A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Philosophical Notes on Aristotle’s Organon
2023–2025
RFG02
This research project focuses on the study of the philosophical commentaries on Aristotle’s Organon that are transmitted together with the main texts in three paper codices of the 14th century CE: Par. Suppl. gr. 644, Bologna 3637, and Ven. Z 203. The project also aims at investigating and understanding the production and circulation history of the manuscripts.
The Organon (4th c. BCE) is a collection of six treatises on Logic and argumentation theory by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Originally written in Greek language, the Organon was widely studied and became the foundation of scientific reasoning in Europe from late antiquity up to the modern times. In the Byzantine higher education in particular, it constituted one of the main components in the curricula. The large number of the surviving manuscripts (around 150) is indicative of its wide circulation and underlines its significance.
Generally speaking, the manuscripts of the Organon are multiple-text manuscripts and like other Aristotelian manuscripts, they consist of a core text that is accompanied by a very dense explanatory marginal and interlinear paracontent (text and diagrams). Many aspects of these numerous and very often complex manuscripts are still unexplored, though. The detailed study of the selected codices will significantly contribute to the expansion of our knowledge and will attempt to progressively close the research gaps.
The project will address questions like:
- What is the relationship between the manuscripts selected?
- Who are the authors of the marginal and interlinear notes (scholia)?
- How many scribes are involved in the production procedure?
- How many production and circulation units do the manuscripts consist of?
To support the philological and codicological analysis, a large part of the project will focus on the analysis of the black and red inks as well as of the paper support. The material investigation will consist of a wide range of reflectographic and spectroscopic, non-invasive and non-destructive analytical methods, such as UV and NIR Reflectography, X-Ray Fluorescence, VIS and FTIR Spectroscopy.
The approach of the topic from this multidisciplinary perspective, namely through the implementation of philology, palaeography, codicology and material analysis, is expected to unfold the history of these three manuscripts that carry some very prominent works of the ancient Greek literature and philosophy.
People
Principal Investigator: Aikaterini Grigoriadou