Some Remarks on Bernardo Segni’s Italian Translation of Nicomachean Ethics (original) (raw)
2021, Linguistic, Educational and Intercultural Research 2021 (LEIC Research 2021), 21 – 22 October 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania
In the middle of the sixteenth century Bernardo Segni (Florence, 1504-1588) published some Italian translations with commentaries on some works of Aristotle. He was not a scholar nor did he have a university affiliation nor could he boast a deep knowledge of Greek language, but he worked in the cultural climate of Duke Cosimo I’s Florence (Florence, 1519-1574) and of the Florentine Academy, whose aim was to raise the cultural centrality of Florence and its dialect. In this paper I analyze some passages of his translation and commentary on Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea (Florence 1550; Venice 1551). Through this examination some characteristics of the author's work emerge, such as his didactic purposes, maybe related to the type of his audience, his (small) knowledge of classical authors and sources, and his tendency towards actualization and dialogue with the present.
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Aristotle's Ethics Eudemia (EE) and Ethica Nicomachea (EN), as is well known, contain three books in common (EE 4-6 = EN 5-7). The text of these books as found in EE mss. however is little known.(1) Happily a collation of them in several mss. was published by Walter Ashburner early in the 1900s.(2) These collations are the more valuable because taken from (among others) the one ms. that in the learned stemma of Dieter Harlfinger(3) appears as the archetype for all the rest. The following translation of these Common Books is of the text as reported by Ashburner with footnotes drawing attention to differences between the EN and EE versions. Many of these differences are of little consequence; others are not. A discussion of some of the more significant ones can be found in my article: "Aristotle's EE: the Text and Character of the Common Books as found in EE mss." Classical Quarterly, 2019, volume 69, pp. 1-15. The translation of Book Four begins on page 2; of Book Five on p.25, and of Book Six on p.41. Note that the headings, subheadings, and summaries are additions by the translator meant to aid the reader. They are not part of the Greek or the translation proper.
Ethik und Politik des Aristoteles in der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. by Christoph Strosetzki, with the collaboration of Walter Mesch and Christian Pietsch (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2016), pp. 45–68, 2016
This essay examines Bernardo Segni's "Trattato dei governi", a translation and commentary in Italian on Aristotle's "Politics". In particular, it argues that in this work Segni is responding to more contemporary concerns and debates relating to Florence’s political situation. It shows that Segni was strongly aware of and exploited Niccolò Machiavelli’s doctrines, both in his interpretation of Aristotle and even more strongly in his work of political history, the "Istorie fiorentine", even though he disagreed with some of Machiavelli’s premises. It also considers in what ways Segni expressed his discontent with the Medici regime, considering it a tyranny, even while he managed to praise and defend Duke Cosimo I.
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