PREFACE

The manuscripts of John Philoponus's commentaries on the Analytica Priora original: "Analytica Priora", which have reached our memory, belong for the most part to the same class, which I would call the common version. The oldest members of this class, though they do not surpass the others in reliability, are the fragments preserved in the Parisian codices of the 12th century, Suppl. gr. 687 (L) and 1156 (M). Closely related to each other are the 14th-15th century manuscripts: Parisian 1846, Vatican 209 (Y) and 1018 (Z), and the 16th-century Munich August. 406. Similar to these are the 13th-14th century Laurentian codices LXXII 1 (G) and LXXXV 1 (T), Coisl. 160 (A), Viennese 139, and the 15th-century Vatican 247 (V). Differing again from these and from each other are the 13th-14th century codices Parisian 1917 (B) and Marcianus 225 (U). Finally, all other more recent codices, except for the Escurialensis $Φ$—III—10 (14th century)—which, if not the original itself, can certainly be called the archegetes founder/progenitor of this family, from which the others have increasingly degenerated—are so close to the Trincavelli edition (t) that it appears to have originated from that source.

There are very few manuscripts of the second class, and they contain only parts or small particles of the commentary. If one of them had preserved the complete commentary, it would be of great value for both editing and correcting, not that this class is to be preferred over the other in terms of reliability and value, but because it is not always corrupted in the same places or with the same errors as the other. Included in this class seem to be the 10th-11th century Parisian 2064 (P)—the only one by which the beginning of the Ammonian commentary 1 is preserved—and the 13th-14th century twin codices Parisian 1972 (F) and Coislinianus 157 (E). Also, the Laurentian

1) Regarding the Arabic knowledge of these commentaries, see M. Steinschneider, Alfarabis Leben u. Schriften (Mém. de l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. Pétersb. VII série t. XIII n. 4) p. 157. Cf. also A. Müller, Die griech. Philos. in der arab. Überlieferung (Halle 1873) p. 15.
2) Cf. vol. IV 6 Preface p. V sq.