Notabilia Super Metaphysicam by Giorgio Pini

Abstract

Reviewed by: Notabilia Super Metaphysicamby Giorgio Pini William Crozier (bio) Giorgio Pini, Notabilia Super Metaphysicam, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 287, ( Turnhout: Brepols, 2017) pp. LXXII-256. 190.00 Euro. ISBN: 978-2-503-57785-2. In providing us with these 'notes' of Duns Scotus on Aristotle's De Metaphysica, Giorgio Pini renders a highly significant service to Scotus scholarship. Perhaps just as complicated and difficult to grasp as Scotus' thought – and certainly just as prone to misinterpretation – is the complex history behind his vast literary corpus. Not surprisingly, given the intricate, often muddled manuscript tradition surrounding Scotus' works, the production of a complete critical edition of his writings has proved both a challenging and, at times, seemingly herculean task. Whilst a critical edition of Bonaventure's Opera Omnia, and several critical or 'safe' editions of Aquinas' numerous theological and philosophical opusculahave been available since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scotus has enjoyed no such privilege. For the last four-hundred years, Luke Wadding's impressive, though by no means critical or entirely safe, edition of Scotus' Opera Omniahas been the standard text of the Subtle Doctor's works. Indeed, a number of important studies published in recent decades have based their readings of Scotus, in part at least, on the limited Wadding edition. For half a century the International Scotistic Commission has been critically editing Scotus' magnum opus, his Ordinatio, and his earlier Lectura. Only recently has this project been completed. Similarly, it was only in 2005 that the critical edition of Scotus' early philosophical works produced by the Franciscan Institute was finalized. The last few years have also witnessed the production of a critical edition of the Collationes Oxoniensis, and the establishment of the American Scotus Project, aimed at producing a critical version of the important, yet textually complex, Reportatio Parisiensis. Other works, such as the C ollationes Parisiensesand the Quaestiones Quodlibetaleshave yet to be critically edited; that is to say nothing of the little-studied Lectura Cantabrigiensis. The prospect of Scotus' entire literary corpus being readily available in a solid critical format is thus tantalizingly close – certainly much closer than it has ever been. Yet, sadly, it is undoubtedly still some years off. As Antonie Vos has noted, the fact that upon Scotus' death in 1308 none of his major theological and philosophical works – most notably the Ordinatio– had been completed, undoubtedly made collecting his various opusculainto a coherent whole both a difficult and, in some cases, near-impossible task for his contemporaries. One need only think of the well-intentioned, but textually confusing, efforts of Scotus' socius [End Page 373]William of Alnwick and his famous Additiones Magnae. The latter, whilst undoubtedly faithful for the most part to Scotus' thought, were incorporated amongst the Subtle Doctor's writings and mistakenly believed to represent the first two books of the Reportatio Parisiensisby the editors of the nineteenth-century Vivès edition of his Opera Omnia. Thus, at times it has been difficult to tell which of Scotus' works have been added to following his death. This complexity surrounding Scotus' literary corpus and the fact it originates from the very earliest days following his death also raises the intriguing, though often overlooked possibility that several works by the Subtle Doctor have been lost or remain unidentified. We know, for example, that relatively contemporary documentation states that Scotus composed several biblical commentaries; sadly, however, none of these have survived. Perhaps the most notable of these 'lost' works is Scotus' 'literal commentary' on Aristotle's De Metaphysica. Unlike the missing biblical commentaries, we know for certain this work existed because Scotus himself refers to it several times in his Ordinatioand surviving Quaestiones Super Metaphysicam. That this missing 'commentary' on the De Metaphysicawas lost soon after Scotus' death is implied by the fact Alnwick, noted for his encyclopaedic knowledge of his master's works and enthusiastic efforts to collate them into a coherent whole, makes no mention of it. Similarly, the missing work finds no mention within the later medieval Scotist tradition. Not surprisingly, all hope of finding this lost work looked foolhardy or, at best, tenuous. The persistent research of...