Tractatus Coislinianus

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The Tractatus Coislinianus is a manuscript that outlines a theory of comedy in the tradition of Aristotle's poetics . The Tractatus explains that comedy uses laughter and pleasure to purify the emotions ( catharsis ) in a way parallel to the description of tragedy in poetics . It describes the tricks used and the way in which catharsis is brought about. The manuscript is now in Paris in the Bibliothèque nationale de France under the signature "Coislinianus 120".

history

The 10th century manuscript was in the Megisti Lavra monastery on Mount Athos . In 1643 Athanasios rhetorician sent it to Pierre Séguier . The classical scholar John Anthony Cramer (1793-1848), who studied the collection of Henri-Charles de Coislin , was overwhelmed by its content, he believed that it was the work of a commentator on Aristotle's theory of comedy and published it in 1839. This assumption was soon ridiculed, but regained persuasiveness in the twentieth century. Richard Janko has argued that they are the notes or sketches of the second lost section of Poetics . Heinz-Günther Nesselrath argues that it is a later work, perhaps by Theophrast .

literature

  • John Anthony Cramer (Ed.): Anecdota Graeca. E codicibus manuscriptis bibliothecae regiae Parisiensis . Olms, Hildesheim 1967 (four volumes; reprint of the Oxford edition 1839/41).
  • Lane Cooper: An Aristotelian Theory of comedy with an adaptation of the poetics and a translation of the "Tractatus coislinianus" . Kraus Reprint, New York 1969 (reprint of the New York 1922 edition online ).
  • Richard Janko : Aristotle on comedy. Towards a reconstruction of Poetics II . Duckworth, London 2002, ISBN 0-7156-3169-1 (reprint of the London 1984 edition).
  • Omert J. Schrier: The Poetics of Aristotle and the Tractatus Coislinianus. A bibliography from approx. 900 till 1996 (Mnemosyne / Supplement; Vol. 184). Brill, Leiden 1998, ISBN 90-04-11132-8 .

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