Historia animalium

The Historia animalium in a 12th century manuscript in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , plut. 87.4

The Historia animalium ( ancient Greek Περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστορίαι , animal science ' ) is a 4th century BC. Aristotle's zoological scripture . It aims at an empirical inventory of zoological knowledge as a basis for determining the causes on which the phenomena are based.

Works of the same name were written by Conrad Gessner and Ulisse Aldrovandi in the 16th century .

Scope and time of origin

The Historia animalium of Aristotle is part of the Corpus Aristotelicum . In its traditional form it consists of ten books, the order of which has partly changed over time and therefore varies in modern text editions. The usual count is according to the edition by Immanuel Bekker . According to the prevailing view today, the original order was I-VI, VIII, IX, VII, X. The authenticity of books I-VI and VIII is indisputable, but additions added later are expected, at least some of which do not come from Aristotle . The authenticity of Books VII and IX is disputed. Book X is considered certain or, with a high degree of probability, spurious.

The time of creation of the work is unknown; it is quite possible that the drafting took a long time and that changes were made again and again.

content

Book I begins with the classification of the “body parts”, which Aristotle does not only mean limbs and organs, but also flesh, fat and blood. He differentiates between “identical” (homogeneous) parts such as meat and bones and “dissimilar” (heterogeneous, “instrumental”) parts such as the hand, which are made up of identical parts (meat, bones, tendons). Aristotle establishes similarities and differences between the animal species with regard to their equipment with these parts as well as according to other characteristics such as movement and reproduction.

On the basis of this finding, he turns to the question of zoological classification. He comes to the result (I.6) that a comprehensive classification scheme for the complete recording of the entire animal world is not possible, since some species represent special cases that cannot be inserted. This is followed by the investigation of the differences in the components of the body (books I.6 to IV.7), various other differences (books IV.8–11), the differences in reproduction (books V.1 to VII.12) and Finally, the differences in activities, behavior and influences such as diet, social behavior, living space and in relation to the climate and the seasons (Books 8 and 9).

Humans are always included in the investigation as a species among other species, especially since, as Aristotle emphasizes, they are the best known species. The investigation progresses from the known, clearly visible, to the more difficult to recognize.

The main concern of Aristotle is to work out the differences between the species. He is convinced that this is where their scientific research must begin. The question of a hierarchical classification system of the species is secondary to him. Nowhere does he explicitly discuss the division into larger groups; although he is apparently its originator, he treats it as something fixed. First, he divides the entire animal world into "blood animals", all of which have a spine, and bloodless animals.

He divides the blood animals as follows:

• Mammals (viviparous)
  • two-legged (human)
  • viviparous quadrupeds (including, but not limited to, many-toe, two-hoofed, solipeds, animals with tusked teeth, some marine mammals)
• Birds
  • Crooked claws (birds of prey and scavengers), divided into diurnal and nocturnal
  • Worm eater
  • Thistle eater
  • Woodpeckers
  • Pigeon-like
  • Columnar waterfowl
  • Webbed feet
  • flightless birds
• Amphibians and reptiles (egg-laying, quadruped or footless)
• fishes
  • viviparous (sharks, rays)
  • Whales and dolphins (although he recognized many physiological similarities with terrestrial vertebrates such as blood (circulation), air breathing, uterus, lactation, body hair, fin anatomy)
  • egg laying

In the bloodless animals he differentiates between molluscs, crustaceans, insects and shellfish.

Of the 549 vertebrate species mentioned, over 300 have been described so precisely that modern zoologists have been able to identify them. This makes the work one of the oldest special encyclopedias .

Errors

The Historia animalium contains a few obvious errors. It is claimed that the mayfly have four legs (I.5 490a32-490b3 and V.19 552b17-23) and that men have more teeth than women (II 3 501b19f.). However, this does not lead to the conclusion that Aristotle observed poorly, because he took some of the information unchecked from third-party reports. These included allegations that he could not verify because they relate to species that lived in foreign regions or, as in the case of the mayflies, arose from inaccurate observation. The mayflies only stand with four legs, as they use their front legs like antennae and are raised high above their heads and point forward.

