Introductory Remarks on the “Platonic Tradition” in the Middle Ages

The title of the book purposefully recalls two different, but equal- ly important, contributions on the history of medieval Platonism: Raymond Klibansky’s classical study on The Continuity of the Platon- ic Tradition During the Middle Ages1 and the collection The Platonic Tradition in the Middle Ages. A Doxographic Approach, edited by Ste- phen Gersh and Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen2. Both volumes address the Platonic tradition in the Middle Ages, providing two different approaches to it. Differing from other scholars of medieval Platonism, Klibansky emphasizes that there was a continuous Platonic tradition (or traditions, if we consider the plurality of medieval cultural and linguistic areas comprising the Arabic, Byzantine, and Latin traditions), from late Antiquity until the Renaissance. He argues that translations of Plato’s own works should be complemented by a wide and diversified corpus of indirect tradition, a corpus that was by far the most substantial part of Platonism in the Latin Middle Ages