PROJECTS OF THE IUA

1. PLATO LATINUS

On behalf of the British Academy, W.D. Ross introduced a proposal, based on a plan by Raymond Klibansky, for publishing a Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi ; this series would be prepared under the auspices and the direction of the British Academy, which already had appointed a committee for this purpose, chaired by W.D. Ross. The proposal was unanimously accepted. In 1938 two separate sections were distinguished in this collection, viz. Plato Latinus and Plato Arabus.

In the first series four mediaeval translations have been published, those of the Meno, the Phaedo, the Parmenides (with a part of Proclus' commentary) and the In Timaeum of Calcidius. In the second series, three texts have appeared, a Synopsis of the Timaeus attributed to Galen, the De Platonis Philosophia of Al- Farabi and the treatise of the same author on Plato's Laws. In the framework of this project some other studies related to the history of Platonism have been prepared and published.

Category C. Director : R. Klibansky 1937-

2. ARISTOTELES LATINUS

The Aristoteles Latinus is the first part of a much larger project entitled Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi which was proposed by C. Michalski of the Polska Akademia Nauk (Polish Academy of Sciences) of Cracow, and adopted in 1929. In preparation for the series of critical editions of medieval Latin versions of Aristotle, there were published two preliminary studies under the title Prolegomena in Aristotelem Latinum, and a detailed catalogue in three volumes of the manuscripts of these Latin versions. With the forthcoming publication of the Metaphysics in the version of William of Moerbeke, the series will run to 24 volumes, not counting the Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus, which became a separate series within the Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi in 1971.

Taken together, these publications are a measure of the magnitude and the importance of the medieval translators' achievement. Many of the works in the Aristotelian corpus were translated more than once; some versions were wholly or partly revised, whether by the same translator or by others. Editors have been able to distinguish and identify the variant forms in which Aristotle was read in the Middle Ages, and to show how they relate to each other, as well as to the tradition of the Greek text and to that of the Latin translations from the Arabic. In this way, the Aristoteles Latinus has greatly added to our knowledge of the translators' methods of work, and in one case it has proved possible to identify the particular Greek manuscript which was the source of the translation of the works it contains. Since the Latin Aristotle was in general use in Universities, and commentaries on it were in wide circulation, its technical vocabulary has had a considerable influence on Western philosophical and scientific terminology.

Category B. Directors : A. Mansion 1931-1938 ; L. Minio Paluello 1947-1972 ; G. Verbeke 1973-2001; J. Brams 2001-2003, C. Steel 2003-

Website of the project : www.hiw.kuleuven.ac.be/dwmc/al/

2b. ARISTOTELES SEMITICO-LATINUS

The Aristoteles Semitico Latinus project was started as a subdivision of the Aristoteles Latinus (IX/2.). Because critical editions of Syriac, Arabie and Hebrew translations of Aristotelean philosophy are rare, or unsatisfactory, the scope of the project has been widened and includes the intermediate stages.

The project is concerned with the editing, preparation for publication and the publishing of critical editions of translations of works of Aristotelean philosophy into Semitic languages, mostly Arabic, but also Hebrew and Syriac, as well as of works involving both translations into Semitic languages, and Latin and Greek translations. Several major studies have already been published, and a considerable number of studies and publications are in preparation.

The project was adopted by the UAI in 1971 on the initiative of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences) as a Category C project.

Directed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (Constantijn Huygens Institute). Founder : H.J. Drossaart Lulofs 1971. Directors : H. Daiber and R. Kruk.

Website of the project : http://www.chi.knaw.nl/middeleeuwen/aristoteles/project.html

3. AVICENNA LATINUS

Between 1961 and 1972, Marie-Therèse d'Alverny published in Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age a long series of descriptions of manuscripts of medieval translations of the philosophical works of Avicenna. This work has now been revised, with Addenda by Simone Van Riet and Pierre Jodogne, and was published in 1994 under the title Avicenna Latinus. Codices (Académie Royale de Belgique; Louvain-la-Neuve, Peeters and Leiden, Brill). It was earlier the basis of a critical edition of the Latin translations of Avicenna undertaken from the late 1960s onwards by Simone Van Riet (text and glossary) and Gerard Verbeke (general philosophical introduction). In 1972, after the publication of the De Anima (an edition of two volumes), the series Avicenna Latinus received the patronage of the UAI. Nine volumes have now been published, and two more, to contain the Physics, are to come. Following the death of S. Van Riet in 1993, the Académie royale de Belgique formed a committee to preside over the Avicenna Latinus project under the chairmanship of Pierre Jodogne, and André Allard was appointed Director.

Category A. Directed by the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

Directors : S. Van Riet 1972-1993, A. Allard 1994-

Website of the project : http://www.chi.knaw.nl/middeleeuwen/aristoteles/project.html

4. AVERROIS OPERA

In 1932, The Medieval Academy of America, in association with the UAI, initiated a project for a Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem, and undertook to coordinate research in progress for it. A complete reorganization was called for on the death of the first Director, H.A Wolfson.

Albert Zimmermann has been Director of the project since 1978. Under the new title of Averrois Opera, it has three sections: Arabic, in charge of the Academy of the Arabic Language, Cairo ; Latin, in charge of the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Düsseldorf ; and Hebrew, in charge of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem.

There is a datahase of microfilms and bibliography at the Thomas-Institut of the University of Cologne.

