On Aristotle’s ＂metaphysics＂: An Annotated Translation of the So-Called ＂epitome＂

This book contains the first English translation of Abūl-Walīd Ibn Rushd’s (Averroes’) so-called Epitome of Aristotle’s Metaphysics . The original Arabic text was composed around 1160 as a sort of appendix to a series of compendia of Aristotle’s works on natural philosophy by the famous Andalusian philosopher. The two most interesting things about this work are the fact that Averroes restructures here the Aristotelian text according to his own conception of metaphysics, as opposed to his great literal commentary which follows the order of the Metaphysics section by section, and that he constantly revised this work over more than three decades. The present translation is based on a wide range of documents including, apart from the available Arabic editions, a number of medieval Arabic manuscripts not taken into consideration in these editions as well as the Renaissance translation into Latin prepared by Jacob Mantinus. It is accompanied by a commentary dealing with the major philosophical topics, Averroes’ sources and problems of the transmission and constitution of the text. In addition, the most important variant readings of the manuscripts are noted in footnotes underneath the translation.

Rüdiger Arnzen, Thomas Institute, University of Cologne.