Il De caelo nel medioevo: le citazioni e la translatio di Roberto Grossatesta

This study focuses on the first medieval reception of Aristotle’s De caelo by providing an account of how the English philosopher and bishop of Lincoln Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253) referred to this Aristotelian work in his writings and, late in his episcopal years, produced its first Greek-Latin translation accompanied by Simplicius’ commentary on it. The first part of the study proposes a summary of the story of the Arabic-Latin translations which introduced the De caelo into the medieval scholastic milieu along the first half of the 13th century. The second section deals with the partial Greek-Latin translation by Grosseteste, focusing on the story of its discovery thanks to the pioneering researches for the Aristoteles Latinus project in the years 1930-1950. The third and last section concerns the quotations from De caelo in Grosseteste’s works. These references suggest that he made use of all versions of the work, his translation of Simplicius’ commentary included. This demonstrates a genuine interest towards the cosmological work by Aristotele, but at the same time raises unexpected difficulties which involve the chronology of Grosseteste’s works and the process through which the first Aristotelianism widespread among Latin masters.