Toward a Bibliography on Duns Scotus on the Existence of God

TOWARD A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON DUNS SCOTUS ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD The Testimony in favor of the philosophical and historical importance of Scotus' argument for God's existence is quite articulate and insistent: Of the great scholastics, perhaps no one devoted more attention and care to developing a proof for the existence of God than did Duns Scotus. Unlike Aquinas, Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent and so many others, he made no attempt to exploit the multitude of ways he considered possible, but rather concentrated his efforts on a single proof incorporating into it what he believed to be the best elements of the arguments of his predecessors and contemporaries.1 One writer goes so far as to say that it is getting to be rather generally admitted that, for accuracy and depth and scope, this is the most perfect and complete and thorough proof for the existence of God that has ever been worked out by any man.2 That might seem to be quite a bit more than we may want to credit Scotus with, but, in the final analysis, though one may entertain serious doubts about the cogency of the argument, still it is difficult to escape the judgment that it may be the most carefully thought out attempt of any schoolman to prove the existence of God within the epistemic norms for demonstration laid down in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics.3 1 Allan B. Wolter, "Duns Scotus and the Existence and Nature of God," in Proceedings of the American Catho.ic Philosophical Association, 28 (1954), 94-95. 2 Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948), p. 94, quoted in Efrem Bettoni, Duns Scotus: The Basic Principles of his Philosophy, tr. and ed. by Bernardine M. Bonansea (Washington, D.C: Catholic University of America Press, 1961), p. 138?. 8 These remarks of Allan Wolter may be found in his preface to his edition and translation of Duns Scotus' A Treatise on God as First Principle (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1966), p. v. 46DONALD A. CRESS As I proceeded to collect a bibliography on the subject, I found that my list of titles was becoming considerably larger than I had ever expected. In fact, it is considerably larger than, say, a bibliography on Descartes on the existence of God. This came to me as a great surprise, to say the least. Moreover, I often found that the general Scotistic bibliographies , particularly Smeets' Lineamenta, are quite difficult to obtain, and searching for some of them involves a considerable expenditure of time. Hence, because of the philosophical and historical importance of the subject matter, and the difficulty in obtaining certain crucial general Scotistic bibliographies, I have prepared the following bibliography . This bibliography could not have been prepared without the help of the following: St. Mary of the Lake Seminary (Mundelein, Illinois), St. Louis University, Marquette University, Notre Dame University, the Newberry Library, the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto), the Scotus Commission (Rome), the Vatican Library, and the St. John's University Monastic Microfilm Project. I am most grateful to Northern Illinois University for supporting this work and to Fathers Bernardine M. Bonansea, O.F.M., and Roy R. Effier, O.F.M., for their kind suggestions and help. A. Primary Sources x John Duns Scotus, Quaestiones Subtilissimae super Libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis, Lib. II, Q. 6, Scholium 4. Editions: Wadding,2 Vol. IV, pp. 566a-5Ô7b Wadding-Vivès,3 Vol. VII, pp. I26a-i29b. —, Lectura in Librum Primum Sententiarum, Dist. 2, Pars 1, Qq. 1-2. Edition: Opera Omnia Vaticana,4 Vol. XVI, pp. 111-146. 1 My ordering of the primary sources is not necessarily an attempt at establishing their chronological order. 2 Opera Omnia, 12 volumes, edited by Luke Wadding. Lugduni: Durand, 1639. Reprinted by Georg Olms (Hildesheim), 1968. 4 Opera Omnia, iuxta editionem Waddingi, 26 vols. Paris: Vives, 18911895 . Reprinted by Gregg International Press (Farnborough), 1970. 4 Opera Omnia, iussu et auctoritate Pacifici M. Perantoni... studio et cura Commissionis Scotisticae ad fidem codicum edita praeside Carole Balid, 9 vols, to date. Civitas Vaticana: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950 ff. Bibliography on Duns Scotus on the Existence of God47 Ordinatio (Opus Oxoniense...