The Diffusion of Sextus Empiricus`s Works in the

The Diffusion of Sextus Empiricus's Works in the Renaissance
Author(s): Luciano Floridi
Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 63-85
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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The Diffusion
of
SextusEmpiricus's
Works
intheRenaissance
LucianoFloridi
An Annotated
List of ThreeKnownLatinTranslations
Introduction:
In discussingthe recoveryof Pyrrhonism
duringthe fifteenth
and sixteenthcenturies,it seems that any analysis of the influenceof Sextus
Empiricus'sworkson Renaissanceculturehas to be based on a careful
of whatprimary
and secondarysourceswere availableat the
investigation
time,andwhoknewandmadeuse of suchsources.Forthispurposescholars
locatedandstudiedfive
have,sincethesecondhalfofthenineteenth
century,
of SextusEmpiricus'sworks.This has recentlyled to the
Latintranslations
of threecopiesof a late
of a familyofmanuscripts
reconstruction
consisting
medievaltranslation.
T : Paris,BibliothequeNationale,Ms. Lat. 14700,s. XIII, mbr.,misc.,
libri.'This is themost
396 fols.:(ff.83r_132v)
(P)Irroniarum
Informacionum
of theOutlines.Because of its closenessto
widelyknownLatintranslation
the originalGreek text,it was used by HermannMutschmannfor the
constitutio
textusin his criticaleditionof Sextus'sworks.2Discoveredand
it was further
describedby CharlesJourdain,
studiedby ClemensBaeumker
who listedit as "Tr.l." in his stillfundamental
and Mutschmann
himself,3
1 For detailed descriptionsof the Ms. see M. Leopold Delisle "Inventairedes
BibliothUquede l'Ecole des Chartes,30 (1869), 40;
manuscritslatinsde Saint-Victor,"
G. Lacombe (ed.), AristotelesLatinus Codices (Rome, 1939), I, 544-45; and Paul Oskar
Kristeller,
Iter Italicum(Leiden, 1983), III, 235a.
2 Cf. Sexti EmpiriciOpera, recensuitHermannusMutschmann
... addenda et corrigendaadiecitI. Mau (Leipzig, 1958).
3 Charles Jourdain,
"Sextus Empiricuset la philosophiescolastique,"in Excursions
historiqueset philosophiquesa' traversle moyenage (Paris, 1888), 199-217; Clemens
Baeumker,"Eine bisher unbekanntelateinischeUbersetzungder Ynotuirvomov des
Geschichteder Philosophie,4 (1891), 574-77 (he does not
SextusEmpiricus,"Archivfiur
63
1995byJournal
oftheHistory
ofIdeas,Inc.
Copyright
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Luciano Floridi
64
workon extantmanuscripts
of SextusEmpiricusand lateron as "T" in the
Prefaceofhis editionof SextiEmpiriciOpera.4
T2: Venice,BibliotecaNazionaleMarciana,Cod. Lat. X.267 (3460), s.
XIV, cart., 57 fols.: (ff. Ir-46v) Pirronie Informaciones and (ff. 47r 57v)
III-V. Onlyveryrecentlydid Walter
fragments
of AdversusMathematicos
of the Outlinesis another,moreaccurate
Cavini show thatthistranslation
ofa dateddraftof
copyofParisLat. 14700.5Thanksto theclose examination
afterthetranslation
of the Outa testament
written
on f. 46v, immediately
antequemfordatingthis
lines,Cavinihas beenable to providetheterminus
T1 and T3.
and correspondingly
manuscript
T3: Madrid,BibliotecaNacional,Ms. 10112 (Hh92, Toledo 98, 25), s.
XIV, mbr.,misc., 131 fols., not numbered:(ff. 1r-30r),Pirroniarum
libri.ComingoriginallyfromToledo's Library,the Sextian
informacionum
had been wronglycataloguedas excerptsfromAulus
partof themanuscript
Gelliusby JoseMillas Vallicrosa.The mistakewas firstdiscoveredby P. 0.
Kristellerin 1955.6 It is a more accurateversionof the same translation
containedin Ms. ParisLat. 14700.
studieduntilnow containtranslations
The onlyothertwo manuscripts
and do notforma homogeneousgroup.
fromAdversusMathematicos
LI: Rome,BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana,Ms. Lat. 2990, s. XV, cart.,
Books I-IV. This
AdversusMathematicos,
misc.,385 fols.: (ff.266r-381v),
translation
byGiovanniLorenzi(c. 1440-1501)was firststudiedbyGiovanni
Mercati,thenby CharlesB. Schmitt.7
know of Jourdain'sarticle); A. Elter et L. Rademacher,Analecta Graeca, Prog. zum
Geburtstaged. Kaisers (Bonn, 1889), 11-28; H. Mutschmann,"Zur UJbersetzertatigkeit
des Nicolaus von Rhegium(zu Paris lat. 14,700),"BerlinerPhilologischeWochenschrift,
22 (1911), 691-93.
4 H. Mutschmann,"Der Uberlieferungder Schrifftendes Sextus Empiricus,"
RheinischesMuseum,64 (1909), 250 and 478. See also SextiEmpiriciOpera, X-XI.
in occidentedelle opere di Sesto
S WalterCavini, "Appuntisulla primadiffusione
Empirico,"Medioevo,3 (1977), 1-20; and see Kristeller,Iter Italicum,II, 252b, and VI,
259a.
6 Cf. Jose Millas Vallicrosa,Las traduccionesorientalesen los manuscritos
de la
BibliothecaCatedralde Toledo (Madrid,1942), 211-18, no. 45 (Ms. 98-25, n. 327 of the
1727 Inventory),who thoughtit was part of the excerptfromAulus Gellius. A more
of theMs. and correctionof Vallicrosa's information
is in Kristeller,
accuratedescription
Iter Italicum,IV, 567b-568a; see also E. Pellegrinin "Manuscritsdes auteursclassiques
latins de Madrid et du Chapitrede Tolede," Bulletin d'Informationde 1' Institutde
Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes,2 (1953), 7-24, cf. 15, and Manuel de Castro,
ManuscritosFranciscanosde la BibliotecaNacional de Madrid (1973), 437-38, no. 407;
and Martide Barcelona,"Notes descriptivesdels manuscritsfranciscansmedievalsde la
BibliotecaNacional de Madrid,"EstudisFranciscans,45 (1933), 384.
7 Giovanni Mercati, "Minuzie: Una Traduzione di Giovanni Lorenzi da Sesto
Empirico,"Bessarione, 36 (1920), 144-46, now in Opere Minori, Studi e Testi (79)
Rendicontidella
(Vatican City, 1937), IV, 107-8; GiovanniMercati,"Questenbergiana,"
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SextusEmpiricus
65
L3: Oxford,BodleianLibrary,Ms. Sancroft17 (S.C. 10, 318), s. XVI,
cart.,86 fols.:AdversusLogicos I (i.e. Adv. Math.VII) translated
by John
was discoveredby RichardPopkinin
Wolley[c. 1530-96].The manuscript
the 1960s,thenstudiedby CharlesB. Schmitt.8
Obviously,scholarshave also evaluatedthe degree of diffusionof
Sextus's worksin the fifteenth
and sixteenth
centurieson thebasis of the
evidenceprovidedby thepreviouslist.Giventhenumberand qualityof the
Latintranslations,
theyhave generallyagreedthat-withthe important
exception of GianfrancescoPico della Mirandola, who read Sextus in
Greek9-his workshad littleimpacton Renaissanceculture,at least until
in 1562.10In whatfollows,I intend
Estienne'seditionofhis Latintranslation
to expandthepreviouslistbyaddingtwomoremanuscripts.
Havingenlarged
to refineourunderstanding
our evidentialbasis,I shall thenattempt
of the
initialstagesof thehistoryof modemskepticism
by arguingthat,although
SextusEmpiricus'sskepticalarguments
werenotwidelyused in philosophy
thesummascepticarepresented
duringtheRenaissance,nevertheless
by his
workswas rather
better
knownamongthehumanists
thanhas beensuspected,
itwouldbe morecorrectto speakofa Renaissancelackof
andthattherefore
in theanti-epistemological
interest
function
of Pyrrhonian
thanto
arguments
inferfromtheabsenceof"influence"
a corresponding
absenceofknowledge
of thewritings
of SextusEmpiricusduringthefifteenth
and sixteenth
centu-
ries.
PontificiaAccademiaRomana di Archeologia,ser. 3, VIII (1933), 249-69, now in Opere
Minori,IV, 437-59 (on Vat. lat. 2990 see 448 n. 37 and 452-53); CharlesB. Schmitt,"An
Translationof Sextus Empiricusby GiovanniLorenzi," in
UnstudiedFifteenth-Century
CulturalAspectsoftheItalianRenaissance:Essays in HonourofP. 0. Kristeller,ed. by C.
H. Clough (Manchester,1976), 244-61. About the physicalnatureof the codex see also
Tammarode Marinis,La Legaturaartisticain Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Firenze,1960), II,
101, and III, 44 (on anotherSextiancodex,ParisBN Grec 1964); and again KristellerIter
Italicum,II, 358a. For a descriptionof 25 Mss. containingAdv. Mat. see Against The
Musicians,ed. D. D. Greaves(Lincoln, 1986).
8 CharlesB. Schmitt,
"JohnWolley(c. 1530-1596)and theFirstLatinTranslationof
Sextus Empiricus,AdversusLogicos I," in The Sceptical Mode in ModernPhilosophy:
Essays in Honour of RichardH. Popkin,ed. R. A. Watsonand J. E. Force (Dordrecht,
1988), 61-70. Wolley studiedat Mertonand was awardeda B.A. in 1553 and an M.A. in
ofAdversusMathematicos(Merton,Ms.
