Dullaert, Jean — Juan Martínez de Siliceo (ed.) | A rare commentary on Aristotle

Dullaert, Jean — Juan Martínez de Siliceo (ed.)

Questiones super duos libros Peria hermenias Aristotelis. [Colophon:] Salamanca: Juan de Porras, 1517

Folio (284 x 200 mm). Woodcut of scholar in his study on title page with Crucifixion scene on verso, initials, text in two columns and gothic type, two woodcut charts on 54r and 119v; some contemporary ink annotations, a few leaves misfoliated, faint marginal dampstaining and foxing to last three gatherings and endpapers. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over boards, with interlacing roll alternating with rows of circular punches between sets of 3 parallel lines, spine in five compartments, second gilt-lettered, remaining with gilt motifs; rebacked, metal clasps refurbished, light wear to upper spine, a few scuffs, contemporary ink signatures to front pastedowns.

First edition in this form of Aristotle's foundational work De interpretatione, with commentary by Dullaert.

Sent in his youth to Paris for an education, Belgian-born Jean Dullaert would become master at College De Beauvais after teaching at the College de Montaigu in 1510. It was during his time in Paris that Dullaert would center his focus on philosophical works, including his commentaries on Physica (1506, 1511, 1512), De caelo (1506), and Meteoroloigca (1512), an unfinished work on Prior Analytics, editions of works by Jean Buridan and Paul of Venice, and plans for a collected works of Albertus Magnus which were cut short by his death in 1513.

Highly active within the final years of his life, the Augustinian friar first published his commentary of Aristotle's early work De interpretatione or Peri hermeneais eight years before the present copy. Scarce in any variation, only one copy of the 1509 edition of Questiones has been located at the Université de Lille. This posthumous publication of his commentary was edited by a former pupil from Dullaert's days at Beauvais, Juan Martínez Siliceo, with no other edition located.

This 1517 edition boasts intricate woodcuts with historical ties. The title-page features a woodcut engraving depicting a scholar at his study that had already been used in Salamanca in the late fifteenth century. Directly following the title-page is a scene of the Crucifixion above a smaller vignette of the Last Supper—closely inspired by material used in the missals by Florentine printer and publisher Lucantonio Giunta. The complex diagrams within Dullaert's commentary are likely original blocks for this publication.

Dealing with language as the expression of the mind, De interpretatione is written in fourteen parts beginning with the definitions of a noun, verb, sentence, and affirmation. The second work from Aristotle's Organon is considered one of the earliest surviving works of the Western tradition. Siliceo would pare down Dullaert's work for clarity and "ut paulo tersiora quaeque fuerint excuderentur," as written on the title page. Known as one of Spain's most celebrated Renaissance thinkers, Siliceo published several highly important works on mathematics and Aristotle.

REFERENCES

Norton 507; Ruiz Fidalgo 117; Witten, Catalogue Six: One Hundred Important Books and Manuscripts 32 (1975); Not in Palau; Catálogo colectivo ; Adams; Cf. Picatoste y Rodríguez, Biblioteca científica española pp. 183-5; Lohr, Latin Aristotle Commentaries, II: Renaissance Authors, pp. 128-9, 246