COMPLEXION IN GEOFFREY OF ASPALL’S QUAESTIONES SUPER “DE SENSU ET SENSATO” ARISTOTELIS
COMPLEXION IN GEOFFREY OF ASPALL’S QUAESTIONES SUPER “DE SENSU ET SENSATO” ARISTOTELIS

Summary/Abstract: Geoffrey of Aspall (d. 1287), who belonged to the third generation of Oxford scholars commentating on Aristotle’s natural philosophy works, was probably the first Latin scholar to write questions to De sensu et sensato. He must have written them as a mature scholar, for the text is a show of erudition: he is not only well acquainted with Aristotle’s own ideas on sensory perception but he also introduces some ideas taken from earlier commentary tradition and other scientific writings of his times making extensive use of medical, optical and mathematical works. Such a variety of sources allows Geoffrey to address questions that extend beyond the subject of the commented text so much that no one would reasonably expect to encounter at least some of them in Quaestiones in De sensu et sensato. Some of them concern the problem of complexion. How do primary qualities affect temperaments in the organic world? What are the mutual relations between complexion and temperaments? Does the change of proportion on the elementary level translate into the change of colour of a living creature? Although Aspall’s solutions to these problems do not seem entirely satisfactory, they draw our attention to problems lying on the boundary between natural philosophy and medicine that were rarely addressed by philosophers of his times. The doctrinal analysis of those issues is supplemented with a critical edition of question devoted entirely to the problem of complexio in Aspall’s commentary (Qu. 65 In quibus corporibus principaliter reperiuntur extremi colores) preceded by a short introduction.

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