Taki Suto

In this paper, I discuss an anonymous Quaestiones super librum Ethicorum in the manuscripts of Worcester Cathedral Library and the notion of felicitas in this work. The question has characteristics similar to those once called “Averroists’ commentaries”, i.e., the commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics written by Parisian masters of arts in the late 13th century. There are, however, elements peculiar to the Worcester commentary and others that resemble to aspects of the work written by John of Tytynsale, a contemporary Oxford master of arts. Like some of those Parisian commentaries, the Worcester text describes felicitas as “a conjunction with the first cause”. The anonymous author claims that the knowledge of divine essence obtained through this conjunction is non-demonstrative.

Anicius Manlius Seuerinus Boethius has been regarded one of the major sources of Platonism in the Middle Ages, and the influence of different Platonists on his thought has been widely discussed. In his Aristotelian commentaries, however, Boethius rejects Platonists’ opinions while saying that Aristotle and Plato essentially agree. Boethius may have intended to show the agreement he saw, but did not provide any explanation in his works. In this article, I consider how Boethius could have seen such an agreement. While reexamining past remarks about Platonism in Boethius, I conclude that he adopts Porphyry’s view that Aristotelian logic functions as a step toward the metaphysical appreciation of the universe, which Platonists consider to be the most essential form of philosophy. However, Boethius follows Iamblichus in holding that the highest level of metaphysical appreciation involves mathematization.

Le codex Q. 13 de la bibliothèque cathédrale de Worcester contient un commentaire anonyme inédit sur le premier livre de l’ Éthique à Nicomaque. L’édition est précédée d’une introduction historique et doctrinale. Ce commentaire peut être rapproché des commentaires dits « averroïstes », c’est-à-dire les commentaires parisiens sur l’ Éthique de la deuxième moitié du xiii e siècle et, surtout, de celui de Jean de Tytynsale, maître à la Faculté des Arts d’Oxford dans la deuxième moitié du xiii e siècle. L’analyse doctrinale et stylistique ainsi que l’étude du manuscrit permettent d’affirmer que le commentaire a été rédigé entre 1272 et 1295, vraisemblablement par un maître de la Faculté des Arts d’Oxford.