Bekker numbering

Bekker numbering or Bekker pagination is the standard form of citation to the works of Aristotle. It is based on the page numbers used in the Prussian Academy of Sciences edition of the complete works of Aristotle (1831–1837) and takes its name from the editor of that edition, the classical philologist August Immanuel Bekker (1785–1871); because the academy was located in Berlin, Germany, the system is occasionally referred to by the alternative name Berlin numbering or Berlin pagination.^[1]

Bekker numbers consist of up to three ordered coordinates, or pieces of information: a number, the letter a or b, and another number, which refer respectively to the page number of Bekker's edition of the Greek text of Aristotle's works, the page column (a standard page of Bekker's edition has exactly two columns), and the line number (total lines typically ranging from 20 to 40 on a given column or page in Bekker's edition). For example, the Bekker number denoting the beginning of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is 1094a1, which corresponds to page 1094 of Bekker's edition, first column (column a), line 1.^[2]

All modern editions or translations of Aristotle intended for scholarly readers use Bekker numbers, in addition to or instead of page numbers. Contemporary scholars writing on Aristotle use the Bekker number so that the author's citations can be checked by readers without having to use the same edition or translation that the author used.

While Bekker numbers are the dominant method used to refer to the works of Aristotle, Catholic or Thomist scholars often use the medieval method of reference by book, chapter, and sentence, albeit generally in addition to Bekker numbers.

Stephanus pagination is the comparable system for referring to the works of Plato, and Diels–Kranz numbering is the comparable system for Pre-Socratic philosophy. Unlike Stephanus pagination, which is based upon a three-volume translation of Plato's works and which recycles low page numbers across the three volumes, introducing the possibility for ambiguity if the Platonic work or volume is not specified, Bekker page numbers cycle from 1 through the end of the Corpus Aristotelicum regardless of volume, without starting over for some other given volume. Bekker numbering therefore has the advantage that its notation is unambiguous as compact numerical information, although it relies upon the ordering of Aristotle's works as presented in Bekker's edition.