Toynbee "Càusis, De"
or Liber de causis, a work, at one time wrongly attributed to Aristotle, which consists in fact of thirty-two propositions taken from the Institutio theologica of Proclus; it was translated from Arabic into Latin by Gerard of Cremona before 1187. Thomas Aquinas was the first to recognize the true origin of the treatise - thanks to the translation by William of Moerbeke of the Institutio of Proclus. The work apparently was transmitted by the Hebrews of Spain as a treatise of Aristotle, and was included as such in the MSS. and early printed editions of his works; it was quoted as early as cent. xii, and was regarded as of great weight and authority in the Middle Ages. Albertus Magnus, who wrote a commentary on it under the same name (the full title of his work is De causis et processu universitatis), suspected that it was a compilation and ascribed it to a certain David the Jew:

. . . David Judaeus quidam ex dictis Aristotelis Avicennae, Algazelis, et Alfarabii congregavit, per modum theorematum ordinans ea, quorum commentum ipsemet adhibuit, sicut et Euclides in Geometricis fecisse videtur. [De causis et proc. univ. ii. I, cap. I, from Opera omnia, ed. by A. Borgnet (Paris, 1890), x, p. 433.]

D. makes no reference to the authorship of the De causis; he quotes it simply as libro Di Cagioni, Conv. III. ii. 4; libro De le Cagioni, Conv. III vi. 4, II. vii. 2, IV. xxi. 9, De Causis Mon. I. xi. 17; liber De Causis, Epist. xiii. 57, 61. D. quotes from the De causis (the references being to the thirty-two Propositiones or Lectiones, into which the Latin work is divided) the theory that every 'substantial form' proceeds from its First Cause, which is God, Conv. III. ii. 4 (Prop. xix); that the Divine Goodness and its gifts become diverse by the concurrence of that which receives them, Conv. III ii. 4 (Prop, xix, 'diversificantur bonitates et dona ex concursu recipientis'), that the first of all things is 'being', Conv. III. ii. 7 (Prop. iv init., 'prima rerum creatarum est esse, et non est ante ipsum creatum aliud'); that every Intelligence on high knows what is above itself and what below, Conv. III. vi. 4 (Prop. vii init., 'omnis intelligentia scit quod est supra se et quod est sub se: verumtamen scit quod est sub se, quoniam est causa ei, et scit quod est supra se, quoniam adquirit ab eo bonitates') ; that every cause informs its effect with the goodness it has received from its own cause, which is God, Conv. III. vi. 11 (Prop, i, 'causa prima adiuvat secundam causam super operationem suam, quoniam omnem operationem quam causa efficit secunda, prima etiam causa efficit') that the Primal Goodness dispenses its bounty vw ith a single affluence' (con uno discorrimento), Conv. III. vii. 2 (Prop. xix, 'prima enim bonitas influit bonitates super res omnes influxione una'); that every noble soul has three methods of operation, the animal, the intellectual, and the divine, Conv. IV. xxi. 9 (Prop. iii init., 'omnis anima nobilis habet tres operationes, nam ex operationibus eius est operatio animalis et operatio intelligibilis, et operatio divina'), that the difference between causes is one of degree, Mon. I. xi. 17 (Prop. i); that every primary cause has greater influence upon the object affected than a universal secondary cause, Epist. xiii. 20 (Prop. i init., 'omnis causa primaria plus est influens super causatum suum quam causa universalis secunda'); that every intelligence is full of forms, Epist. xiii. 21 (Prop. ix init., 'omnis intelligentia plena est formis'). ] Liber de Causis, ed. by E. Orth. (Roma, 1938).] [See R. Murari, 'I1 "De Causis" e la sua fortuna nel Medio Evo', GSLI, xxxiv (1899), 98 ff.; B. Nardi, Sfd, pp. 89 ff.; P. Duherll, Le Systeme du monde (Paris, 1919), iv. pp. 329-47; and A. Mellone, 'Emanatismo platonico in Dante per le citazioni del "Liber de causis"?' Divus Thomas Plac. Iiv. (1951), 205-12.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press