Theodor Bergk entdeckt und kommentiert die armenischen Empedoclea

Philo of Alexandria composed a work entitled De providentia. This work has been lost in its original form, except for a few fragments, and is available only in an Armenian translation published in Venice in 1822 by the Mekhitarist monk J. B. Aucher. Among the pre-Socratic thinkers considered by Philo in this work is Empedocles. As a result, Philo’s treatise attracted the attention of those interested in this early Greek philosopher. A first step in this direction was taken by the classical philologist Wilhelm Theodor Bergk, who therefore stands at the center of this study.

The first half of the study begins with a section on Bergk’s biography and his philosophical activities. This is followed by an outline of the debate among leading historians of philosophy at the start of the 19th century regarding Empedocles’ thought, an overview of the state of Philo research at that time, and a detailed account of the first publication of De providentia.

The second half of the study provides an analysis of the Armenian Empedoclea in their Latin version. Bergk engaged with these texts in a review of the collection of Empedocles fragments presented by Simon Karsten in 1838. Bergk’s text is first introduced and then progressively elucidated by commentary. Particular attention is paid to his thesis that Empedocles criticized the cosmology of Parmenides.