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The Renaissance marked a turning point in Europe’s relationship to Arabic thought. On the one hand, Dag Nikolaus Hasse argues, it was the period in which important Arabic traditions reached the peak of their influence in Europe. On the other hand, it is the time when the West began to forget, and even actively suppress, its debt to Arabic culture. Success and Suppression traces the complex story of Arabic influence on Renaissance thought.It is often assumed that the Renaissance had little interest in Arabic sciences and philosophy, because humanist polemics from the period attacked Arabic learning and championed Greek civilization. Yet Hasse shows that Renaissance denials of Arabic influence emerged not because scholars of the time rejected that intellectual tradition altogether but because a small group of anti-Arab hard-liners strove to suppress its powerful and persuasive influence. The period witnessed a boom in new translations and multivolume editions of Arabic authors, and European philosophers and scientists incorporated—and often celebrated—Arabic thought in their work, especially in medicine, philosophy, and astrology. But the famous Arabic authorities were a prominent obstacle to the Renaissance project of renewing European academic culture through Greece and Rome, and radical reformers accused Arabic science of linguistic corruption, plagiarism, or irreligion. Hasse shows how a mixture of ideological and scientific motives led to the decline of some Arabic traditions in important areas of European culture, while others continued to flourish.

Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) greatly influenced later medieval thinking about the earth and the cosmos, not only in his own civilization, but also in Hebrew and Latin cultures. The studies presented in this volume discuss the reception of prominent theories by Avicenna from the early 11th century onwards by thinkers like Averroes, Fahraddin ar-Razi, Samuel ibn Tibbon or Albertus Magnus. Among the topics which receive particular attention are the definition and existence of motion and time. Other important topics are covered too, such as Avicenna’s theories of vacuum, causality, elements, substantial change, minerals, floods and mountains. It emerges, among other things, that Avicenna inherited to the discussion an acute sense for the epistemological status of natural science and for the mental and concrete existence of its objects. The volume also addresses the philological and historical circumstances of the textual tradition and sheds light on the translators Dominicus Gundisalvi, Avendauth and Alfred of Sareshel in particular. The articles of this volume are presented by scholars who convened in 2013 to discuss their research on the influence of Avicenna’s physics and cosmology in the Villa Vigoni, Italy.

Peter Abelard's autobiography, the Historia calamitatum, is one of the best-known medieval texts, especially because of the story of his love for Heloise which it recounts. In recent decades, there was so much controversy about the authenticity of the documents concerning Abelard and Heloise that the critical interpretation of the texts was relegated to the sidelines. The present volume provides a way out of this impasse. In it, the famous text is subjected to a series of exemplary analyses from the perspectives of seven different 20th century literary theories (aesthetics of reception, Foucault, Gender Studies, Rhetorical Stylistic Analysis, Psychology of Literature, Cultural Studies, Deconstruction). The analyses are preceded by the Latin text of the Historia calamitatum with a modern German translation. This is thus the first time that the Historia calamitatum has been presented in a bilingual edition.

Avicenna’s Metaphysics (in Arabic: Ilâhiyyât) is the most important and influential metaphysical treatise of classical and medieval times after Aristotle. This volume presents studies on its direct and indirect influence in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin culture from the time of its composition in the early eleventh century until the sixteenth century. Among the philosophical topics which receive particular attention are the distinction between essence and existence, the theory of universals, the concept of God as the necessary being and the theory of emanation. It is shown how authors such as Averroes, Abraham ibn Daud, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus react to Avicenna’s metaphysical theories. The studies also address the philological and historical circumstances of the textual tradition in three different medieval cultures. The studies are written by a distinguished international team of contributors, who convened in 2008 to discuss their research in the Villa Vigoni, Italy.