Filopono e il problema dell’animazione dell’embrione : Un tentativo di ricostruzione del percorso filoponiano alla luce del De opificio mundi

In some passages of the fifth and sixth book of the de Opificio mundi Philoponus makes some significant remarks on the organic and psychic development of the embryo in the womb and refers to his other previous works in which he dealt with the subject. In his edition of the de Opificio mundi Scholten has already identified the passages of the other works Philoponus, in the de Opificio, refers to. In this paper, I propose to examine in detailed way both the passages indicated by Scholten and other passages not cited by the German scholar but which I consider important to better understand the philosophical background that Philoponus already possesses when he addresses the problem of the embryos animation in the de Opificio mundi. This analysis allows to appreciate how, in his exegesis of the Holy Scriptures, Philoponus found important elements to confirm, complete and modify some theories already presented in his previous works and to abandon others instead. The discussion of the animation of the embryo seems to me to be a good sample from which one of the greatest merits of the Philoponus’ de Opificio mundi becomes clear: his ability to combine a careful biblical exegesis with serious philosophical speculation.