Eustratius / Aspasius / Michael Ephesius et al.: Aristotelis Stagiritae Moralia Nicomachia

Eustratius was a talented philosopher in the tradition of Michael Psellus who worked together with Michael of Ephesus under the stimulating influence of a group of intellectuals who had been brought together by Anna Komnene after the death of her father, Emperor Alexius I († 1113). Eustratius is known as the author of commentaries on Aristotle’s second book, ›Analytica posteriora‹ (CAGL 7) and on books I and VI of the ›Nichomachean Ethics‹. The commentaries on both of these books were combined with commentaries on the other books of the ›Ethics‹ by Aspasius (the oldest annotator), Michael of Ephesus and two anonymous annotators in Anna Komnene’s circle. These commentaries enjoyed a wide distribution in the medieval Latin-speaking world in the middle of the 13th century. Their real origin was unknown up to the 16th century when Giovanni Bernando Feliciano corrected most of the commentaries’ allocations to the different books when he did a new translation.