/lit/ - Literature

>>22786139
Usually the few works that were translated into Latin, in Latin and by the 13th century the Greek. Though they preferred Roman authors over Greek ones.

>>22786143
wasn t aristotle seen as the father of catholic thought

how many medieval people in western europe could even read greek? how many even had access to greek texts? genuine question, I thought Greek wasn't very widespread until the renaissance.

>>22786151
Western Europe didn't even have access to Aristotle until the 11th century when the Orthodox brought them over fleeing Islamic persecution, and they created a massive disruption that lasted centuries until Aquinas finally reconciled Aristotle with Christian thought.

>>22786158
in the medieval period, scholars from Byzantium were invited to teach some people Greek like Roger Bacon who ended up writing an elementary grammar for it. nevertheless, didnt really become widespread in the west until the 1400s in Italy.

>>22786158
>how many medieval people in western europe could even read greek?
Not many but there were people that did know. There was a short lived school in England that taught it in the Early Middle Ages and the Merovingians and especially later Carolingians did have access to Greek texts and had ways to learn it. Many glossaries, dictionaries, and grammar handbooks existed and were used to teach and learn Greek.
Greek did exist, it just wasn't popular at all.
>how many even had access to greek texts?
While obviously harder than getting someone like Cicero who was widespead it was possible and they did get their hands on them. Rome and the Kingdom of Sicily especially. Aristotle was the most well known since there were Latin translations of some of his works but the majority of his works in Greek weren't really studied until the 1200's.

>>22786139
Plato was not available in Latin so no one read him. Timaeus was half translated into Latin and there were copies of Phaedo and Meno available in Sicily written in 1160. Typically, if it wasnt in Latin no one read it which is why Plato fell to the wayside. This would be the sort of information which is easily googleable and not necessary to be spoonfed to you. ;)

God gave you a gift. You were born into an era where you can simply search the answers to those questions which are too fucking stuid to be wasting my time on. My earthly existence is unfortunately finite.

>>22787076
anon, i just wanted to start a conversation
yesterday after anon said i, that in the middle ages nobody had any idea about the greeks until the crusades, my mind was a little blown so i started reading about education back then
i just wanted to talk with my frens

>>22787313
Well yes, they only read Latin works and nothing Greek was available. Dante never read a word of Plato or Homer in his entire life.

>>22786139
Medievals studied what little they had of the Greeks in Latin. They got more Greek stuff after Medieval times.
I had a look at some 16-17 century Greek books (printed in the West). They are in Greek and annotated in Latin.

>>22786151
No, it’s more like Greek philosophy is the earliest origin of a philosophical tradition that runs through the Romans and the Roman Catholic Church. You have to keep in mind that Roman Catholics were working with preceding centuries of church councils and thought that included people from the East who did read Aristotle. It wasn’t like today where philosophers imagine they go and dig up some tomes from Aristotle and consider them as if they existed in some vacuum independent from the tradition they inhabit, which by the way would find its origin in the medieval Catholic Church.

A lot of Greek texts arrived through Castille, who translated them from the Arab translations they were in into Latin, and Spanish later on.

>>22786139
>>22786158
Greek knowledge was very rare until the early 16th century. But anyway, yes you should learn Greek. Even the best translation can't match reading Aristotle or Homer in the original.

>>22786184
William of Moerbeke also learned it while he was in Byzantium. Ended up translating Aristotle into Latin which St. Aquinas used as well as the logicians.