In Search of the Historical Ockham: Historical Literary Remarks on the Authenticity of Ockham's Writings

Abstract

IN SEARCH OF THE HISTORICAL OCKHAM: HISTORICAL LITERARY REMARKS ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF OCKHAM'S WRITINGS1 The image ofthe Venerabilis Inceptor et Singularis Doctor which has prevailed to our century is best formulated by the author of the old catalogue ofthe Staatsbibliothek in Vienna: "Nullus unquam scriptor Sanctae Matri Ecclesiae adeo se simul amore et odio dignum reddidit ac iste Occamus. Dum Theologica scribit, nemo melius; dum contra Ecclesiam, virulentior nemo."2 Luke Wadding remarks in his catalogue Scriptores Ordinis Minorum3 that Ockham "partim de Theologicis partim de rebus Philosophicis doctissime scripsit et copiosissime," admonishes him however for his ecclesiastical political writings: "scripsitque intemperanter minus contra Ioannem Ludovici adversarium plurima opuscula quorum aliqua proscripta sunt et alia caute legenda." Of the thirty works which Sbaralea lists in his correction of Wadding's catalogue ,4 seventeen are political. The saying: "O, Imperator, défende me gladio, et ego defendam te verbo," recorded in a chronicle of the fourteenth century, but which is no longer held to be authentic,5 fits in well with these political works. The following biographical data can be taken as reliable: 1. The date of Ockham's Subdiaconate ordination (26th Febru1 For the translation I am indebted to F. Patrick Riordan S. J. (Dublin). 2 Quoted according to J. M. Mucciolo, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Malatestianae Caesenatis bibliothecae Fratrum Minorum Conventualium (Caesenae, 1780-1784) I, 71. 3 L. Wadding, Scriptores Ordinis Minorum (Romae, 21906 [?659]) 106. 4 I. H. Sbaralea, Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores trium ordinum S. Francisa a Waddingo (Romae, 21921 [?806]) I, 344-46. 5 J. Miethke, Ockhams Weg zur Sozialphilosophie (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1969) 422, not. 296. 94VLADIMIR RICHTER ary, 1306),6 on the basis of which we can assume that he was born early in the year 1286 at the latest; 2.His stay in Oxford which is attested for the year 13 187 (this date is compatible with that of his Lectura, which he held probably between 1317-13 1983); 3.His escape to Pisa from Avignon on 26th May, 1328 preceded by a four year stay in the Franciscan Monastery in the papal city;9 4.His stay in the Franciscan Monastery in Munich from January 1330 to his death on 9th (10th?) April, 1347.10 In the evaluation ofOckham's literary works, a development has occurred since Wadding (and correspondingly Sbaralea) for which L. Baudry's11 monograph and Ph. Boehner's12 studies were representative . As a result ofthe investigation ofthe manuscript materials, Baudry determined the number of the genuine philosophical and theological works to be fifteen, and the number of the political works seventeen. In fact Baudry's list departs only slightly form Sbaralea's.13 The editors of Ockham's Opera Philosophica and Opera Theologica at the Franciscan Institute (St. Bonaventure University) and the editors of the Opera Política (University ofManchester) have essentially accepted this list. Reservations concerning the authenticity of some works and passages which I have expressed along with G. Leibold and others (C. K. Brampton, J. Weisheipl) have not been accepted by the relevant commission. Since the critical edition of the Opera Theologica and the Opera Philosophica is now almost completed, it seems an appropriate occasion to consider once again the arguments advanced from various sides. 6 The document is quoted in A. B. Emdem, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959) II, 1384. 7 A. B. Emden II, 1384. 8 G. Gal in the Praefatio to: Ockham, Scriptum in I Sent. (OTh I, 34*-36*). 9 "fere quattuor annis Íntegros in Avinione mansi," Ockham, Epistula ad Fratres Minores (OP III, 6, lin. 10). 10G. Gal, "William ofOckham died impenitent in April 1347," Franciscan Studies 43 (1983), 90-96. 11L. Baudry, Guillaume d'Occam, Paris: Vrin, 1949. 12Ph. Boehner, Collected Articles on Ockham (St. Bonaventure, N.Y., 1958). 13See Baudry's list in: L. Baudry 273 ff. Cf. Boehner 28 ff. In Search of the Historical Ockham95 I. Philosophical and Theological Works The beginning of Ockham's Physics Commentary, his last Aristotle Commentary, seems to me to be a reliable starting-point in the question of the authenticity ofOckham's writings. The authenticity ofthis work is beyond...