Alexander Of Aphrodisias, De Unitate: A Pseudepigraphical Testimony Of The De Unitate Et Uno By Dominicus Gundissalinus

Abstract

Before discussing the authorship of a small treatise De unitate with which Alexander of Aphrodisias is credited in the Latin manuscript tradition, it might be of some use to recall the main data concerning the translations of his works, roughly following the chronology of the translations into Latin from Arabic and Greek. It had been precisely the analysis of the sources which had enabled first Haureau and then Correns to demonstrate the pseudo-epigraphical nature of the De unitate et uno , formerly attributed to Boethius. Relying on one of the manuscripts of the De unitate et uno which seems to attribute the treatise to Dominicus Gundissalinus-who translated so many works from Arabic into Latin, and moreover cooperated with John of Spain in the translation of Ibn Gabirol's Fons vitae -Correns explored this possibility in depth and came to the conclusion that the author of the De unitate et uno was Gundissalinus. Keywords: Alexander of Aphrodisias; De unitate et uno ; Dominicus Gundissalinus; Ibn Gabirol's Fons vitae ; Latin manuscript tradition; pseudo-epigraphical nature