The tradition of the Aristotelian Mechanics: Text and Diagrams

The doctoral thesis of Joyce van Leeuwen examined the textual tradition of the Aristotelian Mechanics. All 31 extant manuscripts of the treatise were collated, and subsequently a stemma codicum was established.

Research

The doctoral thesis of Joyce van Leeuwen examined the textual tradition of the Aristotelian Mechanics. All 31 extant manuscripts of the treatise were collated, and subsequently a stemma codicum was established. Because of the fact that the previous editions of the Mechanics did examine only parts of the textual tradition and are all defective, a new examination of the manuscripts is needed, as well as a new critical edition of the treatise, which is prepared in this project. Van Leeuwenʼs analysis of the textual tradition also includes a systematic examination of the diagrams contained in the manuscripts. This study on diagrams in the Mechanics combined the philological tradition with the more philosophical and mathematical aspects of the text, in order to get a clearer picture of the history of mechanics.

The dissertation was successfully completed in 2012 and published with the title The Aristotelian Mechanics. Text and Diagrams. Text and Diagrams, Wien / New York: Springer, 2016.