Introduction xiii

INTRODUCTION

The documentary evidence on the life of John Duns Scotus is scanty, comprising hardly more than half a dozen specifically chronological records. The most likely account of his birthplace is found in Scotist John (Mair)

Major's history of his native Scotland, published in 1521, based on an even earlier tradition.

John Duns, that subtle doctor,...was a Scottish Briton, for he was born at Duns, a village eight miles distant from England, and separated from my own home by seven or eight leagues only. When he was no more than a boy, but had been already grounded in grammar, he was taken by two Scottish Minorite friars to Oxford, for at that time there existed no university in Scotland. By the favour of those friars he lived in the convent of the Minorites at Oxford, and he made his profession in the religion of Blessed Francis. As he was a man of the loftiest understanding and the keenest powers in debate, his designation of 'the subtle' was fully justified. At Oxford he made such progress that he left behind him for the admiration of after ages a monumental work upon the Metaphysics and four books of the Sentences. These writings of his are commonly called the English or Oxford work. When he was afterwards summoned by the Minorites of Paris to that city, he produced there another set of lectures on the Sentences, more compendious than that first edition, and at the same time more useful. These lectures we have but lately caused to be printed with metal types. In the end he went to Cologne, and there died while still a young man.'

1. A History of Greater Britain as well England as Scotland Compiled from the Ancient Authorities by John Major, by name indeed a Scot, but by profession a Theologian. Translated from the original Latin by Archibald Constable

(Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 206-207. xiii

xiv

DUNS SCOTUS

The fact that in the manuscripts he is called both "John Duns" and "John of Duns" suggests that Duns is his family name as well as the place of his birth. In choosing

1966 for the International Congress to commemorate the seventh centenary of that event, and in raising a cairn near the Pavilion Lodge of the Duns castle on the outskirts of the town of Duns in Berwickshire and a statue of John in the town's Public Park, scholars honored a long tradition not only as to the site of his birth but approximately when it occurred. The more specific details of his parentage, his early schooling at Haddington and the story of his entry into the Franciscan order, however, as found in the so-called Tweedy transcription of the Chronicle of the Scottish Franciscans preserved in the eighteenth century Monasticon Scoticanum by Marianus

Brockie, 05.B., can no longer be trusted."

More certain, however, is the record discovered by Longpré of Scotus' ordination to the priesthood by Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln, on March 17, 1291. Of the forty-eight priests ordained that day in the priory of St. Andrew, Northampton, five were Franciscans or Minorites, including "Fr. Johannes Dons."*

On July 26, 1300 we know for certain Scotus was at Oxford (in the diocese of Lincoln), for we find his name among the twenty-two friars of the Oxford convent whose names the English provincial, Hugh of Hartlepool, submitted to John Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln, for 2. H. Docherty, "The Brockie Forgeries," The Innes Review 16 (1965), pp. 79-127; idem, "The Brockie MSS. and Duns Scotus," De doctrina loannis Duns Scoti (Acta Congressus Scotistici Internationalis Oxonii et

Edimburgi 11-17 Sept. 1966 celebrati), I (Romae, 1968), pp. 329-60.

3. E. Longpré, 0.F.M, L'ordination sacerdotale du bx. Jean Duns Scotus. Document du 17 mars 1291," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum

22 (1929), pp. 54-62.

INTRODUCTION

XV faculties to hear confessions at the friars church in Oxford.* The colophon of Codex 66 of Merton College, Oxford, contains this note by an early fourteenth-century hand:

"This is from the Ordinatio of the Venerable Friar John Duns of the Order of Friars Minor, who flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris, and died in Cologne."®

In the Worcester manuscript (F 69), one of the earliest of Scotus' Parisian lectures on the Sentences, is the remark that Scotus began commenting on the first book "at Paris in the year of the Lord 1302, the third having started," and that he commented on the fourth book "in the study at Paris in the year 1303." The phrase "the third having started" seems to be a reference to the autumn term (that began about October 9, 1302).° According to the "Gallican custom" the new year began on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation. Scotus' presence in Paris at this time is confirmed by the fact that we find his name listed among those friars who on June 25, 1303 refused to support King

Philip IV in his appeal to a general council against Pope Boniface VIII. The penalty for such opposition was exile from France within three days.'