Editorial conferences for the heads of the three sections and scholars working on the project are held in Cologne every three years in order to discuss new activities and matters of special concern in regard to the editions in hand or the individuals involved with them.

Category C. Director : A. Zimmermann 1974-1997, G. Endress (éditeur général) 1998- , J. A. Aertsen (directeur de la section latine) 1998- , M. Mahdi (directeur de la section arabe) 1998- , Ben-Shammai (directeur de la section hébraïque) 1998-

Web site : http://www.thomasinst.uni-koeln.de/averroes/akaaver4.htm

5. ARNALDUS DE VILANOVA

In 1950 R. Aramon i Serra informed the UAI that the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in Barcelona intended to publish the Latin works of Arnaldus de Vilanova and that he would apply for UAI sponsorship. The application was submitted in 1951. According to the plan the project would extend over four volumes : the first one would contain the commentary on the Apocalypse; the second would present in their chronological order 41 writings included in the manuscript Vatican Latin 3824 ; the third volume would offer the remaining Latin theological and philosophical works and the fourth would comprise the Catalan, Italian and Greek texts as preserved since the 14th century. By 1971 the first volume, entitled Expositio Super Apocalypsi had been edited by Carreras i Artau, with the help of two assistants: O. Marinelli Mercacci and J.M. Moratói Thomàs.

Some of the opera minora, edited by Josep Perarnau, appeared in 1989, 1991 and 1992 in a new series published by the Institute. In April 1994, at Perarnau's suggestion, a conference on Arnaldus de Vilanova was held at Barcelona ; the proceedings are published as Actes de la I trobada internacional d'estudis sobre Arnau de Vilanova.

The project was adopted by the UAI in 1952 as a Category C project.

Directed by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Director : R. Aramon i Serra 1952-2000, A.M. Mundó i Marcet 2000-

6. PHILOSOPHORUM MEDII AEVI OPERA SELECTA
(former OPERA PHILOSOPOHICA MEDIAE AETATIS SELECTA)

At the request of the Académie Suisse des Sciences Humaines, Berne, and of the Polska Akademia Nauk (Polish Academy of Science), Warsaw, the commission responsible for the Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi decided to proceed with the publication of a series called Opera Philosophica Mediae Aetatis Selecta. This collection is intended to include important philosophical works in complete critical editions produced under the direction of an international committee. The first volume in the series was published in 1969 ; it contains the Quaestiones Disputatae de Cognitione Animae Separatae of Bernard of Trilia, edited by Pius Künzle. To date, one further volume has been published, namely the Summa de Bono of Philip the Chancellor, edited by N. Wicki (Lucerne), and other texts are in preparation.

The project was adopted by the UAI in 1965 as a Category C project.

Directed by the Académie suisse des Sciences humaines, the Unione Accademica Nazionale, the Akademie véd Céské Republiky and the Polska Akademia Nauk 1965-

7. CORPUS PHILOSOPHORUM BYZANTINORUM

I. Philosophi Byzantini (1984)

At the request of the Akadimia Athinon (Academy of Athens) a new series of Byzantine philosophical works has been launched : its programme was presented and approved during the 1974 session.

By 1994, six volumes were published. The collection includes works of Nicholas of Methone (Refutation of Proclus' Elements of Theology, by A. Angelou), Nicephoros Blemmydes (Gegen die Vorherbestimmung der Todesstunde, by W. Lackner), Georgios Gemistos Plethon (Traité des vertus et Oracles Chaldaïques, by B. Tambrun-Krasker), Georgios Pachymeres (Commentary on Plato's 'Parmenides', by L.G. Westerink et al.), Boethius (De topicis differentiis in den byzantinischen Übersetzungen von Manuel Holobolos und Prochoros Kydones, by D.Z. Nikitas and Consolatione Philosophiae par M. Planude et M. Papathomopoulos), School of Michael Psellos (Anonymi Miscellanea Philosophica, by I.N. Pontikos), Barlaam de Seminara (Logistikè by P. Carelos), Thopanes de Nicaea (A Refutation of the View that the World could have been created ex aeterno by I.O. Polemis)..

Several volumes are currently being prepared : works of Bessarion (by V. Tiftixoglu, Munich), Plethon (B. Tambrun Krasker, Paris), Nikephoros Blemmydes (P. Karellos, Berlin), Theodoros of Smyrna (L.G. Benakis, Athènes), Barlaam the Kalabrian (J.A. Demetracopoulos, Patras), ...

II. Commentaria in Aristotelem Byzantina (1994)

During the 1994 session this new parallel to the 'Philosophi Byzantini' series was proposed to the UAI by the Academy of Athens and duly approved. It begins with the publications, as vol. 1 of Commentaries on Aristotle's Categories and Porphyry's Isagoge by Arethas of Caesarea (edited by M. J. Share, Univ. of Tasmania, Australia). The second volume about the commentaries of Aristotle's Methaphysic by Georgios Pachymeres was published in 2002 (edited by E. Pappa). Several volumes are currently being prepared :   Michael Psellos (L.G. Benakis, Athens), Georgios Pachymeres (E. Pappas, Hamburg ; M. Rashed, Paris and C. Oikonomakos).

Editor of both Series is the Academy of Athens, director : L.G. Benakis 1976-

Both projects were adopted by the UAI as Category C projects.