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III. The Commentaries on the Four Books of the Sentences 1. Composition, dating and manuscript tradition As a bachelor of theology, Francis of Marchia lectured on the Sentences at Paris, most likely for one academic year, presumably 1319-1320.46 Like his contemporaries at Paris, he would have read the four books of the Sentences in the order I-IV-II-III,47 and commented on the Lombard’s text in question form, using the topics discussed by Peter Lombard as points of departure for his own investigations.48 Four times during this course of lectures, Francis would have held a principium , a ceremonial disputation marking the beginning of his lectures on each 46 For general information on Sentences lectures and their regulation in this period, see, e.g.: P. Glorieux, “L’enseignement au Moyen Age: Techniques et méthodes en usage à la Faculté de Théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle”, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 35 (1968), (pp. 65-186), esp. pp. 111-18 (Sentences). 138-141 (principia); “Sentences (commentaires sur les)”, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, v. XIV, Paris 1939, (cols. 1860-1884), col. 1862; Z. Kaluza, “La nature des écrits de Jean de Ripa”, Traditio 43 (1987), (pp. 257-298), pp. 260-261; C. Schabel, “The Redactions of Book I”, p. 102, n. 1. More generally, and for further information concerning individual lectures on the Sentences, see W.J. Courtenay, Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth-Century England, Princeton 1987, pp. 7-9; O. Weijers, Le maniement du savoir. Pratiques intellectuelles à l’époque des premières universités (XIIIe-XIVe siècles), Turnhout 1996, p. 52; F. Del Punta and C. Luna, “La teologia scolastica”, in: E. Menest ò, G. Cavallo and C. Leonardi (eds.), Lo spazio letterario nel Medioevo. 1. Medioevo Latino, Rome 1993, v. 2, p. 340; R. Friedman, “The Sentences Commentary, 12501320 : General Trends, the Impact of the Religious Orders, and the Test Case of Predestination ,” in: G.R. Evans (ed.), Mediaeval Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Leiden 2002, pp. 41-128; A. Oliva, Les débuts de l’enseignement de Thomas d’Aquin et sa conception de la Sacra doctrina, Paris 2006, pp. 238-241. 47 An important early witness to this usage is Remigio de’ Girolami, Prologus super IV Sententiarum: “Quartus angelus tuba cecinit, Apoc. 8 [12]. Liber iste ‘Sententiarum’ qui secundum consuetudinem antiquam debet a nobis exponi post primum librum.... Et propter hoc lectura quarti libri ‘Sententiarum’ premicti videtur lecturae secundi et tertii...;”text cited by E. Panella, Il De subiecto theologiae di Remigio dei Girolami O.P., Milan 1982, p. 10, n. 7. There are exceptions to this usage, e.g., Thomas Aquinas; cf. A. Oliva, Les débuts de l’enseignement, p. 252. On Marchia, see A. Maier, “Zu einigen Problemen der Ockhamsforschung”, Ausgehendes Mittelalter: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Geistesgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts, Rome 1964-1977, vol. 1, Rome 1964, (pp. 161-200), p. 180; Metaphysische Hintergründe der spätscholastischen Naturphilosophie, Rome 1955, p. 200. 48 For the structure of Francis’ commentary and its relation to Lombard’s text, see infra, pp. xxxvII-xl. With regard to the changes in structure that mark the evolution of commentaries on the Sentences in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, see the studies in G.R. Evans, Mediaeval Commentaries on the ‘Sentences’ of Peter Lombard, Leiden 2002, as well as W.J. Courtenay, “Philosophy in the Context of Sentences Commentaries ”, in: G. Fioravanti, C. Leonardi and S. Perfetti (eds.), Il commento filosofico nell’Occidente medievale (secoli XIII-XIV), Turnhout 2002, pp. 445-467. XXV THE SENTENCES COMMENTARIES of the books of the Sentences. The bachelor would give a sermon to the assembled faculty of theology before considering a question related in some way to the book of the Sentences he was starting to lecture on.49 We have written texts of Marchia’s principial lectures. The written versions of Francis’ Sentences commentaries proper bear a relation to Francis’ teaching, but in diverse ways. Some texts appear to be pure reportationes: copies made by a student (a reportator) of what the speaker said in the classroom. Others seem to have undergone authorial revision so that we might speak of a revised reportatio (or ordinatio or reportatio examinata), or a scriptum, a separate written work. Francis’ commentary on the Sentences survives for each book in more than one version, and the traditions, witnesses and circumstances are different for each book of the Sentences. The current state of...

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