Scotus was evidently back in Paris again by the end of 1304, for his former teacher, Gonsalvus of Spain, newly elected Minister General or head of the Franciscan

Order, sent a letter from Ascoli in the March of Ancona on November 18, 1304 to William, guardian of the Fran4. A. G. Little, "Chronological Notes on the Life of Duns Scotus,"

English Historical Review 47 (1932), p. 572.

5. Ibid., p. 571.

6. Ibid., pp. 574-75.

7. Ibid., pp. 575-77.

XVi

DUNS SCOTUS

ciscan convent at Paris.' In translation it reads as follows:

In reference to the promotion of Friar Giles of Ligny, about whom I have been informed by your letters, we ought, as the custom is, to make provision for another similar presentation. Since, according to the statutes of the Order and the statutes of your convent, the bachelor to be presented at this time should belong to some province other than the province of France, I assign to you Friar John

Scotus, of whose laudable life, excellent knowledge, and most subtle ability, as well as his other remarkable qualities, I am fully informed, partly from long experience and partly from report which has been spread everywhere—to be presented primarily and in the regular course after the said Friar Giles. I enjoin you nevertheless that you make such presentation with due solemnity without much expense. If, however, you should be certain that the Chancellor be willing to license two of our friars at the same time, I desire that Friar Albert of Metz, if he shall be able to return to the convent, be promoted together with the said Friar John. In which case, I rule that Friar Albert on account of his seniority should incept first, Friar

John incepting afterwards under him. Farewell in the Lord and pray for me. Given in the place of Ascoli of the province of the March of Ancona, xiv Kal. Dec. 1304.

The final mention of Scotus is found in the records of a provincial chapter at Cologne where he signed as "Fr.

Johannes, lector Coloniae." The document gives permission for the erection of a convent and is dated more

Gallicorum Feb. 20, 1307 (actually 1308).° These documents, when viewed against the general historical background of the times, make it possible to construct the following more or less probable sketch of Scotus' life.

His family name was Duns. At the time Scotus was in Paris there were more than forty other friars in the Franciscan convent by the name of John. Here he

8. Ibid., pp. 577-78; Denifle-Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, II, p. 117.

9. Ibid., p. 582.

INTRODUCTION

XVii received the additional title of "Scotus" by reason of his nationality. At the time John Duns studied at Paris

"Scotus" apparently was used exclusively in the sense of "a native of Scotland,' and not, as in earlier times, to designate indiscriminately Irish or Scottish ancestry.

A popular tradition that goes back for centuries and was probably known to John Major claims that John's father was the younger son of the Duns of Grueldykes and lived on an estate adjoining the present town of Duns. The house where tradition maintains John was born stood near the more westerly lodge, now called the Pavilion Lodge, of Duns Castle. In the course of improvements made in 1790, the large stone marking the site of the house was built into the nearby dike and, according to local historians, was pointed out for generations. The stone cairn erected there on the occasion of the International Congress honoring his birth reads: "John Duns

Scotus, the Subtle Doctor, and Member of the Franciscan Order, was born on this site in 1266. Wherever his distinguished name is uttered, he sheds luster on Duns and Scotland, the town and land which bore him. Erected by the Franciscan Order on the Seventh Centenary of his

Birth, Sept. 1966."?° This probable date was arrived at because Bishop Sutton had also ordained earlier at Wycombe, nearer Oxford than Northampton, on December 23, 1290, and Callebaut argued that Scotus must have come of canonical age for ordination after this date. This would place his birth somewhere between December 23, 1265 and March 17, 1266. Fifteen was the earliest canonical age

John could have entered the novitiate of the Franciscans.

John Major's remark "when he was no more than a boy, but had been already grounded in grammar, he was

10. Acta Ordinis Minorum 85 (1966), p. 504.

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DUNS SCOTUS

taken by two Scottish Minorite friars to Oxford" suggests, in view of the custom of the times, that Scotus was taken into the convent as a puer oblatus or postulant, continuing his studies under some of the friars, until he was old enough to enter the Order. On this score, Callebaut places his entrance into the notiviate late in 1279 or early in 1280 and his solemn profession of vows a year later."'

