Sazetak

Abstract

This article examines the textual alteration strategy carried out byDominicus Gundissalinus in his original works. One of the most striking examplesof this approach can be detected in the large quotation of Ibn Sīnā’s Metaphysica I,6–7 in Gundissalinus’ cosmological treatise De processione mundi, in which theSpanish philosopher variously modifies the text he translated a few years before.After a short presentation of Gundissalinus’ double role as translator and philosopher, the study moves on to the analysis of Ibn Sīnā’s doctrine of necessary and possible being, and the five demonstrations of the unrelated uniqueness of necessarybeing offered by Ibn Sīnā. These arguments are directly quoted by Gundissalinus:nevertheless, the author modifies the text in many passages, here examined throughthe analysis of some representative excerpts. The results of this enquiry suggest thatGundissalinus is following an effective alteration strategy, envisaging at least twomain purposes: the clarification of Ibn Sīnā’s line of reasoning, and the doctrinalassimilation of Metaphysica’s theories in his original philosophical system. Inappendix to this article the whole text of the two versions of Metaphysica I, 6–7 ispresented.