liget_
(_i.e._ _Kulliyyat_, or summary), a _resume_ of medical science, and a
commentary on Avicenna's poem on medicine; but Averroes, in medical renown,
always stood far below Avicenna. The Latin editions of his philosophical
works comprise the _Commentaries on Aristotle_, the _Destructio
Destructionis_ (against Ghaz[=a]li), the _De Substantia Orbis_ and a double
treatise _De Animae Beatitudine_. The Commentaries of Averroes fall under
three heads:--the larger commentaries, in which a paragraph is quoted at
large, and its clauses expounded one by one; the medium commentaries, which
cite only the first words of a section; and the paraphrases or analyses,
treatises on the subjects of the Aristotelian books. The larger commentary
was an innovation of Averroes; for Avicenna, copied by Albertus Magnus,
gave under the rubrics furnished by Aristotle works in which, though the
materials were borrowed, the grouping was his own. The great commentaries
exist only for the _Posterior Analytics_, _Physics_, _De Caelo_, _De Anima_
and _Metaphysics_. On the _History of Animals_ no commentary at all exists,
and Plato's _Republic_ is substituted for the then inaccessible _Politics_.
The Latin editions of these works between 1480 and 1580 number about 100.
The first [v.03 p.0059] appeared at Padua (1472); about fifty were
published at Venice, the best-known being that by the Juntas (1552-1553) in
ten volumes folio.

See E. Renan, _Averroes et l'Averroisme_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1861); S. Munk,
_Melanges_, 418-458; G. Stoeckl, _Phil. d. Mittelalters_, ii. 67-124;
_Averroes (Vater und Sohn), Drei Abhandl. ueber d. Conjunction d. separaten
Intellects mit d. Menschen_, trans. into German from the Arabic version of
Sam. Ben-Tibbon, by Dr J. Hercz (Berlin, 1869); T. J. de Boer, _History of
Philosophy in Islam_ (London, 1903), ch. vi.; A. F. M. Mehren in _Museon_,
vii. 613-627; viii. 1-20; Carl Brockelmann, _Geschichte der arabischen
Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 461 f. See also ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY.

(W. W.; G. W. T.)

AVERRUNCATOR, a form of long shears used in arboriculture for
"averruncating" or pruning off the higher branches of trees, &c. The word
"averruncate" (from Lat. _averruncare_, to ward off, remove mischief)
glided into meaning to "weed the ground," "prune vines," &c., by a supposed
derivation from the Lat. _ab_, off, and _eruncare_, to weed out, and it was
spelt "aberuncate" to suit this; but the _New English Dictionary_ rega