Some manuscripts refer to Scotus as belonging to the English province, which is not strange if we recall the history of the Franciscans or Greyfriars in Scotland.

Except for the short period of four years (1235-39) during which Bro. Elias as Minister General inflated the number of Franciscan provinces to 72, the Scottish fnares were never numerous enough to enjoy the status of an independent province, and for most of Scotus' lifetime they were under the jurisdiction of the northern English custody of Newscastle-on-Tyne."

What happened between Scotus' entry into the Order and his ordination in 129] is a matter of conjecture, as is also the period between 1291 and 1300 when he was again at Oxford. It is also problematical exactly when he studied or taught at Cambridge. Some have even argued for an earlier study period in Paris. Callebaut, for example, stressing the requirements of the University of Paris, claimed that Scotus must have spent at least four years in Paris some time shortly after 1292.'° At the time he suggests, however, England was at war with France

11. A. Callebaut, 0.F.M,, "A propos du bx.

J. D.S. de Littledean. Notes et recherches historiques de 1265 a 1292," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 24 (1931), pp. 305-29.

12. R. M. Huber, 0..M. Conv, A Documented History of the Franciscan Order (1182-1517) (Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., 1944) pp. 766-67.

13. A. Callebaut, O.F.M,, "Le bx. J. D. S. étudiant a Paris vers 1293-6,"

Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 17 (1924), pp. 3-12.

INTRODUCTION

X1X and King Edward I had forbidden English students to cross the channel. Brampton gives a more plausible account of Scotus' continued career at Oxford, arguing that it began in October 1288 and ended in June 1301.4

Scotus started his Lectura on the Sentences in the academic year that began in October 1298, and not in 1300 as previously thought. The following year (Oct. 1299 to June

1301) he lectured on Sacred Scripture. It was also during that last year as a bachelor that he would have taken part in the Vesperies of Friar Philip Bridlington (one of the public disputations connected with Philip's licensing as the Franciscan master of theology at Oxford.'® That Thomas Sutton, the regent master of the Oxford Dominicans devoted an entire work to criticizing Bk. I of Scotus' commentary on the Sentences attests to Scotus' fame as well as his presence at Oxford at the turn of the century.'®

Scotus never became a master at Oxford, however, for the long list of Franciscan bachelors before him waiting their turn to incept as well as John's considerable fame caused his superiors to send him to the more prestigious university of Paris when the opportunity arose. According to the Worcester manuscript we can infer that he must have arrived in Paris in time for the autumn term of 1302.

Klibansky provides confirmation of Scotus' presence in 14. C. K. Brampton, "Duns Scotus at Oxford, 1288-1301," Franciscan

Studies 24 (1964), pp. 5-20.

15. E. Longpré, 0.F.M., "Philippe de Bridlington ©0.¥.M. et le bx. Duns Scot," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 22 (1929), pp. 587-88.

16. Thomas Anglicus (= Thomas von Sutton), Liber propugnatorius super primum sententiarum contra Joannem Scotum (Venedig 1523), reprint

Frankfurt a. Main: Minerva G.M.B.H., 1966; cf. esp. fol. 100vb: "In ista quaestione [d. 26] ponit doctor iste quandam opinionem tanquam probabilem [scil. ponit personas divinas distingui per realitates absolutas]: quam cum ipse eam doceret Oxonie compulsus est publice revocare."

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DUNS SCOTUS

Paris during the scholastic year 1302-1303 and shows in all probability that he was present as a bachelor participant in the famous disputation between the Franciscan

Master Gonsalvus and the Dominican Master Eckhart.""

Apparently Scotus' Parisian lectures that would have ended June 29, 1303 were interrupted by the decree of King Philip the Fair. The French monarch had quarreled with Pope Boniface VIII over the taxation of church property to support Philip's standing armies for his wars with England. When the Pope excommunicated the King, the latter appealed to a General Council of the Church to depose the Pope. He won over the French clergy, the universities and others to his cause. A great anti-papal demonstration took place on June 24. Mendicants of Paris marched in the procession. Berthold of St. Denis,

Bishop of Orleans and ex-Chancellor of the University of Paris, together with two Dominicans and two Franciscans addressed the meeting. The following day royal commissioners examined each friar at the Franciscan conventto find out whether he was with or against the King. Some seventy friars, mostly French, sided with the King, while the rest (some eighty odd) remained loyal to the Pope.

