Bl. John Duns Scotus

Life1

As with many medieval theologians, we do not have many precise dates in the life of Bl. John Duns Scotus.2 His contemporaries were much more interested in his teaching than the details of his life. The first certain date is that of his ordination to the priesthood, on March 17, 1291. Based on the minimum age of twenty-five for ordination, and the fact that there were ordinations in the same diocese on December 23, 1290, Scotus’s birth can be placed with likelihood between December 23, 1265 and March 17, 1266.3 He was born in the town of Duns, in Scotland, as was definitively proven in the last century.4 Duns was both his family name and his birthplace, while Scotus indicates his nation.

At the time of his ordination, he was a member of the English Franciscan province (which included Scotland at that time) studying theology at Oxford. The last school year of his studies was 1300–1301, which implies that he lectured on the Sentences of Peter Lombard for the first time in the 1298–1299 school year, having spent the preceding year preparing. At Paris he lectured on the Sentences in the 1302–1303 school year.5 On June 25, 1303, he refused to support the king of France, Philip the Fair, in his controversy with Pope Boniface VIII, and consequently had to leave France within three days. We can be certain of this because we have the lists of the members of the faculty of the University of Paris who signed and who refused to sign.6

In England, Scotus apparently resumed teaching at Oxford, and he may have also taught in Cambridge at this time. In 1304 Philip the Fair reconciled with the new pope, and the exiles could return to Paris. A letter dated November 18, 1304 from the Franciscan Minister General, Gonsalvo of Spain, presents Bl. John Duns Scotus to the superior of the Franciscan friary at Paris as the next candidate for regent master, after Giles of Loigny. After his mastership, in 1307 Scotus went to Cologne as a lector, probably in time for the beginning of the 1307–1308 school year.7 Tradition places his untimely death on November 8, 1308.

Works

Commentaries on the Sentences

These fall into three literary genres, which we can take in order of development. First, comes the Lectura, the text Scotus prepared as a source for his lectures. Then come various Reportationes, notes sketched during his lectures and filled out afterwards, so as to rapidly make a text available for study. These can represent a more advanced stage of his teaching, but can also contain msunderstandings, someone else’s reflections, or even direct contradictions of the master’s teaching. Finally, drawing on the first two, Scotus prepared the Ordinatio for publication.

If Scotus had completed the Ordinatio, it would have rendered the other two obsolete, but unfortunately he died first, leaving the work in an incomplete state. His disciples then attempted to complete it by filling in the gaps with material from the Lectura and Reportationes, and sometimes their own ideas. This is the form in which it was printed in Luke Wadding’s 1639 edition of Scotus’s works, at which time it was known as the Opus Oxoniense. Its weakness is obviously the failure to distinguish between the various sources that went into its compilation. The Scotistic Commission has now restored for us, in the Vatican critical edition, the Ordinatio as the Subtle Doctor left it at his death. Many scholars use Ordinatio and Opus Oxoniense as synonyms, since these are really just two editions of the same work, but I find it useful to reserve the former name for the incomplete text actually written by Scotus, and the latter name for the text as completed by his disciples8.

Scotus composed Lectura I and II for the course he taught as a bachelor at Oxford, so they date from the preceding year of preparation (1297–1298).9 Lectura III, on the other hand, was clearly composed by someone who had already taught at Paris and was now elsewhere, for he writes, “I said in Paris.”10 Since Ordinatio III is clearly later than Lectura III, that other place cannot be Cologne, and so the composition of Lectura III can be situated at Oxford during Scotus’s exile (1303–1304)11. There is no surviving Lectura IV, and perhaps it never existed. The Vatican critical edition was the first and only edition of Lectura I–III.

Philosophical works

The critical edition of most of these is G. Etzkorn, R. Andrews, et al., Opera philosophica, 5 vols. (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1997–2006).

