The Auctoritates Aristotelis (the authoritative passages of Aristotle) were a popular florilegium or anthology of brief extracts, composed around the end of the thirteenth century by the Franciscan scholar Johannes de Fonte ^[1].

This large collection of sententiae or opinions derived from scholastic texts was compiled around 1300 by de Fonte while he was a lector in theology at the Franciscan convent in Montpellier. He says in the prologue that his work is intended to provide assistance as much for preaching to the people as study of the arts. The work enjoyed a wide circulation, providing a convenient way to access Aristotle s philosophy, or to embellish a composition or sermon with quotations from his work.

References

• Jacqueline Hamesse, Les auctoritates Aristotelis Louvain & Paris, 1974

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