Among the latter we find the name of Scotus. According to royal orders, the Pope's partisans were to leave France within three days. Boniface countered with the Bull of August 15, 1303, in which he suspended the University's right to give degrees in theology, canon and civil law.

This ban was withdrawn by Pope Benedict XI on April 2, 1304, and by April 18 the friars began to return.!®

Where Scotus went during this exile is unknown. England, Bologna and Cologne have all been suggested. At 17. R. Klibansky, Commentarium de Eckardi magisterio ( Magistri Eckardi

Opera Latina, vol. 13, pp. xxx-xxxiii.

18. A. G. Little, op. cit., p. 577.

INTRODUCTION

XX1 any rate the exile was not long, for Scotus was back in Paris in 1304. If he returned by May he would, according to university regulations, begin commenting on Bk. IV of the Sentences on the third "legibile" day and complete his lectures by end of June. In the Ordinatio IV, dist. 25, q. 1 there is reference to a papal document of Benedict XI that Scotus says he himself saw, probably that issued in January 31, 1304, and in Reportata parisiensia, dist. 17 he cites Benedict's "new constitution Jnter cunctas" issued

February 17, 1304.!° There is some question as to the sequence in which Scotus commented on the four books of the Sentences at Paris, because of future tense references to Bks. II and III in Bk. IV. Whatis more, the difference among the "reportata" versions has suggested he may have commented twice on the Sentences at Paris, as others did, because of the great number of students there (three times that of Oxford)."° To settle these questions further study of the manuscripts containing his Paris lectures is necessary.

This much information on his teaching, however, seems certain. By the time Gonsalvus sent the Guardian at Paris instructions for his inception as the next master of theology, Scotus had completed or would shortly complete all the necessary requirements for promotion.

Probably his inception as master took place early in 1305. That the customary interval between the completion of the lectures on the Sentences and being licensed as master (four years according to university statutes) did not intervene was due probably to one of the many privileges granted to the friars. During his regency, we

19. Ibid.

90. F. Pelster, S.J. "Duns Skotus nach englishen Handschriften,"

Franziskanische Studien 10 (1923), pp. 11-15; Little, op. cit., p. 578; Brampton, op. cit., pp. 13-15.

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DUNS SCOTUS

know he conducted one solemn "quodlibetal disputation," probably during Advent of 1306 or Lent of 1307," as well as an "ordinary disputation" with William Peter

Godin, 0p., the Dominican master, on the question of whether matter is the principle of individuation."

The fact that we have but one Quodlibet of Scotus argues that his regency was cut short by his departure for Cologne. The last record of his life indicates that he was in Cologne in February 1308, and if he had been teaching during the current semester, as the title "lector Coloniae" indicates, he must have begun at least by the autumn of 1307.

Various reasons have been assigned for his presence in Cologne. Callebaut and others have argued that the Minister General of the Friars sent him there to escape the consequences of his opposition to the King's action against the Knights Templars or that Scotus' departure was connected in some way with his defence of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception against its Dominican adversaries. Longpreé suggests a more prosaic reason and one perhaps nearer the truth, namely the common custom in the Order of sending the more bnilliant lectors from one study house to another. At any rate,

Scotus served a brief lectorship at Cologne. The traditional date of his death is November 8, 1308. His remains lie in the nave of the Minoritenkirche near the Cologne

Cathedral, where he is venerated as a saint.

It is deplorable that Scotus' early death left almost every one of his major works in an unfinished state. But so great was his fame and following that his disciples made every effort to put his writings before the public.

21. P. Glorieux, La litterature quodlibétique 11; Bibliotheque Thomiste 21 (Paris, 1935), p. 153.

22. Pelster, op. cit., pp. 15-16.

INTRODUCTION

XXill With apparently more haste than prudence, they shuffled together earlier and later redactions, inserted parts to be deleted alongside their corrected substitutes and incorporated notes found in the margins or on scattered slips sandwiched between the pages of the master. It is only after decades of intense research by such men as Pelster,

Pelzer, Longpre, Balic and others that some semblance of order has begun to emerge from the chaos. Not only have many treatises in the Wadding-Vives Opera omnia been proved spurious, but even the certainly authentic writings appear in a new light. Today the following works are ascribed to Scotus.

