The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers

The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers. Ed. John William Sutton. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007. Print.

The TEAMS introduction to this text spends a fair amount of time discussing medieval wisdom literature, emphasizing that despite modern tastes on the matter this genre was hugely popular among medieval readers. Normally, I feel able to put my modern sensibilities to the side when approaching a text for the first time, but I must agree that wisdom literature is not the most exciting genre to read. The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, which might have been the first book printed by Caxton, is along the lines of other wisdom literature, providing a conglomeration of stories from various philosophers and poets that almost universally descends into a rapid fire of pithy proverbs with little in the way of narrative, overall structure, or concurrent theme. In this respect, I'll keep this post relatively brief and focus on two of the sections that stood out to me. 

Homer: 

As a huge fan of the Iliad and Oddysey, I could not pass up what this text had to say about Homer. I'm continuously interested in what medieval authors thought of Homer, considering that his texts were not available in Europe until the Early Modern period, and most knowledge of the poet comes from Roman summaries of his texts. With that understanding, then, does it somewhat make sense that this text would depict Homer as an advocate of silence, several of his gnomic statements suggesting that the wise man is he who keeps his mouth shut. Considering the immense scope of Homer's texts, the grandiose verbage involved, and the extended use of Homeric similes - you know, the wordy ways to describe action in a text that was NAMED after Homer - it seems that the author of the Dicts was either less interested in an accurate depiction of Homer or that this was the summation of knowledge of the blind poet, which makes me more than a little sad. 

Aristotle:

The section on Aristotle is somewhat more interesting (and to be fair is seven times as long) that that on Homer. As with the other philosophers, this section has an initial biography on the philosopher. Unlike the others, however, the Aristotle section is somewhat extended, going on for nearly half the text if you include the fixation of his tomb. Furthermore, in this section Aristotle is depicted as a figure of persecution for learning. When choosing his lessons, Aristotle is ridiculed: "And somme othir were wysemen at that tyme as Pyctagoras, Pychoras, and many other, helde hem as for nothinge, and mokked hem that lerned thes sciencis, seyenge that suche sciences as gramer, rethoryk, and poetrye were nat covenable to gete any connynge where wysedam was inne; and that gramere was noughte but for to teche children, and poetry for to telle fables and compose lesynges, and rethoryk for to polysshe and make faire his wordes and sette hem pleasauntly togeder" (12-18). Throughout his career, according to this telling, Aristotle is looked down upon from his peers for his choices of learning, persecution that is eventually seen as mistaken after Aristotle's death; his tomb is seen as an excellent places to hold debates and reach clear decisions.

The majority of the text, however, is filled with Aristotle's advice to his most famous pupil, Alexander. Here, the text follows the model of other sections by spit-firing proverbs that run something like an extended mirror for princes, emphasizing justice and temperance in governance. At times this advice runs similarly along the lines of Aristotles Golden Mean, but there's nothing specific in place to tie this text to any of Aristotle's philosophy. The closing lines of this section were, for me, rather interesting;

"The worlde is lyke a gardeyne, wherof the dyches be lykened to realmes; and the realmes be maintened by the 
lawes whiche the kinge hath stablysshed. The kinge is mayntened by his knyghtes,   the knyghtes bene governed by money, the money cometh of the people, the  people is governed by justice. And so is all the world" (383-387). The suggestion of a system of circular social support does not coincide with the normal three estates model, but more to the point this system places nearly equal emphasis on all of its members due to the interdependent status of society. Furthermore, knights here are supported directly by money, emphasizing a more monetized social structure than other late medieval texts. It would be an interesting exercise to comb through the dicts for similar suggestions of social structure, to see if this is simply the identity the author is attempting to draft around Aristotle or if the author uses the philosophers to push his own sense of social interdependence.