  • Quaestiones in Libros Porphyrii Isagoge
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 1:1–245
    • Early Modern edition with commentary by Maurice O’Fihely: Wadding 1:87–123; Vivès 1:51–421
  • Quaestiones super praedicamenta Aristotelis
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 1:247–566
    • Early Modern edition (fairly accurate): Wadding 1:124–185; Vivès 1:437–538
  • Quaestiones in libros Perihermenias Opus I
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 2
    • Early Modern edition: Wadding 1:186–203; Vivès 1:539–568
  • Quaestiones in libros Perihermenias Opus II
    • This second commentary deals with the res verbi, as announced in the first commentary.12
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 2
    • Early Modern edition of book I: Wadding 1:211–223; Vivès 1:581–601
    • Early Modern edition of book II (misidentified as part of opus I13): Wadding 1:204–210; Vivès 1:569–579
  • Quaestiones super librum Elenchorum Aristotelis
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 2
    • Early Modern edition: Wadding 1:224–272; Vivès 2:1–80
  • Theoremata
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 2
    • Early Modern edition with commentary by Maurice O’Fihely, as well as scholia and marginal notes by Hugh MacCaghwell: Wadding 3:261–338; Vivès 5:1–128
  • Quaestio de formalitatibus
    • Critical edition: Emery and Smith.14
    • The editors date this to Paris 1305–1307, which would make it Scotus’s last treatment of the formal distinction.
    • Early Modern edition (corrupt) with scholia and notes by Luke Wadding: Wadding 3:441–448; Vivès 5:338–353
  • Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 3–4
    • Early Modern edition with commentary by Maurice O’Fihely, as well as scholia and marginal notes by Hugh MacCaghwell: Wadding 4:497–848; Vivès 7:2–620
      • Books I–IX are authentic, but those on books X and XII are a work of the secular master of arts John Dymsdale († ca. 1289).15
      • The Logic Museum has a link to each question in an online scan of the Vivès edition.
  • Quaestiones super libros secundum et tertium Aristotelis de Anima
    • Critical edition: Opera philosophica 5
    • Early Modern edition with scholia and supplementary disputations by Hugh MacCaghwell: Wadding 2:477–582; Vivès 3:475–641
  • Notabilia super Metaphysicam
    • These are Scotus’s personal notes on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, lost for centuries.
    • Critical edition: John Duns Scotus. Notabilia super Metaphysicam. Edited by Giorgio Pini. Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaevalis 287. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018.

Other theological works

  • Collations Oxonienses
    • These represent scholastic exercises in which Scotus took part in the 1300–1301 school year.
    • Critical edition: Alliney and Fideli16
    • Early Modern edition with scholia and notes by Hugh MacCaghwell and Luke Wadding: Wadding 3:339–430; Vivès 5:131–317
      • This jumbles together the Collationes from Oxford and Paris in no particular order, and omits some.
  • Collationes Parisienses
    • Early Modern edition with scholia and notes by Hugh MacCaghwell and Luke Wadding: Wadding 3:339–430; Vivès 5:131–317
      • As noted above, this is a jumble of the two sets of Collationes. See Vos for which are Parisian.17
  • De primo principio: theological in the sense that it is about God, not in the sense of using revealed principles.
    • Working editions include Wolter and Kluxen.18
    • English, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch each have at least one translation.
    • Early modern editions: Wadding 3:208–259; Vivès 4:721–789
  • Quaestiones quodlibitales
    • A team working under Felix Alluntis prepared a working edition by using two good manuscripts recommended by the Scotistic Commission.19
    • Alluntis’s edition includes a Spanish translation. Wolter published an English translation of Alluntis’s text.20
    • Early modern edition with commentary by Francesco Licheto and scholia and notes by Hugh MacCaghwell: Wadding 12:1–544; Vivès 23:1–586 (qq. 1–13); 24:1–343 (qq. 14–21)

Spurious works

I generally omit mention of any critical editions that may exist, as outside the scope of this page.

  • Grammatica speculativa: the author is Thomas of Erfurt (fl. 1300/1325).21
    • Editions: Wadding 1:45–76; Vivès 1:1–50
  • In librum primum et secundum Priorum Analyticorum Aristotelis Quaestiones: the author is uncertain, but the work was written at least a quarter century after Scotus died.22
    • Editions: Wadding 1:273–341; Vivès 2:81–197
  • In librum primum et secundum Posteriorum Analyticorum Aristotelis Quaestiones: this is attributed to John of St Germain of Cornwall.23
    • Editions: Wadding 1:342–430; Vivès 2:199–347
  • Dilucidissima expositio et quaestiones in VIII libros Physicorum Aristotelis: Wadding realized that this was really by Marsilius of Inghen (†1396), but included it anyway because it was cited by Scotists.24
    • Editions: Wadding 2:1–475; Vivès 2:352–677; 3:1–470
  • De rerum principio is a compilation: questions 1–24 are by Cardinal Vital du Four, O. Min. (†1327, Latin: Vitalis de Furno), while questions 25–26 summarize texts of Godfrey of Fontaines (†1306/1309).25
    • Editions: Wadding 3:1–207; Vivès 4:267–471
  • De cognitione Dei: it seems that this too is to be considered spurious. Goris has recently argued that it was written between 1316 and 1325 by John of Reading or another Franciscan dependent upon him.26
    • Goris includes a critical edition in his book.
    • Early Modern edition with scholia and notes by Luke Wadding: Wadding 3:431–440; Vivès 5:318–337
  • Quaestiones Miscellaneae 2–7: Wadding took these from a different manuscript than question 1. Questions 3, 4, and 6 are from the Quodlibet of Nicholas of Lyra (†1349). Questions 5 and 7 are from an early follower of Scotus.27
    • Editions: Wadding 3:448–484; Vivès 5:353–432
  • In libros Meteorologicorum Aristotelis quaestiones: whoever wrote this quoted a work written in 1328.28
    • Editions: Wadding 3:1–130 (in an appendix with page numbers restarting at 1); Vivès 4:3–263
  • Expositio in XII libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis: this was written by Antonius Andreas, as Matija Frkić already realized in the seventeenth century.29
    • Editions: Wadding 4:1–462; Vivès 5:435–775; 6:1–600
  • Conclusiones Metaphysicae: Fedele da Fanna showed this was the work of Gonsalvo of Spain, the Minister General who sent Scotus to teach in Paris. It summarizes positions of the Franciscan School.30
    • Editions: Wadding 4:463–495; Vivès 6:601–667
  • De perfectione statuum: this was added to the Vivès edition as a work of Scotus based on the testimony of late medieval MSS (15th and 16th c.), but the content is not consistent with Scotus’s thought, and such late testimony is not reliable.31
    • Editions: Vivès 26:501–561

