Introduction.

...having been "of great influence on Arabic speculation," is entirely incorrect and has not the slightest support in Haneberg's remarks.

It did not detract from Haneberg’s merit that his statements regarding the Hebrew versions of the book On Causes Latin: de causis prompted M. Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (1816–1907), a founder of modern Jewish bibliography and a key figure in studying how scientific texts moved between cultures to remark: "The more we are pleased when the research of Jewish scholarship is utilized in increasingly wider circles and thereby completed in reaction, the more we regret to see how difficult it is for Christian scholars to obtain the relevant writings" . . . The detailed note regarding those Hebrew texts, which Steinschneider published following this remark,¹ was meanwhile an all the more valuable supplement to Haneberg's work, as it came from the most authoritative source.

Steinschneider concluded with the expression of a wish that someone might publish the Arabic text of the book On Causes, "which in its multiple adaptations and under various titles has long been influential."

The desire for a revised edition of the old Latin translation was also suggested and, to a certain extent, challenged by Haneberg's explanations, insofar as this translation had to form the foundation for any attempt to more precisely determine the influence that the book On Causes exerted on the Christian speculation of the Middle Ages.

Professor Dr. C. S. Barach Carl Sigmund Barach (1834–1885), an Austrian philosopher and historian of medieval thought in Innsbruck had already announced an edition of this Latin translation,² when news of the treatment of the book On Causes planned by the Görres Society The Görres-Gesellschaft, a German Catholic academic society founded in 1876 to promote interdisciplinary research caused him to desist from his project or at least to postpone its execution.³

The following notes provide the citations for the academic works mentioned above.

1 The Book of Causes: Hebrew Bibliography, edited by M. Steinschneider, published by J. Benzian, Year 1863, pp. 110–114. See p. 107.
2 In the first volume of the Library of Medieval Philosophers Latin: Bibliotheca philosophorum mediae aetatis edited by Barach (Innsbruck 1876), the publishing house included a prospectus which concludes with the announcement: "The second volume, to appear as soon as possible, will contain: Pseudo-Aristotle's On Causes, edited using manuscripts from the Imperial Court Library in Vienna and provided with an introduction by Prof. Dr. Barach."
3 The first volume of the aforementioned Library bears the separate title: Bernard Silvestris's Two Books on the Totality of the World, or the Megacosm and original Latin title: Bernardi Siluestris de mundi uniuersitate libri duo siue megacosmus et... The text cuts off here at the end of the page.

Editorial note: A digital watermark from Google appears at the bottom right of the original page scan.