«Utrum caelum habeat materiam». La questione della materia celeste nel pensiero antico e medievale

The paper gives due importance to the problem of celestial matter: usually this question don't receive much attention, but in it firmly intertwine metaphysics, cosmology and theology. Through a rigorous linguistic analysis, is reconstructed the way from Aristotle's notion of 'matter' leads to the medieval 'matter caeli'. Aristotle establishes the difference between celestial and sublunary region, but leaves open a central question: can we use the same concept of matter for all kinds of sensitive substances, both the corruptible things and the eternal ones? The ancient commentators give different answers, suggesting a wide range of solutions. Among these, Philoponus suggests the conception of matter as unconditional and indefinite extension of the body (the 'three-dimensional'): in that way, is exceeded every ontological difference between sublunary and celestial world, both work of God. In the Middle Ages the celestial matter is subject of debate for 'theologians' and 'naturales', as well as Arab philosophers and Jewish thinkers: the Buridan's comment to 'De caelo' offers us a privileged point of view to understand and evaluate their theses.