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2 THE MEANING OF THE SIX TERMS CALLED ‘TRANSCENDENTALS,’ AND PROOF THAT ‘THING’ HAS FIRST PLACE AMONG THEM, WHILE THE REST ARE NOT TRANSCENDENTAL. (1) First of all, it is intrinsically obvious that there should not be several emperors or kings but only one, as Homer’s Ulysses says: To be many-mastered is no good: let there be one master And one king given by the son of Kronos, crooked in counsel. 28 Therefore let us ask which of these is the term, or what is the meaning of the term, which is emperor and king of them all – which meaning can contain more than any – as God, the Son of God, gave it to us. (2) Given a choice, I suppose the Peripatetics would bestow this honor on the term they nominate first, for they are always talking about it, as if it were a piece in a game of dice for them to play with and use its many sides. 29 According to me, however, of the six terms that now seem to be claiming the kingdom, none will be king except ‘thing,’ just as Darius, son of Hystaspes, was the only one who would become king out of the six Persians who rose up to seek the kingdom. 30 (3) While ‘being’ is the one among them that presents the strongest appearance of securing the kingdom, the hidden defect that it suffers from is the greatest. While describing this term at greater length, let me speak very briefly about the others since inquiry leaves no doubt about them. Does ‘something’ not mean ‘some thing’? Does ‘one’ not mean ‘one thing’; ‘true’ a ‘true thing’ or a ‘truth,’ which is also a thing; ‘good’ a ‘good thing’ or ‘goodness’ or ‘righteousness,’ which itself is a thing as well? Accordingly, ‘being’ means ‘that thing which is.’ (4) In order to show this more explicitly, I shall argue precisely and carefully. By its nature, ‘being’ is a participle of any gender, but when it becomes a noun it is neuter only. In Greek, however, it is variable, with three words for three genders – ôn, ousa, on – and when the neuter word becomes a noun it takes the article to, which is not applied to the participle, and this is the ‘being’ that Aristotle talks about. (5) But its meaning will be clear from its participle. Every participle has the force of a relative pronoun with a verb: a ‘person walking, running or reading,’ for example, is someone ‘who walks, who runs, who reads,’ as a ‘person being rich’ is someone ‘who is rich.’ Although all the Greeks use this participle with great frequency, hardly any of the Latins used or uses it, (6) as Priscian confirms, saying: “The Greeks use the participle as a substantive, which by analogy we can use also, except that frequent employment of the 28 Hom. Il. 2.204-5. 29 The term is ‘being’ (ens); Zippel cites Arist. Meta. 2.7; Peter of Spain, Summulae 2.2; Paul of Venice, Liber metaphysicus 1. 30 Darius became king of Persia in 522 BCE, but he was actually the last of seven conspirators, according to Herodotus (3.68-79); Valla, who was the first to translate Herodotus into Latin, continues this analogy, where Darius as king corresponds to ‘thing’ (res) as the real ruler among the six trancendentals. 8 2/21/05 9:35 PM 8/44
participle loses strength, and yet Caesar was not inconsistent to derive ‘being’ from the verb ‘I am, you are’ just as ‘being able’ derives from the verb ‘I am able, you are able.’” 31 (7) That Priscian himself used this participle I would not venture to say since shortly before this, also in book 18, he says: “But this occurs when through omission of a substantive verb or participle in such cases – the nominative, that is – the construction is usually presented indirectly, as in ‘Achilles, son of Peleus, killed many Trojans.’ For the participle of the substantive verb ‘being,’ which is not our usage, is understood.” 32 (8) Priscian mentioned this participle but did not use it. The ignorant usually use ‘appearing,’ not knowing what this verb means. 