The threefold object of the scientific knowledge. Pseudo-Scotus and the literature on the Meteorologica in fourteenth-century Paris

Abstract

The threefold object of the scientific knowledge. Pseudo-Scotus and the literature on the Meteorologica in fourteenth-century Paris Lucian Petrescu (bio) This paper studies the questions on Aristotle’s Meteorologica published in the Wadding edition of Duns Scotus, attributed to Duns Scotus until the twentieth century and to Simon Tunsted since then. It provides a critical note on the literature and points out a contamination in the text: the fourth book of Pseudo-Scotus is an incomplete copy of Themon Judaeus. It then provides a doctrinal commentary of the question “Utrum de meteorologicis sit scientia” in the context of fourteenth-century epistemological discussions over the object of science. I show that the thesis advanced by Pseudo-Scotus, together with other Parisian masters, on the object of science, is forged in response to the general rejection of Gregory of Rimini’s theory of the total significate of the proposition.* Parisian natural philosophy in the fourteenth century has been the object of increased interest in medieval studies for over a century now, but not much scholarly attention has been paid yet to the distinct and sophisticated literature on Aristotle’s Meteorologica produced in this intellectual setting. One can find a similar set of meteorological questions developed by major figures of this period, such as John Buridan, Nicole Oresme, Albert of Saxony, and Themon Judaeus. With the exception of the latter, whose work was published in the sixteenth century, most of this material is still to be edited.1 It is notoriously hard to trace filiations between these [End Page 465] figures, who were members of what has been characterized as a close intellectual network.2 Our grasp of the Meteorologica literature is made particularly difficult by the heavy contaminations encountered in the manuscript tradition, which raises many questions of intellectual paternity, even down to the level of particular questions. Aleksander Birkenmajer was the only scholar who had extensive knowledge of this literature, but unfortunately he never completed his projected book on the subject. His work from the beginning of the last century offers nevertheless the basis for our current knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of this literature and some new material elements regarding another work that belongs to this genre: the Meteorologicorum libri quatuor published by Luke Wadding in the seventeenth-century edition of Duns Scotus, attributed to Duns Scotus until the twentieth century, and to Simon Tunsted since then. Pointing out yet another important contamination, we trace the intellectual paternity of Book IV of this text to Themon Judaeus. The author of the rest of the work remains unknown, but we can place its composition in the second half of the fourteenth century, in a Parisian setting influenced by Gregory of Rimini and John Buridan. This literature is important both for our efforts of reconstructing the connections between these Parisian masters and for our knowledge of their scientific production. Optical issues developed in the third book constitute the main point of focus of such works, but they also discuss many other natural philosophical topics of interest such as the celestial influences, the nature of the sublunary bodies, the nature of light, causation and motion. Specific to the fourteenth century is an epistemological discussion that introduces the book, with little grounding in Aristotle’s text: is meteorology [End Page 466] a science and if so, what is its object of study? While all authors mention the question of the object of meteorology within the wider framework of the question of the object of scientific knowledge, Pseudo-Scotus is the only author encountered who has an extensive and thorough treatment of the topic. We therefore complement the critical note with a commentary of question 1 of Pseudo-Scotus, “Utrum de impressionibus meteorologicis sit scientia.” The presentation of this discussion aims to contribute to our knowledge of the reception of English nominalism in Paris. I. Critical note. Pseudo-Scotus and Themon Judaeus 1. It is known that the series of quaestiones on Aristotle’s Meteorologica published by Luke Wadding (1588–1657) in the seventeenth-century Franciscan edition of Duns Scotus is not the work of Duns Scotus, in spite of the qualification of the text as...