WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

purpose from the generalized logical meditation on the term “concilium.” Following Aristotle,
Giles’s text raises the question of what “deliberation” means in terms of immutability. It claims
that “no one,” within the context of rational thought, would deliberate about immutable things
simply because this is outside the definition of deliberation, and then, it gives brief example
about a type of object that would make deliberation irrational: “the incommensurability of the
diagonal and the side.” Trevisa’s translation does no different, and in fact, is more faithful to
Aristotle as it adds the additional comment that the geometric concept involved—the
incommensurability of the diagonal and the side—refers to a particular geometric figure, to a
square.
It is easy to see why Aristotle’s example introduced obscurity into Giles’s own project.
In delineating a philosophical basis for politics, the Ethics uses a geometrical example to differ
the idea of deliberation from a broader one of cogitation. However, De Regimine has no use for
this speculation since its stated object is not to provide a theoretical reflection on mental
processes but to document practical teachings so that a ruler may learn how to govern. Because
De Regimine simply repeats Aristotle without structuring his example into a larger discussion
about political deliberation, this citation lacks the argumentative value that it finds in Aristotle’s
Ethics. As a result, this analogy does not help us gain a clear picture of what “concilium” is or
even an understanding of what immutability entails; instead, we merely hear a traditional way of
speaking about an idea: the Aristotelian presentation of a concept of advice.
True, in repeating Aristotle, Giles and Trevisa are not simply slaves to textual tradition.
Medieval readers knew that the citation of authorities did not lend truth to an argument—as if
any learned medieval reader really needed to be assured that geometry is immutable by quoting
Aristotle. The example’s Aristotelian provenance may have been a necessary condition for its
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