The Latin Translation and the Original Version of the Il\u101hiyy\u101t (Science of Divine Things) of Avicenna\u2019s Kit\u101b al-\u160if\u101\u2be

The present article analyzes the evidence available in Arabic sources (preliminary lists of contents in manuscripts; texts of manuscripts; later quotations) that supports the hypothesis according to which the Medieval Latin translation of the metaphysics of Avicenna\u2019s Kit\u101b al-\u160if\u101\u2be is rooted in a firm Arabic background when it conveys an account of treatise V of the work (called \u201cVersio Latina\u201d) alternative to the one that can be found in the majority of codices and in current printings (\u201cVersio Vulgata\u201d). It is argued (i) that the Versio Latina is more original than the Versio Vulgata, for doctrinal and philological reasons; (ii) that the Versio Vulgata responds to a deliberate intention to make the content of treatise V more compliant with the account of universals provided by Avicenna himself in the logic of the \u160if\u101\u2be and, in general, with the traditional pre-Avicennian ways of expounding the doctrine of universals; (iii) and that the Versio Vulgata was probably the product of Avicenna\u2019s school, rather than of Avicenna, as the result of shared concerns and theoretical debates that prompted the decision of modifying Avicenna\u2019s original text through the intervention, in all likelihood, of al-\u1e6\u16bz\u1e7\u101n\u12b. Two further issues are conclusively discussed: (iv) how precisely the Latin translation relates to the Arabic background of the Versio Latina, (v) and whether the Versio Latina can be taken as the outlook of treatise V intended and licensed by Avicenna, or it also conveys elements of later, non authorial modifications