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Document Details :

Title: De overstroming van de Nijl
Subtitle: Een vergeten traktaat van Aristoteles?
Author(s): BEULLENS, Pieter
Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie
Volume: 73    Issue: 3   Date: 2011   
Pages: 513-534
DOI: 10.2143/TVF.73.3.2131119

Abstract :
This article offers the first translation in Dutch — and only the second in any modern language — of the Aristotelian treatise On the Flooding of the Nile. Its original Greek text was lost and only the 13th-century Latin translation by William of Moerbeke is extant. The text displays the characteristics found in Aristotle’s Problemata. Its author first phrases a question to be solved ('Why is it that…?'), then introduces and refutes the solutions put forward by earlier authorities, and finally reveals the correct causal explanation. Proceeding by comparison with other Aristotelian texts and by assessment of the indirect tradition, it is argued that the Latin translation ultimately derives from a genuine text on the subject by Aristotle.

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