Versions of Pseudo-Burley's ''Vita et moribus''." ''Studi medievali'' 52(Fasc. 2): 681–695.
*Grignaschi, Mario. (1990) "Lo pseudo Walter Burley e il Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum." ''Medioevo'' 16: 131–190.
*Lutz, Cora E. (1972) "Walter Burley's ''De vita et moribus philosophorum''." ''The Yale University Library Gazette'' 46(4): 247–252.
*Matthews, Alastair. (2010) "Literary Lives in Medieval Germany: The Wartburg Song Contest in Three Hagiographical Narratives." ''Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte'' 84(1): 44–59.
*Surdich, Francesco (1982)
"Colonna, Giovanni."''
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Vol. 27. Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
{{refend
1310s books
Books about philosophers