1557. The College stillownsa Greektranscription
304), but this does not seem to be the Ms. on whichWolley based his translation:the
quotationfromParmenidesreportedby Wolley in Greek on f. 19 of his translationis
Greektextof Ms.304, f. 88r.On this
fromthe corresponding
slightlybut clearlydifferent
passage bothWolleyand CamillusVenetus,thecopyistoftheGreekMs, agreewithMss L
tr.
and E (Laur. 81.11 and Parisinus1964). See SextusEmpiricus,OutlinesofPyrrhonism,
R. G. Bury(Cambridge,Mass., 1976), XLIII, and AgainsttheDogmatists,tr.R. G. Bury
(Cambridge,Mass., 1976), 57, note 1.
9 On his interestin skepticismsee Charles B. Schmitt,GianfrancescoPico della
Mirandola (1469-1533) and his CritiqueofAristotle(The Hague, 1967).
10 Sexti EmpiriciPyrrhoniarum
hypotyposecnlibri III. ...Graece nunquam,Latine
HenricoStephano(Paris, 1562).
nuncprimumeditiinterprete
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Luciano Floridi
66
of theOutlinesby Paez de Castro
An UnstudiedTranslation
Whenmanyyearsago H. P. Krausboughttheremainsof thePhillipps
Collection,he acquiredamongmanypreciousdocumentsa Spanishcodex
importance
forthepurposeof evaluatwhichturnsoutto be of considerable
of SextusEmpiricusin theRenaissance.The manuing theLatindiffusion
scriptis theformer
Phillipps4135 and containsan originalLatintranslation
is to be datedto thethird
oftheOutlineswhich,as we shallsee in a moment,
The codex belongedto a groupof manucentury.
quarterof the sixteenth
scriptsfromthe librariesof Laserna de Santander,Yriarte,and Astorga
thedealerThomasThorpe,"1
and
acquiredby Sir ThomasPhillippsthrough
untilKraus's death it was part of his privatecollection.'2It is a paper
and
miscellanymade of small and disboundfolios,numberedirregularly
thetranslation
of Sexti
groupedinto32 fascicules.The fasciculecontaining
old
Cheronei[s]libritresde Scepticadisciplinaet charactere(ff.26Or-313r,
in thehand of Juan
withcorrections,
written
titleerased)is an autograph,
Paez de Castro.Thesearetheincipitand theexplicit:
aut invenissese illam, aut invenire
Qui rem aliquam assertantur
nonposse,autse adhucinvestigare
fatiantur
necesseest
intelligereve
[the authorreplacedwiththe textunderlineda previous,erased
version].
... qui est [addedafterwards]
Scepticapreditusdisciplina,idque
sint
ut
sibi
satis
ad solutionem
proposita.
dataopera, poteque
The manuscript
bearsmanycorrections
and addendaand somelinguistic
in
apographthatwillneeda closerexamination
notes.It is another
interesting
forthehistory
orderto be fullydescribed,
butitsimportance
of skepticism
is
probablyremainedunknownand unreadin
alreadyevident.The translation
in Sextus
thepast,butit maybe an indicationof thefactthatsome interest
century.
Empiricuswas risingat leastby themid-sixteenth
11 The Phillippsmanuscripts.
CatalogusLibrorumManuscriptorum
in BibliothecaD.
ThomaePhillipps(repr.London 1968), 60. On thePhillippscollectionsee also Kristeller,
IterItalicum,IV, 230-36.
12The Ms is currently
forsale at H. P. Kraus,RareBooks and Manuscripts,
New York.
I am gratefulto Dr. Roland Folter,directorof theKraus Rare Books and Manuscripts,
for
showingme theMs. Dr. JillKrayehas providedme witha copy of Prof.Kristeller'sletter
in whichhe givesclarifications
theMs tradition
aboutseveraldetailsconcerning
ofthisand
otherSextus's texts.I also thankDr. SandraSider,who had supplieddata and photocopies
to thelateDr. CharlesSchmittwhenhe was workingon thearticleon SextusEmpiricusfor
et Commentariorum.
the Catalogus Translationum
I have consultedtherelatedmaterialat
the WarburgInstitute(Schmitt'spapersand microfilms,
uncatalogued).The Ms, seen by
Kristellerstillat Kraus severalyearsago, is describedin IterItalicum,V, 359a,b.
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SextusEmpiricus
67
Paez de Castrohas been consideredby manyas one of the greatest
Spanishhumanists
who everlived,13
but despitehis famewe do not know
whenhe was born,although
we areinformed
thathe camefromthesmallcity
ofQuer(Guadalajara).Considering
thatwhenhe was inTrentfortheCouncil
in 1545he musthave beenaboutthirty
yearsold,we cannotbe too farfrom
thetruthif we fixthedateof his birthday
around1515. He died in Quer in
1570, probablyin March,but even this date is not certainbecause the
registers
from1563 to 1598 of theparisharchivesof Querare lost.Paez de
Castro studiedin Alcala and Salamanca,firstlaw and thenmathematics,
history,
philosophy,
and above all languages.He knewGreek,Hebrew,and
Chaldean,anditseemshe hadalso studiedArabic.He was in contactwiththe
of his time,suchas Floriande Ocampo,
mostimportant
Spanishhumanists
Juande Vergara,AlvarGomez,and Ambrosiode Morales;and in Spainhe
came to knowDiego Hurtadode Mendoza and the Cardinalof Burgos,of
whomhe becamethelibrarian,
likeBonaventura
Vulcanius.In 1545he went
as a greatscholar
withthe cardinalto Trent,wherehe gaineda reputation
amongotherhumanists.
In an interesting
theCouncil,written
at
listof Spanishpeople attending
thetime,thereis a longnotededicatedto Paez de Castro,who is introduced
seu sacraesive profanaevir."14The Councilgave
as "immensaeeruditionis
riseto one ofthegreatest
ofhumanists
everrecorded,
meetings
andlikemany
ofhis colleagues,Paez de Castrotookadvantageoftheopportunity
provided
by theoccasion.He studiedmanyof themanuscripts
acquiredby or copied
forCardinalMendozafirstin Venice15andthenin Rome,especiallythoseof
13 Cf. CharlesGraux,Essai sur les originesdu Fonds Grecde 1V
Escurial,Bibliotheque
fasc.46 (Paris,1880), esp. 96-109 (page numbersreferto the
de l'Elcoledes HautesE1tudes,
recent Spanish translation,Los Origenes del Fondo Griego del Escorial, ed. and tr.
and addenda).Information
Gregoriode Andres[Madrid,1982],whichcontainscorrections
about Paez de Castro's life is also given by Juan Catalina y Garcia in Biblioteca de
escritoresde la provincia de Guadalajara (Madrid, 1899), 393-413; C. Gutierrezin
Espanoles en Trento(Valladolid, 1951), 663-69. See also A. Morel-Fatio,Historiographie
de Charles Quint (Paris, 1913), and R. Cortes, "Estudio sobre la Historiographiede
CharlesQuintde Morel-Fatio,"BulletinHispanique, 15 (1913), 355-62.
14 Cod. 320 (old n. 143), LibraryofSanta Cruzde Valladolid,ed. and tr.C. Gutierrez,
op. cit.
15 The name of Mendoza occurs very oftenin the registersof borrowingof the
marciani29 maggio 1545 18 novembre
Marciana(cf. "Registrodel Prestitodei manoscritti
marciani
1548 Codice marcianolatinoXIV, 22" and "Registrodel Prestitodei manoscritti
8 febr. 1548 [?] 20 aprile 1559 codice marcianolatino XIV, 23," H. Omont,"Deux
registresde pretsde manuscritsde la Bibliothequede Saint-Marca Venise 1545-1559,"
Bibliothequede 1'Ecole des chartes,48 [1887], 651-86). Mendoza was suspected of
stealingsome of the Mss of the Marciana (see C. Castellani,Il Prestitodei Manoscritti
perditedei
della Bibliotecadi San Marco in Veneziane' suoi primitempie le conseguenti
codici stessi. Ricerchee notizie[Venezia, 1897], Attidel R. IstitutoVeneto di Scienze,
lettereed arti,VIII [Serie VII, 1896-97],see 4-5 [314-16]),butthechargewas apparently
unjustified(Joseph Valentinelli, Bibliotheca manuscriptaad S. Marci Venetiarum
[Venetia, 1868], I, 46, where the authorassertsto have seen the Mss presentedto the
Escorialby Mendoza and foundnone of thembelongingto theMarciana).
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Luciano Floridi
68
acadAristotleand Plato,and becamean activememberof theAristotelian
emy promotedby the groupof learnedpeople presentin Trent.Before
He was in Rome
retiring,
he travelledthroughEurope quite extensively.
between1547 and 1550;16and in 1555 he was in BrusselswithCharlesV,
himhis chronicler
in replacement
of Ocampo.After1560he
whonominated
the
his projectoftranslating
livedin Quer,wherehe mayhave accomplished
Outlines.
Paez de Castrodid notwritemuchand leftmostof whathe did write
17 Beforethediscovery
ofhistranslation
oftheOutlines,histwo
unpublished.
were
the
well-known
works
Memorial
de las cosas
and
most important
necesariaspara escribirhistoria'8and the Memorialde Dr. J. Paez de
19The
Castro... al reyPh. II sobrela utilidaddejuntaruna buenabiblioteca.
to thecomposition
of a history
of thereign
was an essaypreparatory
former
of CharlesV, a workthatPaez de Castroneveractuallywrote;the latter,
of buildinga libraryin
dedicatedto Philip II, concernedthe opportunity
theoriginalprojectwhichgaveriseto theEscorial.
Valladolidandrepresents
details
suppliesa numberofinteresting
Paez de Castro'scorrespondence
in SextusEmpiricus.
As faras I couldascertain,
thefirst
on his earlyinterest
timehe mentionsthe Outlinesis in a lettersentto GeronimoZuritafrom
ofDiego Hurtadode
Trenton 10 August1545.Havingjustvisitedthelibrary
in orderto report,
aboutthe
enthusiastically,
Mendoza,he wroteto his friend
manyworkshe had been able to see. Amongseveralothertitleshe liststhe
"HypotyposisPyrrhonicorum,
que es un libro grande,y bueno."20This
manuscript,already mentionedby Konrad Gesner in his Bibliotheca
Universalisas "DionysiiLonginiopuscula..." in the same year,21was the
16 See
Gregoriode Andres,"Les Copistes Grecs du Cardinalde Burgos Francisco
Mendoza," XVI InternationalerByzantinisten-KongressAkten, II/4, Jahrbuch der
Osterreichischen
Byzantinistik
(1984), 97-104, esp. 98.