THEOLOGICAL WORKS

1. Commentaries on the Sentences Scotus commented several times on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. As John Major indicated, the two most important of these were the monumental Oxford work

(Opus oxoniense, or Ordinatio as it is now called); the other was that of Paris (Opus parisiense or Reportata parisiensia), which John Major was instrumental in having printed.

Modern research has not only revealed the existence of the original Lectura at Oxford, which is the basis of the Ordinatio, together with other unedited reports (e.g. one done at Cambridge), but has rediscovered the meaning of the terms ordinatio and reportatio. The original lecture of a master as copied down by one of his students or some scribe is known as a reportatio. If such a "reported version" is checked by the teacher himself it is referred to as a reportatio examinata. A lectura such as we have in the case of Scotus' Oxford and Cambridge periods is not strictly a reportatio but stems from the notes Scotus used for his

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DUNS SCOTUS

lectures. Almost invariably a lecturer would revise and enlarge his original lectures before presenting them for final publication and transmission to the booksellers.

Such a redaction is known as an ordinatio, inasmuch as it represents a finished draft as ordered or arranged by the author himself. In most cases this was dictated to one or more secretaries provided for that purpose, so that often no autograph of its exists. Though Scotus had begun his

Ordinatio based on his Oxford lectures before leaving England for Paris (as the date 1300, mentioned in question 2 of the Prologue would indicate), the reference in Bk. IV to the Bull of Benedict XI issued on 1304 suggests he was still at work on it in France.

In the original edition of this work I used the Latin text of the Assisi communal library, codex 137, because at the time I did the translation the text of Vatican critical edition was not available. Known now as Codex A, this manuscript is described in great detail by Balic in the introductory "De Ordinatione I. Duns Scot; disquisitio historico-critica," in the first volume of the Vatican edition of the Opera omnia. The scribe of Codex A evidently had access both to Scotus' original version (which he refers to as the "liber Scoti") as well as to a later version in which Scotus cancelled some portions and added others.

And in the margin of his manuscript he tried to indicate these changes. The Vatican edition in an attempt to establish the original "liber Scoti" has relegated some of these later emendations found in Codex A to whatit calls

"interpolated texts," most of which can be found in Reportatio I A (which is the examined report of his later Paris lecture). Even though the selections II-V became available in the Vatican edition before our edition and translation reached the publication stage, since the number of interpolated texts turned out to be minimal, it seemed useful to retain the reading of Codex A, which for all practical purposes was identical with that of critical edition.

INTRODUCTION

XXV A third collection of questions on Bks. I and II of the Sentences goes by the name "Additiones magnae." Unlike the "small additions" consisting of a paragraph or so, these are a series of complete questions which represent an edited version of Scotus' Paris lectures with supplements from the "ordinatio" or revision of his Oxford lectures. They were made by William of Alnwick, Scotus' secretary, and seem to be an abridged version of a longer

"reportatio" of the original Paris lectures. They are contained in Codex V (MS Vaticanus latinus 876, ff. 226ra310vb) under the title "Lectura I parisiensis." The colophon to Bk. I reads: "Expliciunt magnae Additiones primi libn" followed by a list of the questions and "Expliciunt tituli quaestionum lecturae parisiensis super primum Sententiarum magistri Iohannis Duns, doctoris de

Ordine Fratrum Minorum." After a question on the formalities, called the "Logica Scoti," are the questions on Bk. II. Sometimes only the title of the question is given with the exhortation "Hanc quaestionem quaere in ordinatione!" The colophon to Bk. II reads: "Expliciunt

Additiones secundi libri magistri Ioannis de Duns, subtilis doctoris, extractae per magistrum Willelmum de Alnewyk, de Ordine Fratrum Minorum de lectura Pansiensi et Oxoniensi praedicti magistri Ioannis, cui propitietur Deus." The frequent references back to the Ordinatio, especially in Bk. II, suggests to me that Scotus had not only begun the prologue, but had completed a considerable portion of the "ordinatio" of his Oxford lectures before leaving for Paris, and that Alnwick intended this edited version of the Paris lectures as an update of what Scotus had done on his revision of Bks. I and II of the Ordinatio. Further study is necessary to substantiate this theory, but it would explain the fact, for example, that the treatment of the formal distinction in the Paris lectures seems to be a later and more fully developed account than that which he proposed in the Ordinatio I. The "examined report" of the Paris lectures

