What's in a Verb? : The Story of a Word in Translation in Meteorology II between Latin and Vernacular

In a passage in the Meteorology (359a16-­22) Aristotle says that some authors μυθολογοῦσι (which was usually translated as «fabulantur») about the Dead Sea and its properties. The interpretation of the verb was less innocent than one might expect, as demonstrated by oscillations in its translation, and by some later debates about the compatibility of Aristotle with Scripture in that context. In particular, in the first half of the seventeenth century, the debate on the meaning of the verb divided the Franciscan Mattia Ferchio (1583-­1669) and the arch-­Aristotelian Fortunio Liceti (1577-­1657). At stake was no less than Aristotle's reputation as a natural philosopher and as a man of religion. This paper aims to investigate the story of the rendition of the passage in Latin and vernaculars, in order to reconstruct Ferchio and Liceti's respective agendas. [Publisher's text]