17 For bibliography
see JuanCatalinay Garcia,op. cit.,and C. Gutierrez,
op. cit.,67071, whichlists 14 entries.Graux,op. cit. and G. Antolin,Catalogo de los codices latinos
del Escorial V (Madrid, 1923), 46-68, provideinformation
about his library.A not very
accurateselectionof his letterswas publishedin 1680 by JuanFranciscoAndresde Ustaroz
and Diego JoseDormerv(Progressosde la historiaen el Reino de Aragony Elogios de
GeronimoZurita,su primercronista[Zaragoza, 1680]). An excerptfromthisworkis in
Graux,op. cit. appendixn. 4: "Extractosde Cartasde P. de C. a Zurita."More recently
Gregoriode Andreshas edited"31 cartasineditasde J.Paez de Castro,cronistade Carlos
V," in Boletinde la R. Academiade la Historia,168 (1971), 515-71.
18 Cf. Graux,op. cit., 51, publishedin Revistade Archivos,
Bibliotecasy Museos, 9
(1883), 165-78.
19It was publishedby EustasioEstebanin Ciudad de Dios, 28 (1892), 604-10 and 29ff.
20 See Andresde Uztarrozand Dormer,op. cit.,463b, and appendixn. 4 of Graux,op.
cit.
21 Bibliotheca Universalis,sive catalogus OmniumScriptorum
... authore Conrado
Gesnero ... Tiguri apud Christophorum
FroschoverumMense SeptembriAnno 1545, f.
212 .
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SextusEmpiricus
69
miscellanyn. VII.J.9 containing"Sexti Empiricipyrrhonicarum
hypotyposeonlibri3 et contradisciplinas,"
whichwas destroyed
bythefireofthe
Escorial in 1671.22
In anotherletter,
datedSeptember1549 and also addressedto Zuritabut
thistimesentfromRome,Paez de Castrocommunicated
to his friendthe
projectof producinga translation
of SextusEmpincus:"Agoraentiendoen
hazerLatinoa SextoEmpyricoCheroneo,que son dos librosde Philosophia
de los Pyrrhonios,
en que pome grandescosas de lo que
haie una prefacion,
toca paranuestraReligion,& effugiam
vitiligatores;
v.m.adviertalo que en
esta partetienenotando."23
WhichGreekmanuscript
did Paez de Castro
A thirdletterallows us to makea reliable
intendto use forhis translation?
conjectureabouthis originalsource.On 10 April 1568 he wroteto Mateo
Vazquez thatin thepastCardinalMendozahad asked"un escribiente,
griego
de nacion,"to copy some rarebooks in Rome such as Photiusand Sextus
Empiricus.This Greekmanuscript
has now been identified
as Ms. Madrid
Bib. Nac. 4709 (O 30).24Alreadylistedby Weber,the codex containsall
SextusEmpiricus'sworksandtheDialexis.It has beendated1549(ff.1-228)
and circa 1550 (ff.228-327v):thefirstpartwas copiedin Romeby Giovanni
Mauromataof Corffi,while the second,containingthe Outlines,is by a
handand fullyannotated
different
Whilehe was
byPaez de Castrohimself.25
writingto Zuritaabout the projectof a translation,
Paez de Castrowas
to thecopyingof theoriginalGreektextwhichhe was
probablyattending
planningto translate.
The manuscript
and the lettersby Paez de Castroshow thathe knew
Sextus Empiricusand plannedhis translation
severalyearsbeforeHenri
Estienne'sedition,so thatwhenthelatterdecidedto publishhis translation,
his regardfor Sextus Empiricuswas not a completelyisolated case.26
See Graux,op. cit.,276, n. 186. It was theMs E.II.19 cart.in foliomisc.ff.196,the
first93 ff.containingthe Outlines(Gregoriode Andres,Catalogo de los Codices Griegos
desaparecidosde la real bibliotecade el Escorial [El Escorial, 1968], n. 297). The other
codex of Sextus, catalogued by Gesner (f. 596V) as belongingto Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza's library,
containsAdv.Math.and is Ms. T 116 of theNationalLibraryin Madrid
(IterItalicum,II, 517, n. 1); it was cataloguedby Mutschmann
as Ms "z"; see also below
Weber's article(n. 28), and n. 185 in Graux's list.
23 See Andres de Ustaroz and Dormer, op. cit., 483a, repr. in "Saragossa
Disputacion provincial," Biblioteca de escriptoresaragoneses. Seccion historica, 7
(1878), 550 (letterto Zurita).
24 Graux,op. cit.,60-61,412-13 (reproduction
of theletter),and note6. On 93, within
a list of GreekMss. belongingto the Fondo Caldinal Mendoza, Graux quotes: "Memor.
124 SextusEmpiricusenc. Cardl. mano de Paez Huc tandem."
25 The Ms. was ownedby Franciscode Mendoza and Garcia de Loaisa and was in the
Conventode S. Vincentede Plasencia duringthe seventeenth
century.By the eighteenth
centuryit was in theNationalLibrary:see Gregoriode Andres,Catalogo de los Codices
Griegosde la BibliotecaNacional (Madrid,1987), 274-76.
26 I have provideda reconstruction
of Henri'shumanistic
in relationto
anti-dogmatism
of theOutlinesin "The GraftedBranchesof theScepticalTree: 'Noli altum
his translation
sapere' and HenriEstienne'sLatinEditionof Sexti EmpiriciPyrrhoniarum
Hypotyposeon
libriIII," Nouvellesde la Republiquedes Lettres,11 (1992), 127-66.
22
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Luciano Floridi
70
whichwas goingto lead,aftera few
Estiennewas partof a widermovement
in Francewithauthors
years,to thefullphilosophicalimpactof Pyrrhonism
suchas Sanchez,Montaigne,
Charron,
andlaterGassendiandevenDescartes
we do notknowwhichskepticalauthorshe actuallyread).Ifhe was
(although
and therefore
had an important
role in increasing
theinfluence
anticipating,
thatSextusEmpiricuswas goingto have, Estiennewas at the same time
meetingan alreadyexisting,if limiteddemandforan easilyreadabletext.
The worksof SextusEmpiricuswereavailableand readand eventranslated
intoLatinduringtheRenaissancesomewhatmoreextensively
thanwe have
is givenby an
thoughtso far.Further
evidencein favorof thishypothesis
whichhas notyetbeen studied.
Latinmanuscript
earlysixteenth-century
SextusEmpiricusin theBibliotecaNazionaleof Turin
The NationalLibraryof Turinholdsfourmanuscripts
containing
works
ThreeofthemareGreekandhavealreadybeenstudied.
by SextusEmpiricus.
of thesixteenth
The mostfamousis Cod. Gr.B.I.3 (late fifteenth,
beginning
century),whichbears the ex libris of Henri Estienne(Ex librisHenrici
and there
StephaniFlorentiaeemptus1555). The codex is fullyannotated,
can be veryfewdoubtsthatit is thecodex used by Estienneforhis editio
princepsof theOutlines.27It is listedby Weberin his workon theDialexis,
where it is labelled Ms. T.28 The designation was maintained by
who cataloguedit as TaurinensisGr. 12.29It containsGreek
Mutschmann,
of the PyrrhonianaeHypotyposes,
of the ten books of the
transcriptions
ContraMathematicos,
and ofpartoftheso-calledDialexis.A secondmanuWhen
script,Cod. Gr. B.III.32, has been datedto the sixteenth
century.30
CXXIII. c.V.14, he had notseen it and wrote
Weberlistedit as Taurinensis
thathe was thoroughly
relyingon Pasini's catalogueforhis information.
did notinsertit in his annotated
list.31It
MaybeforthisreasonMutschmann
The lastmanucontainsSextiEmpiricioctoprioresadversusMathematicos.
a miscelscriptin our shortsurveyis Cod. Gr. B.VI.29 (sixteenth
century),
27 Microfilm
pos 13500,Rome,B. N., CentroNazionale per lo Studiodel Manoscritto.
It is describedin Albano Sorbelli,Inventaridei Manoscrittidelle Biblioteched'Italia
(Florence, 1924), XXVIII, 13, n. 81 and in JosephusPasinus,Codices ManuscriptiBibliothecaeRegii TaurinensisAtheneaei... (Tauriniex TypographiaRegia, 1749), I, 85, Codex
XI.b.IV.11.
28 E. Weber,"Ober den Dialect der sogenannten
Dialexeis und die Handschriften
des
Sextus Empiricus,"Philologus,57 (1898), 66.
29 H.
"Die UJberlieferung,"
Mutschmann,
246, and 281-82, on Estienne'snotes.
30 Microfilm
pos 13587,Rome,B. N. CentroNazionale per lo Studiodel Manoscritto.
Cf. Albano Sorbelli,op. cit.,XVIII, 21, n. 158 (Codex CXXIII. c.V.14 in JosephusPasinus,
op. cit.,I, 228).
31 Cf. Paolo Eleuteri,"Note su alcuni manoscritti
di Sesto Empirico,"Orpheus,6
(1985), 432-36.
