James of Venice (Latin: Jacobus de Venetia or de Venetiis; Italian: Giacomo da Venezia) or James the Venetian (Latin: Jacobus Veneticus; died c. 1147) was a Venetian Catholic cleric who travelled to the Byzantine Empire and was a significant translator of Aristotle during the 12th-Century Renaissance.

Prior to James, Aristotle was known in Western Europe primarily through the Latin commentaries on his work by Boethius. "The first systematic translator of Aristotle since Boethius",[1] James was active in Constantinople,[2] working directly from Byzantine Greek copies of philosophical texts rather than the Arab translations used by the Christian scholars in Spain around the same time.

James translated the Posterior Analytics from Greek to Latin in the period 1125–1150.[3][4] For the first time in over 500 years, this made the New Logic of the Organon available in Western Europe. James also translated Aristotle's Physics, On the Soul, and Metaphysics[5] (the oldest known Latin translation of the work).[6][7]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Walter Berschin - 4. Venice
  2. ^ Translators
  3. ^ "PDF" (PDF). bc.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-17. Retrieved 2007-03-08.
  4. ^ tinet.org gives the date 1128 for several works.
  5. ^ Aristotelianism: The later Latin tradition – Britannica
  6. ^ James of Venice – encyclopedia.com
  7. ^ The Logic Museum

Bibliography

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  • L. Minio-Paluello, "Iacobus Veneticus Grecus: Canonist and Translator of Aristotle." Traditio 8 (1952), 265–304
  • Sten Ebbesen (1977). "Jacobus Veneticus on the Posterior Analytics and Some Early Thirteenth-century Oxford Masters on the Elenchi." Cahiers de l'Institut du moyen âge grec et Latin 2, 1-9.
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