Avicenna's Isagoge, Chap. I, 12, De Universalibus: Some Observations on the Latin Translation

The Latin translation of Avicenna's Madkhal, preserved in thirteen miscellaneous codices and in the edition printed in Venice in 1508, still needs a critical edition. Ideally, this kind of editorial work requires a stemmatic reconstruction of the relations existing between the manuscripts. As a contribution towards this goal, in the first part of this article a provisional classification of the testimonia is offered, although not based on a complete collation of the codices, as a preliminary step towards a future stemmatic arrangement of the entire manuscript tradition. The prospected critical edition will have to provide an accurate explanation of those phenomena characterising the translation process, some examples of which are shown in the second part of this article.