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71
SextusEmpiricus
lany includingSexti Empirici libri adversus mathematicos("alterius
manu exarati,"accordingto Pasini,p. 371).32 Relyingon the
exscriptoris
as TaurinensisCCLXI,
thismanuscript
1749 catalogue,Weberregistered
list.
and,likethepreviousone,thistoo did notappearin Mutschmann's
codex,whichwe shallbe concernedwithat morelength,has
The fourth
been wronglyclassifiedas Greek until now. It is in fact a miscellany
ofAdv.Math.I-III.
containing
a Latintranslation
A Copy of Lorenzi'sTranslation
of 94
L2) is a papermanuscript
The TaurinensisC. 11.11(henceforth
x
to
the
first
cm. 27.2 21,3,whichcan be dated
foliosmeasuring
numbered
The codexwas partlydamagedon topand on
century.33
halfofthesixteenth
partofthecollectionof
theleft-hand
sidebythefirewhichin 1904destroyed
thereare shadowsdue to
Although
theRegiaBibliotecaNazionaleofTurin.34
thefire,itis stillperfectly
readable.The
thewaterused in orderto extinguish
fromff.1 to
codexcontainstwoworks:accordingto themodernnumeration
Bibliothecain
grammatici
93, on ff.2-42 we findApollodoriAtheniensis
threebooksof
containa Latintranslation
ofthefirst
Greek,35whileff.44r_93v
Sextus Empiricus'sContraMathematicosI-III, i.e., AdversusGeometras,
andAdversusRhetores(f. 1 andf.43 areblank).The
AdversusGrammaticos,
ofthefirstbook (Adv.Math.I, 57,
from
thirdparagraph
starts
the
translation
chapterIII, "A Descriptionof the Artof Grammar")withouttitle.A few
are in redink.
notesby thesamehandand thetitlesoftheparagraphs
On closer inspectionthis Sextus manuscriptturnsout to be not an
apographbuta reliablecopyofVat.Lat. 2990. In orderto establishthispoint
it is sufficient
to comparetheincipitand explicitof each book of Lorenzi's
extranslation-already
publishedby Schmittwithsome otherinteresting
In
the
of
theparallelsectionsof L2.
transcription L2 provided
cerpts36-with
in the firstappendixI have reliedlargelyon Schmitt'sworkas faras the
andmodernusage of lettersare conconventions
aboutpunctuation
ordinary
informaonlytheessentialtext,withoutall thefurther
cerned,transcribing
of the
tionthathe included.On theotherhand,I have addedthenumeration
folios and, wheneverpossible,inserteda slash in orderto indicateline
breaks.
32 Microfilm
pos 28685, Rome,B. N., CentroNazionale perlo Studiodel Manoscritto.
See Albano Sorbelli,op. cit.,XXVIII, 31, n. 248, and JosephusPasinus,op. cit., I, 371,
Codex CCLXI. c.I.15.
33 Microfilm
pos 13453,Rome,B. N., CentroNazionale per lo Studiodel Manoscritto.
34 See GiovanniGorini,L'Incendio della Regia BibliotecaNazionale di Torino(Turin,
1905).
35 See A. Diller, "The Text Historyof the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus,"
Transactionsof theAmericanPhilologicalSociety,66 (1935), 296-313,repr.in his Studies
in GreekManuscriptTradition(Amsterdam,1983), 212.
36
Manuscript,"250-57.
Cf. C. B. Schmitt,"An UnstudiedFifteenth-Century
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Luciano Floridi
72
arenowin order.A first
on thenatureofthemanuscript
Some comments
problemwithL2 concernstheorderof thefolios:thepersonwho addedthe
ofthelibrarian
inpencil(accordingto a personalcommunication
numeration
was restored)did not realize
thishappenedin 1937, whenthe manuscript
that,as the foliosstand,theyare partiallymisplaced.Thereis a gap in L2
to L1: f.
to L1: f.20r)andf.48r(corresponding
betweenf.47v(corresponding
to
L1:
f.
2Or[end],
f. 21
f.
52r1v
(corresponding
24r,1.14/15)whichis filledby
and f. 22r) and thenby f. 63rIv(correspondingto L1: f. 22r[end],f. 22v, f.23r1v
the
off.24r),so that,accordingto theoriginalnumeration,
andthebeginning
manuscriptshould be read thus: ..., 47, 52, 63, 48..., 51, 53..., 62, 64, etc.
ofthecopy,itmustbe said thatL2 is notalways
to thereliability
Turning
excerpts.Someas close to theoriginalas it may seem fromtheforegoing
timesthecopyistaddstotheoriginala fewwordsofhis own,as wheninstead
he writes:"[L2: f. 44r]
of writing:
"[L1: f. 13r] ... apudpoetas,Euripidem...,"
... apud poetas, ut pote, homerum,hesiodum,Pindarum,Euripidem..." (note
underlined
onlyin L2). Anotherexampleof
thatpropernamesare commonly
in
folio
the
same
a fewlinesdown,wheninstead
thislackofaccuracyoccurs
communibonumloquendi...,"we read
of having"[L1: f.13v]:Consuetudine
communiQuio [?] sermonisbonumloquendi...."
"[L2: f. 44r]: consuetudine
structure
modifiedthesyntactical
Some othertimesthecopyisthas slightly
of a sentence,as wheninsteadof writing"'[L1:f. 13v]... non eniminquit
oportebat...," he writes "[L2: f. 44]
... non enim oportebat inquit...," or
insteadof "[L1: f. 15r]... ita eodemmodo etiam...,"we have "[L2: f. 45r]...
has been
ita eodem etiammodo...." It also happensthatthe punctuation
modifiedin several occasions, and in L2 some abbreviationsof L1 are
commonlymade explicit,whereasotherparticlesare usuallyabbreviated,
such as the final"-m" or "-n." On the otherhand the copyistsometimes
in L1 and abbreviates
it when
writesthe"-que" in fullwhenit is abbreviated
in full.More generally,
thecopyistof L2 uses a
in theoriginalit is written
greaternumberof abbreviations(e.g., "et" for "etiam," "ipsus" for
"ipsius," "psuadendi"for "persuadendi,""igit" for "igitur"and so on)
(thecopyistofL1 accordingto Mercati),as
thandoes LorenziorQuestenberg
in producing
ifhe werein moreofa hurry
andless interested
a finetextthan
L1.
thecopyistof
Thereare of coursemoreseriousand classic defectsin themanuscript.
Thuson L2: f. 89Vthecopyisthas jumpeda line.The mistakeis understand102'
able. The originaltextsays "'[L1: f. 101v] ... continetdimensionemet,/[f.
interiorcentroque proximus, parvam continet di/mensionemomnes
autem..."; the copyist has been misled by the two occurrences of
so thathe wrote"[L2: f. 89v]continet
omnes
dimensionem,
"dimensionem,"
autem...." Yet thereis no doubtthatall theforegoing
pointsare occasional
whichcannotmodifytheoveralljudgmentaboutthesourceofthe
alterations,
L2 was notmade on thebasis of an originalGreektextbutis a
manuscript:
L1.
of
With
are indicative
respectto thisconclusiontwomorefeatures
copy
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73
SextusEmpiricus
of the derivativenatureof L2. Sextus's frequentquotationsfromother
Sometimesa
authors,whichLorenzileftin Greek,are nevertranscribed.
intoLatin.Thuson f.66rwe
blankspaceis left;moreoftentheyaretranslated
aquai/
Homericverse:"Sic ne iubesfierigelidaeragnator
readthefollowing
duro tecumvolvis sub
Atque superbaDeum regi mandataferemus/Quae
olim,"a versethat
an potius,prudensnam flectitur
pectoredudum/Flecteris
bythetranscription
A fewexceptionsarerepresented
in L1 is leftin Greek.37
of single words,such as "iti'a)pe;" ([L1: 17r] = "iltnpe;" [L2: 46r] =
"MtouCpe?")or ",Bjcxcai" ([L1: 17r] = "Pijatal" [L2: 46r] =P7Bn'rX
whichdeservesto be menfeatureof themanuscript
A finalinteresting
While L2 bears veryfew
tionedis thenatureof the marginalannotations.
notes,whichseem to be of no interesteitherphilologicallyor philosophically,the copyisthas sometimesincludedin the textremarksor addenda
is probablytheclearestexample:
on themarginsofL1. The following
written
on f. 26v of L1 the words "sed solum generalemsyllabamin brevem
witha
are added in themarginof themanuscript
longamquedividentibus"
thattheybelongto themaintext,to
sign(a slashandthreepoints),indicating
1. 17, wherethe same sign occurs. The copyistof L2 has followedthis
themaintext,so thaton f. 49r of L2 we read the
suggestionand corrected
in thetranslation.
passage inserteddirectly
On theHistoryof theManuscript
Beforethediscoveryof L2 therewas no evidencethatLorenzi'stranslathat
itwas thought
in theRenaissance.On thecontrary
tionhad anydiffusion
unknownto the scholarlyworlduntil
VIL 2990 had remainedthoroughly
The storyof themanuscript
goes somewaytowards
Mercati'sshortstudy.38
in
the
of the
not
did
historiography
figure
previously
explainingwhy L2
skepticaltradition.The codex reachedthe Libraryof Turinonly at the
scholar
beginningof the last century,when the greateighteenth-century
TommasoValpergaof Caluso39(1737-1815) leftit afterhis deathto the
and
RegiaBibliotecaofTurin,as partofhisprivatecollectionofmanuscripts
books. Valperga himselfdoes not seem to have studiedit. A possible
of thisnegativeconclusionis providednot onlyby the misconfirmation
whenthe
of the folios-which may have occurredafterwards,
numbering
was acquiredby the TurinLibrary,but mighthave been mismanuscript
treatisewritten
philosophical
placedbefore-butabove all by an interesting
by Valpergain Frenchin 1811,thePrincipesde philosophiepour les initie's
37 Cf. VittorioAmedeo Peyron,Notitia librorummanu typisvedescriptorum
qui
donanteAb. Thoma ValpergaCalusio ... (Leipzig, 1820), 23-24. The examplesgivenby
by one unity,e.g., his fol. 67 is fol. 66r, etc.
Peyronseem to be all misnumbered
38 Cf. Schmitt,
Manuscript,"248.
"An UnstudiedFifteenth-Century
39 On the life and workof TommasoValperga of Caluso see Dizionario Biografico
bibliography.
degli Italiani (Rome, 1973), XVI, 827-32 withfurther
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Luciano Floridi
74
In the Principidi Filosofia the names of Leibniz,
aux mathematiques.40
Descartes,Newton,Hobbes,St. Thomas,Malebranche,
Kant,Plato,and St.
