Hisdosus

Hisdosus (fl. c. 1100), also known as Hisdosus Scholasticus, was a writer and scholar who lived in the early 12th century.^[1] 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."^[2]

History

A Latin commentary by him on Calcidius' translation of Plato's Timaeus survives in manuscript.^[3] He comments on the passage in the Timaeus (34b–36d) that deals with the World Soul.^[4] The commentary depends on the glosses by the French scholastic philosopher William of Conches on the Timaeus, and it has been supposed that he may have been a pupil of William of Conches.^[4]

Hisdosus' commentary is the only source (albeit in Latin paraphrase) for Heraclitus' comparison of the soul to a spider and the body to the spider's web (DK 22B 67a).^[5]

References

1. Terence Irwin, (1995), Classical philosophy: collected papers, p. 206. Taylor & Francis
2. Jeauneau, Édouard (2009). Rethinking the School of Chartres. University of Toronto Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-1442600072.
3. Codex Parisinus Latinus 8624
4. Jeauneau, Édouard (2009). Rethinking the School of Chartres. University of Toronto Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-1442600072.
5. Charles H. Kahn, (1981), The art and thought of Heraclitus, p. 289. Cambridge University Press.