From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia On Breath
On Breath
On Breath (Ancient Greek: Περὶ πνεύματος, Latin: De spiri- translation and commentary), Hanover, 1605
tu) is a philosophical treatise included in the Corpus Aris- (available online)
totelicum but usually regarded as spurious. Its opening • Amneris Roselli, [Aristotele]: De spiritu (Greek text
sentence raises the question: "What is the mode of with Italian translation and commentary), Pisa: ETS
growth, and the mode of maintenance, of the natural (or Editrice, 1992
’connate’: emphutos) vital spirit (pneuma)?" • Abraham P. Bos and Rein Ferwerda, Aristotle, On the
Life-Bearing Spirit (De Spiritu): A Discussion with Plato
Authorship and his Predecessors on Pneuma as the Instrumental Body
of the Soul (with English translation and
Among the ancient catalogues of Aristotle’s works, a commentary), Leiden: Brill, 2008
work On Breath (but in three books, not one) is listed only
by Ptolemy-el-Garib, and Pliny the Elder (N.H. XI.220) and
Galen (De simpl. med. temp. et fac. V.9) are the first authors
See also
who appear to make reference to the treatise we pos- • On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration
sess.[1] In modern times, its authenticity has been virtu-
ally unanimously rejected, although most or all of it has
been acknowledged to be an early work of the Peripatet-
Notes
ic school, possibly connected with Theophrastus, Strato [1] Roselli, p. 13
of Lampsacus, or Erasistratus, and shedding light on Hel- [2] Roselli, pp. 17f. with nn. 17-20
lenistic medicine.[2] In 2008, however, Bos and Ferwerda
published a commentary in which they maintain that On
Breath is a genuine work of Aristotle whose doctrines re-
External links
spond to those of Plato’s Timaeus and constitute an im- • English translation: J.F. Dobson’s 1914 Oxford
portant part of Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. Translation bound with De Mundo, pp. "32" ff.
(archive.org)
• Greek text: Werner Jaeger’s 1913 Teubner text
Commentaries available in HTML format via Greco interattivo
• Daniel Furlanus, Theophrasti Eresii, Peripateticorum post
Aristotelem principis pleraque... (Greek text with Latin
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=On_Breath&oldid=466447815"
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• Works by Aristotle
• Philosophy stubs
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