This definitive biography shows that Aristotle's philosophy is best understood on the basis of a firm knowledge of his life and of the school he founded. First published in Italian, and now translated, updated, and expanded for English readers, this concise chronological narrative is the most authoritative account of Aristotle's life and his Lyceum

Preface (2013) - p. vii Introduction (1990) - p. 1 Chapter One - The Biography of Aristotle: Facts, Hypotheses, Conjectures - p. 5 *1. Many Facts, Not All of Equal Interest - p. 5 *2. Stagira - p. 6 *3. A Family of Notables - p. 8 *4. A Provincial Pupil - p. 17 *5. A Sudden Interruption - p. 31 *6. At the Courts of Princes and Kings - p. 32 *6.1. Atarneus - p. 32 *6.2. Macedonia - p. 42 *7. The Adventure of Callisthenes - p. 52 *8. Athens Revisited - p. 55 *9. Trial and Flight - p. 60 *10. From Traditional Customs, a New Model - p. 64 Chapter Two - Institutional Aspects of the School of Aristotle - p. 72 *1. The Three Conditions of the Theoretical Life in Aristotle - p. 72 *2. The Organization of Theoria: The Nature and Organization of the Philosophical Schools - p. 77 *3. The Organization of Theoria: Philosophical Schools and Permanent Institutions - p. 83 *4. Subsequent Events - p. 90 Chapter Three - Internal Organization of the School of Aristotle - p. 96 *1. The Collections of Books - p. 96 *2. Methods of Gathering and Interpreting Information - p. 104 *3. Teaching Supports and Instruments of Research - p. 113 *4. Teaching While Strolling - p. 117 Chapter Four - Studies of Aristotle's Biography from Zeller to the Present Day - p. 120 *1. Sources of Aristotle's Biography - p. 120 *1.1. Texts of Aristotle - p. 120 *1.2. Official Documents - p. 124 *1.3. Ancient Biographies of Aristotle - p. 125 *1.4. The Testimonia of Ancient Authors - p. 130 *2. Images of Aristotle from the Nineteenth Century to the Present - p. 135 Postscript (2012) - p. 145 Notes to: ch. 1 - p. 153; ch. 2 - p. 170; ch. 3 - p. 175; ch. 4 - p. 177 Index of Sources - p. 181 i) epigraphy - p. 181; ii) papyri - p. 181; iii) ancient authors -p. 181; iv) ancient biographies of Aristotle - p. 193; v) modern collections of evidence - p. 194 Bibliographical Index - p. 196 Index of Persons and Places - p. 211

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles Top 25 Academic Books for 2014 "Gathering, distilling, and analyzing all the evidence and previous scholarship, Carlo Natali, one of the world's leading Aristotle scholars, provides a masterful synthesis that is accessible to students yet filled with evidence and original interpretations that specialists will find informative and provocative."--World Book Industry "Natali assembles all of the relevant ancient sources for the life of Aristotle and offers judicious assessments of their reliability and significance. The result, when it comes to the life of Aristotle, is that Natali's work is now the standard biography... This book both satisfies the highest standards of scholarship and is accessible to any intelligent readers. Every college and university library should have it."--Choice "Having read this book, I now have a much better grasp of the issues involved in ancient biography as it applies to Aristotle and other Peripatetics, and of what we know and we do not know (and knowing what we do not know is a kind of knowledge."--Robert Mayhew, Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science

"What was it like for Aristotle to be a foreigner in Athens? What did it take for him to found a school independent of his friends? What happened in his classroom? And what was it like to adopt philosophy as an aristocratic lifestyle? Carlo Natali's highly readable biography of Aristotle brings to life a very complex subject. Natali acknowledges the merits of Jaeger's great biography of the philosopher, but I would now recommend Natali's even more highly."—Richard Sorabji, Wolfson College, University of Oxford"This is the best account of Aristotle's life in print. Carlo Natali has given us a critical biography at once truly authoritative and highly accessible—a rare achievement. At the same time, his lucid and compelling narrative offers a distinctive view of the raison d'être of Aristotle's school. There is nothing else of anything like the same stature in English that one could recommend either to students or scholars—and this book will appeal to both."—Malcolm Schofield, professor emeritus, University of Cambridge"Very well conceived and finely executed, this is a first-rate book about Aristotle not just as a collection of texts but as a living, breathing historical figure working in a particular context. It is eye-opening, thoughtful, deft, eminently sensible, and accessible. By placing familiar things in surprising new contexts, Carlo Natali invariably manages to put new spins on old themes."—John P. Lynch, professor emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz