Calcidius on Plato's Timaeus
Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception, and Christian Contexts

The first study in its entirety of this fourth-century Latin commentary on Plato's Timaeus, also addressing the Latin translation.

Gretchen Reydams-Schils (Author)

9781108430517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 September 2021

253 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.384 kg

'Reydams-Schils' analysis is brilliantly structured and thoroughly compelling, and demonstrates the remarkable originality and subtlety of Calcidius' commentary.' John Magee, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, University of Toronto

This is the first study to assess in its entirety the fourth-century Latin commentary on Plato's Timaeus by the otherwise unknown Calcidius, also addressing features of his Latin translation. The first part examines the authorial voice of the commentator and the overall purpose of the work; the second part provides an overview of the key themes; and the third part reassesses the commentary's relation to Stoicism, Aristotle, potential sources, and the Christian tradition. This commentary was one of the main channels through which the legacy of Plato and Greek philosophy was passed on to the Christian Latin West. The text, which also establishes a connection between Plato's cosmology and Genesis, thus represents a distinctive cultural encounter between the Greek and the Roman philosophical traditions, and between non-Christian and Christian currents of thought.

Introduction
Part I: 1. An authorial voice
2. How to read Plato's Timaeus
3. The coherence of the commentary
Part II: 4: Time and the universe
5. On soul and souls (1): the world soul
6. On soul and souls (2): the human soul and its relation to the world soul
7. God and gods
8. Providence and fate
9. Matter and evil
10. Matter, being, and form
Part III: 11. Calcidius and Aristotle
12. Calcidius and the Stoics
13: Source and sources (1): Numenius
14. Source and sources (2): Porphyry
15: Calcidius Christianus? (1): an authorial voice revisited
16. Calcidius Christianus? (2): God, matter, and creation
Conclusion: who is Calcidius?

Subject Areas: Christianity [HRC], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]