Frommann-holzboog Enarratio de anima ex Aristotelis institutione

Girolamo Donato‹s translation of the description of the Aristotelian theory of soul by Alexander of Aphrodisias (around 200 n. AD) split the Aristotelians of the Renaissance into two camps in 1495. Whereas the medieval Averroists believed that human souls were in fact mortal, but the intellect which all human beings had in common was immortal, Alexander taught that the human intellect was individual and mortal. This disagreement about the theory of soul meant that profound changes were possible in the relationship between theology and philosophy and also between a natural doctrine based on metaphysics and one based on perception.