XO68 Metaphisica, De anima, & Meteorologia

Metaphisica, De anima, & Meteorologia, Italy, between 1600 and 1699

Penn Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Ms. Codex 1094

This seventeenth-century manuscript on paper is a collection of commentaries concerning Aristotle's Metaphysics, On the Soul, and Meteorology, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomics. It was owned by a Dominican friar, Domenico Stellati, who was active in eighteenth-century Florence. Still, the names of the previous owners (including Filippo Rosano and Casimiro Panza) suggest a Neapolitan origin. The vignettes interspersed throughout the volume have pedagogical value. The delightful pastoral scene at f. 43r (here displayed) is intended to illustrate the three parts of the Aristotelian soul: the vegetative (represented by the tree), the sensitive (the ox), and the rational (the man).