33 Moreover, I make no allowance for those who employ the participle in question (as no skilled interpreter has done), either in translating Aristotle or in other books, though I do allow it when they translate a noun which was already constructed from a participle. (9) What will be meant by ‘being’? An antecedent with a relative pronoun and a verb, of course, as in various other instances, such as someone ‘loving’ a wife or ‘loving’ a husband, such as ‘being contingent or accidental or consequent or antecedent.’ One is a man, the other is a woman, and both are lovers, and likewise with ‘that which is contingent, accidental, consequent or antecedent.’ ‘Being,’ then, is ‘that which is’ because the pronoun must still be understood even if it is unexpressed. ‘I see what you …’ obviously means ‘I see that which you….’ (10) Moreover, the pronoun takes its force not so much from being an adjective as from being a substantive, like its relatives (if I may say so). For when I say ‘look at this marble, such timber, that meadow, the sea,’ it is as if I were saying ‘look at the beautiful marble, the grand timber, the delightful meadow, the troubled sea.’ (11) But when I say ‘look at this’ or ‘such’ or ‘that’ or ‘the,’ what is meant is surely ‘this thing, such a thing, that thing, the thing.’ The same with other terms, since ‘something’ (as I said above) is ‘some thing’; ‘another’ is ‘another thing’; ‘the same’ is ‘the same thing’; and ‘nothing’ is ‘no thing.’ Thus, if ‘being’ is analyzed as ‘that which is,’ and ‘that’ is analyzed as ‘that thing,’ ‘being’ will then be analyzed as ‘that thing which is.’ (12) Hence it is obvious that the meaning of ‘being’ is not entirely natural but, I would say, begged and borrowed. I add this too, that a garment got by begging does not befit this term, just as the peacock’s tail in Horace did not befit the ‘poor little crow.’ 34 For ‘being’ is a word encumbered, as it were, unable to walk because its burden is too heavy. 31 Zippel cites Priscian, Gram. 18.8.75 (Keil 3, 239). 32 Zippel cites Priscian, Gram. 18.1.6. 33 The primary sense of the classical Latin verb ‘existere’ or ‘exsistere’ is ‘come into view,’ ‘appear,’ or ‘be shown,’ as suggested by its etymology, from the preposition ‘ex’ (‘from’ or ‘out of’) and the verb ‘sistere’ (‘cause to stand,’ ‘cause to appear,’ ‘place,’ ‘fix’), which in turn comes from ‘stare’ (‘stand’). Although ‘existere’ can mean ‘come into being,’ in the way that a condition ‘arises’ or ‘emerges,’ it lacks the philosophical range of the English ‘exist,’ which the Latin word acquired from the very medieval uses that Valla criticizes. Zippel cites Aquinas ST 1.12.1.3; Paul of Venice, Lib. met. 1. 34 An allusion to Hor. Ep. 1.3.1820, not a quotation. 9 2/21/05 9:35 PM 9/44
Page 1 and 2: LORENZO VALLA THE REPAIR OF THE WHO
Page 3 and 4: (8) But other Latins consider other
Page 5 and 6: (17) For this there are various rea
Page 7: they are called ‘genera’ becaus
Page 11 and 12: (18) But we note that this word doe
Page 13 and 14: practice of human beings, which is
Page 15 and 16: 3 EXCEPT IN A FEW SPECIAL CASES, TH
Page 17 and 18: meaning more grief. 68 The reason g
Page 19 and 20: although the word can be better reg
Page 21 and 22: ‘who is useful for the plow?’ m
Page 23 and 24: 4 NO NOUNS IN -ITAS COME FROM SUBST
Page 25 and 26: some of them claim - it meant ‘li
Page 27 and 28: word ‘essence’ as difficult tha
Page 29 and 30: And since the ecclesiastics often d
Page 31 and 32: (7) Letting this rock pass by for f
Page 33 and 34: classified into differences or spec
Page 35 and 36: ‘substances,’ though three ‘n
Page 37 and 38: (11) Now let us hear what Aristotle
Page 39 and 40: The world is not animate, then, nor
Page 41 and 42: (6) The Epicureans and Stoics spoke
Page 43 and 44: whether that rational part is God,

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