Notes on Richard Lavenham's So-Called "Summulae Logicales," with a Partial Edition of the Text

NOTES ON RICHARD LAVENHAM'S SO-CALLED "SUMMULAE LOGICALES," WITH A PARTIAL EDITION OF THE TEXT In his Bibliotheca Brittanica-Hibernica,1 Thomas Tanner attributes to the fourteenth century writer Richard Lavenham2 a work in one book caUed Summulae Logicales. He cites no manuscript, but gives the incipit "Juxta processum Aristotelis." There is a text with that incipit at the beginning of the collection of Lavenham's writings contained in Venice, San Marco, MS Z 300 (1872).3 Although the MS does not attribute this or any other individual work explicitly to Lavenham,4 there is little reason to doubt his authorship. First, 1 London: G. Bowyer, 1748, p. 471. (Not p. 741 as reported in my "Notes on Some Manuscripts of Logical and Physical Works by Richard Lavenham," Manuscripta, 19 (1975), 139-146, at p. 139, n. 5). · 2 On Lavenham, see my papers "The Treatises On Modal Propositions and On Hypothetical Propositions by Richard Lavenham," Mediaeval Studies, 35 (!973J. 49-59; "Five Logical Tracts by Richard Lavenham," in J. Reginald O'Donnell, ed., Essays in Honour of Anton Charles Pegis, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974), pp. 70-124; "Richard Lavenham's ObIigationes : Edition and Comments," Rivista critica di storia della filosofía 33 (1978), 225-242; and "Notes on Some Manuscripts...," cited in ?. 1 above. Only a few details of Lavenham's life are known. He was born at Lavenham in Suffolk (the date is unknown), entered the Carmelites at Ipswich, and later studied at Oxford. There is some evidence that he received the doctorate in theology there. He was prior of Bristol Convent, confessor to Richard II and a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury. He was alive as late as September, 1399. See C. L. Kingsford, "Lavenham, or Lavyngham, Richard," Dictionary of National Biography , XI, 652-653; and A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to a.d. 1500, 3 vols., (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957-1959), II, 11091 1 10. Lavenham's philosophical writing probably comes from the 1370's or 1380's. • For a description of the contents of this MS, see "Notes on Some Manuscripts..." 4 On fol. 78va, following Lavenham's Tractatus de Incipit et Desinit, there appear the words "Explicit. Incipit Heytesbury." But the attribution is probably misplaced; it should probably go with Heytesbury's Tractatus Consequentiarum, Notes on Richard Lavenham's Summulae Logicales37 r there is a general colophon on fol. o,iva, at the end of the entire MS: "ExpUciunt logicae et philosophiae utiUssime compilati tractatus Magistri Ricardi Lavinham angUci ordinis Sanctissimae genetricis dei Mariae de monte Carmelo, deo gratias." Second, in partial confirmation of that colophon, many of the works in the MS are also contained in London, British Library, MS Sloane 3899, where they are explicitly attributed to Lavenham.5 Third, if I have properly located the end of the text beginning "Juxta processum Aristotelis" (see below), it contains at least two references to other works explicitly attributed to Lavenham in the Sloane MS, the first6 to his Tractatus de Terminis Modalibus et Propositionibus Modalibus7 and the second* to his Tractatus de Decern Generibus.9 But while the authenticity of the work is not seriously in doubt, it is impossible to determine with confidence just how much it comprises . There is no manuscript authority whatever for the title "Summulae Logicales," which seems to have been Tanner's invention. The text begins on fol. ira of the Venice MS with a discussion of the three kinds of terms (written, spoken and mental),10 of the noun11 and the verb,12 and of expressions (orationes),13 and then a long discussion of sentences (propositiones), including the laws of opposition and conversion.14 This much of the text loosely follows Aristotle's De Interpretatione. There foUows a list of the ten categories and a brief discussion of transcendental and analogous terms,15 and a which does appear on fols. 79rb-9iva. On this matter, see "Notes on Some Manuscripts...," pp. 144 t. 6 For an analysis of the contents of this MS, see the article "The Treatises...," cite in n. 2 above. • Par. 75 of the edition below. 7 Venice, fols. igrb-22ra...