The ("Book of Causes") is a philosophical work composed in the 9th century that was once attributed to

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 ...

and that became popular in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, first in Arabic and Islamic countries and later in the Latin West. The real authorship remains a mystery, but most of the content is taken from a work by the

Neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...

philosopher

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor ( grc-gre, Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers ...

called '' Elements of Theology''. This was first noticed by

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

, following

William of Moerbeke William of Moerbeke, O.P. ( nl, Willem van Moerbeke; la, Guillelmus de Morbeka; 1215–35 – 1286), was a prolific medieval translator of philosophical, medical, and scientific texts from Greek language into Latin, enabled by the period ...

's translation of Proclus' work into Latin. As such it is now attributed to a

pseudo-Aristotle Pseudo-Aristotle is a general cognomen for authors of philosophical or medical treatises who attributed their work to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, or whose work was later attributed to him by others. Such falsely attributed works are known as ps ...

Title

The original title in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

was , "The book of Aristotle's explanation of the pure good". The title came into use following the translation into Latin by

Gerard of Cremona Gerard of Cremona (Latin: ''Gerardus Cremonensis''; c. 1114 – 1187) was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of ...

. The work was also translated into

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. Many Latin commentaries on the work are extant.Edited (some only partially) in .

References

Text and translations

Arabic

* (edition of the Arabic) * (edition of the Arabic with German translation)

Latin

* Pattin, Adriaan, ''Le Liber de Causis. Edition établie a l'aide de 90 manuscrits avec introduction et notes'', in ''Tijdschrift voor Filosofie'' 28 (1966) pp. 90–203

Hebrew

* Rothschild, Jean-Pierre: ''Les traductions hébraïques du Liber de causis latin''. Dissertation Paris 1985, Bd. 1, S. 172–243 (synoptic edition of parts of the Hebrew translations)

Translations in modern languages

* Albayrak, Mehmet Barış: Nedenler Kitabı (Liber de Causis), Notos Yayınları, 2014. (Türkçe çeviri) * Baumgarten, Alexander. ''Pseudo-Aristotel, Liber de causis'', traducere, note şi comentariu de Alexander Baumgarten, Univers Enciclopedic, București, 2002 (Romanian translation) * Brand, Dennis J. (ed.), tr. ''The Book of Causes: Liber de Causis'' (English translation): 1st ed. 1984 Marquette University Press, 2nd ed. 2001 Niagara University Press * Magnard, Pierre; Boulnois, Olivier; Pinchard, Bruno; Solere, Jean-Luc. ''La demeure de l'être. Autour d'un anonyme. Etude et traduction du Liber de Causis'', Paris 1990, Vrin (French translation) * Schönfeld, Andreas. ''Liber de causis: Das Buch von den Ursachen'', repr. 2005 Meiner Felix Verlag Gmbh : Latin text, German translation

Commentaries

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his li ...

, ''Liber de causis et processu universitatis a prima causa'' (Latin) * (in 2 volumes) * D'Ancona, Cristina: ''Tommaso d'Aquino, Commento al Libro delle cause.'' Rusconi, Milano 1986: commentary by Thomas Aquinas
Sancti Thomae de Aquino super librum De Causis expositio
(Latin)

Secondary literature

* Alonso, Manuel Alonso. ''Las fuentes literarias del Liber de causis''. Al-Andalus: revista de las escuelas de estudios árabes de Madrid y Granada, (10), 1945, pp. 345–382. * Bächli-Hinz, Andreas. ''Monotheismus und neuplatonische Philosophie: Eine Untersuchung zum pseudo-aristotelischen Liber de causis und dessen Rezeption durch Albert den Großen'', Frankfurt, Academia Verlag, 2002. * (in 2 volumes) * * * * D'Ancona, Cristina. ''Recherches sur le Liber de causis.'' Vrin, Paris 1995, * D'Ancona, Cristina; Taylor, Richard C. "Le Liber de causis", in: Richard Goulet and others (ed.): ''Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques'', CNRS, Paris 2003, , S. 599–647 * * * Megías, Paloma Llorente. ''Liber de Causis: Indice y Concordancia'', Florence, Olschki 2004. * Ricklin, Thomas. ''Die 'Physica' und der 'Liber de causis' im 12. Jahrhundert. Zwei Studien.'' University press, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1995, * Taylor, Richard C. "The Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khair (Liber de causis) in the Islamic Philosophical Milieu" in: Jill Kraye and others (eds.): ''Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages'', Warburg Institute, London 1986, , S. 37–52

External links

Latin
critical text of Adriaan Pattin (1966) revised by Hans Zimmermann 2001

Bardenhewer edition (1822)

(UBB Cluj)
Latin text
(Intratext)

(Bibliotheca Augustana) {{DEFAULTSORT:Liber De Causis Neoplatonic texts Early Islamic philosophy Pseudoaristotelian works