Scotus's works
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INTRODUCTION
for which we have better information. Scotus lectured on the first two Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard at Oxford in 1298–99 and began revising those lectures for publication almost immediately, probably completing his revisions of Book I by the end of 1300.5 In 1302 Scotus left Oxford for Paris and lectured on the Sentences—probably in the order Book I, Book IV, Book II, Book III—completing his lectures in 1303.6 In late
June of 1303 Scotus, along with eighty-two other Franciscan friars, was forced to leave Paris for taking the pope's side in the dispute between Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII. Where Scotus went during his exile is not clear, though most scholars believe that he returned to Oxford.7 He was back in Paris in 1304.
In a letter dated 18 November 1304, the newly elected Minister General of the Franciscan order, Gonsalvus of Spain (Gonsalvo de Balboa), nominated Scotus to be the next Franciscan regent master at the University of Paris. This nomination was successful, and Scotus accordingly received his doctorate and incepted as master, probably in early 1305. It was the privilege of regent masters to conduct quodlibetal disputations, and we have one set of Quodlibetal Questions from Scotus, which must have been disputed between Lent 1305 and Lent 1307.8
In 1307 Scotus left Paris for the Franciscan house of studies at Cologne. Though a number of intriguing theories have been suggested to account for the "suddenness of his departure from Paris at the height of his career,"9 there is almost certainly no real mystery about it: it was common practice for the Franciscans to move their best theologians from one house to another. Scotus died at Cologne in 1308; the date of his death is traditionally given as 8 November. His remains rest in the Minoritenkirche in Cologne in a sarcophagus that bears the epitaph Scotia me genuit, Anglia me suscepit, Gallia me docuit, Colonia me tenet: "Scotland begot me, England received me, France taught me, Cologne holds me."
Scotus's works We have at least three distinct versions of Scotus's commentary on the Sentences. The earliest is the Lectura, which presents the text of his Oxford lectures on Books I and II. (There is also a Lectura on Book III, sometimes called the Lectura completa; it is apparently a separate work.) Scotus revised his Oxford lectures for publication and added commentary on Books III and IV. This text is known as the Ordinatio (from ordinare, to set in order). We have student reports of his lectures at Paris, known as the Reportatio.
5 For the evidence that Scotus was at Oxford from 1298 through 1302, see Sheppard, "Vita Scoti,"
311–13.
6 Cross, Duns Scotus's Theory of Cognition, 1–2.
7 Wolter, "Reflections," 11; Sheppard, "Vita Scoti," 316–18.
8 Quodlibetal disputations were held in Lent and Advent. For the dates, see Noone and Roberts, "John
Duns Scotus' Quodlibet," 132.
9 Wolter, "Reflections," 12–13. For details of the theories, see Sheppard, "Vita Scoti," 319–23.