L’inizio di un movimento nella fisica del continuo : Avicenna lettore di Aristotele (Libro della guarigione, Fisica, III, 6)

In Book VI of Physics, Aristotle states that every motion has an end, but not a beginning. The problem of how to consider the beginning of a motion emerges when motion, inasmuch as it is a continuum, is considered infinitely divisible. Avicenna deals with this problem in Book III, Chapter 6 of the Physics in The Book of the Healing. The aim of the present article is to clarify the most significant passages of this chapter from a doctrinal as well as a textual point of view. We will show how Avicenna addresses the problem by adopting the strategy of a terminological disambiguation of what is meant by ‘beginning’. In this sense, his account is inserted in the tradition of late-antique commentaries on Aristotle, but with some interesting differences. To achieve our aim, we have examined the most ancient witnesses of the manuscript tradition of Avicenna’s Physics, many of which are not considered in the previous editions, as well as the Medieval Latin translation, which makes it possible to trace back to an ancient phase of the transmission of the text.