Proclus to Aquinas
A fifth-century Athenian textbook is excerpted in ninth-century Baghdad, translated into Latin in twelfth-century Toledo under Aristotle's name, and expounded in Paris by Albert and by Thomas — who, with Moerbeke's Latin Proclus in front of him, works out what the book actually is.
step i of v
Proclus, Elements of Theology el.56Kalam fi mahd al-khair (Arabic Liber de causis)
paraphrased
The Arabic writer excerpts propositions of the Elements and rewrites them. Thomas names El. 56 and 57 behind the first section; Bardenhewer adds El. 70, which carries its example.
step ii of v
Kalam fi mahd al-khair (Arabic Liber de causis)Liber de causis ldc.1
translated
Translated from the Arabic in the twelfth century and circulated in the Latin schools as Aristotle's, under the title Liber de expositione bonitatis purae.
step iii of v
Liber de causis ldc.1Albert the Great, De causis et processu universitatis
expounded
Albert argues the book's positions in his own order rather than glossing it lemma by lemma.
step iv of v
Liber de causis ldc.1Thomas Aquinas, Super Librum de causis lect.1
expounded
Thomas expounds it lemma by lemma, and in the proem to Lectio I says where it came from.
step v of v
Thomas Aquinas, Super Librum de causis lect.1Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia q.44-45
reused without naming
The doctrine of the first cause's priority in creation returns in the Summa without the Liber de causis being named. Not yet built as a crux.
No page for this step yet.
The moment it was noticed
Et in graeco quidem invenitur, scilicet traditus liber Proculi Platonici, continens ducentas et novem propositiones, qui intitulatur Elevatio theologica. In arabico vero invenitur hic liber, qui apud latinos de Causis dicitur, quem constat de arabico esse translatum, et in graeco penitus non haberi. Unde videtur ab aliquo philosophorum arabum ex praedicto libro Proculi excerptus; praesertim quia omnia quae in hoc libro continentur, multo plenius et diffusius continentur in illo.And in Greek there is found, handed down, a book of Proclus the Platonist containing two hundred and nine propositions, entitled the Elevation of theology. But in Arabic there is found this book, which among the Latins is called On Causes, which is agreed to have been translated from the Arabic and not to exist in Greek at all. So it seems to have been excerpted out of the aforesaid book of Proclus by one of the Arab philosophers, especially because everything contained in this book is contained much more fully and at greater length in that one.
Super Librum de causis, proem to lectio I (Parma vol. 21, p. 718) — read the whole lectio
Quoted exactly as Parma prints it and verified on the plate: 'Proculi' for Proclus, 'ducentas et novem' where the Elements has two hundred and eleven propositions, and 'Elevatio theologica' for Elementatio theologica. A former owner of the copy has pencilled '2 Elementatio' at the foot of the page. Thomas could say this because he had Moerbeke's Latin Proclus, finished in 1268, on the desk beside him.