ARISTOTLE 



The Text 



The M3S. The manuscript authorities cited by Bekker for the 

 De partihus will be found on p. 50. 



The dates of some of the mss. as given by different 

 scholars vary considerably : for details I refer the 

 reader to the various catalogues, and also to L. Ditt- 

 meyer's edition of Hist. an. (Leipzig, 1907) and W. W. 

 Jaeger's edition of De an. motu, etc. (Leipzig, 1913). 

 storation I have relied upon the apparatus of Bekker and 

 the text. Langkavel for the readings of the Greek mss., except 

 for those of Z, the oldest parts of which I have collated 

 from photostats " ; and at several places I have in- 

 spected the MS. itself. In some places (e.g. QQo b 17, 

 685 a 2, 16) I found the reading had been defectively 

 reported. It is clear that a more reliable collation of 

 the chief mss. of De partihus is clearly needed. From 

 a different source I have attempted to restore intelligi- 

 bility to several corrupt passages with the aid of the 

 Arabic version and the Latin version of Michael 

 Scot, which represent an earlier stage of the Aristo- 

 telian text than our Greek mss. Among the passages 

 dealt with in this way are the passage at Q5^ b 14 

 following, which has been dislocated by glosses and 

 phrases imported from elsewhere, and the remark- 

 able passage about the structure of the Cephalopods 

 at 684 b 22 following, where considerable havoc has 

 been done to the text by references to a diagram 

 which were inserted at some period between the 

 date of the ms. from which the Arabic version was 

 made and that of the archetype of all our present 

 Greek mss. I have been able to restore this passage, 

 though not always the actual Greek words, by refer- 

 ence to the Arabic version and Michael Scot's Latin 



" See additional note on p. 434. 

 46 



