Mingli tan 名理探 : [上下冊, 5卷] / Fu Xunji 傅汎際 (F. Furzado) yiyi 譯義 ; Li Zhizao daci 李之藻達辭.
Translation of: Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis e Societate Jesu in universam dialecticam Aristotelis.
民國30 [1941].

The Aristotelian soul in early modern China : towards a global view of transcultural vernacularisation / Daniel Canaris

Published in Parergon Volume 42, Number 1, 2025

Also available through Boston College Libraries

I. Introduction

The translation of Aristotelian thought into the vernacular from the late Middle Ages onwards had a transformative impact upon its dissemination and reception, as lay and marginalised readers gained access to ideas which had previously been the exclusive preserve of an ecclesiastical and humanist elite. Vernacularisation did not involve a linear transfer between linguistic contexts but required strategic adaptations to the target audience, creating as it were an open-ended and recursive conversation between translator, text, and reader. Recent research has advanced significantly our understanding of volgarizzamenti within the early modern Italian context, as well as of the continuing vitality of Aristotelianism in an age conventionally understood as moving away from Aristotle and scholasticism. Yet the scope of these studies has been restricted to Renaissance Italy, thus passing over pioneering attempts to vernacularise Aristotle in non-European contexts and to make Aristotle responsive to globalisation.