Terminologia logica della tarda scolastica (review)

Book Reviews Terminologia logica della tarda scolastica. By Alfonso Maierh. Le.ssico intellettuale europeo , VIII. (Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1972. Pp. 687. Lire 10,000) In spite of the continuing decline of the study of the history of philosophy in most western countries, the past few years have seen an increased interest in the development of philosophical vocabulary from the Greeks onward. The Archiv ]iir Begriffsgeschichte continues to flourish and we are now getting a much expanded version of Eisler's WSrterbuch der philosophischen Begriffe (fourth ed., Berlin, 1927-1930) as Historisches Wrrterbuch der Philosophie (Darmstadt, 1971--). Another large scale venture recently published along the same lines is the Dictionary o/ the History of Ideas (New York, 1973). Less ambitious in scope have been such research tools as I.kon Baudry, Lexique philosophique de Guillaume d'Ockham (Paris, 1958), Eduard Zellinger, Cusanus Konkordanz (Munich, 1960), Emilia G. Boscherini, Lexicon Spinozianum (The Hague, 1970), and Pierre Michaud-Quantin, Etudes sur le vocabulaire philosophique du moyen dge (Rome, 1970). In the same series as the last of these, the Lessico intellettuale europeo, produced under the co-editorship of TuUio De Mauro and Tullio Gregory, we have now another volume devoted to the study of medieval philosophical terminology. Professor Maieri~'s book focuses upon the logical terminology of the fourteenth century, but to some extent it is a history of the interpretation of certain key logical concepts from Aristotle to the fifteenth century. Thus, quite a lot of attention is given to the question of how particular Greek logical terms were translated into Latin by Boethius and others, and much useful information is brought together concerning the late fourteenth and early fifteenth-century continuation of the tradition, particularly in Peter of Mantua, Paul of Venice, and Paul of Pergola. After an introductory chapter outlining clearly and concisely the development of medieval formal logic, the remainder of the book is divided into seven sections dealing with the evolution of logical terminology and the meaning of individual concepts. The topics treated are appellatio, ampliatio-restrictio, copulatio, con/usio, propositio modalis, probatio propositionis, and sensus compositus-sensus divisus. There are several appendices which serve to clarify various technical points or to publish small sections of logical texts from manuscripts. The volume is completed by a very useful and well-done series of indices (names of authors, manuscripts cited, Greek terms, and Latin terms). In writing his book Professor Maierh has used a wide range of examples from a variety of different authors, including a good number of treatises which remain in manuscript. The study is well documented and the author seems to have an admirable command of recent literature on the history of medieval logic, especially the quite substantial work which has been done in the field by scholars writing in German and English. It can be recommended as a clear, though not always concise, treatment of an important subject which must progress further, if our historical understanding of medieval philosophy as a whole is to advance. Due attention is given to historical accuracy, and though an attempt is made to relate some of the medieval logical problems and doctrines to contemporary currents, it does not get out of hand. The original text always seems to be present, rather than its translation into modern idiom, be it symbolic or verbal. The Warburg Institute, University ol London C~gLES B. Sca~r'r [99] ...