Description
Book SynopsisA wide range of specialists provide a comprehensive overview of the reception of Pythagorean ideas in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, shedding new light especially on the understudied ‘Medieval Pythagoras’ of the Latin West. They also explore the survival of Pythagoreanism in the Arabic, Jewish, and Persian cultures, thus adopting a multicultural perspective. Their common concern is to detect the sources of this reception, and to follow their circulation in diverse linguistic areas. The reader can thus have a panoramic view of the major themes belonging to the Pythagorean heritage – number philosophy and the sciences of the quadrivium; ethics and way of life; theology, metaphysics and the soul – until the Early Modern times.
Trade Review"This is a very erudite, coherent, and carefully edited volume. I noticed no typographical mistakes. Moreover, what I found particularly successful was the organization of the content in thematic divisions corresponding to the focal aspects of Pythagorean philosophy. These divisions enabled the contributions focusing on different traditions (Christian Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic) to supplement each other, and thus to demonstrate as fully as possible the historical and philosophical interactions between East and West, which were also vital for the reception of Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism during the Middle Ages. It is only unfortunate that, given the volume’s title, the Byzantine component has been left out (a decision the editors explain in the introduction, p. 3). That said, the companion under review, with its broad scope and wealth of detail, definitely constitutes a welcome contribution to the field and an indispensable reference source for all students of the transmission of ancient Pythagoreanism (and to some extent also of Platonism), as well as of Presocratic philosophy." Theofanis Tsiampokalos in BMCR 2022.09.14
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Pythagoras, from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity A Multicultural Approach Irene Caiazzo, Constantinos Macris and Aurélien Robert part 1: Pythagorean Number Theory and the Quadrivium 1 Pythagoras and the Quadrivium from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages Cecilia Panti 2 Music and the Pythagorean Tradition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages Andrew Hicks 3 Nicomachean Number Theory in Arabic and Persian Scholarly Literature Sonja Brentjes 4 The Tribulations of the Introduction to Arithmetic from Greek to Hebrew Via Syriac and Arabic Nicomachus of Gerasa, Ḥabib Ibn Bahrīz, al-Kindī, and Qalonymos ben Qalonymos Gad Freudenthal 5 Medieval Jewish Pythagoreanism Remarks on Maimonides and on Sefer Melakhim Tzvi Langermann part 2: Pythagorean Way(s) of Life, East and West 6 Popular Pythagoreanism in the Arabic Tradition Between Biography and Gnomology Anna Izdebska 7 Pythagoras’ Ethics and the Pythagorean Way of Life in the Middle Ages Aurélien Robert Part 3: Theology, Metaphysics and the Soul 8 Pythagoras’ Philosophy of Unity as a Precursor of Islamic Monotheism Pseudo-Ammonius and Related Sources Daniel De Smet 9 The “Brethren of Purity” and the Pythagorean Tradition Carmela Baffioni 10 “Pythagoras’ Mistake” The Transmigration of Souls in the Latin Middle Ages and Beyond Irene Caiazzo 11 Pythagoras Latinus Aquinas’ Interpretation of Pythagoreanism in His Aristotelian Commentaries Marta Borgo and Iacopo Costa 12 Latin Christian Neopythagorean Theology A Speculative Summa David Albertson Part 4: New Trends in Early Modern Pythagoreanism 13 Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism in the Renaissance Philosophical and Religious Itineraries from Pico to Brucker Denis J.-J. Robichaud 14 Pythagorean Number Mysticism in the Renaissance An Overview Jean-Pierre Brach Index
