Aristotelianism in the Early Fourteenth Century: Philosophy and Theology Across the Channel

Chapter 8 Aristotelianism in the Early Fourteenth Century: Philosophy and Theology across the Channel

Iacopo Costa

1 Introduction

By the end of the Middle Ages, philosophy and theology had become Europe- wide forms of knowledge. In France or in England, in Italy or in Germany, scholars and masters referred to the same collections of sources, discussed the same problems and shared the same concepts. Among other causes, this ‘koine’ was made possible by the fact that the philosophical and scientific production was mostly written, and discussed, in the same language: Latin.1 Besides this linguistic explanation, institutional factors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such as the spread of universities and of the system of conventual schools, must be considered. Medieval universities are international contexts:2 the documents that have been preserved show that in many cases both students and masters were not native of the country, or of the region, where they made their scholarly career: Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scot, an Italian and a Scot, who spent part of their careers in Paris, are among the most fa- mous examples. It is well known that religious orders allowed their members to move from one country to another, from one studium to another, so making the borders and local political identities disappear: the most brilliant among the Dominican pupils were sent to Paris or Naples, so that they could have ac- cess to the best training of their time.3 This new context is indeed the result of

1 Nevertheless, philosophical texts in vernacular languages in the late Middle Ages should not be forgotten. See, on this point, Nadia Bray and Loris Sturlese, ed., Filosofia in volgare nel medioevo. Atti del Convegno della Società Italiana per lo Studio del Pensiero Medievale (SISPM), Lecce, 27–29 settembre 2002, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge 21 (Louvain-la-Neuve: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales, 2003). 2 This is attested especially by the existence of nationes, that is to say societes of students from the same region, or country, joining to mutually help: see Olga Weijers, Terminologie des uni- versités au XIIIe siècle (Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1987), 56–62. 3 See, for the Dominican order, Marian Michèle Mulchahey, “First the Bow is Bent in Study”. Dominican Education before 1350, Studies and Texts 132 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1998), especially chapter III, 132, and passim.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004435056_009 144 Costa different causes: among these, favourable economic and political conditions are of course of primary importance.4 Nevertheless, ‘Europe-wide knowledge’ does not mean ‘monolithic knowledge’: despite linguistic uniformity and common doctrinal traditions, theoreti- cal points of view were multiple. A look at a set of quodlibetal questions shows vividly how deeply medieval masters could diverge concerning the most es- sential philosophical and theological topics. The object of the present study is to give an outline of Aristotelianism at the start of the fourteenth century, and to highlight the interrelation between continental Europe, namely Paris, and England. Since there has been so little work on Aristotelianism in early fourteenth-century Cambridge, the English component here is provided, rather, by Oxford masters.5 Given the abundance of documents and the complexity of the topic, our study can be no more than a sketch. I have decided to base it in part on unedited texts: by this choice, I intend to show that research in medieval philosophy still offers much new material to be discovered.

2 Traveling Scholars … with their Books

The study of manuscripts, and of manuscript traditions, attests to several cases of English copyists working in Paris in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. I will limit myself to a few examples. The literal commentaries of Thomas Aquinas on the De anima, De sensu and De memoria are preserved by a large number of witnesses.6 Among these, two manuscripts that directly depend on the Parisian exemplar, and hence must have been copied in Paris,

4 See John U. Nef, ‘Mining and Metallurgy in Medieval Civilisation’, in The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, 2 vols., ed. Michael Moissey Postan and Edward Miller (Cambridge- London-New York-New Rochelle-Melbourne-Sidney: Cambridge University Press, 1966–1987) [second edition], vol. 2, 691–761: 699: ‘All aspects of an era are interrelated. […] A prodigious expansion of agrarian and industrial production, combined with an even more remarkable growth of trade, transformed the economic face of Western Europe between the late elev- enth and the fourteenth centuries. […] The growth of wealth also made possible greater lei- sure. This facilitated the remarkable philosophical speculations which were the chief glory of the medieval universities’. 5 For an account of Cambridge masters’ work, see Introduction, 12–23. 6 Some 90 manuscripts for the De anima; some 50 manuscripts for the De sensu and De memoria: see the critical introductions to Thomas Aquinas, Sentencia libri de anima, [ed. René Antoine Gauthier], Opera Omnia iussu Leonis XIII P. M. edita 45.1 (Rome-Paris: Commissio Leonina-Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1984); and Sentencia libri de sensu et sen- sato cuius secundus tractatus est de memoria et reminiscencia, [ed. René Antoine Gauthier], Opera Omnia iussu Leonis XIII P. M. edita, 45.2 (Rome-Paris: Commissio Leonina-Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1985).