effect

Antiquity

After the death of Aristotle, his students almost entirely neglected the research program that he had set out and started in his zoological writings, with the exception of Theophrastus , who wrote several largely unsustainable treatises on animals. In all of antiquity nobody wrote a commentary on the Historia animalium and the other zoological works. The historian of philosophy Diogenes Laertios names the Historia animalium among the works of Aristotle, but (like some other authors from the imperial period) probably only knew one summary. Galen was familiar with the zoological writings of Aristotle and used them by quoting certain statements partly in agreement and partly in disagreement. But even he did not do any further zoological research in the sense of the program conceived by Aristotle.

middle Ages

In the 10th century, the scholar told Ibn al-Nadim in his Kitab al-Fihrist that in nineteen books (maqālāt) articulated Kitaab al-hayawān (Book of Animals) Aristotle was by Yahya ibn al-Bitriq been translated into Arabic and According to a catalog of a private library that he had seen, there was also a Syrian translation. It is unclear whether the Arabic text handed down in three manuscripts, which originated in the 9th century, actually comes from ibn al-Bitriq. In the Kitāb al-hayawān three zoological writings of Aristotle are compiled: Historia animalium (Book 1–10), De partibus animalium (Book 11–14) and De generatione animalium (Book 15–19). The three components are not identified as separate units by their own headings. Not to be confused with this Aristotle translation is the Kitāb al-hayawān of al-Jāhiz . There material from the Historia animalium has been used, but it is an independent work by this author.

Michael Scotus translated the Book of Animals from Arabic into Latin by 1220 at the latest , and so it became known to the Latin-speaking world under the title De animalibus libri XIX (Nineteen Books on Animals) . Around 1260 Wilhelm von Moerbeke made a second Latin translation, based on the Greek text. From the 14th century onwards, the younger translation slowly supplanted the older one.

De animalibus was a basic textbook for scholastic zoology and philosophical anthropology of the late Middle Ages. Albertus Magnus wrote an extensive work De animalibus ( About the animals ) in 26 books; in book 1–10 he dealt with commentary on the material of the Historia animalium . Other scholastic scholars who wrote extensive commentaries in the 13th century were Petrus Hispanus (Medicus) and Gerhard von Breuil.

The Historia animalium was translated from Latin into Hebrew in the 13th century. The scholar Gershom ben Shelomoh used this translation extensively in his scientific encyclopedia Himmelstor around 1300 .

In the Byzantine Empire, the scholar Johannes Tzetzes wrote a commentary on the Historia animalium in the 12th century .

After 1450, the humanist Theodorus Gaza created a new Latin translation that met the requirements of the time, which was first printed in 1476 and published in 1504 by Aldus Manutius in Venice. This Latin standard text subsequently formed the basis for the scientific study of the work. In 1497 Aldus Manutius brought out the first printed edition ( Editio princeps ) of the Greek original version.

Modern works of the same name

The Zurich polymath Conrad Gessner took up the title Historia animalium and described all animal and plant species known around the year 1550 on 4500 pages. He described each of the species in eight sections, including appearance, behavior, and usefulness in nutrition and medicine.

Alongside Conrad Gessner, Ulisse Aldrovandi is considered to be one of the founders of modern zoology . Above all, his very detailed systematic investigations made him known. His main work is the Historia animalium , consisting of eleven volumes , of which the three volumes on birds ( ornithologia ) in particular became famous as a supplement to Gesner's work.

Editions and translations (some with commentary)

• Hermann Aubert, Friedrich Wimmer (Ed.): Ἀριστοτέλους ἱστοριαι περί ζώων. Aristotle Animal Science. Engelmann, Leipzig 1868 (critical edition with German translation and explanations; online )
• David M. Balme (Ed.): Aristotle: Historia animalium . Volume 1: Books IX: Text . Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2002, ISBN 0-521-48002-7
• Pieter Beullens, Fernand Bossier (ed.): De historia animalium. Translatio Guillelmi de Morbeka. Pars prima: Lib. I – V (= Aristoteles Latinus , Volume XVII 2.I.1). Brill, Leiden 2000, ISBN 90-04-11863-2 (critical edition of the medieval Latin translation)
• Paul Gohlke (translator): Aristoteles: Tierkunde (= Aristoteles: Die Lehrschriften , Volume 8.1). 2nd edition, Paderborn 1957
• Christof Rapp (Ed.): Aristoteles: Works in German translation. Volume 16: Zoological writings I. Historia animalium. Akademie Verlag (from 2019: de Gruyter), Berlin 2013 ff.
  • Part 1: Books I and II. Translated, introduced and commented on by Stephan Zierlein, 2013, ISBN 978-3-534-02004-1
  • Part 3: Book V. Translated, introduced and commented on by Katharina Epstein, 2019, ISBN 978-3-534-27102-3
  • Part 5: Book VIII and IX. Translated and explained by Stefan Schnieders, 2019, ISBN 978-3-534-27064-4

