An Inventory of Medieval Commentaries on pseudo-Aristotle’sPhysiognomonica

Abstract

An Inventory of MedIevAl CoMMentArIes on pseudo-ArIstotle's Physiognomonica *The reception history of texts on physiognomy in the Middle Ages remains a largely unexplored area of research: its full history still needs to be written, especially when it comes to the biggest player in the field, Aristotle's Physiognomonica. The text deals with physiognomy, the discipline in which one tries to derive a person's character traits from their outward appearance. This text, which is nowadays considered pseudepigraphic, was translated from Greek into Latin by Bartholomew of Messina under the reign of king Manfred of Sicily (1258Sicily ( -1266. Thanks in part to this Latin translation, there was a revival of interest in physiognomy in the Middle Ages. No fewer than 128 manuscripts have come down to the present, which makes it Bartholomew's most popular translation. * This research was carried out within the framework of the project on the reception of Aristotle's Physiognomonica in the Middle Ages (project "The body as a mirror of the soul: an inquiry into the reception of the Physiognomonica in the Middle Ages and Renaissance" under the supervision of Pieter De Leemans and Russell Friedman).1 Worth mentioning are the major studies in the field of medieval physiognomy by J.