The Soul-Body Problem at Paris ca 1200-1250: Hugh of St-Cher and His Contemporaries

Introduction

InTrodUCTIon This research originates from an edition and a study of a short disputed question written in the first half of the 1230s by Hugh of St-Cher and entitled De anima.1 The question is part of a collection of a very large number of quaestiones disputatae and other texts compiled in the Paris environment between the end of the twelfth and the second half of the thirteenth century. This manuscript collection is preserved in Codex 434 of the Bibliothèque Municipale of Douai and consists of three volumes, the first two of which contain 572 quaestiones theologicae and the third of which about forty different texts.2 This collection is a precious witness to the theological debates that took place in Paris during the first decades of the thirteenth century,3 at the very beginning of the reception of Aristotle’s libri naturales and Metaphysics on the one hand, and, on the other, of new Hebrew and Arabic philosophical sources, in particular Avicebron’s Fons vitae and Avicenna’s De anima. These works were translated around the middle of the twelfth century4 1 Cf. M. Bieniak, “Una questione disputata di Ugo di St.-Cher sull’anima. Edizione e studio dottrinale”, Studia antyczne i mediewistyczne 2 [37] (2004), pp. 127-184. 2 Cf. Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements de France. Bibliothèque de Douai, Douai 1878, vol. iV, pp. 246-249; O. Lottin, “Quelques Questiones de maîtres parisiens aux environs de 1225-1235”, RTAM 5 (1933), pp. 79-81; P. Glorieux, “Les 572 Questions du manuscrit de Douai 434”, RTAM 10 (1938), pp. 123-152, 225267 ; V. Doucet, “A travers le manuscrit 434 de Douai”, Antonianum 27 (1952), pp. 558-568; Bieniak, “Una questione disputata”, pp. 127-131; regarding the third volume in particular, see R. Quinto, “Il Codice 434 di Douai, Stefano Langton e Nicola di Tournai”, Sacris Erudiri 36 (1996), pp. 233-361. 3 J.-P. Torrell, Théorie de la prophétie et philosophie de la connaissance aux environs de 1230. La contribution d’Hugues de Saint-Cher, Louvain: Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, 1977, pp. V-Xi. 4 Cf. Ch. H. Haskins, “A list of text-books from the close of the twelfth century”, Harvard Studies in Classical Philosophy 20 (1909), p. 92; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die Lateinischen Aristoteles - Übersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster: Aschendorff, 1916 (B. G. Ph. M., 17. 5-6), pp. 19-27; L. Minio-Paluello, “Nuovi impulsi allo studio della logica: la seconda fase della riscoperta di Aristotele e di Boezio”, in ed. cisaM, La scuola nell’Occidente latino dell’alto medioevo, vol. ii, Spoleto, 1972, pp. 743-766; G. Diem, “Les traductions gréco-latines de la Métaphysique au Moyen Âge: Le problème de la Metaphysica Vetus”, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 49 (1967), pp. 7-71; L. Minio-Paluello, “Le texte du «De anima» d’Aristote: la tradition latine avant 1500”, in id., Opuscula. The Latin Aristotle, Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1972, pp. 250-276; F. Van Steenberghen, “L’aristotélisme”, in Introduction à l’étude de la philosophie médiévale, Louvain: Peeters, 1974, pp. 488-490; B. G. Dod, “Aristoteles Latinus”, in The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, 2 introduction and aroused considerable interest among Latin medieval thinkers. In particular, these texts strongly influenced the previously existing conception of man. This impact, however, did not constitute a mere acceptance of certain doctrines, since the new philosophy was compared with the edifice of theological knowledge built up over the previous centuries, and was possibly integrated into it. Indeed, the peculiar character of medieval thought, notably that of the thirteenth century, may be seen as a blend of different elements.5 Philosophical interest was not the only engine of psychological research: in several cases, the decisive factors were dogmatic requirements and traditional interpretations of patristic authorities. Moreover, historical circumstances – together with factors of a doctrinal nature – sometimes played an influential role too, for instance when a particular kind of heresy arose, thus inciting Christian theologians to use new arguments to defend the revealed truths endangered by heterodox doctrines. In order to provide a thorough analysis of early thirteenth-century anthropological thought and to understand its developments as well as the exigencies it was based on, it is necessary to consider all these factors. For this reason, the aim of the present study is not only to cast light on the influences exerted by Aristotle and other philosophical authorities on...