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DUNS SCOTUS

found in the version known as "Reportatio I A" should obviously be given more weight than the "additiones magnae" account, preferred by John Major and Wadding and printed in their editions of Bk. I of the Reportata parisiensia. But from an initial study of the few questions of Rep. I A that Professor Adams and I have recently published, it seems that Alnwick in his edited version of these lectures was careful to retain not only the sense of Scotus but often the very wording."

2. Disputations Scotus held several isolated disputations both as bachelor and as master. He functioned in the former role at the Vesperies of Philip of Bridlington, 0.FM. as well as in the disputatio in aula on the occasion of Giles of Ligny's promotion as master in Paris. The dispute with Peter

Wodam as Logica Scoti seem to be the work of Scotus as master. More important than these isolated, and for the most part, unedited, disputations are the Quaestiones quodlibetales and the Collationes parisienses et oxonienses. The former comprise twenty-one questions that Scotus discussed as regent master in Paris, and represent one of the latest and most mature of his works. The Collationes, on the other hand, are much shorter disputed questions.

According to Balic they are forty-six in number, nineteen of which were held in Paris and the rest in Oxford. Little and Pelster have pointed out that it was customary for ; 23. See A. B. Wolter and M. M. Adams, "Duns Scotus' Parisian Proof for the Existence of God," Franciscan Studies XX (1982). pp. 249-321.

24. Cc. Balic, "De Collationibus Ioannis Duns Scoti, Doctoris Subtilis ac Mariani," Bogoslouski Vestnik, 9 (1929), pp. 185-219.

INTRODUCTION

XXVIi students of logic, philosophy and theology to hold disputations every week or fortnight as a method of reviewing the material they had covered in their daily studies and suggest that those of Scotus "are private disputations of the students in the Franciscan house at Oxford [or Paris] in which the bachelor Duns Scotus, probably as master of students, took a leading part." In addition to the incomplete collection edited by Wadding, C.R.S. Harris has edited five more questions."°

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS

The Tractatus de primo principio is a short but important compendium of Scotus' natural theology. It seems to be one of his latest works and draws heavily on the Ordinatio. The Latin text is available in a modern critical edition done by M. Mueller, 0.F.m. (Frieburg im Breisgau: Verlag

Herder & Co., 1941). As one of the casualties of World War II, existing copies of this edition are limited. The text is reprinted respectively with a Spanish translation by Felix Alluntis, 0.F.M. in Obras del Doctor Sutil Juan Duns

Escoto (Madrid: Biblioteca de Auctores Christianos, 1960), pp. 595-710; with an Italian translation and commentary by Pietro Scapin, Il Primo Principio degli esseri (Padova:

Liviana editrice, 1973); a German translation and commentary by Wolfgang Kluxen, Johannes Duns Scotus:

Abhandlung uber das erste Prinzip (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1974). A new edition and 25. A. G. Little and F. Pelster, Oxford Theology and Theologians (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1934), p. 56.

26. C. R. S. Harris, Duns Scotus, v. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927), pp. 361-78.

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DUNS SCOTUS

English translation was done by Evan Roche, 0.FM., The De Primo Principio of John Duns Scotus: A Revised Text and Translation (St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, & Louvain, Belgium: E. Nauwelaerts, 1949). A. B.

Wolter's John Duns Scotus: A Treatise on God as First Principle contains a new edition from which either the Mueller or Roche texts can be reconstructed (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1966); a second edition to which a paragraph by paragraph commentary on the text has been added was published by the same press in 1983.

Also authentic are the Quaestiones subtilissimae in Metaphysicam Aristotelis, although the last two books (X and XII) found in the Wadding and Vives editions are spurious. Once believed to be an earlier work of Scotus, it seems to have been composed after the Lectura. The text of these questions as found in present editions is in a deplorable state. Fortunately, a team of editors from the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University is presently at work on a critical edition of this important text.

