QUADERNI DI NOCTUA
La tradizione filosofica dall’antico al moderno. Studi e testi
History of Philosophy from the Ancient to the Modern Age. Studies and Editions
Autore / Author: Francesco Fiorentino
Affiliazione / Author affiliation: Indipendente / Independent scholar
Titolo / Title: Raoul of Presles. A Fourteenth-Century Translation of De civitate Dei
Abstract: The dominance of Augustine of Hippo in philosophy during the second quarter of the fourteenth century is testified to by three evidences: (1) the wide use of quotations from his works, (2) the flourishing of commentaries on them, especially at Oxford, as reconstructed by William J. Courtenay; (3) the historical-critical treatment of the writings of the Fathers, of the theological and philosophical auctoritates, and of contemporary Scholastic authors at Paris by the Augustinians, as reconstructed by Onorato Grassi. In this article, I focus on the second kind of evidence, taking into account some commentaries on Augustine’s De civitate Dei, namely those of Nicholas Trevet and Thomas Waleys in the English area, and that Francis of Meyronnes in the French area. These commentaries became the basis for Raoul de Presles’s translation of Augustine’s work into Middle French. Moreover, I analyze books 1–5 of Raoul’s translation, showing that it was by no means accidental to his intellectual endeavors and that Raoul employed innovative, Humanist techniques of translation, and shedding light on the comparison of Charles V of France to Charlemagne in the rediscovery of the Augustinian corpus.
Keywords: Augustine; De civitate Dei; translations; Raoul de Presles.
DOI: 10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua3-10
Volume: 3
Pagine / Pages: 340-374
Pubblicazione / Publication date: 01/06/2016
Permalink: https://dx.doi.org/10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua3-10
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ISSN 2723-9225