Hisdosus (fl. c. 1100), also known as Hisdosus Scholasticus, was a writer and scholar who lived in the early 12th century. Nothing is known about his life. His first name is unknown, but he states that "I call myself Hisdosus, taken from the name of my father."

History

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

commentary by him on

Calcidius Calcidius (or Chalcidius) was a 4th-century philosopher who translated the first part (to 53c) of Plato's '' Timaeus'' from Greek into Latin around the year 321 and provided with it an extensive commentary. This was likely done for Bishop Hosiu ...

' translation of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's '' Timaeus'' survives in manuscript. He comments on the passage in the ''Timaeus'' (34b–36d) that deals with the World Soul. The commentary depends on the glosses by the French scholastic philosopher

William of Conches William of Conches (; ; ), historically sometimes anglicized as William Shelley, was a medieval Norman- French scholastic philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism by studying secular works of classical literature and fo ...

on the ''Timaeus'', and it has been supposed that he may have been a pupil of William of Conches. Hisdosus' commentary is the only source (albeit in Latin paraphrase) for

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

' comparison of the soul to a spider and the body to the spider's web ( DK 22B 67a).

Charles H. Kahn Charles H. Kahn (May 29, 1928 – March 5, 2023) was a classicist and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focused on early Greek philosophy, up to the times of Plato. His 1960 monograph on Anaximander was ...

, (1981), ''The art and thought of Heraclitus'', p. 289. Cambridge University Press.

References

Latin commentators on Plato Scholastic philosophers 12th-century writers in Latin 12th-century philosophers {{scholastic-philosopher-stub