literature

• Friederike Berger: The text history of the "Historia Animalium" of Aristotle (= Serta Graeca. Vol. 21). Reichert, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-439-1 (also: Berlin, Free University, dissertation, 2000).
• Christian Hünemörder : Aristotle's Historia animalium. Goal, dating and structure. In: Wolfgang Kullmann , Sabine Föllinger (ed.): Aristotelian biology. Intentions, methods, results (= philosophy of antiquity. 6). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07047-8 , pp. 397-403.
• James G. Lennox: Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology. Studies in the Origins of Life Sciences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2001, ISBN 0-521-65027-5 .
• Carlos Steel, Guy Guldentops, Pieter Beullens (eds.): Aristotle's Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (= Mediaevalia Lovaniensia. Series 1: Studia. Vol. 27). Leuven University Press, Leuven 1999, ISBN 90-6186-973-0 .

Web links

Wikisource: Των περί τα ζώα ιστοριών  - sources and full texts (Greek)

Wikisource: History of Animals (Thompson)  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Historia animalium , English translation by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

Remarks

1. ^ Christian Hünemörder: Aristoteles' Historia animalium. Goal, dating and structure. In: Wolfgang Kullmann, Sabine Föllinger (ed.): Aristotelian biology. Intentions, methods, results , Stuttgart 1997, pp. 397-403, here: 401 f .; Hellmut Flashar : Aristotle. In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 3: Older Academy - Aristoteles - Peripatos , 2nd, extended edition, Basel 2004, pp. 167–492, here: 253 f.
2. ↑ James G. Lennox: Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology , Cambridge 2001, pp. 39-71.
3. ↑ Aristotle: Historia Animalium , 4th century BC. Chr., HA 566b2-5 (in the page numbering according to Bekker). See Aldemaro Romero: When whales became mammals: The scientific journey of Cetaceans from fish to mammals in the history of science. (PDF) In: INTECH Open Access Publisher , 2012; Susanne Prahl: Investigations into the construction of the epicranial airways in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena Linnaeus, 1758). Dissertation, Hamburg 2007 (PDF cannot be linked due to blocking filter), p. 6.
4. ↑ Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, Michael Miersch, Fabian Nicolay: Life Counts. A global balance of life , Berlin 2000, p. 68.
5. ↑ On Aristotle's information about four-footed mayflies see Wolfgang Kullmann (transl.): Aristoteles: About the parts of living beings (= Aristotle: Works in German translation , Volume 17/1), Darmstadt 2007, p. 661.
6. ↑ James G. Lennox: Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology , Cambridge 2001, pp. 110-127.
7. ^ Lou Filius: The Arabic Transmission of the Historia animalium of Aristotle. In: Arnoud Vrolijk, Jan P. Hogendijk (Eds.): O ye Gentlemen. Arabic Studies on Science and Literary Culture , Leiden 2007, pp. 25–33, here: 25–27.
8. ^ Friederike Berger: The text history of the Historia animalium des Aristoteles , Wiesbaden 2005, p. 52.
9. ↑ Hendrik Joan Drossaart Lulofs : Preface. In: Aafke MI van Oppenraaij (ed.): Aristotle, De animalibus. Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin Translation , Part 3: Books XV – XIX: Generation of Animals , Leiden 1992, p. VII.
10. ↑ Hendrik Joan Drossaart Lulofs: Preface. In: Aafke MI van Oppenraaij (ed.): Aristotle, De animalibus. Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin Translation , Part 3: Books XV – XIX: Generation of Animals , Leiden 1992, p. XIf.
11. ↑ Theodor W. Köhler : Foundations of the philosophical-anthropological discourse in the thirteenth century , Leiden 2000, pp. 162–164, 237f., 247, 250, 273f., 314f., 321f., 334f.
12. ↑ Mauro Zonta: The Zoological Writings in the Hebrew Tradition , in: Carlos Steel inter alia (Ed.): Aristotle's Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance , Leuven 1999, pp. 50-52.
13. ↑ Michael Gleich among others: Life Counts. A global balance of life , Berlin 2000, p. 68 f.