The recovery and translation of his works in Western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had a profound effect on the development of Scholasticism. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of Aristotle’s (384-322 B.C.) writings to the history of philosophy and science in the West.

1500 and must pre-date the first printed edition of the Poetics, published by Aldus Manutius in 1508 (on this edition see Sicherl, 1992, pp. This manuscript, previously unknown to scholars, is a new witness to the Renaissance upsurge of interest in Aristotle’s great work.

With the exception of two which date from the Byzantine Middle Ages, virtually all were produced in Western Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The original Greek text of the Poetics survives in forty-five manuscript copies. This humanist taught grammar and rhetoric in Carpi, Emilia Romagna, during the first decade of the sixteenth century, and this manuscript could have been produced during this early stage of his career. The handwriting resembles MS ω.I.1 of the Escorial Library, copied in 1523 by ‘Donatos Bontourellios’, evidently a Hellenised name of Bernardino Donato, who died in 1542 or 1543. 1500, based on the evidence of the script and watermark. Aristotle’s original Greek text is known in only forty-five manuscripts, all but two copied in Western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

As such, it shows the process of a medieval scribe at work, employing the same system of large uncut sheets used by early printers. It is thus a new addition to the known examples of a manuscript made with imposed sheets. Perfect for use in the classroom, this is a rare and very important survival of an uncut quire of eight leaves, used by a scribe (possibly Bernadino Donato) to copy the beginning of Aristotle’s Poetics.

2), leaves slightly frayed and stained at the edges, lower corner of f. 6893, Pisa, 1499, single unnumbered quire, ruled in blind, (justification 122 x 72 mm.), copied with 23 lines per page, blank space left for a title and a decorated initial ‘ Π’ at the beginning of the text (f. 5-8 uncut) on paper, folded in 8°, chain-distance 32 mm, watermark, simple fleur de lis, similar to Briquet, 1966, no.

Poetics by aristotle published