Augustineoccurseveraltimes,whileSextusEmpiricusis nevermentioned.
ifitwerenotforthefifth
Thisfactwouldnotbe ofgreatsignificance
chapter,
entitled"On Certaintyabout ExternalObjects," which is devotedto a
discussionofskepticalissues.Evenherethereoccursonlya genericreference
to "Pyrrhonists"
and a notverydeep analysisof thenotionof "epoche."It
is veryunlikelythata finephilologist
likeValperga,whohadbeendescribed
by his friendVittorioAlfierias a "Montaigneviyo,"41would not have
mentioned
hismanuscript
or at leastquotedthenameof SextusEmpiricusif
he had studiedthecontents
of L2.42
becamepubliclyknownso late,itwas notrecorded
Sincethemanuscript
in anypreviouscatalogue,includingPasini's (1749), and so itwas unknown
the otherthreeTurinmanuscripts.43
to Fabricius,who mentioned
Indeedit
of 1896 thatC. 0. Zurettiacknowledged
the
was onlyin thenewrepertoire
in Latin.He wentso faras
factthatthesecondhalfof thecodexwas written
to providea verybriefincipitoftheSextussection.However,becauseofthe
it in theGreeksection
GreektextofApollodoriBibliotheca,he stillinserted
of his updatedlistof manuscripts
possessedby theNationalLibrary.He did
not repeatthe entryin the Latin section,44and thispartialmisplacement
so that in 1924 the codex came to be
caused later misunderstandings,
Greekin Mazzatinti'sstandard
erroneously
describedas entirely
catalogueof
theLibrary.45
Thingsdid notgo muchbetteron the scholarlyside: theonlyone who
describedthe manuscript
was Weber,but unfortunately
he mencorrectly
tionedit in a list at the end of his article,and a carefulexaminationof
Mutschmann's
annotated
listleads one to suspectthatthelatterdisregarded
thatsectionof Weber'swork.I remarked
above thatWeberfullyacknowl40I use theItaliantranslation,
Principidi Filosofiaper gl' Iniziatinelle matematiche
di TommasoValperga-Calusovolgarizzatidal ProfessorePietro Conte con Annotazioni
dell'AbateAntonioRosmini-Serbati
(Turin,1840). See also M. Cerruti'sLa RagioneFelice
e altrimitidel Settecento(Florence,1973).
41
Cerruti,op. cit.,35.
42 The Fondo Carte Valperga,which the familyValperga of Masino has recently
donatedto theFondo AmbienteItalianotogether
withthecastleof Masino,at themoment
is stillbeing catalogued,so it is not unlikelythatnew information
may come out in the
futureabouttheprovenanceof L2 and how Valpergacame to own theMs. I am grateful
to
Marco Cerrutiand LucettaLevi-Momiglianoforinformation
concerningValperga's Mss
in Turinand Masino.
43 JohannAlbertFabricius,BibliothecaGraeca (Hildesheim,1966, repr.of 1796 ed.,
thethirdcorrectedby G. C. Harles),V, caputXXI (olim XVIII), 527-39.
" C. 0. Zuretti,Indice de' MSS. Greci Torinesi,estrattoda StudiItaliani di Filologia
Classica (Florence,1896), 216, n. 21. This catalogueof the GreekMss (notmentionedin
Pasini's work)is based on theMs Appendixadded by BernardinoPeyron.
45 Albano Sorbelli,op. cit.,XXVIII, 37, n. 304. RatheroddlyZuretti'sworkis quoted
in thenote.
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SextusEmpiricus
75
edgedhisdebtto Peyron.The latterhad suppliedmoredataon themanuscript
thanWeber,inhisconcisestudyoftheFondoValperga,andhadbeenable to
handand thatthe
in a sixteenth-century
establishboththatL2 was written
musthave lived "ante GentianiHervetitempora."
"anonymusinterpres"
in relationto L,, was rathercriticalof theLatinused in
Peyron,like Schmitt
of the firstlines of f. 44r, whichhe saw
His transcription
thetranslation.46
valuable, since this part of the manuscript
before 1820, are particularly
which
oftheextantmanuscripts
suffered
fromthefireof 1904.The inventory
afterthatdisastermighthaveprovidedtheopportuimmediately
was written
butonce again
nityforcastinga clearlighton thenatureof themanuscript,
in
manuscript
of
the
the
insertion
in Greekdetermined
thefirstpartwritten
theGreeksection,as in Zuretti'scatalogue.47
betweenKnowledgeand Use
Distinction
Conclusion:A Methodological
of the first
Today nobodyseems to doubtthata valid interpretation
dependson a detailedreconstruction
phasesof modemskepticism
historical
Unless adequately
and provenanceof thetextualsources.48
of thediffusion
acquisitionof this methodological
however,the fundamental
understood,
at thesametimea dangerouspremisefora muchless
postulatecan represent
there
ofearlymodemphilosophy
acceptablesetofconclusions.In thehistory
and the potential
can hardlybe any influencewithouttextualdiffusion,
degreeof influenceof a giventextcan be assessedonlyif we considerthe
itreachedat thattime.Yet theabsenceofuse of a certain
levelof circulation
textdoes not implythe absenceof knowledgeof thattexton thepartof
thosewhomighthaveuseditbutdidnot.To arguethiswaywouldbe nothing
modalfallacyon thebasis of an anachroless thanendorsing
an indefensible
namely,thatif certaintextslike the Outlinesor Contra
nisticassumption,
but
of epistemology
lateron forthehistory
becameimportant
Mathematicos
thentheymusthave
had a verylimitedeffecton Renaissancephilosophy,
centuries.
and sixteenth
remainedlargelyunknownduringthefifteenth
but
Had SextusEmpiricusbeen known,he wouldhave been influential,
known.The basis
he was notsufficiently
andtherefore
he was notinfluential
is logicallyuntenableand factually
wrong.Thatduringthe
of thisargument
Renaissancetheworksof SextusEmpiricuswerenotwidelyemployedfor
attacksbutwereonlyrarelyused foranti-intellectualisanti-epistemological
tic purposes,is notequivalentto sayingthattheywereunknownor did not
I
See A. Peyron,op. cit.
"Inventariodei Codici SuperstitiGreci e LatiniAntichidella BibliotecaNazionale
di Torino,"Rivista di Filologia e d'Istruzioncclassica, fascicolo 3, n. XXXII (1904),
385ff.Our codex is listedas the 176thand last of the firstsectionon Greek,paper Mss,
416. Zuretti'scatalogueis quoted.
48 See RichardH. Popkin,TheHistoryofScepticism
fromErasmusto Spinoza,rev.ed.
(Los Angeles, 1979).
47
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Luciano Floridi
76
we have seenthatthe
attainsomediffusion
amongscholars.On thecontrary,
two translations
examinedabove pointin the oppositedirection.The late
butactuallydid not
MiddleAges discussedsomeweak formsof skepticism,
knowtheviolentattacksagainstknowledgeexpoundedby SextusEmpiricus
in his compendia.However,therewas alreadya Byzantinerevivalof interest
in theworksof SextusEmpiricusduringthefourteenth
century,49
and recent
scholarlywork50on the circulationof the manuscripts
of Sextus in the
that
Renaissancehas broughtto lightevidencein favorof the hypothesis
werereasonably
well acquaintedwithat leastpartsof
someItalianhumanists
and sixteenthcenturies.By way of
Sextus's Opera duringthe fifteenth
conclusion,I shall add a fewotherdetailswhichmayhelp to painta more
of SextusEmpiricus
complexbutalso moreaccuratepictureoftheinfluence
in theRenaissance.
In recenttimestherehas beensomeconfusion
abouttheallegedevidence
from
thatFrancescoFilelfowas thefirstto bringback a Sextianmanuscript
who took a serious
Greece.51 He was certainly
amongthe firsthumanists
interestin SextusEmpiricus,at least as a literarysource.The Biblioteca
in Florencehas a codex, Laur. 85.19, whichbears
Medicea-Laurenziana
49 Cf. J. A. Fabricius,op. cit., V, 527-28; A. Elterand L. Rademacher,op. cit.; R.
Guillard,Essai sur NicephoreGre'goras(Paris, 1926), 79 and 206-7; D. M. Nicol, "The
ByzantineChurchand HellenisticLearningin theFourteenth
Century,"Studiesin Church
History,5 (1969), 23-47,esp. 43; on thediffusion
of Sextus'sworksin theRenaissancesee
Charles B. Schmittin "The Recoveryand Assimilationof AncientScepticismin the
Renaissance,"Rivista Critica di Storia della Filosofia, 27 (1972), 363-84; a modified
version,"The Rediscoveryof AncientSkepticismin Modern Times," in The Skeptical
Tradition,ed. M. Burnyeat(Los Angeles,1983), repr.in his Reappraisals in Renaissance
Thought,ed. Charles Webster(London, 1989), 225-51. See also Saul Horovitz,Der
der Philosophiebei den Arabern,
Einflussder griechischenSkepsisauf die Entwicklung
Jued-Theol.Sem. Fraenckel'sche Stiftung1909 (Breslau, 1915, repr.
Jahres-Bericht,
Farnborough1971).
50 On skepticismand medievalphilosophysee C. Jourdain,
art. cit.; Schmitt"The
Recovery";and Cavini, op. cit., Michael Frede,"A Medieval Source of ModernSceptiK. Oehler,ed. Claussenand R. Daube-Schackat
cism" in Gedankenzeichen,
Festschrifitfur
(1988), and JackZupko,"Buridanand Skepticism,"Journalof theHistoryofPhilosophy,
31 (1993), 191-221.
