Aristotle

== Surviving works ==

=== Corpus Aristotelicum ===
{{main|Works of Aristotle}}

[[File:Aristotelis De Moribus ad Nicomachum.jpg| thumb | upright | First page of a 1566 edition of the ''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]'' in Greek and Latin.]]

The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through medieval manuscript transmission are collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school.{{sfn|Barnes|1995|p=9}} Reference to them is made according to the organization of [[Immanuel Bekker]]'s Royal Prussian Academy edition (''Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica'', Berlin, 1831–1870), which in turn is based on ancient classifications of these works.{{sfn|Aristotelis Opera}}

=== Loss and preservation ===
{{further|Transmission of the Greek Classics}}

Aristotle wrote his works on papyrus scrolls, the common writing medium of that era.{{efn-ua|"When the Roman dictator Sulla invaded Athens in 86 BC, he brought back to Rome a fantastic prize – Aristotle's library. Books then were papyrus rolls, from 10 to 20 feet long, and since Aristotle's death in 322 BC, worms and damp had done their worst. The rolls needed repairing, and the texts clarifying and copying on to new papyrus (imported from Egypt – Moses' bulrushes). The man in Rome who put Aristotle's library in order was a Greek scholar, Tyrannio."{{sfn|When libraries were|2001}}}} His writings are divisible into two groups: the "[[exoteric]]", intended for the public, and the "[[esoteric]]", for use within the [[Lyceum (classical)|Lyceum]] school.{{sfn|Barnes|1995|p=12}}{{efn-ua|1=Aristotle: ''Nicomachean Ethics'' 1102a26–27. Aristotle himself never uses the term "esoteric" or "acroamatic". For other passages where Aristotle speaks of ''exōterikoi logoi'', see [[W.D. Ross]], ''Aristotle's Metaphysics'' (1953), vol. 2 pp= 408–410. Ross defends an interpretation according to which the phrase, at least in Aristotle's own works, usually refers generally to "discussions not peculiar to the [[Peripatetic school]]", rather than to specific works of Aristotle's own.}}{{sfn|House|1956|page=35}} Aristotle's "lost" works stray considerably in characterization from the surviving Aristotelian corpus. Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with a view to subsequent publication, the surviving works mostly resemble lecture notes not intended for publication.{{sfn|Irwin|Fine|1996|pp= xi–xii}}{{sfn|Barnes|1995|p=12}} [[Cicero]]'s description of Aristotle's literary style as "a river of gold" must have applied to the published works, not the surviving notes.{{efn-ua|"''veniet flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles''", (Google translation: "Aristotle will come pouring forth a golden stream of eloquence").{{sfn|Cicero|1874}}}} A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found.{{sfn|Barnes|Griffin|1999|pages=1–69}} The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.{{sfn|Anagnostopoulos|2013|page=16}}{{sfn|Barnes|1995|pp=10–15}}

According to [[Strabo]] and [[Plutarch]], after Aristotle's death, his library and writings went to [[Theophrastus]] (Aristotle's successor as head of the Lycaeum and the [[Peripatetic school]]).<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Sketches |author=Strabo |author-link=Strabo |volume=XIII |number=1}}
* {{cite book |title=Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans |author=Plutarch |chapter=Life of Sulla |author-link=Plutarch |title-link=Parallel Lives}}</ref> After the death of Theophrastus, the peripatetic library went to [[Neleus of Scepsis]].<ref name=Grant>{{cite book |editor-last=Grant|editor-first=Alexander|editor-link=Sir Alexander Grant, 10th Baronet |author=Aristotle |title=The Ethics of Aristotle, Illustrated with Essays and Notes |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |date=1885 |edition=4th |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/ethicsofaristotl01arisuoft |chapter=On the Nicomachean Ethics, in relation to the other Ethical Writings included among the Works of Aristotle}}</ref>{{rp|5}}

Some time later, the [[Kingdom of Pergamon]] began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose. The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation. On the death of [[Attalus III]], which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased by [[Apellicon]] and returned to Athens in about 100 BC.{{r|Grant|pages=5–6}}

Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored. He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.{{r|Grant|pages=5–6}}

When [[Sulla]] seized Athens in 86 BC, he seized the library and transferred it to Rome. There, [[Andronicus of Rhodes]] organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life of Plotinus |author=Porphyry |author-link=Porphyry (philosopher) |at=24}}</ref> The Aristotelian texts we have today are based on these.{{r|Grant|pages=6–8}}