Istvan Bodnár

Alexander of Aphrodisias, the most important ancient commentator of Aristotle, wrote commentaries on all the major Aristotelian works. Some of these are known only in fragments, testimonies and interpretative, often adversarial comments. A complete collation, and reassessment of the available material of his Commentary on the Physics is undertaken by Orna Harari (Tel Aviv University) and myself in a long-term project. My project at the Institute will be part of this larger endeavour. Having provided a first listing of fragments and testimonies, and a first working translation of these, we will be conducting crucial strategic discussions, where the articulation of the commentary on these fragments, and also the terminology to be used will be settled.

During my stay at the Institute I will also have an opportunity to work on two related topical studies, one on the use of visual representations in grasping physical interdependencies across motions, extensions of moving objects, and of times taken by these motions, the other on a signature doctrine of Alexander’s celestial physics, the status of the movers of planetary spheres.