On Marvellous Things Heard (Greek: Περὶ θαυμασίων ἀκουσμάτων; Latin: De mirabilibus auscultationibus), often called Mirabilia,[1] is a collection of thematically arranged anecdotes formerly attributed to Aristotle. The material included in the collection mainly deals with the natural world (e.g., plants, animals, minerals, weather, geography).[2] The work consists of 178 chapters and is an example of the paradoxography genre of literature.[3]
According to the revised Oxford translation of The Complete Works of Aristotle this treatise's "spuriousness has never been seriously contested".[4] It was denied by Desiderius Erasmus in his edition of the Corpus Aristotelicum in 1531.[1]
On Marvellous Things Heard was translated into Latin three times during the Middle Ages: first by Bartolomeo da Messina in the 13th century, then in the 14th century by Leontius Pilatus and finally in the 15th century by the humanist Antonio Beccaria.[5] The first edition of the Greek text was an incunabulum printed by Aldo Manuzio in 1497.[6] Four Latin translations appeared in the 16th century based on printed editions (two anonymous, two by Domenico Montesoro and Natale Conti).[7]