51 Both Schmittand Mutschmann(the formerprobablyfollowingthe latter)have
attributed
to RemigioSabbadinithe idea thatFilelfobroughtthe MS of SextusEmpiricus
withhimfromhisjourneyin Greece (Schmitt,"The Recovery,"378, n. 63, and 380); and
"An UnstudiedFifteenth-Century
Manuscript,"246 and n. 16; Brian P. Copenhaverand
CharlesB. Schmitt,
RenaissancePhilosophy(Oxford,1992), 241; and Mutschmann's"Die
478. In fact, Sabbadini wrote: "II quarto italiano illustreche ando a
UJberlieferung,"
a studiargrecoe a raccoglierecodici fuFrancescoFilelfo,partitopercol'ail
Costantinopoli
il 1427. La lista dei suoi autoriraggiungela quarantinae tra essi
1420 e ritornatone
noteremoquelli che non compaiononell'elencodell'Aurispa....Molti altripoi se li venne
to PhilelphiEpistolae
acquistandoin Italia,come Sofocle,...Sesto Empirico(hererefering
f. 14v;32; 32v: 185v;218v,lib. XVII f. 121v)....'.See Le Scopertedei Codici Latini e Greci
nei secoli XIV e XV (Florence,1905; reed.E. Garinwithadditionsand corrections
by the
author,Florence,1967), 48.
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SextusEmpiricus
77
in Greekin its margins,52
and it is well
Filelfo's philologicalannotations
SextusEmpiricuson different
knownthatFilelfomentioned
occasionsin his
worksandin his correspondence
withAurispa,s3
Sassolo da Prato,Bessarion,
Palla Strozzi,54
andAlbertoZaccaria.The collectionofFilelfo'sletters
was a
sortof Renaissance"bestseller,"whichcirculatedin at leastninedifferent
editionsbetween1454 and 1564,so thatit is reasonableto assumethathis
remarkson Sextus Empiricusmusthave reacheda far largernumberof
people thanthe groupof scholarsto whomhis letterswere originallyaddressed.
Furtherevidence is providedby the entry"Sextus Empiricus" in
Gesner'sBibliotheca,whichwas publishedin 1545 butcompletedin 1544.
The entryis not easily explicableunlesswe imaginethattherewas some
of knowledgeabout and interestin the Pyrrhonist
authorbefore
diffusion
Estienne'sedition.Such a diffusion,
however,is not to be limitedto the
sixteenth
We know,forexample,of Poliziano's manyquotations
century.
and of theimportance
Sextus'sworks
and excerptsfromSextusEmpiricus55
had amongthefollowersof Savonarola.56
52
cit.
I have checkedonlythemicrofilm.
For theindicationaboutFilelfosee Eleuteri,art.
53 A mistakeshould here be corrected.Contrary
to what AdrianoFranceschinihas
in GiovanniAurispae la sua biblioteca,notiziee documenti(Padua, 1976), 47-49:
written
"Molti autori,ed opere loro,possedutedall'Aurisparestanoignote.Scopo dell'inventario
del 1459, come di quello del 1461, fu infattil'accertamentopatrimoniale,non biblioo non vi sono riconoscibili,operee autoridei
grafico....Non figuranocosi nell'inventario,
quali si sa che l'Aurispapossedettecodici acquistatinei suoi viaggiin Orienteo scambiati
con altri umanisti.Non figurano... il codice di Sesto Empirico,inviatoal Filelfo nel
1441," it was Filelfowho ownedtheMs. and sentitto Aurispa:see Carteggiodi Giovanni
Aurispa,a cura di Remigio Sabbadini,Fontiper la Storia d'Italia ... (Rome, 1931), 97,
"LetteraLXXVIIII, I1 Filelfo all'Aurispa ... petis a me nunc SextumEmpiricumeius
exscribendigratia,gero tibi morem(mi chiedi Sesto Empiricoper copiarlo:eccotelo) Ex
Mediolano .1111.idus iunias .MCCCCXXXXI."
54 In thelistof books and Mss leftto S. Giustinaby Palla Strozzithereis no mention
of Sextus Empiricus; see Giuseppe Fiocco, "La Casa di Palla Strozzi" in Atti
dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, serie VIII, vol. V, fasc. 7 (1954), 361-82, the
testament
is reproducedon 374-77. For Sextus's Ms whichbelongedto Palla Strozzi(the
Parisinus 2081) see Paul Canart,"DemetriusDamilas alias 'Librarius Florentinus,'"
Rivistadi StudiBizantinie Neoellenici,24-26 (1977-79), 281-347, 310.
55See above all Ida Maier,Les Manuscritsd'AngePolitien(Geneva, 1965), 117-229,
and Lucia CesariniMartinelli,"Sesto Empiricoe una Dispersa Enciclopediadelle Artie
2a serie 20 (1980), 327-58.
delle Scienza di Angelo Poliziano,"Rinascimento,
56 Besides Schmitt'sarticles see GianfrancescoPico della Mirandola Vita Savonarolae, ch. II, repr.in W. Bates, Vitaeselectorumaliquot virorum(London, 1681), 10740, at 109, D. P. Walker,The AncientTheology:Studiesin ChristianPlatonismfromthe
Fifteenthto EighteenthCentury(London, 1972), 58-62; D. Weinstein,Savonarola and
Florence:Prophecyand Patriotismin theRenaissance(Princeton,1970), 243, and Cavini,
art. cit., 16-20.
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Luciano Floridi
78
butwhichwillrequire
Another
factwhichhas remainedso farunnoticed
is thatGioacchinoTorriani(1416-1500)57who in 1494
further
clarification
in membranis,
"58
borrowedfromtheVaticanlibrarya "SextumEmpiricum
now lost,59was not just an ordinaryreaderbut the "generalisordinis
predicatorum"
from1487 to 1500,and thusone of thejudges at thetrialof
medalof 1498,commemorating
the
Savonarola.Thereis even a Florentine
If we considerthat,accordingto Gianfrancesco
him.60
eventwhichportrays
to his followersthe
Pico della Mirandola,Savonarolahad been suggesting
to Christian
faith,Torriani's
readingof SextusEmpiricusas an introduction
in SextusEmpiricusmaynothavebeen casual.
interest
byTorrianiintroduces
The disappearance
oftheVaticancodexborrowed
As CharlesSchmittremarked,
mostof the
a finalgroupof considerations.
andtranslations
and sixteenth-century
of Sextus
manuscripts
extantfifteenthin themselves
thanas indications
of theextent
Empiricusare less important
Thus, some
to whichsuch sourcesof skepticismwere gainingdiffusion.
thefirstquantitative
analysisofthewholesetof
attempted
yearsago Schmitt
he adoptedMutschmann's
listas updatedin the
documents.61
Unfortunately,
by J.Mau, so thatthenumberof
Prefaceto theeditionof Sextus'swritings
57 The standardwork on Gioacchino Turrianiis A. Mortier,Histoire des maitres
generauxde l'Ordre desfreresprencheurs(Paris, 1911), V, 1-65.
58 I dueprimiregistri
di prestitodella BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana,codici vaticani
latini 3964, 3966 pubblicati in fototipiae in trascrizionecon note e indici,ed. Maria
Bertola(Vatican City,1942), 84.
59In theInventory
of theVaticanLibraryof 1475 (Vat. Lat. 3954, f. 62) we read: "[n.
245] SextiHebericiopus. Ex membr.in pavonazio [?] {the questionmarkis in theoriginal
and means 'lost' }," see RobertDevreesse,Le Fonds Grec de la BibliothequeVaticanedes
Originesa Paul V (Vatican City, 1965), 55. Accordingto Devreesse this was a Sextus
EmpiricusMs whichis now lost,supposedlythe same Ms listedin theInventory
of 1481
(Vat. Lat. 3947, f. 57) in which it is describedthus: "[n. 209] Sextus Empiricus,ex
membranis
in rubeo[?]," cf.Devreesse,op. cit.,91. The Ms was stillin theVaticanlibrary
of 1484 (Vat Lat 3949, f. 45v): "[n. 208] SextusEmpiricus[a
accordingto the Inventory
of 1481]" (Devreesse,op. cit., 129).
criticalnotehererefersto then. 209 of theInventory
It maybe thesame Ms cataloguedin theInventory
of 1518 (Vat Lat 3955, f. 31r):n. 241,
where"Sextus Empiricus"is added on the marginof the Ms, cf. Devreesse,op. cit., 197,
to in a GreekInventory
and also theone referred
compiledbetween1517 and 1518 under
Leone X (Vat Gr 1483 f. 68v): "[n. 237], 'to,ov 4u ptecoi3 ntp6; aT?Latuco{S; - ltepi
iCpttepiOt
T6w ICatax X?`TOV aYICERUItC 3?KantsoRaviOV iata, X67y0itep
a&a0oi
Kai
of the
icaicoi." See Devreesse,op. cit.,251. The Ms no longerappearsin the inventories
Vatican librarycompiledsince 1533 (Vat Lat 3951). See also Eugene Miintzand Paul
du Vaticanau XVe siecle d'apres des documentsinedits,XLVIII
Fabre,La bibliotheIque
(Paris, 1887, now repr.Amsterdam,1970), 232: "Sexti Heberici opus. Ex membr.in
pavonazio." This listingis fromthe libraryat the time of Sixtus IV (1471-84) in the
inventory
made by Platinain 1475-77. Paul Canart,art. cit.,has convincingly
suggested
thatRegimontanus
S. 35 maybe a copy of theVaticanusmade by MatthaesDevarius.
60 On Torriani'sportrait
see Carlo Bertelli,"Appuntisugli affreschinella Cappella
Carafaalla Minerva,"Archivum
FratrumPraedicatorum,35 (1965), 122.
61
Cf. Schmitt,"An UnstudiedFifteenth-Century
Manuscript,"259.
