Francis of Meyronnes, OFM De primo principio complex Vol. 1. No. 1. 2016.

Publication Details

De primo principio complex
Title in the language of publication: О первом сложном принципе
Author: Francis of Meyronnes
Translated from English
Danila Maslov
PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor at the Department of History of World Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Address: 1 Leninskie gori, Moscow 119234, Russia.
E-mail: danya.maslov@gmail.com
Issue:
P. 151–177.
Language: Russian
Document type: Translation and notes
Acknowledgments:  The present study is a part of the project No. 16-03-00047, “The followers of John Duns Scotus in the XIVth–XVIth centuries Scholasticism: Problems of Epistemology and Metaphysics”, implemented with a financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.
 
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© Danila Maslov, transl. and notes, 2016

Danila Maslov. The De primo principio complexo by Francis of Meyronnes and the Polemics with Peter Roger. Vol. 1. No. 1. 2016.

Publication Details

The De primo principio complexo by Francis of Meyronnes and the Polemics with Peter Roger
Title in the language of publication:
Трактат Франциска из Меронна «О первом сложном принципе» и полемика с Петром Рогерием
Author:
Danila Maslov
PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor at the Department of History of World Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Address: 1 Leninskie gori, Moscow 119234, Russia.
Issue:
P. 135–150.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article (Introdaction)
Acknowledgments:  The present study is a part of the project No. 16-03-00047, “The followers of John Duns Scotus in the XIVth–XVIth centuries Scholasticism: Problems of Epistemology and Metaphysics”, implemented with a financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.
 
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Abstract

The article presents a brief overview of the manuscript versions of the De primo principio complexo by Francis of Meyronnes (c. 1288–1328). The collation of these versions formed the text of the treatise that was translated into Russian. The complete version came down to us in Ms Firenze, BNC, Conv. soppr., A. 3 641, while the other three manuscripts present the abridged version of the treatise. The structure of the treatise is described in its main outlines: most of the articuli of the treatise may be related to the 13th – 14th century tradition of commenting on Aristotle’s Metaphysics in the form of quaestiones. This is true both of those questions that were put in respect to the “first principle” in Question — Commentaries on Metaphysics IV, and of those on the being of truth (quaestiones in Metaphysics II or VI) — the latter ones were adapted by Francis for the discussion of the “ontological status” of the “first complex principle” (“of anything either affirmation or negation <is true>, and of nothing both of these at once”) (articles 3–5 of the treatise). The main focus in the article is on the connection of the treatise with the Disputatio between Francis of Meyronnes and Peter Roger (1291–1352) that was held during 1320–1321 and was edited by Jean Barbet. The last three articles of the treatise correspond in their content to the topics related to the first complex principle that were touched upon in the polemics between Francis and Peter. Francis argues that the first principle belongs to metaphysics, and not to logic, and this claim leads him to insist that it is the “incomplex”, and not “complex” contradictories, i. e. terms, and not propositions, that truly “pertain” to this principle. The nuances of the debate between Francis and Peter show that the arguments which address the main issues of the treatise spring from the polemical context, where the opponent’s opinion is in certain instances deliberately misconstrued, and the author’s rationes in some points turn self — contradictory. The proof of the universality and necessity of the principles of non — contradiction and the excluded middle is thus embedded in the polemical objectives and the convoluted turns of the debate between the two scholastics.

Keywords

Francis of Meyronnes, Peter Roger, first complex principle, principle of non — contradiction, 14th century scholasticism, metaphysics, medieval Latin manuscripts.

References 

Manuscripts

Franciscus de Mayronis. De primo principio complexo. Mss Città del Vaticano, BAV, Reginensi latini, 373, ff. 1r–5r; Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conventi Soppressi, A. 3 641, ff. 119r–121v; Fribourg, Franziskanerkloster (Couvent des Cordeliers) 73, ff. 242r–246v; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Codices latini monacenses (Clm) 18530 b, ff. 119r–121v.

Franciscus de Mayronis. De principiis. Ms Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vaticani latini, 4385, ff. 55r–88v.

Ioannes de Dinsdale. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam I–X, XII. Ms Durham, Cathedral Library, C.IV.20, ff. 1rA–196vA.

Ioannes de Ianduno. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam. Ms Padua, Antoniana 366.

Petrus de Alvernia. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam. Ms Cambridge, Peterhouse 152, ff. 129r–224v.

Radulphus Brito. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam. Ms Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conventi soppressi, E. I. 252, ff. 265–310.

Primary source editions

Alhaсen (2001) Alhacen’s theory of visual perception: a critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of the first three books of Alhacen’s De aspectibus, the medieval Latin version of Ibn al — Haytham’s Kitāb al — Manāẓir. 2 vols (ed. by A. Mark Smith). Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. Vol. 91. No. 4–5).

Anonymus Lipsiensis (2009) “Quaestiones Metaphysicae”. Boethio Daci Quaestiones super Librum de Anima I–II (ed. R. Wielockx); Anonymi Boethio Daco usi Quaestiones metaphysicae (ed. G. Fioravanti). København: Det Danske Sprog– og Litteraturselskab (Corpus Philosophorum Danicorum Medii Aevi. T. 14): 149–358.

