- Questiones Super Primum, Tertium et Quartum Librum Sententiarum I: Principia et Questio circa Prologum by Petrus de Alliaco
Every scholar working on late medieval philosophy will be happy to discover, finally, a critical edition of Peter of Ailly’s commentary on the Sentences. Peter of Ailly is very important, as much for logical and semantic theories as for theological problems, for which he remains a source until the seventeenth century. Although we had at our disposal some editions of logical, cosmographical, geographical or properly philosophical works, and also some sermons, we had only some incunabula for the Sentences commentary—more or less reliable and not easy to consult. These Questions on the Book of the Sentences, dating from 1377–78, are representative of the tendency, during the fourteenth century, to develop more and more logical and epistemological questions within theological books.
Monica Brinzei proposes here the first part of a critical edition that will be composed of three volumes. This one includes the four Principia, that is, the opening lessons before the commentary properly speaking; and the unique question on the Prologue. The whole is preceded by a short foreword, an introduction of fifty pages, and a bibliography. The editor tells us that this introduction does not take the path of a doctrinal presentation. It contains a short bibliography, some remarks about the nature of the text and its structure, a thorough examination of the manuscripts, and an explanation of the editorial choices.
The Principia include two parts: a sermon, taking as its starting point a biblical passage (the same for the four principia), and a question named questio collativa, which establishes a list of propositions submitted for discussion, and engages in debates with the other bachelors of the same generation. So these texts are a source not only for theological problems, but [End Page 611] also for the history of the university, indicating who the students in theology were in that period. Then Peter of Ailly treats the unique question on the Prologue, on the possibility of having an evident knowledge of theological truths.
The edition takes into account the five manuscripts and the five incunabula editions. One of the manuscripts of the Mazarine Library (Paris), which presents the smaller number of evident errors, is chosen as the primary witness, but the critical apparatus is very complete. The editorial work is very meticulous. It is completed by an apparatus of biblical sources, another of explicit quotations, and also one of implicit sources. The indices take up, at the end of the volume, the scriptural quotations and the textual sources. Only an index of subjects is missing.
We must however point out the properly theoretical interest of this text. The theme of the introductory lessons is the law of Christ, considered under four points of view: is the law of Christ the most right among the precepts?—the most certain among the things we have to believe?—the most gratifying in merit?—the fairest in rewards? The idea of law is considered in its religious and moral aspects. The created law has to be related to the uncreated, which is the divine will, and the law of Christ is the most perfect sign of the uncreated law. Such analyses lead to the question of the status of natural law. Peter of Ailly thinks that natural signs of the divine law exist, and that some of them are given by the moral conscience and the natural light of reason.
The question on the Prologue is the privileged place for an epistemological reflection about the nature of science. The problematic owes very much to the Ockhamist doctrine and the debates that resulted from it, and to the theories of Gregory of Rimini, who is a major source throughout this Sentences commentary. We find terminological and conceptual precisions which are philosophically important: about truth, assimilated to the true proposition, about evidence, which requires distinctions (particularly between absolute and conditioned evidence) and precisions which have many consequences...