UAB reveals the important legacy of mediaeval Catalan philosophers

Portada del primer llibre de la col·lecció

UAB, Obrador Edèndum publishing house and Rovira i Virgili University (URV) have jointly edited and published the first book of a new collection, Bibliotheca Philosophorum Medii Aevi Cataloniae, promoted by a group of researchers including Alexander Fidora, ICREA lecturer of the Department of Antiquity and Middle Age Studies. The book series aims to compile critical editions of unedited and rarely studied texts by Catalan-speaking philosophers from the Middle Ages. The first volume, Qüestió sobre la unitat de l'universal, studies a philosophical text by Valencian preacher Vicent Ferrer.

16/09/2010

Intellectual activities in Catalan-speaking regions on philosophical issues, speculations on physics and theology were very fruitful during the 14th and 15th centuries, with prestigious authors taking part in the most relevant debates of the period. Nevertheless, a large majority of these works remain unedited, very few have been studied in depth, and almost none have been translated or are available with annotations.

The Bibliotheca Philosophorum Medii Aevi Cataloniae has been created with the aim of disseminating this rich cultural heritage, with a critical edition of the most representative yet unknown works of the period, written by philosophers who studied, lived or taught at the numerous centres of higher learning which were established in the late Middle Ages throughout Catalan-speaking regions.

The first volume has just appeared. According to one of the book's editors, Alexander Fidora (ICREA lecturer at UAB), the volume is “a small treasure”: Qüestió sobre la unitat de l'universal (Question Concerning the Unity of the Universal), a philosophical text by Valencian preacher Vicent Ferrer —known for his anti-Semitic polemics— which was translated into Hebrew in the middle of the 15th century. The edition, directed by Fidora and Mauro Zonta (La Sapienza, Università di Roma), contains an introduction about the author, the original text in Latin, the mediaeval translation into Hebrew, and an annotated version of the modern translations into Catalan and English.

Two new publications will be out soon with texts by Pere Tomàs (Barcelona and Paris) and by Vicent Ferrer (Valencia). Other works to be published soon were written by Antoni Andreu (Lleida and Paris), Guiu Terrena (Mallorca and Perpinyà), Guillem Rubió (Vilafranca del Penedès and Paris), Nicolau Eimeric (Girona) and Ramon Martí (Barcelona). In addition to these intellectuals, the editors the editors also consider including in the collection important texts conserved in the libraries of the ancient Crown of Aragon and of the ancient Kingdom of Valencia.