58 Arithmatic
FIRST ERA (OF LOGIC)In the mid-fourth century, a Greek paraphrase of Aristo-
tle’s Categoriesin Latin appeared. In the early sixth cen-
tury BOETHIUSplanned and carried out a translation into
Latin of Aristotle’s writings on logic, ethics, and nature to
show their substantial agreement with the dialogues of
PLATO.
In the CAROLINGIANperiod, ALCUINrediscovered the
Categoriae decemand Boethius’s version of the De inter-
pretatione.During the ninth and the 11th centuries, the
Isagoge,the authentic Categoriae,and, at least in part, the
Topicswere added. All these works began to circulate and
be studied and commented upon, becoming the basis for
logical training. As they were to continue to do, they pro-
vided terminology, conceptual instruments, and opening
positions for problems for both Christian philosophy and
theology.
SECOND ERA (OF DISCOVERY)The year 1130 began the true discovery of the authority
and whole body of writing by Aristotle. Translators pro-
duced Latin versions of such fundamental works as the
two Analytics,the Physics,the De generatione,the De
anima,the Parva naturalia,and parts of the Metaphysics,
the Nicomachean Ethics,and the Meteorologica.Transla-
tions from Arabic to Latin, produced the De caelo,the
first three books of the Meteorologica, and numerous
pseudo-Aristotelian treatises, such as the influential De
causis.In the early 13th century MICHAELSCOTtranslated
commentaries by Averroës or IBNRUSHDand included the
Aristotelian text, producing among other texts a new and
more complete version of the Metaphysics.Other transla-
tions followed such as the Secretum secretorum, the
Rhetoric,and Averroës’s commentary on the Poetics.By
midcentury, a new generation of Hellenists such as
Robert GROSSETESTEproduced a complete version of the
Nicomachean Ethics,including a large number of Hel-
lenistic and Byzantine glosses. WILLIAM of Moerbeke
between 1260 and 1280 retranslated most of all the ear-
lier versions of Aristotelian texts. He also made the first
translation into Latin of the Politicsand the Poetics.
RECEPTIONThe acceptance of this body of texts was neither immedi-
ate nor without opposition. A synod of PARISin 1210 for-
bade the teaching of “Aristotle’s books of natural
philosophy,” and in 1215 the arts faculty of the university
prescribed the teaching of several works of Aristotle, but
omitted “Aristotle’s books of metaphysics and natural
philosophy.” Intending to insulate theology from pagan
thought, in 1231 Pope GREGORYIX appointed a commis-
sion of theologians to examine their ideas and eliminate
errors or dangers to Christianity.
Eventually, Aristotle’s work proved too attractive and
the arts faculty of the University of PARIS in 1255
approved as “textbooks” most of Aristotle’s writings. This
approval soon spread to the Universities of OXFORD,
COLOGNE, and PADUA. Aristotle had become the founda-
tion of philosophical teaching in all the European univer-
sities.
Much of the philosophical literature of the rest of the
13th, 14th, and 15th centuries revolved around commen-
taries on Aristotle. The work of Aristotle gave Scholastic
philosophers and theologians a scientific ideal, concep-
tions of knowledge, the useful instruments of logical
demonstration and analysis, principles, definitions, and
ideas about act, potency, form, matter, substance, and
accidents.
See alsoALBERTUSMAGNUS;AQUINAS,THOMAS,SAINT;
IBN RUSHD(ABU I-WALIDMUHAMMAD); IBN SINA(ABU
ALI AL-HUSAYN); SCHOLASTICISM AND THE SCHOLASTIC
METHOD.
Further reading:Cary J. Nederman, Medieval Aris-
totelianism and Its Limits(Aldershot: Variorum, 1997); F.
E. Peters, Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradi-
tion in Islam (New York: New York University Press,
1968); Charles B. Schmitt and Fernand van Steen-
berghen, Aristotle in the West: The Origins of Latin Aris-
totelianism, trans. Leonard Johnston (Louvain: E.
Nauwelaerts, 1955).Arithmatic SeeSEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.Armagnac Armagnac is a county in southwestern
France, created in the 10th century out of Gascony, by
the lords of Armagnac. Between 10th and 13th centuries,
the counts consolidated their principality, fighting other
feudal lords in Gascony such as the counts of Foix. Dur-
ing the HUNDREDYEARS’WAR, John II (1373–84) helped
CHARLESV to recover the provinces conquered by the
English. Bernard VII of Armagnac (d. 1418) became the
constable of France through the patronage of Louis of
Orléans, the brother of King CHARLESVI (1380–1422).
After the murder of Louis at PARIS in 1407, Bernard
became the head of the Orléans or Armagnac party and
father-in-law of Louis’s son, Charles of Orléans. Sup-
ported by an important faction of the French nobility,
Bernard led the fight against the duke of BURGUNDY, who
had been responsible for the murder of Louis. His party,
the Armagnacs, sacked the capital and crushed a revolt of
1413 but lost the Battle of AGINCOURTin 1415. Bernard
maintained control of what was left of France, until his
assassination by the Burgundians in 1418, which
launched another stage in the war. The Armagnacs allied
with the English; LOUIS XI absorbed the counts into
France in the 1480s.
Further reading:C. T. Allmand, Society at War: The
Experience of England and France during the Hundred Years’
Wa r(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973); Robin Neillands,
The Hundred Years’ War(New York: Routledge, 1990).