This is the first to appear of the projected volumes of commentary to accompany the texts and translations on Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, edited by W.W. Fortenbaugh and others ("FHSG" (Philosophia Antiqua 54); Leiden, Brill, 1992). It covers the ancient secondary evidence for Theophrastus' views on physiology, zoology and botany; the transmission, reliability and doctrinal content of the reports in the text-and-translation volume are all discussed in detail, and general overviews are provided. The commentary is an indispensable accompaniment to the text-and-translation volume, and the two together will be an important resource for students of the history of the biological sciences in antiquity.

This volume forms part of the large international Theophrastus project started by Brill in 1992 and edited by W.W. Fortenbaugh, R.W. Sharples and D. Gutas . Together with volumes comprising the texts and translations, the commentary volumes provide a new generation of classicists with an up-to-date collection of the fragments and testimonia relating to Theophrastus (c. 370-288/5 B.C), Aristotle's pupil and successor as head of the Lyceum.This will be the fourth volume of commentary on Theophrastus of Eresus. Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, and is on the psychological and epistemological material. It includes contributions by Dimitri Gutas on the Arabic passages, and Pamela Huby has covered the rest, including close study of the quotations given by Priscian of Lydia and the extensive but little known medieval Latin passages. Different approaches to the use of medieval material as evidence for Theophrastus' thought are discussed in the Introduction.

In the present volume, the focus is on natural philosophy, apart from the study of living things. Topics covered include the principles of scientific enquiry, place, time, motion, the heavens, the sublunary world, meteorology and the study of materials.

This volume is a commentary on the rhetorical and poetic texts collected in the second volume of Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for His Life, Writings, Thought, and Influence. The commentary begins with a discussion of the ancient and medieval sources from which the texts are drawn. Next comes discussion of the titles of Theophrastus' works on rhetoric and poetics. After that each text is discussed individually. In sum, Theophrastus is shown to be an important, though sometimes seriously misunderstood, contributor to the development of Greek rhetorical and poetic theory. The commentary concludes with a bibliography of the modern scholary literature followed by several indices: important Greek and Latin words, titles of works (non-Theophrastean as well as Theophrastean), persons and places, and subjects discussed in earlier sections of the commentary.

On Weather Signs, traditionally ascribed to Theophrastus, contains the most complete list of such signs in antiquity and it was, in this or some very similar form, consulted by Aratus, Vergil (in Georgics I), and Pliny the Elder, as well as by many other authors throughout the Byzantine period. This edition is the first to take account of all the manuscripts and the commentary, the first in over a century, is on a far grander scale than earlier ones by Schneider (1818-21) and Wood (1894), listing almost all parallel texts for each sign. The introduction places the work in the context of its genre and for the first time lays out the details of its manuscript tradition.

This volume contains modern editions of three physiological treatises by Theophrastus of Eresus, who was Artistotle's pupil and successor as head of the Peripatetic School. The treatises are concerned with human phenomena of sweat, dizziness and fatigue, and exhibit close ties to the contemporary medical literature. The Greek text of each treatise is based on a new reading of the principal manuscripts. The text is accompanied by an apparatus of parallel text and variant readings. The excerpts of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, are printed below the Theophrastean text in order to facilitate comparison. An English translation appears opposite the Greek text. There are brief notes to the translation, and a fuller commentary follows. Indices of important words and topics and a selective bibliography complete each edition.