Preface

Summary

The idea of a series of volumes to be known as The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts originated in the Cambridge University Press almost as soon as work on The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy had begun. In preparing this first volume in the series we were helped immeasurably by a grant from the Translations Program of The National Endowment for the Humanities that enabled us to devote our full time to the project for twelve months in 1983 – 84. Ms. Susan Mango, who was then in charge of the Translations Program, gave us good advice and encouragement, for which we are happy to thank her publicly.

Although we were able to make good progress during the period of our NEH grant, the remainder of the work had to be done in the summers, when we were free from other academic obligations. Our working arrangements during those summers were particularly convenient and pleasant because of the hospitality of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell, for which we are grateful to Professor Jonathan Culler, the director of the Society, and to his predecessor, Professor Eric Blackall.

Professors Scott MacDonald and Georgette Sinkler gave us comments on drafts of some of our translations, and we thank them for their help. We are grateful also to Professor Sten Ebbesen of the Institute for Medieval Greek and Latin Philology at the University of Copenhagen for kindly providing us with his as yet unpublished edition of Boethius of Dacia's Sophisma I.