Book of Causes

...prepared according to the Latin text, 1 the intentions of Jourdain were in any case not met.

E. Vacherot went deeper into the matter by demonstrating, also on the basis of the Latin text, using various examples, that the doctrines of the book de causis were taken—sometimes word for word, sometimes in substance—from the στοιχείωσις θεολογική Elements of Theology which bears the name of the Neoplatonist Proclus. 2

It was, however, an all too great complacency when Munk, with reference to the analyses of Hauréau and Vacherot, wrote of the book de causis: ce livre est déjà suffisamment connu. original: "this book is already sufficiently known." 3

Haneberg’s tireless pen undertook a more comprehensive appraisal of the work, which becomes so enigmatic in many respects upon closer inspection. From the correct recognition of its literary-historical significance sprang his treatise "On the Neoplatonic Work on Causes (liber de causis)". 4 He highlighted the high regard that the work enjoyed in the Middle Ages, in both Christian and Jewish circles; then, with the help of a copy of the Arabic original belonging to the University Library in Leiden, he examined the value and reliability of the Latin translation; he also provided noteworthy hints and indications regarding the obscure question of the origin of the work; and finally, he discussed in a very detailed manner its relationship to the already mentioned στοιχείωσις θεολογική Elements of Theology. 5