Michelet, in his Commentary on the Nikomachean Ethica, advances a
theory somewhat analogous but bolder, respecting the relation between
the Catalogue given by Diogenes, and the works contained in _our_
Aristotle. Comm. p. 2. "Id solum addam, hoc Aristotelis opus (the
Nikomachean Ethica), ut reliqua omnia, ex brevioribus
commentationibus consarcinatum fuisse, quæ quidem vivo Aristotele in
lucem prodierint, cum unaquæque disciplina, e quâ excerpta fuerint in
admirabilem illum quem habemus ordinem jam ab ipso Aristotele sive
quodam ejus discipulo redacta, in libris Aristotelis manu scriptis
latitaverit, qui hereditate ad Nelei prolem, ut notum est,
transmissi, in cellâ illâ subterraneâ Scepsiâ absconditi fuerunt,
donec Apellicon Teius et Rhodius Andronicus eos ediderint. Leguntur
autem commentationum illarum de Moribus tituli in elencho librorum
Aristotelis apud Diogenem (v. 22-26): [Greek: peri\ a)retô=n] (Lib.
ii., iii. c. 6-fin. iv. nostrorum Ethicorum); [Greek: peri\
e(kousi/ou] (Lib. iii. c. 1-5); &c. Plerumque enim non integra
volumina, sed singulos libros vel singula volumina diversarum
disciplinarum, Diogenes in elencho suo enumeravit."
In his other work (Essai sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, pp. 202,
205, 225) Michelet has carried this theory still farther, and has
endeavoured to identify separate fragments of the Aristotelian works
now extant, with various titles in the Catalogue given by Diogenes.
The identification is not convincing.]
But though the edition published by Andronikus would thus contain
many genuine works of Aristotle not previously known or edited, we
cannot be sure that it would not also include some which were
spurious. Reflect what the library of Apellikon, transported to Rome
by Sylla, really was. There was in it the entire library of
Theophrastus; probably, also, that of Neleus, who must have had some
books of his own, besides what he inherited from Theophrastus. It
included all the numerous manuscript works composed by Aristotle and
Theophrastus, and many other manuscript works purchased or acquired
by them, but composed by others--the whole in very bad order and
condition; and, moreover, the books which Apellikon possessed before,
doubtless as many Aristotelian books as he could purchase. To
distinguish, among this heterogeneous mass of manuscripts, which of
them were the manuscripts composed by Aristotle; to separate these
from the writings of Theophrastus, Eudêmus, or other authors, who
composed various works of their own upon the same subjects and with
the same titles as those of Aristotle--required extreme critical
discernment and caution; the rather, since there was no living
companion of Aristotle or Theophrastus to guide or advise, more than
a century and a half having elapsed since the death of Theophrastus,
and two centuries since that of Aristotle. Such were the difficulties
amidst which Apellikon, Tyrannion, and Andronikus had to decide, when
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