Table Of ContentBRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A.J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 23
MEDIEVAL LATIN TEXTS
ON THE
ETERNITY OF THE WORLD
EDITED BY
RICHARD C. DALES AND OMAR ARGERAMI
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · K0BENHAVN · KÖLN
1991
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Com
mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Medieval Latin texts on the eternity of the world / edited by Richard
C. Dales and Omar Argerami.
p. cm.—(Brill's studies in intellectual history, ISSN
0920-8607; v. 23)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 90-04-09376-1
1. Eternity—Early works to 1800. 2. Philosophical theology—
Early works to 1800. I. Dales, Richard C. II. Argerami, Omar.
III. Series.
BT910.M43 1991
115—dc20 90-28369
CIP
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 09376 1
© Copyright 1991 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
William of Durham's Quesäones de etemitate 4
The Text of Two Sets of Anonymous Questions De etemitate .... 22
The Text of the Anonymous Question Si potuit deus
facere mundum ab eterno 32
Anonymous Gloss on In prindpio creavit deus celum et terram .... 35
The Text of Odo Rigaldus's De erroribus area durationem
rerum exeuntium 45
Aristotle's Teaching on the Eternity of the World 54
Peter of Tarantaise on the Eternity of the World 61
John Pecham, Whether the World Was Able to be Created
From Eternity 69
Anonymous Parisian Franciscan Master 88
Friar Arlotto of Prato on the Eternity of the World 115
Gilbert of Stratton on the Possibility of a Beginningless World . . 132
Peter of Auvergne, Whether God Could Make the World
From Eternity 141
James of Thérines, Whether the Emanation of the First
Creatures Immediately From God Could Have Been
From Eternity 149
Anonymous, Whether the World Was Able to be Produced
From Eternity 165
Nicolas Trivet, Whether It Was Necessary That God
Preceded the Production of the World by Duration,
or by Nature Only 174
TABLE OF CONTENTS
John of Jandun, Whether Motion is Eternal 180
Bibliography 197
Index of Scriptural Citations 209
Index of Authorities 212
Index of Names 222
INTRODUCTION
This dossier of medieval Latin texts on the eternity of the world origi
nated in a suggestion of Fr. Louis J. Bataillion to Omar Argerami.
Somewhat later, Richard Dales and Argerami discovered that they were
both working independently on an edition of Eustace of Arras's Quaes-
tiones de aeternitate and decided to pool their efforts, the result of which
was published in AHDLMA 55 (1986) and 56 (1987). When they dis
covered through correspondence that they each had other texts on the
eternity of the world in various stages of preparation, Professor Argerami
relayed Fr. Bataillon's suggestion to Dales, and the project was under
way, but without any prospect of publication. Mrs. Elisabeth Erdman-
Visser of E. J. Brill was enthusiastic about the project, and we are most
grateful for her support.
We present here a group of texts on the eternity of the world, extend
ing from the 1220s, the time when this topic began to be debated as a
theological question, to the second quarter of the fourteenth century, near
the end of the period of medieval interest in the subject. Many are
anonymous, all but one are from the theological rather than the arts
faculty, and many are too brief to warrant separate publication. Our
masters represent a wide range of thought over about a century of time,
and these texts fill up many lacunas in our knowledge of medieval
discussions of the eternity of the world.
Most of the texts included in this dossier have not previously been
published, but several (those of Arlotto of Prato, John Pecham, and Peter
of Tarantaise) have. We have presented our reasons for including each
in the introductions to the separate editions. In most cases, one or the
other of us had done the preparatory work on any given text. But the
final result is a cooperative effort, and we individually share respon
sibility for each text. Although we have worked mainly from photo
graphs, we realize the pitfalls of this and have made every effort to check
our transcriptions against the manuscripts in situ.
It is more difficult to justify our exclusions. The most important of
these is a question by William of Ware, composed during the first decade
of the fourteenth centhry. Professor Dales has transcribed it from Flor
ence, Bibl. naz. MS Conv. Soppr. A. IV. 42 and found it to be a most
interesting and important work, but its length and difficulty preclude our
including it here. Sibert of Beka's question in Vat. MS Borgh. lat. 39 is
of little interest or value, and the text of this unique manuscript is not
2 INTRODUCTION
good. John of Naples was an important fourteenth-century Thomist who
disputed several questions relating to the eternity of the world, but they,
like that of William of Ware, are lengthy and difficult, and unlike Wil
liam's, they add little to the debates.
Many of these works are represented by a unique manuscript, and
several of these are extremely difficult to read. And in all of these MSS,
one occasionally comes across a word or abbreviation which cannot be
deciphered. In these cases, when what was written could reasonably be
interpreted as a word which would fit the context, we have labelled it
lectio incerta. When the meaning was clear from the context, but the
marks made by the scribe did not correspond to any word which would
make sense, we have supplied the word to fit the context, noted by
scripsimus, and given the MS reading in the notes. And when the marks
of the scribe could not be deciphered at all, we have simply marked it
verbum illegibile. Several of our works are reportationes or seem to have
been copied from reportationes without the corrections of the master.
The texts consequently are far from completely trustworthy, although we
have taken pains to make them as accurate as possible.
The fontes too present a problem. It was customary for quotations of
authorities to be given from memory, and many of these were in fact
passed along orally rather than coming directly from the work cited.
Even questions which have been reworked by the master for publication
often contain misquotations or erroneous references, or are more or less
vague paraphrases of an authority. We have done our best to identify all
of these, but we have not always been successful.
Throughout these texts, we have employed the spelling of the codices
themselves, so that these works may be read in the language in which
they were written. The so-called standardized or normalized spelling
corresponds to no historical state of the Latin language; it disguises the
pronunciation; and it falsifies the variants (which, of course, must also
be normalized). Our decision has resulted in our retaining such spellings
as "mondus" for "mundus" and "cumpositus" for "compositus" and keeping
the vernacular articles "ly" or "li" and "del" as they appear in the MSS.
Some Latin spellings are universal (or almost so) in texts dating from the
twelfth century on, even though they differ from the classical spellings:
for example, "intelligere" (never "intellegere"), "Aristotiles" (never "Ari
stoteles"), "diffinitio" or "diffinicio" (never "definitio"), "ymago" (seldom
"imago"). "Ae" and "oe" diphthongs uniformly become "e" (so we do not
have to decide whether to use "coelum" or "caelum"). These texts after
all have philological as well as philosophical and theological significance,
and we intend our editions to respect that aspect of our responsibilities.
Among the typographical editorial devices we have used are the follow
ing. We use square brackets to enclose numbers - [19] - or section