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SextusEmpiricus
79
on whichhe conductedhisbriefanalysiswas morelimitedthanit
documents
on 36 itemsonly,7 of which
shouldhave been.He based his considerations
buta new
century
and21 to thesixteenth
weredatedto thefifteenth
century;
knownto containportionsof Sextus's
surveyof the extantmanuscripts
turnsoutto consistof67 items(one ofwhichis datableto theendof
writings
and onlythreeto the
century
of the seventeenth
or beginning
thesixteenth
century).Both the numberand the datingof some of these
seventeenth
especiallyif more
codiceswill probablyhave to be improvedin thefuture,
become
century
data on manuscripts
thatdisappearedsincethe seventeenth
available.
copied forDiego
we knowthatthe Sextusmanuscript
At the moment,
Hurtadode Mendozawas lostin thefireof theEscorialin 1671 and thaton
If we add
weredestroyed.
thesame occasionthreeotherSextusmanuscripts
1527-i.e.,
in
of
Rome
to thesethe one whichdisappearedafterthe Sack
consultedby
whichmayhave beenthesame manuscript
Lorenzi'ssource,62
of
Torriani-and also take into accountthe folio containinga fragment
SextusEmpiricusthatGianvincenzoPinelli sentin March 1582 to Fulvio
in SextusEmpiricuscan be detectedfromhis annotaOrsini(whoseinterest
we have at
tionsin Vat. Gr. 1338) and whichhas neverbeen foundagain,63
thatshouldbe countedas evidenceof a
least six moreGreekmanuscripts
of the writingsof SextusEmpiricus
somewhatmore substantialdiffusion
duringtheRenaissancethanhas been previouslyassumed.Thus,as faras I
containing
have been able to ascertain,the total numberof manuscripts
the
sixteenth
and
during
which
were
extant
portionsof Sextus's writings
is now knownto be at least73. On thisbasis,we may
centuries
seventeenth
draw the graphfoundon page 18 (see the second appendixfor further
explanation).
inthenumberof Sextus's
It is easyto see thattherewas a gradualgrowth
and sixteenth
century.As has
availablebetweenthe fifteenth
manuscripts
shift
thisincreasewas followedby a geographical
been stressedby Schmitt,
62 Accordingto Mercati,Opere minori,IV, 92, the eventcaused the destruction
of
about400 GreekMss.
63 This is not the well-known
Vat. Gr. 1338 (the number133 of Orsini's Inventory),
by bothMattheusDevariusand Fulvio Orsini;see
whichwas ownedand bearsannotations
G. Beltrani,I Libri di Fulvio*Orsininella Biblioteca Vaticana(Rome, 1886), reproducing
the InventariumLibrorumFulvii Ursini, and see 16 "Libro di Sexto Empirico con
scrittoin papiroin 4o foglio,et coperto
nelle margini,et in uno quintemetto,
emendationi
to by Pinelliin a letter
Pinelli's foliois theone referred
di cartapecora." On thecontrary
of 23 Marchto Orsini,see Pierrede Nolhac,La Bibliothequede Fulvio Orsini(Paris, 1887;
Paris, 1976), 103. Orsinileftto the VaticanLibrary"omnes et singulosmeos libros,tam
et impressos ... et omnesalias praetereascripturas,
Graecos quam Latinos,manuscriptos
quae cum dictorumlibrorumnominibusdescriptaesunt in Indice seu Inventarioa me
subscripto....'(cf. 15), and yet,as alreadynotedby Nolhac himself(183, n. 2), "On n'a
aucunnetracechez Orsinid'un feuilletde SextusEmpiricus,acquis en 1582."
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Luciano Floridi
80
in theRenaissance
The Diffusionof SextusEmpiricus'sManuscripts
Number5
1562:HenriEstienne
publishes
his
Latintranslat-ion
ottheOutlines
M%s.
45
40
35
30
20
15
|
-|~
10 10-11 11 11-12 12 12-13 13 13-14 14 14-15 15 15-16 16 16-17 17
Centuries
[E7] Lost Manuscripts
LII
Excerpts
Latin Translations
GreekManuscripts
in skepticaldoctrine,
whichmovedfromItalytowardsthenorth
of interest
and foundits most favorablereceptionin Frenchphilosophy.Duringthe
RenaissanceSextusEmpiricuswas read in Italyeitherforethicaland religiouspurposes,as a literary
and linguistic
source,or as a sourceofhistorical
neverforpurelyepistemological
information
aboutGreekphilosophy,
reasons. Like Savonarolaand GianfrancescoPico della Mirandola,Paez de
thereligiousaspectofhis interest
Castrounderlined,
althoughnotexplicitly,
in translating
theOutlines.
of skepticism
The function
as an anti-intellectualist
tooland an introduction to religiousfaithalso had greatimportanceforHenri Estienneand
GentianHervet.And it is fromthepointof view of a fideisticinterpretation
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SextusEmpiricus
81
of theskepticaldoubtthatwe mustinterpret
theshortcomment
addedat the
end of Ms. Laur. 85,11: "Hoc est nescire,sine Christoplurimascire/Si
Christum
bene scis, satis est, si alias [sic] ceteraplurimanescis,"and the
followingreference
to St Paul Ad Cor. 1.2 and Ad Galat.II. Whoeverwrote
this statement
was interpreting
Sextus Empiricusas a means to contrast
scientianaturaeet humanarum
rerumin favorofsapientiaDei.
The factthatSextusEmpiricuswas readas a simplesourceof informaif we considerthata scholarsuch as JohnEdwin
tion is not surprising
of thiscentury,
could stillwritethat"muchof his
Sandys,at thebeginning
work, thoughmarkedby considerableacumen,is puerileand pedantic,but
his poeticquotationsare of someinterest,
and,happily,in attacking
thearts,
he preservessome importantfacts about them.Thus his attackon the
is ofspecialvalueforcertainitemsofevidenceconnected
grammarians
tothe
historyof scholarship."64
Certainly,the main concernsharedby Italian
humanistslike Poliziano or Filelfo,when dealingwithinformation
about
SextusEmpiricus,was partof theirmoregeneralpolicy of attempting
to
recovertheclassicalpast.ThatthePyrrhonist
philosopher
couldbe readfor
of man's intellectual
purposesotherthancriticism
and specifically
faculties,
is madeclearin theworkof MattheusDevarius,
as a philologicaldocument,
who,in a Greekgrammar
publishedposthumously
by his nephewin 1588,
uses thewritings
of Sextusas one of his linguisticsources.65
The evidenceprovided(or referred
to) so farshouldnow enableus to
navigatebetweenthe opinionthat"priorto GiovanniFrancescoPico della
notstudied,despitetheexistenceof a few
Mirandola,Sextuswas apparently
oftheGreektextand a Latintranslation"66
on theone hand,and
manuscripts
on the otherthe conclusionthatthe fortuneof SextusEmpiricusmustbe
dated"a partiredal XIV sec."67By doingso, we will see thatthecorrectway
fromFrancescoFilelfoto
of understanding
thehistoryof Sextus'swritings
HenriEstienneis to focuson theroleplayedby humanists
in recovering
the
c" See A Historyof Classical Scholarship(Cambridge,1908), I, 330.
See Matthaei Devarii Liber de Graecae Linguae Particulis, ad Alexandrum
Farnesium... Romae, 1588 apud FranciscumZannettum.
Passages fromSextusEmpiricus
are quoted on pp. 20, 53, and 76. During his work at the Vatican LibraryMatthaeus
Devarius (d. 1581) had fullyannotatedVat. Gr. 1338 and Vat. Gr. 217 and made two
retroversions
intoGreekof Latinpassages fromGentianHervet'sLatin editionof Sextus
(1569) which were lacking in Vat. Gr. 1338. I have foundno quotationsfromSextus
Empiricusin eitherthe grammarof Chrysoloras(1350-1415) nor of Chalcondylas(14241511), see Emanuelis Chrysolorae... graecae grammaticaeinstitutiones,
Lutetiae 1544,
and DemetriiChalcondylaeerotemata,Basileae, 1546. On the firstdiffusionof Greek
grammarsduringthe Renaissance see AgostinoPertusi,"Per la Storia e le Fonti delle
Prime GrammaticheGreche a Stampa," Italia Medievale e Umanistica, V (1962),
Manoscrittie Stampedell'Umanesimo,scrittiin onore di GiovanniMardersteig,323-51.
The authordoes notdiscussDevarius's textas thisis a ratherlaterwork.
66CharlesTrinkaus,RenaissanceHumanism(Ann Arbor,1983), 172.
67 Eleuteri,art. cit.,436.
65
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82
Luciano Floridi
thanon thelimiteduse of suchwritings
in those
knowledgeof Sextus,rather
years.68If very littleuse was made of Pyrrhonicargumentsduringthe
Renaissance,thiswas mainlybecause humanistic
culturewas nottheright
contextin whichsuch a radicalattackon knowledgecould be fullydeveloped. As faras the principalinterestsof humanistswere concerned,i.e.,
literary
and linguistic
studies,Christianethics,and therecoveryof thepast,
Sextus'sworkshad a smallbutnotinsignificant
shareofattention.
Nevertheless,in orderto gaina newand centralrolein thephilosophical
tradition,
the
contentsof the Outlinesand ContraMathematicoshad to wait untilthe
turnat theend of theRenaissance.A scholarlyculturelike
epistemological
thatof thehumanists,
whowereinterested
in thehistory
of thought
and still
farfromanyidea of(letalonea faithin) theprogressofscientific
knowledge,
was not likelyto be affectedby skepticalarguments.
It was only when
came to be facedby a vastlyincreasedamountof scientific
philosophers
knowledgethattheypresentedepistemological
of thecogniinterpretations
tiveenterprise.
Onlythendid theskepticalattitude
regainall its destructive
thatwe stillattribute
to itnowadays.By the
powerandacquirethosefeatures
theMeditations,
we shouldno longerspeakofthe
timeDescarteswas writing
influenceof SextusEmpiricus'sskepticalarguments
on modernphilosophy,
buttaketheminsteadas an integral
partof it.69
WolfsonCollege,Oxford.
See P. 0. Kristeller,"Humanismand Moral Philosophy,"in RenaissanceHumanism,ed. AlbertRabil, Jr.(Philadelphia,1988), III, 271-309, 277: duringthe Renaissance
are some othersourcesof ancientmoralphilosophymade available for
"equallyimportant
the firsttimeby humanistscholarship.The new sourcesincluded... Skepticslike Sextus
Empiricus..."; and "Renaissance Humanismand Classical Antiquity,"in Renaissance
Humanism,I, 5-16, 13: the humanists"... added mostof the sourcesof non-Aristotelian
Greekphilosophy:... [included]the SkepticphilosopherSextus Empiricus."