Somewhat less certain is the role Scotus played in regard to the Quaestiones in libros Anstotelis De Anima, which have traditionally been attributed to him. In addition to doctrinal discrepancies with the certainly authentic works, the Wadding edition contains passages found literally in Gonsalvus of Spain.

Less important for the history of Scotism are the logical writings found in the Wadding and Vives editions. The following are generally accepted as genuine works of Scotus: Quaestiones super Universalia Porphyrii; Quaestiones in librum Praedicamentorum; Quaestiones in I et II librum

Perihermenias,; Opus secundum sive octo quaestiones in duos libros Perthermenias; Quaestiones in libros Elenchorum. There are still some difficulties connected with these works,

Beate so that perhaps the final word remains to be said, Even more dubious are the Theoremata. Internal evi-

INTRODUCTION

XXIX dence militates very strongly against their authenticity, though external reasons favor it. Even if Duns Scotus is definitely established as their author, the question of their literary genre and how they are to be interpreted remains to be determined, for this small tract seems to be simply notes or outlines of problems proposed asa disputation exercise, rather than a finished composition."'

The following philosophical works found in the Wadding and Vives collections, however, are definitely spurious:

Grammatica speculativa (Thomas of Erfurt); Quaestiones in librum I et II priorum Analyticorum Anistotelis;

Quaestiones in librum I et II posteriorum Analyticorum; Expositio et quaestiones in VIII libros Physicorum Anstotelis; Meteorologicorum libri quatuor; Expositio in XII libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis seu Metaphysica textualis (Antonius Andreas); Conclusiones utilissimae ex libris Metaphysicorum Aristotelis collectae, Quaestiones dipsutatae de rerum principio (Vital du Four); Quaestiones miscellaneae de formalitatibus (except the first question which contains the "Logica Scoti'"); De cognitione Dei tractatus imperfectus, and Tractatus de perfectione statuum.

EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

The first volumes of the new critical Vatican edition beginning with the Ordinatio appeared in 1950." The 27. A. B. Wolter, "The Theologism of Duns Scotus," Franciscan Studies

7 (1947), pp. 257-73, 367-98; idem, John Duns Scotus: A Treatise on God as First Principle, 2d ed. (Chicago: Forum Books, Franciscan Herald Press,

1983), pp. Xiv-xvi.

28. Doctoris Subtilis et Mariani, loannis Duns Scoti, Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, opera omnia (Civitas Vaticana: typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950 ay

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enormous difficulty of editing this most important of Scotus' writings is evidenced by the fact that after some thirty odd years only the first of the four books of the Sentences, together with three distinctions from the second book, have been completed. In addition, however, the Commission has published the hitherto unedited original Lectura of Bk.

Land the first part of Bk.

II on which the Ordinatio revision was based. For the greater portion of Scotus' writings, therefore, scholars must still have recourse to twelve volumes of the Luke

Wadding edition." In addition to the text, these contain notes, summaries and commentaries by famous Scotists.

The Vives edition in twenty-four volumes is practically a reprint of that of Wadding without the latter's indices."

Of the single works, in addition to the aforementioned editions of the De primo principio, the first two books of the Opus oxoniense were edited by M. Fernandez Garcia, 0.F.M. under the title Commentaria oxoniensia (Ad Claras Aquas

[Quaracchi]: ex typographia Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1913-14) and a photoreprint of the Wadding edition of the Quaestiones quodlibetales was done by the Franciscan

Institute (St. Bonaventure, N.Y., 1950).

In addition to the English translations of the De primo principio mentioned earlier, Scotus' other major work, his magisterial Quodlibet, is available in English translation together with an introduction, notes and a glossary of technical terms by Felix Alluntis, 0M. and Allan B.

Wolter, 0.F.M., Duns Scotus: God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

1975), paperback ed. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1981.

29, R. P. F. Joannis Duns Scoti, Doctor Subtilis, opera omnia (Lugduni: sumptibus Laurentii Durand, 1639) 30. Joannis Duns Scotus, Doctor Subtilis, Ordinis Minorum, opera omnia

(Parisiis: apud Ludovicum Vives, 1891-95).

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