Fazzo, Il testo di Aristotele Metafisica Zeta 17

This paper provides a new critical edition of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Zeta 17, the concluding chapter of the book, dealing with substance as principle and cause, which is commented on in detail by Enrico Berti in the present issue of Aristotelica. The opportunity is offered to compare Fazzo’s 2015 tentative stemma codicum to the most important manuscript readings of Zeta 17. These appear to verify her stemma wherever it differs from Harlfinger’s 1979 stemma. As Frede and Patzig, in their ground-breaking 1988 German edition of book Zeta, have already argued against Jaeger’s choices in favour of ms. Ab, Laur. 87.12, in use by editors since 1823. Here it is shown that Ab cannot be proven to be independent from J’s and E’s, moreover, it is often deliberately harmonized with the surrounding commentary in the same folios of that manuscript. Sic stantibus rebus, the paraphrase by the Byzantine commentator Michael of Ephesus (early 12th c.), which surrounds Aristotle’s book Zeta in Ab, seems to be the source for several readings in Ab, above all, for the crucial, but possibly incorrect, reading διαρθρώσαντας, which is found at 1041b2 in all modern editions instead of the obscure διορθώσαντας (J, E). It also turns out that the excision of the vital concluding sentence at 1041b8 τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶν τὸ εἶδος by Christ and Jaeger is not supported either semantically or paleographically. A new path is thus opened: alongside major projects aimed at producing comprehensive editions, a novel trend of minor bits-and-pieces editions based on very selected sources and on scholarly iudicium.