One of the great classics of Muslim as well as of Western philosophy, demonstrating that rational thought and theology are not at odds with each other. In this, his possibly most famous work, Ibn Rushd reacted to al-Ghazali's "Tahafut al-Falasifa" ("The Incoherence of the Philosophers"), which had dominated Muslim philosophical thinking for the past decades: al-Ghazali's late 11th-century treatise had denounced Ibn Sina and al-Farabi for their Greek-inflected metaphysics, which he had found contrary to Islam. Himself an avowed Aristotelian, Ibn Rushd refuted Al-Ghazali's book section by section, showing that there was in fact no conflict between Greek logic and the Qur'an.
Ibn Rushd's apology of Aristotelian philosophy, cleverly named "The Incoherence of the Incoherence", was translated from Arabic into Latin in the early 14th century by the Jewish philosopher Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, and the translation was first published in 1497 by Locatellus in Venice, as one of Kalonymus' only efforts to see print. This is the undated second issue of that publication, and much rarer that the first: only ten copies are known in libraries worldwide, one of which (in St Andrews) is severely incomplete, containing only the appendix ("De sensu agente" by Agostino Nifo, the editor, who also provides a lengthy commentary). No copies in America. Auction catalogues list a single, incomplete copy, lacking four leaves.
A landmark work of cross-cultural philosophy, reconciling theology and rationalism; of principal importance for sixteenth-century Aristotelian thought.
A fine copy in excellent condition. Bod-inc A-631; CCIR N-16; Günther (L) 3423; GW M26980; IBE Post-incunables 187; IGI IV,146; ISTC ia01412500; Martín Abad, 112; Proctor 5104; Reichling 643; Sheppard 4247; USTC 761883; cf. Genequand, C., (transl.), Ibn Rushds Metaphysics: A Translation with Introduction of Ibn Rushds commentary on Aristotles Metaphysics (Leiden, 1986); Hissette, R., A propos de lédition Princeps (1497) des Destructiones destructionum dAverroès. Contribution au GW (notice 3106), in: Florilegium mediaevale. Ètudes offertes à Jacqueline Hamesse à loccasion de son éméritat, eds. José Meirinhos & Olga Weijers (Louvain-la-Neuve, Féd. Int. des Instituts dÉtudes Médiévales, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, n. 50, 2009), pp. 297-322; Khalidi, M. A., Ibn Rushd, The Incoherence of the Incoherence (CUP 2015), pp. 155-180.