No one can understand the intellectual life
of the universities who does not have some acquaintance with the titles
and contents of these works. It may be added that acquaintance with them
is essential also to the understanding of European history and
literature. This section is therefore devoted to certain details
concerning the early history of university studies.
(a) _The Works of Aristotle_
The works of Aristotle were composed in Athens, 335-322 B.C. Their
history, from the time of Aristotle's death to their appearance in Latin
translations in western Europe, fifteen hundred years later, cannot be
here detailed. The translations commonly used in the universities were
nearly all made during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The earlier
ones were made in Spain, from Arabic versions of the original Greek; the
later, directly from Greek copies found in Constantinople, and elsewhere
in the East. The Arabic-Latin translations were very poor, owing to the
two removes from the original Greek and the incapacity of the
translators. Those directly from the Greek were somewhat better, yet far
from satisfactory; and new versions were repeatedly made down to the end
of the fifteenth century. University reforms sometimes included the
adoption of these better translations (see p. 48).
The works known by the year 1300 may be classified in four groups:
{1. Categories = {Predicamenta.
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