Algazel’s Metaphysics: A Mediaeval Translation
1933. 265 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-400-4
This edition makes available to students of medieval philosophy an important and influential work of al-Ghāzzalī (1058–1111) as actually used at the time. An appendix transcribes a long note in the base manuscript made up of extracts from the De divisione naturae of Gundissalinus, while a second gives the other marginal notes as well as the variants. This edition has proved serviceable for over 70 years, and is still a necessary tool for anyone working in the field of medieval metaphysics as developed in Latin during the thirteenth century.
One Latin manuscript – Vat. Lat. 4481 – was chosen as the best text after careful examination and comparison with others. The manuscript, described in the preface, was checked throughout against other manuscripts in order “to correct obvious mistakes or to clarify obscure words or passages.” (The printed edition of Venice, 1606 was found to be a poor text, although it proved “helpful in a few instances.”)
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