THE DEFENSORIUM OCKHAM When I had been working at the Franciscan Institute only a few weeks, Father Gedeon Gal came into my office with a box of manuscript photographs. Knowing my interest in commentaries on Aristotle's Categories, he offered me the opportunity to edit the Defensorium Ockham, an anonymous Ockhamist treatment of the categories. He had already transcribed the first eight chapters, easing the paleographical difficulties inherent in dealing with a unique manuscript, and helped me to transcribe the rest of the text. I would like to offer a first glimpse of this work, which I plan to publish in its entirety at some future date. I here offer a brief rundown of the work, with a more detailed analysis of Chapter 15, which is edited as an appendix. I am grateful for having been introduced to this anonymous author; and I appreciate having the opportunity to learn from such a gifted scholar as Father Gedeon. THE TITLE OF DEFENSORIUM OCKHAM The colophon at f. 36v of ms. Rome, bibl. Angelica 1017 reads: Explicit Defensorium Hokham. The early catalog description titled the work Defensorium Logices;1 and Philotheus Boehner called it the Defensorium logicae Ockham.2 There was some concern that this Defensorium not be confused with a letter published as Defensorium Guillelmi Ockham? A political writing, this letter—from a group of H. Narducci, Catalogus codtcum manuscriptorum praeter Graecos et orientales in Bibliotheca Angelica olim coenobii Sancti Augustini de Urbe I (Rome: L. Cecchini, 1892), 422. 2Philotheus Boehner, "Der Stand der Ockham-Forschung," Franziskanische Studien 34(1952), 22; repr. in Collected Articles on Ockham, edited by E. M. Buytaert (St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute, 1958), 13: "Ein Defensorium logicae Ockham ist in einer Vatikanischen [!] Handschrift (Angelica 1017) enthalten. Diese sehr interessante Schrift, die nur die Lehre von den Termen behandelt, scheint auf einen Schühler Ockhams zurückzugehen." Cf. William of Ockham Summa logicae, edited by Philotheus Boehner, Gedeon GaI and Stephen F. Brown; Guillelmi di Ockham Opera phihsophica (OPh) I (St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1974), 32*-33*. An edition was planned by Fr. Gaudens Mohan, OFM; cf. Philotheus Boehner, "The Three Sums of Logic," Franciscan Studies 11 (1951) 175. In Firmamentum trium ordinum Beati Patris Nostrt Francisci pars 4 (Paris, 1512), ff. 142ra-153ra; pars 3 (Venice, 1513), ff. 87rb-98va. 99 Franciscan Studies (54) 1994-1997 100ROBERT ANDREWS Fraticelli de paupere vita—is called Veritatem sapientis in its publication by I. D. Mansi.4 The letter has also been published by E. Brown in Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum (London, 1690), II, 436-65, and a new edition is being prepared by Felice Accrocca.5 I use the title of the colophon. THE MANUSCRIPT The sole manuscript known to contain the work is Rome, bibl. Angelica 1017.6 It is parchment, 15th century; quarto, with 129 folios, 21.7 cm X 14.6 cm. The codex is compiled from several manuscripts bound together, in various hands. Folios lr-5r, 6v-20r, and 50r-71r are in two columns. The first page is mutilated. On the frontispiece, in a modern hand, is written: Miscellanea de lógica, de physica, et de medicina. The book contains: 1)Anonymus, De terminis naturalibus, ff. lra-4va. 2)Richardus Lavenham(?), Tractatus qui dicitur Primum instans,1 ff. 4va-5rb. Incipit: "Ad cognoscendum ubi est dare primum instans vel ultimum..." Explicit: "...primum instans in quo Sortes seiet 'a' propositionem etc. Explicit tractatus qui dicitur Primum instans." 3)Anonymus, Tabula distinetionum, ff. 5v-6r. 4)Anonymus, Tractatus de intensione formarum, ff. 6va-7ra. 5)Anonymus, De latitudine, ff. 7va-7vb. Incipit: "Quaelibet latitudo terminata ad certum gradum..." 4In Miscellanea III, ed. Baluze-Mansi (Lucae, 1762). 5Cf. Nicholas Minorita: Chronica, ed. by Gedeon GaI and David Flood (St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1996), 15*. 6TWs description is derived from Narducci Catalogus, 422-23; and Vitale Salvatore, Inventario dei manoscritti delta Biblioteca Angelica di Roma IV, Inventari dei manoscritti della biblioteche d'ltalia 76 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1948), with suggestions from Gaudens Mohan, Incipits of Philosophical Writings of the 13th-15th Centuries (Unpublished typescript). 7Cf. ms. London, British Museum, Sloane 3899, f. 72v, incip.: "Ad cognoscendum quando est...