Aristotle in the Greek gnomological tradition

Abstract: This dissertation consists of a new collection of maxims and apophthegms associatedwith Aristotle in the Greek gnomologies along with an introduction to the sources and acommentary on the content of the sayings. The major sources have been DiogenesLaertius, the anthology of Stobaeus, Gnomologium Vaticanum and related collections,cod. Par. gr. 1168 (Corpus Parisinum) and cod. Bodl. Digby 6, the Loci Communes ofps.-Maximus the Confessor and related anthologies, the Florilegium Atheniense, and thegnomology of Joannes Georgides. The introductory chapters concern the definition andhistory of the gnomological tradition, the investigation of the extant sources, the problemof multiple attributions, possible explanations for the title The Chreiae of Aristotle foundin Stobaeus, and the different ways Aristotle makes his appearance in the tradition. Thecollection of sayings is based on Greek sources alone, but frequent references are made tothe Latin and Arabic traditions, and Appendices I and IV offer a sampling of the material to be found in these traditions. Appendix VI shows the sources of the so-calledGnomologium Parisinum Ineditum. The commentary dwells primarily on the attributionto Aristotle and the possible Aristotelian content of the sayings while at the same timerelating the sayings to the gnomological tradition as a whole.