Dionysius Areopagita (2002) Dionysius Areopagita. Sochineniya [Works]. Maximus Confessor. Tolkovaniya [Scholia] (ed., tr., intr. by G. M. Prokhorov). St. Petersburg: Aleteiya (Vizantiiskaya biblioteka [Byzantine library]). (in Russian).

Duns Scotus (1997) “B. Ioanni Duns Scoti Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis, libri I–IV” (ed. R. Andrews, G. Etzkorn, et al). B. Ioanni Duns Scoti Opera philosophica. Vol. III. St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute Publications.

Franciscus de Marchia (2012) Quaestiones super Metaphysicam (ed. N. Mariani OFM). Roma – Grottaferrata: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas.

Franciscus de Mayronis (1479) Passus super Universalia. Praedicamenta et Perihermeneias Aristotelis. Bononiae: Johannes Schriber.

Franciscus de Mayronis (1519) In quattuor libros Sententiarum qui Conflatus nominantur profundissima scripta, una cum quaestionibus quodlibetalibus, formalitatibus, tractatu de primo principio, et de terminis theologicis. Que nunc primum de obscurissimo carcere in clarissam lucem educta, quam post ultimam Venetam conflatus et quolibetorum tantum impressionem, iterum ab eximio theologo Mauritio Hybernico maiori diligentia fuere recognita multisque marginalibus appostillis insignita. Venetia: per Lucam Antonium de Giunta.

Franciscus de Mayronis (1961) François de Meyronnes — Pierre Roger. Disputatio (1320–1321) (éd. critique par J. Barbet). Paris: Vrin.

Franciscus de Mayronis (2013) Franciscus de Mayronis. Conflatus. Kommentar zum ersten Buch der Sentenzen (hg., übers. v. H. Möhle, R. H. Pich). Freiburg; Basel; Wien: Herder (Herders Bibliothek der Philosophie des Mittelalters. 2. Serie. Bd. 29).

Gerardus Odonis (1997) “Logica”. Giraldus Odonis OFM. Opera philosophica. Vol. I (ed. by L. M. de Rijk). Leiden: Brill.

Keil H. (ed.) (1859) Grammatici latini. Vol. III: Priscianus. Institutiones grammaticae. Libri XIII–XVIII (ex recensione M. Hertzii). Lipsiae: In aedibus B. G. Teubneri.

Sigerus de Brabantia (1983) Siger de Brabant. Quaestiones in Metaphysicam. Texte inédit de la Reportation de Cambridge. Édition revue de la Reportation de Paris (éd. par A. Maurer). Louvain-la-Neuve: Editions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie (Philosophes Médiévaux. Vol. 25).

Studies and reference literature

Ebbesen S. (2001) “Radulphus Brito on the Metaphysics”. Nach der Verurteilung von 1277. Philosophie und Theologie an der Universität von Paris im letzten Viertel des 13. Jahrunderts. Studien und Texte (hg. v. J. A. Aertsen, K. Emery, A. Speer). Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter (Miscellanea Mediaevalia. Bd. 28): 456–492.

Fiorentino F. (2006) Francesco di Meyronnes. Libertà e contingenza nel pensiero tardo — medievale. Roma: Antonianum.

Lambertini R. (2014) “Jandun’s Question — Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics”. A Companion to the Latin Medieval Commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics (ed. by F. Amerini, G. Galluzzo). Leiden; Boston: Brill: 385–411.

Maierù A. (2005) “Le De primo principio complexo de François de Meyronnes. Logique et théologie trinitaire au début du XIVe siècle”. Logik und Theologie. Das Organonim arabischen und lateinischen Mittelalter (hg. v. D. Perler, U. Rudolph). Leiden; Boston: Brill: 401–428.

Maslov D. K. (2014) “O dvukh variantakh traktata ‘O pervom slozhnom printsipe’ Frantsiska iz Meronna” [On Two Versions of De primo principio complexo by Francis of Meyronnes]. Istorikofilosofskii ezhegodnik ‘2014 [History of Philosophy Yearbook ‘2014]: 5–30. (in Russian).

Maslov D. K. (2015a) “Nominal’noe otritsanie u parizhskikh frantsiskantsev 1320-kh gg.” [Nominal Negation in Parisian Franciscans of the 1320s]. Voprosy filosofii. № 2 [Questions in Philosophy. No. 2]: 151–161. (in Russian).

Maslov D. K. (2015b) “Ob odnoi vozmozhnoi polemike mezhdu dvumya Frantsiskami” [On One Possible Polemics between Two Francises]. Istorikofilosofskii al’manakh. Vyp. 5 (2015) [History of Philosophy Almanaс, Issue 5 (2015)]: 45–53. (in Russian).

Schabel C. (2015) “Francis of Marchia” (First published March 23, 2001; substantive revision September 24, 2015). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. by E. N. Zalta). Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis — marchia/

Schönberger R., Kible B. (hg.) (1994) Repertorium edierter Texte des Mittelalters aus dem Bereich der Philosophie und angrenzender Gebiete. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Zimmermann A. (1971) Verzeichnis Ungedruckter Kommentare zur Metaphysik und Physik des Aristoteles aus der Zeit von etwa 1250–1350. Band I. Leiden; Köln: Brill.

© Danila Maslov, 2016