69 This workhas been written
as partof a researchpreparatory
to the writingof the
article"Sextus Empiricus"forthe Catalogus Translationum
et Commentariorum.
I wish
to thankClaudineLemaireof the BibliothequeRoyale AlbertI in Brusselsand to MarieCharlieBurns
Fran,oiseDamongeotof theBibliothequeNationalein Parisforinformation,
forhelpwithmaterialin theVaticanLibrary,Tullio Gregoryand theAccademiadei Lincei
fora grantwhichhas supportedthisresearch,and Jonathan
Barnes,ConstanceBlackwell,
JillKraye,P. 0. Kristeller,
and RichardH. Popkin,who readpreviousdraftsof thisarticle.
68
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SextusEmpiricus
83
AppendixI
Vat.Lat2990
LiberI, .3,inc.:
"[f. 12v,1. 14] Quid sit gammatica/
Et
quoniam
utaitEpicurus,
nec/quaerere,
necdubitari
dealiquoabsqueeiusquod
seu/dubitatur
queritur
praeacceptione
potest.
Rectiusfaciemus/
si anteomnia
quid grammatice
sit et si secundum/
datama grammaticis
ipsisnotionem,
stabilis
que/dametsubstantialis
doctrina intelligi
valeatconsidera/bimus."
Taurinensis
CL.11.11
LiberI, .3 (ContraMat.I, 57):
"[f. 44r] Et quoniam(ut aitEpicurus)
nec quaeri,nec dubitarilde aliquo
absque eius quod queritur
seu dubitatur,praelacceptione
potest,rectius
si anteomnia,lquidgramafaciemus,
ticesit,etan secundum
datama grammaticis
ipsisnotiolnem
stabilis
quedam
et substantialis
doctrinaintelligiva/
leat,considerabimus."'
LiberI, expl.:
"[f.72r]Sed iamcontra
eos,quiab hac
hec/dixisse
disciplinadeducuntur,
sufficiat.Ab alio igiturprincipio
oratores
dientes/[f.67r,1.1] que etiam contra exordientes,/
Queetiamcontra
oratoresdicere oporteatconsydere- dicereoporteat
consyderemus./"
musl"
LiberI, expl.:
eos/quiab hac
"[f.66v]Sediamcontra
hec dixisse/
dysciplinadeducuntur,
Ab alio igitur
exorsufficiat.
principio
LiberII, inc.:
"[f. 67r,1.2] SextiEmpiricide grammatica/
Sequitur
eiusdem
deRhetorical
Posteaquamea que de grammatica
consedicenda erant/percurrimus,
dicaquensestut etiamde rhe/torica
mus,quae virilior
fortiorque
existima/
inforosubseltur,utpotecuiusvirtus
liysquequasi/trutina
quadamexpendituratqueexaminatur."
LiberII, inc.:
"[f. 72v]2 [P]Osteaquamea que de
grammatica
dicenda[erant]/percumrimusconsequens
est,utetiam/de
rh[e]/
toricadicamus,que virilior
fortiorque
inforo
utpotecuiusvirtus
existi/matur,
[sic] sub/selliisque quasi trutina
quadamexpenditur
atqueexaminat[ur].
LiberII, expl.:
"[f. 89r] Sed postquamad rhetoricam
theo/remata
satisdiximus.
continentia
Ab alio rursusprinlcipio
eas, quae ad
geometras,
Arithmeticosque/
[f.89r, 1.
dubitationes
16]pertinent,
attingamus.
LiberII, expl.:
ad rhetoricam
"[f.83v]Sed postquam
theoremata
satis/diximus,
continentia
ab alio rursusprincipio,
eas, quae ad
geometras,/
arithmeticosque
pertinent,
dubitationes
attingamus."
LiberIII, inc.:
[f. 89r, 1. 17] SextiEmpiricicontra
geometras.! Quoniam geometrae
dubitationumeos persequen/tium
LiberIII, inc.
[f. 83v] SEXTI EMPERICI DE
RHETORICAFINIS/SEQUITURDE
GEOMETRIA [capitalsare in red]/
1
2
The sign "/ " indicatesan approximateend of line.
Thereis no title.
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Luciano Floridi
84
ad rem,que
numerum
perspicientes,
peri/culinihil et securitatisin se
habere/
videturex Suppoplurimum
[f. 89v]
sitionevidelicetgeometriae/
solent,
principiapetendo,confugere
eritsi et nos quoque,in ea
optimum/
de
contradictione,
sumus/
quamfacturi
faciratione
princi/pium
suppositionis
amus."
[Q]Uoniamgeometrae,
dubitationum
eos persequentium
numerum
perspicientes,ad rem que periculinihil/et
securitatisin se plurimumhabere
videtur,/
ex suppositionevidelicet
geometriaeprincipiapetendo,con/
fugeresolent.Optimum
erit,si et nos
quoque in ea quam/facturisumus
desuppositionis
contradictione,
ratione
principium/
faciamus."
LiberIII, expl.:
contra
"[f. 1lOv]... etincommentariys
ostendimus.
physicos
grammaticos/que
Non igiturgeometris
aliquid/ex linea
secarequepossibileest./
aufferre,
[Liber IV, inc.] ContraArithmeti-
LiberIII, expl.:
"'[f.93v][...] ut in comentariys
contra
physicos,
grammaticosque
ostendimus.
Non igiturgeometris
aliquidex linea
aufere,
secarequepossibileest.SEXTI
EMPERICI DE GEOMETRIAFINIS
[capitalsarein red]."
cos..."
AppendixII
A ShortListof Mss. of SextusEmpiricus
Thefollowing
is a short
listofmss.,containing
oftheworksofSextus
portions
inthegraph.Sourceshavenotbeenadded,as
whichhavebeenincluded
Empircus,
theycanbe foundinthefootnotes
ofthearticle.Becauseofitscomplexdating,
I
inthegraphthems.n. 58.Underlined
havenotinserted
mss.contain
excerpts,
mss.
in italicsrepresent
Latintranslations;
lost mss. are in a separategroup.The
remaining
mss.areGreek.Theprovenance
ofmostofthemss.has notyetbeen
studied.
1. Paris1963,s. XVI
13.Regimontanus
16.b.12,s. XIV-XV
2. Berol.Phill.1518,s. XVI
14.Mertonensis
304,s. XVI
3.Parissuppl.133.,s. XVI
15.Paris1965,s. XVI
4. Laur.85,24,s. XV-XVI
16.Savilianus
Gr.1(Bodleian),
s. XVI5.Laur.85,19,s. XV-XVI
XVII
6. Vesontinus
409,s. XVI
17.Marc.408,s. XV
7. Monacensis 79, s. XVI
18.Paris2081,s. XVI
8. Vat.1338,s. XVI
19.EscorialT 116,s. XVI
9. Vat.217,s. XVI
20. Paris1964,s. XV
10.Taurinensis
Gr.12,s. XV-XVI
21. Paris1966and1967,s. XVI
11.Marc.Class.IV Nr.26,s. XVI
22. Ottobon.
21,s. XVI
12.Savilianus
Vratislaviensis
Cizensis 23. Laur.85,11,s.XV
24. Londinensis
70,s. XVI
(i.e. Brit.Mus. Old
Royalmss.Gr.16d XIII), s. XVI
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SextusEmpiricus
25. Vratislavensis
Rhedig.45,s. XVI
26. Savilianus
Gr.11,s. XVI
27. Vesontinus
408,s. XVI
28. EscorialR-III-12,s. XVI
29. EscorialR-III-6,s. XVI
30. Paris2128,s. XVII
31. Barber.248,s. XVI
32. BerolMs. Gr.22,s. XV
33. EscorialPsi-IV-16,
s. XVI
34. Mutinensis
Gr.236,s. XVI
35. Parissuppl.1156,+ Vat.Gr.738+
Vindob. Theol. Gr. 179 (same
ms.),s. X
36. Taurinensis
CCLXI c.I.15,s. XVI
37.Taurinensis
CXXII c. V.14,s. XVI
38. Monacensis159,s. XIV-XV
39. Augustanus
234,s. XVI
40. Augustanus
236,s. XVI
41. Augustanus
238,s. XVI
42. Laur.9, 32,s. XIV
43. Laur.59, 17s.XV
44. Laur.85,23,s. XV-XVI
45. Norimbergensis,
s. XVI
46. LeidensisVoss.Gr.Q.44,s. XV
47. Leidensis,
Scaligeranus
43,s. XVI
48. Bruxellensis
Nr.5362,s. XVI
49. Oxoniensis
Coll.Corp.Christi
263,
s. XVII
50. Madrid,
B. N. 4709(0 30), s. XVI
51. Ac. Leningrad,
Biblioteka
AkademijNauk0 128,s. XV
52. Ross979,s. XVI
53. Vat.Gr.1826,s. XVI
54. Monac.Gr.439,s. XIV
55. Heidelb.Pal. Gr.129,s. XIV
56.Vat.Gr.435,s. XII-XIII,XLII-XIV
andXiV.
57.Monacensis
443,s. XV
58. Monacensis
429,s. XIV
85
17 [S.C. 10,318],s. XVI
67. Sancroft
Lostmss.:
68. EscorialVII.J.9,s. XVI
69. Escorial.V.15,s. XVI
70. Escorial.V.24,s. XVI
71. EscorialE.111.1,
s. XVI
72. Pinelli'sfolio,s. XV-XVI
73.Torriani's
andLorenzi'sms.,s. XV
59. Gennadius
n. 39,s. XVI
60.ParisLat. 10197,XVII
61.Phillipps4135,s. XV7
62. Vat.Lat.2990.s. XV
63.Madrid,B. N. Ms. 10112,s. XII
64.ParisLat.14700,s. XII
65. Taurinensis
IH.I, s. XVI
66. MarcianusLat. X267 (3460), s.
XIII
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