The Late Antique and Medieval Reception of Aristotle’s Categories “Mobilities” DiSSGeA Department Development Project (PSD 2025-2027)

Aristotle’s Categories stands as a fundamental text in the history of philosophical thought, offering a conceptual framework for classifying and understanding reality. From Late Antiquity through the Syriac, Arabic, Byzantine, and Latin Middle Ages, the Categories became a cornerstone in philosophical and medical education, shaping the teaching of logic, metaphysics, theology, medicine, and the natural sciences, across a wide range of linguistic and religious traditions.

 

The role of the Categories as a propaedeutic to rational thought, combined with its remarkable ability to spark debate and reinterpretation across the centuries, languages, and cultures, makes it a paradigmatic case study in the transmission of texts. The text represent an indispensable reference point for scholars across disciplines and for understanding the evolution of both philosophical and scientific thought.

 

Research into the reception of Aristotle’s Categories in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages is a rich and complex field, engaging both philological and philosophical perspectives. This project examines the transmission, circulation, and interpretation of this seminal work through its translations into Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and Latin, highlighting interpretive divergences and cross-cultural influences. By adopting a comparative and diachronic approach, the project aims to shed new light on the pivotal role of the Categories in the transmission of the Aristotelian heritage across East and West.

 

This project holds particular significance for mobility studies, as it traces the dynamic movement of a key philosophical text across geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries over more than a millennium. The Categories did not travel as a static object: each translation and reinterpretation reflects the intellectual and institutional contexts of the communities that received and reshaped them — from Greek Neoplatonists to Syriac scholars, from Arabic philosophers to Latin medieval thinkers. Studying this trajectory offers a concrete model for understanding how knowledge circulates, transforms, and adapts as it crosses borders, making the Categories an exemplary case for anyone interested in the mobility of ideas, texts, and scholarly traditions.

 

The project has engaged a genuinely interdisciplinary team within DiSSGeA — spanning History of Medieval Philosophy, History of Christianity, and Classical Philology — and has involved scholars at different career stages, from a Full Professor and an Associate Professor to a tenure-track Researcher, a Marie Curie Global Fellowship awardee, and a PhD student.

 

Main Activities:

1. Organisation of a scientific event in Padua (28–30 September 2026): A three-day workshop aimed at young Italian and European doctoral students whose research intersects with the long and wide-ranging history of the circulation of the Categories. Invited scholars and DISSGEA members will present the Greek tradition of the text and trace the impact of Syriac, Arabic, and Latin translations on the development of philosophical and theological thought across different cultural and religious contexts. The workshop will also identify continuities and discontinuities in the reception of the Categories  across traditions.

1. Publication of a monographic volume: The contributions presented at the three-day workshop will be collected and edited into a peer-reviewed monographic volume. The volume aims to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date scholarly resource on the transmission and reception of the Categories across languages, cultures, and centuries. By bringing together specialists from different disciplines — including philosophy, philology, and religious studies — the volume will provide a multifaceted perspective on the Aristotelian heritage and its mobility across East and West. It is intended to become a reference work both for established scholars and for early-career researchers approaching this field of study.

 

PI: Cecilia Martini (DiSSGeA)

 

Other Members:

Marco Zambon (DiSSGeA)

Ciro Giacomelli (DiSSGeA)

Giovanni Mandolino (MSCA-GF DiSSGeA )

Simona Esposito (Dottoranda in Filosofia, Unipd)

 

 

External Participants & Partnerships:

 

Giovanni Catapano (FiSPPA)

Enrico Moro (FiSSPA)

Rita Salis (FiSPPA)

Cristina D’Ancona (Università di Pisa),

Riccardo Chiaradonna (Università Roma3)

Philippe Hoffmann (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Paris)

Christophe Erismann (Università di Vienna)

Silvia Di Vincenzo (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)

Caterina Tarlazzi (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)

Julie Brumberg-Chaumont (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Paris)

 

Centro Interuniversitario GrAL (Greco, Arabo, Latino) – University of Padova, the University of Pisa, the École Pratique des Hautes Études of Paris, and the Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah of Fès (Morocco).  GrAL’ s activities are devoted to the study of the transmission of philosophical texts from Late Antiquity to the Arabic and Christian Middle Ages. The Centre is specialized in training activities for Doctoral and Graduate Students since 2006 (https://gral.unipi.it/)

 

Centro interdipartimentale di Filosofia Medievale (CIRFiM) – University of Padova. CiRFiM mission are: (a) to promote and coordinate research activities relating to medieval thought in all its various forms of expression; (b) to facilitate communication, integration, and the development of knowledge among scholars working in different scientific fields; (c) to acquire and manage resources outside the university system in order to support research on topics of interest to CIRFIM.

 

Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FiSPPA, Unipd)

 

Doctoral School in Philosophy (Unipd).