BOEZIO. Dialectica.

Folio; 295x200mm; Full vellum binding; Pp. [8], 278, [6] ; Printer's device on the title page and at the end; Woodcut engravings and initials, good specimen.

Very rare edition of this philosophical work by Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius (Rome ca 476-Pavia 525), philosopher whose works enormously influenced the philosophy of the Middle Ages. Boethius studied at the school of Athens directed by the scholar Isidore, where Aristotle and Plato were taught above all, together with the four fundamental sciences for understanding Platonic philosophy: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. It was perhaps here that he met Simplicio, the young and future great commentator of Aristotle. Boethius, discussed in orthodoxy or venerated as a martyr, " ultimo dei Romani e primo degli Scolastici " (Grabmann), "véritable introducteur d'Aristote en Occident" (Mandonnet), here deals with Logic and method, syllogisms, predicables, concepts, truth, contradiction, prediction etc. Starting from the 12th century, Boethius's "dialectics" were copied more and more rarely. His rediscovery in the 16th century increased the printing of the essay, especially from 1543 to 1585.