ectly Periermenia. [Peri Hermeneias. On Interpretation.]

Of what the Body of Art consists; and on the usefulness of the
Topics.

Why Aristotle deserved more than others the name of philosopher.

That Aristotle erred in many ways; that he is eminent in Logic.

John of Salisbury clearly recognized the supremacy of Aristotle among
logicians. After naming Apuleius, Cicero, Porphyry, Boethius, Augustine,
and others, he adds:

But while individually they shine forth because of their own
merits, they all boast that they worship the very footsteps of
Aristotle; to such a degree, indeed, that by a sure pre-eminence
he has made peculiarly his own the common name of all
philosophers. For by Antonomy [a figure of speech] he is called
The Philosopher _par excellence_.

It is clear, however, that Aristotle had by no means attained, at the
middle of the twelfth century, the authoritative position which he held
a hundred years later. This appears in the chapter "On those who Carp at
the Works of Aristotle":

I cannot sufficiently wonder what sort of a mind they have (if,
that is, they have any) who carp at the works of Aristotle,
which, in any case, I proposed not to expound but to praise.
Master Theodoric, as I recall, ridiculed the Topics,--not of
Aristotle, but of Drogo. Yet he once taught those very Topics.
Certain auditors of Master Robert of Melun calumniated this work
as practically useless. All decried the Categories. Wherefore I
hesitated some time about commending them; but [there was no
question as to] the rest of his works, since they were commended
by the judgment of all; but I did not think that they should be
praised grudgingly. Yet opposition is made to the Elenchi
[Sophistical Refutations], though stupidly, because it contains
poetry; but clearly the idiom of [the Greek] language does not
lend itself readily to translation. In this respect the Analytics
seem to me preferable, because they are no less efficient for
actual use, and because by their easier comprehension they
stimulate eloquence.[18]

The slowness with which these works made their way is described by Roger
Bacon at the end of the thirteenth century.

But a part of the philosophy of Aristotle has come slowly into
the use of the Latins. For his Natural Philosophy and
Metaphysics, and the Commentarie