XO17 La philosofia moral del Aristotel: es asaber Ethicas, Polithicas, y Economicas, en romançe

La philosofia moral del Aristotel: es asaber Ethicas, Polithicas, y Economicas, en romançe (Zaragoza: Aleman, [1509])

Penn Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Folio GrC Ar466 Ek11 1509

The historical Aristotle was appointed personal tutor to the future Alexander the Great, son of Philip II of Macedon, when the young prince was thirteenth years old. The lack of reliable accounts surrounding this teacher-pupil relationship has lent itself to conjecture, notably, as symbolic of the nexus between kingly rule and philosophical learning. Aristotle was often presented, also because of spurious texts like the Secretum Secretorum, as a political counselor to Alexander. Still, at the same time, the relationship between the king and the philosopher was used to symbolize how powerful individuals should ideally patronize wisdom.

This latter use is exemplified by the woodcut opening a 1509 printed translation into Aragonese vernacular of three of Aristotle's Latin texts - the Ethics, Politics, and (now considered spurious) Economics. The woodcut depicts Alexander and Aristotle in a patron-client relationship: Aristotle is offering his books as a homage to the king, seated crowned on his throne in Gothic architecture. Alexander is pictured as an old, bearded man, while Aristotle appears much younger than his pupil. This historical inaccuracy is explained by the fact that the image could be repurposed to picture different wise men offering their work to powerful rulers: as with other pieces on display, it was enough to change their names in the image (in this case, two captions in black letter identify Alexander and Aristotle, respectively). Interestingly, the woodcut is present in a vernacular printed version of ethical and political works by Aristotle, suggesting the usefulness of his most practical doctrines for early modern patrons ( the translator of the Ethics was a prince himself: Carlos de Viana)

Y. Tom Vaswani