Tractatus Coislinianus

The Tractatus Coislinianus is a manuscript that outlines a theory of comedy in the tradition of Aristotle's Poetics. The Tractatus stated that comedy laughter and pleasure use, and so the emotions ( catharsis ) cleanse parallel to the description of the tragedy in the Poetics in a way. It describes the artifices used and the way in which the catharsis is accomplished. The manuscript is now in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France under the signature " Coislinianus 120 ".

History

The manuscript from the 10th century was in the Great Lavra monastery on Mount Athos. In 1643 it sent Athanasios rhetorician to Pierre Séguier. The ancient scientist John Anthony Cramer (1793-1848), who worked on the collection of Henri -Charles de Coislin was overwhelmed by its contents, he believed that it was the work of a commentator of Aristotle's theory of comedy and published it in year 1839. This assumption was soon ridiculed, won in the twentieth century, however, again to persuasion. Richard Janko has argued that they were the recordings or sketches of the second verlorenenen section of poetics. Heinz- Günther Nessel Rath argues that it is a later work, perhaps by Theophrastus.