1st Edition
The Aristotelian Mirabilia and Early Peripatetic Natural Science
This is the first volume devoted to the sections of the Aristotelian Mirabilia on natural science, filling a significant gap in the history of the Aristotelian study of nature and especially of animals.
The chapters in this volume explore the Mirabilia, or De mirabilibus auscultationibus (On Marvelous Things Heard), and its engagement with the natural sciences. The first two chapters deliver an introduction to this work: one a discussion of the history of the text and the other a discussion of Aristotelian epistemology and methodology, and the role of the Mirabilia in that context. This is followed by eight chapters that, together, are effectively a commentary on those sections of the Mirabilia with close connections to Aristotle’s Historia animalium and to a number of Theophrastus’ scientific treatises. Finally, the volume ends with two chapters on thematic topics connected to natural science running throughout the work, namely color and disease.
The Aristotelian Mirabilia and Early Peripatetic Natural Science should prove invaluable to scholars and students interested in the ancient Greek study of nature, ancient philosophy, and Aristotelian science in particular.
Introduction; 1. The Text of De mirabilibus auscultationibus: Observations on Its Structure and Transmission - Ciro Giacomelli; 2. Mapping Human Knowledge in Peripatetic Research: Thaumata, Endoxa and the Hierarchy of Beliefs - Han Baltussen; 3. Encounters with Curious Animals: De mirabilibus auscultationibus 1-15 and Historia Animalium 8(9) - Myrto Hatzimichali; 4. De mirabilibus auscultationibus 16-22 and Theophrastus’ lost On Honey - Katerina Oikonomopoulou; 5. De mirabilibus auscultationibus 23-28 and Theophrastus’ Lost On Animals that Appear in Swarms - Arnaud Zucker; 6. Miracula ignium: Theophrastus’ On the Lava Flow in Sicily, De mirabilibus auscultationibus 33-41, and Pliny’s Historia naturalis 2.236-238 - Myrto Garani; 7. The Lives of Metals in Theophrastus and De mirabilibus auscultationibus - Malcolm Wilson; 8. De mirabilibus auscultationibus 71-74 and Theophrastus’ De piscibus - Robert Mayhew; 9. Multiple Use of Data in Aristotle, the Peripatos, and Beyond: De mirabilibus auscultationibus 75-77 and Theophrastus’ Lost On Animals Said to be Grudging - Oliver Hellmann; 10. De mirabilibus auscultationibus 139-151: Theophrastus’ On Animals That Bite and Sting and Aristotle’s Nomima barbarica - Gertjan Verhasselt; 11. Color Changes in De mirabilibus auscultationibus - Katerina Ierodiakonou; 12. Diseases in De mirabilibus auscultationibus - George Kazantzidis.
Biography
Arnaud Zucker is Professor of Greek Literature at the University Côte d’Azur (Nice, France). His key research topics are ancient zoology, ancient astronomy, mythography, and folk etymology. His recent publications include Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymology: Theory and Practice I.
Robert Mayhew is Professor of Philosophy at Seton Hall University (NJ, USA). He has published extensively on ancient philosophy, especially on Aristotle and other early Peripatetics. His most recent book is Aristotle’s Lost Homeric Problems: Textual Studies.
Oliver Hellmann is außerplanmäßiger Professor of Classical Philology at Trier University (Germany). His main field of research is ancient natural science and its tradition, especially biology in Aristotle and the Peripatos. He is co-editor of Phaenias of Eresus: Text, Translation and Discussion (Routledge 2015).
