Iamblichus in Stobaeus: doctrines on the soul transmitted by doxography

Abstract

Joannes Stobaeus, at the end of the fifth century, compiled the most extensive collection of philosophical literature by his times, especially referring to Neoplatonism, whith deep roots in the Alexandrian era and edifying purposes in the Byzantine age. The philosophical doctrines compiled by Stobaeus are full of ready-made phrases, γνῶμαι, judgments and moral recommendations, hence their influence on Byzantine and medieval florilegia. The main value of the anthology lies in the transmission of texts not recorded by another source. In fact, De Anima by Iamblichus only survives in the pages of the Eclogae by Joannes Stobaeus, who included it in his collection under the title Ἰαμβλίχου ἐκ τοῦ περὶ ψυχῆς (<Taken from> On the Soul by Iamblichus). The treatise On the soul does not appear in the canonical listings of the works by Iamblichus, in fact it is not in the TLG under the Chalcidencis’ authorship. I have observed the itineraries of the theories about the soul and its projection on the Byzantine world, in the German edition of Curtius Wachsmuth and Otto Hense (1884-1923), for the translation and commentary of the passages I checked the English version by John Finamore and John Dillon (2003) and the Italian one by Lucrezia Martone (2014).