Philosophy by the Book

Incunabula and other early works

The holdings of Fisher Library for these very early periods of the printed word are surprisingly rich, but they provide no more than a sample of the material in use by the scholars of the time. We show here some of the most important books of the period, from the point of view of later ages; while some of these, such as Euclid, are favorites all down the centuries, a great deal of the philosophic work of that time concentrated on the editing and elucidation of Aristotelian and other classical texts, and the exploration of the conundrums of medieval theology. This was also a period during which the early translations of classics into the vernaculars of modern Europe were made.

It is not until the sixteenth century that philosophy emerges from its links with theology, and becomes once more, as it had been in Classical Antiquity, a discipline in its own right.