PROJECT THEOPHRASTUS

In 1979, Project Theophrastus was founded by Professor William Fortenbaugh. Its stated purpose was to collect, edit, translate and comment on the fragments of the philosopher Theophrastus, who was Aristotle's pupil and second head of the Peripatetic School. At the outset, the Project was generously supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, private foundations and Rutgers University. It continues to receive support from the university and private foundations.

In 1991, Brill in Leiden published the collected fragments of Theophrastus together with a full translation. A second printing with corrections followed the following year. The collection is in two volumes running approximately 1200 pages. In addition to Fortenbaugh, the primary editors of the volumes were Pamela Huby (Liverpool), Robert Sharples (London) and Dimitri Gutas (Yale). Significant contributions were also made by Andrew Barker (Warwick), John Keaney (Princeton), David Mirhady (Simon Fraser), David Sedley (Cambridge) and Michael Sollenberger (Mount St. Marys MD). To date, three commentaries on particular areas within the collection have been published: those on biology and on botany by Sharples were published in 1995 and 1998 respectively, and that on psychology by Huby appeared in 1999. These commentaries, like the text-translation volumes, are available from Brill. The work of Project Theophrastus has been expanded to include the colleagues, pupils and successors of Theophrastus. In particular members of the Project intend to redo Fritz Wehrli's Die Schule des Aristoteles/The School of Aristotle. Missing texts are being included, the apparatus of variant readings and parallel texts is being enlarged, and an English translation added. Two volumes are now available: one is devoted to Demetrius of Phalerum and a second concerns Dicaearchus of Messana. Both volumes have been published in the series Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities (RUSCH).

The Project sponsors biennial meetings which take place at different locations in Europe and America. The conferences are open; scholars interested in a future topic are encouraged to contact the organizer. Here is a list of past and future conferences:

1979 Rutgers University, on the School of Aristotle, organized by William Fortenbaugh
1981 Rutgers University, on Arius Didymus, organized by William Fortenbaugh
1983 Liverpool University, on Theophrastus, organized by Pamela Huby and Anthony Long
1985 Unversity College London, on Theophrastus, organized by Robert Sharples
1987 Univeristy of the Saarland, on Cicero's knowledge of the Peripatos, organized by Peter Steinmetz
1989 Eresus, Lesbos, on Theophrastus, organized by Dimitri Gutas
1991 Rutgers University, on Peripatetic Rhetoric, organized by David Mirhady
1993 Leiden University, on Theophrastus, organized by Joannes Max van Ophuijsen and Marlein van Raalte
1995 University of Colorado at Boulder, on Demetrius of Phalerum and Dicaearchus of Messana, organized by Eckart Schütrumpf
1997 University of Budapest, on Eudemus of Rhodes, organized by István Bodnár
1999 University of Trier, on Theophrastus, organized by Georg Wöhrle
2001 University of Texas at Austin, on Lyco of Athens, Aristo of Ceos and Hieronymus of Rhodes, organized by Stephen White
2003 University of Leeds, on Heraclides Ponticus, organized by Elizabeth Pender, whose email address is claeep@arts-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk

 

Follow this link to the Theophrastus Web Page by Bob Sharples, University College London:
Theophrastus Web Page