The Parva Naturalia (a conventional Latin title first used by Giles of Rome: "short works on nature") are a collection of seven works by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul. They form parts of Aristotle's biology. The individual works are as follows (with links to online English translations):

Bekker numberWorkLatin name
Parva Naturalia ("Short Works on Nature")
436aSense and SensibiliaDe Sensu et Sensibilibus
449bOn MemoryDe Memoria et Reminiscentia
453bOn SleepDe Somno et Vigilia
458aOn DreamsDe Insomniis
462bOn Divination in SleepDe Divinatione per Somnum
464bOn Length and Shortness of LifeDe Longitudine et Brevitate Vitae
467bOn Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and RespirationDe Juventute et Senectute, De Vita et Morte, De Respiratione

Editions

All the Parva Naturalia

  • Aristote: Petits traités d'histoire naturelle (with French translation and brief notes), ed. René Mugnier, Collection Budé, 1953
  • Aristotle: Parva Naturalia (with extensive commentary in English), ed. W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1955 (repr. 2000, ISBN 0-19-814108-4)
  • Aristotelis Parva Naturalia Graece et Latine (with Latin translation and notes), ed. Paul Siwek, Rome: Desclée, 1963
  • Parva Naturalia with On the Motion of Animals, tr. David Bolotin, Mercer University Press, 2021.

Multiple treatises

  • David Gallop, Aristotle on Sleep and Dreams: A Text and Translation with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. Petersborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1990, ISBN 0-921149-60-3 (On Sleep, On Dreams, and On Divination in Sleep)

External links

  • Greek text: (Biehl's 1898 Teubner edition); HTML text from (with concordance) and (with Modern Greek translation and notes)
  • 1908 English translation by J.I. Beare and G.R.T. Ross (Oxford 1931):
  • 1902 English translation by William Alexander Hammond (1861-1938): , ,
  • public domain audiobook at LibriVox
  • by Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire