Part 4 (1/2)

3 THE NEW STUDIES

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the intellectual life of western Europe was enriched by the addition of a group of books, old and nehich were destined to influence profoundly the growth of the universities, as well as the whole course of ht

Without soher education could hardly have developed at all, for the materials available for it previous to the twelfth century were decidedly scanty The books presently to be described furnished a body of advanced and solid instruction, suited to the needs of the times They formed one of the permanent influences which both developed andwas not less potent in attracting students than the fame of individual teachers or the new reater number of the books which formed the body of university instruction were recoveries fro-disused Greek and Roether with a feorks of Arabic and Jewish origin To this group belong the works of Aristotle, the body of Roman Law, and the medical works of Galen, Hippocrates, and various Arabic and Jewish physicians In the main, these had been hitherto unknown in western Europe, or at least practically for-gotten since the days of the Roman Empire In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they were collected and inally written in Latin were now translated into Latin; manuscript copies were multiplied and widely diffused

But the intellectual activity of the ti; it also created t fields of study,--Scholastic Philosophy and Theology, and Canon Law,--and produced the text-books which marked them off as distinct and professional studies The book which established the _method_ of these studies was Abelard's ”Yes and No” (see p 20); but the works which furnished the substance of university instruction were, in Theology, the ”Sentences” (Sententiae) of Peter Lombard, and in Canon Law, the ”Decree” (Decretum) of Gratian, which was also known as the ”Harmony of Contradictory Canons” (Concordia Discordantiue 56

Thus, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the growth of universities was sti hitherto inaccessible or unknown The striking nature of this development will be clearer if we recall that no addition to the learning of western Europe in the least degree co the entire seven centuries preceding

The books above her education Besides the already long-used text-books on the Seven Liberal Arts there were in, and as the revival progressed many new books ritten on the old subjects But the books already na not only the early intellectual irowth of universities, but also the y, Law, and Medicine down to the year 1500 Many of them were in use at a much later date, and some--with many revisions--are still standard text-books No one can understand the intellectual life of the universities who does not have some acquaintance with the titles and contents of these works It may be added that acquaintance with the of European history and literature This section is therefore devoted to certain details concerning the early history of university studies

(a) _The Works of Aristotle_

The works of Aristotle were composed in Athens, 335-322 BC Their history, from the time of Aristotle's death to their appearance in Latin translations in western Europe, fifteen hundred years later, cannot be here detailed The translations co the twelfth and thirteenth centuries The earlier ones were inal Greek; the later, directly from Greek copies found in Constantinople, and elsewhere in the East The Arabic-Latin translations were very poor, owing to the two reinal Greek and the incapacity of the translators Those directly from the Greek were somewhat better, yet far from satisfactory; and new versions were repeatedly made down to the end of the fifteenth century University reforms sometimes included the adoption of these better translations (see p 48)

The works known by the year 1300 ories = {Predicaoriae

treatises {2 On interpretation = {De Interpretatione

commonly { {Peri Hermeneias

referred to {3 Prior analytics = analytica Priora

as the Organon {4 Posterior analytics = analytica Posteriora

or {5 Topics = Topica

Methodology {6 Sophistical} = Sophisticae Elenchi

{ Refutations}

II Moral {7 Politics

and Practical {8 Ethics

Philosophy {9 Rhetoric

{10 Poetics

{11 A Physical Discourse (Physics)

{12 On the Heavens

{13 On Generation and Destruction

{14 Meteorologies

{15 Researches about Animals

{16 On Parts of Animals

{17 On Locomotion of Animals

{18 On Generation of Animals

III Natural{19 On the Soul

Philosophy {20 Appendices to the work ”On the Soul”

{ (_a_) On Sense and Sensible Things