Aristotle's Organon and other logical texts
Aristotle's Organon and other logical texts
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Aristotle's Organon and other logical texts

Johann Amerbach, not after 1495

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Aristotle's Organon and other logical texts
Johann Amerbach, not after 1495
ARISTOTELES – PORPHYRIUS (c.234-c.305). Isagoge in Aristotelis praedicamenta. –ARISTOTELES (384-322 BCE). Organon. And other works. Translated by Boethius and Jacobus Veneticus. Basel: Johann Amerbach [not after 1495].

Aristotles logical works, along with Porphyrys classic introduction to the Categories and other logical treatises, in a contemporary binding. The Organon—the collective name for Aristotle’s six logical works—had a profound influence on the intellectual development of the Arab, Greek, Jewish, and Latin worlds. The Late Antique neo-platonist Porphyry’s commentary on it became a classic in itself, known as “The Introduction.” This copy contains a note, perhaps by a frustrated student, that they “don’t care what Aristotle teaches.” HC 13300 = H 9919*; BMC III 756; BSB-Ink I-468; Goff P-942; ISTC ia01014100.

Chancery folio (279 x 200mm). 290 leaves. Several woodcut diagrams, one brown ink decorated initial (dampstaining at top and bottom of gutter, occasional staining and toning, a few wormholes). Contemporary Augsburg blindstamped morocco over wooden boards [Kyriss 078, EBDB w000959, Sechsblatt-Blüte] (some chips to boards and losses at extremities of leather, rear joint starting). Provenance: marginalia, including a contemporary note riffing on Jerome’s Against the Pelagians (“I don’t care what Aristotle teaches, but what the apostle does”) and quoting Seneca the Elder’s statement that Cicero wouldn’t have time to reach lyric poetry even if he had his lifespan doubled – "Joachimus Piscatorius?" (later inscription on reverse of title leaf) – acquired from Lathrop C. Harper, Inc., New York, 17 June 1955.

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