The Reception of Byzantine Thought

in the Western Theological

Tradition: the Case of Robert

Grosseteste

....it is probable...that ...opposing statements...do not correspond to any real conflict between the Saints, for the reason that what is said is said in a variety of ways... And it may be that if this wide reange of expressions were more sublty understood and analysed, it would emerge clearly that the doctrine which finds opposing expressions is in fact the same.

Secundus hic arreptae expositionis labor nostrae seriem translationis expediet, in qua quidem vereor ne subierim fidi interpretis culpam, cum verbum verbo expressum comparatumque reddiderim. Cujus incoepti ratio est, quod in his scriptis in quibus rerum cognitio quaeritur, non luculentae orationis lepos, sed incorrupta veritas exprimenda est. Quocirca multum profecisse videbor, si philosophiae libris Latina oratione compositis per integerrimae translationis sinceritatem, nihil in Graecorum litteris amplius desideretur. Et quoniam humanis animis excellentissimum bonum philosophiae comparatum est, ut viae ex filo quodam procedat ratio, ex animae ipsius efficientiis ordiendum est.

It must also be recognised that in a Latin translation, and especially in one that is word for word, in so far as the translator can meet that challenge, there will be many occasions on which a lot of expressions will occur which are ambiguous and expressed in many ways, things which in the Greek tongue cannot have many meanings. It follows that someone who comments on this book without having the Greek text before him, or who does not know Greek, when he comes across such ambiguous meanings will of necessity be in very many cases ignorant of the mind of the author in those expressions—matters that a person with a moderate or even slight acquaintance with the Greek language could not miss

... It must also be noted that the Greeks have a large number of compound words for which the Latins have no corresponding compounds. It is necessary therefore in view of this for translators to put a number of Latin words in place of one of those compounds, in order to communicate in Latin. ….Hence if for the sake of fuller explanation some commentators put down the Greek compounds themselves, to the best of their ability making up compounds corresponding to them, preferring to speak less ‘Latinly’ in order to bring out clearly the mind of the author [i.e., the Ps.-Dionysius], that practice will not in my opinion be without profit

Eriugena ..id quod melius est intellectus…(through what is better than thought)

Grosseteste:…secundum melius unitus…We have a misreading here: enoumenos (“united”)

is read as noumenou (“than intellection”). Unity is somewhat opposed to understanding here – Grosseteste gets it right, of course, acknowledging the union beyond intelligibility taught by Dionysius, whereas for Eriugena, this seems impossible.

Mediaeval Philosophy