Secondary literature

Even if we only consider what has been published in the last 100 years, there is far more than can be listed here. Tobias Hoffman’s bibliography is an extensive but still incomplete listing of primary and secondary sources since 1950 (also in PhilArchive if the first link doesn’t work).

  1. This section is adapted from my book, The Virgin Shall Give Birth.↩︎

  2. On his life, see Charles Balić, John Duns Scotus: Some Reflections on the Occasion of the Seventh Centenary of his Birth (Rome: Scotistic Commission, 1966); Allan Bernard Wolter, “Reflections on the Life and Works of Scotus,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 67 (1993): 1–36; Thomas Williams, “Introduction: The Life and Works of John Duns the Scot,” in The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus, ed. Thomas Williams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 1–14; Antonie Vos, The Philosophy of John Duns Scotus (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 15–102.↩︎

  3. Cf. Williams, “Introduction: The Life and Works of John Duns the Scot,” 2.↩︎

  4. Cf. Balić, John Duns Scotus: Some Reflections, 16–29.↩︎

  5. It is not certain whether he spent the 1301–1302 school year teaching in Paris (as William J. Courtenay argued) or Oxford ( Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 60–61).↩︎

  6. Cf. Jeffrey Denton, “Why was John Duns Scotus Expelled from Paris in Late June 1303?” in Acts of the Franciscan History Conferences of 2007 and 2008, ed. Philippe Yates and Jens Röhrkasten (Canterbury: Franciscan International Study Centre, 2009), 49–60; the documents are reproduced in Éphrem Longpré, “Le B. Jean Duns Scot. Pour Le Saint Siège Et Contre Le Gallicanisme (25–28 Juin 1303),” La France Franciscaine 11 (1928): 145–52.↩︎

  7. Cf. Wolter, “Reflections on the Life and Works of Scotus,” 12.↩︎

  8. While the critical edition was in preparation, this distinction was useful so that it could be easily seen which edition of a particular text a scholar had used. The distinction remains useful when there is some reason to cite texts which are not authentic parts of the Ordinatio, e.g., when discussing citations made by Scotists in the past.↩︎

  9. Cf. Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 41.↩︎

  10. Bl. John Duns Scotus, Lect. III, d. 5, q. 1–2, n. 14: “Dixi Parisius” (Vatican ed. 20:161).↩︎

  11. Cf. Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 74–75.↩︎

  12. Vos, 1.↩︎

  13. Logic Museum.↩︎

  14. Kent Emery Jr. and Garrett R. Smith, “The Quaestio de formalitatibus by John Duns Scotus, sometimes called the Logica Scoti,” Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale 56 (2014): 91–182, https://doi.org/10.1484/j.bpm.5.105347.↩︎

  15. Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 131.↩︎

  16. John Duns Scotus, Collationes Oxonienses, ed. Guido Alliney and Marina Fedeli (Firenze: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2016).↩︎

  17. Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 136.↩︎

  18. John Duns Scotus, A Treatise on God as First Principle, ed. Allan Bernard Wolter (Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1966), https://archive.org/details/treatiseongodasf0000duns; John Duns Scotus, Abhandlung über das erste Prinzip, ed. Wolfgang Kluxen, 4th ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2009).↩︎

  19. John Duns Scotus, Collationes Oxonienses.↩︎

  20. John Duns Scotus, God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions, trans. Felix Alluntis and Allan Bernard Wolter (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1975).↩︎

  21. See Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 112.↩︎

  22. See Vos, 112–13.↩︎

  23. Vos, 113.↩︎

  24. Cf. Vos, 114.↩︎

  25. Vos, 107–10.↩︎

  26. Wouter Goris, Scientia propter quid nobis: The Epistemic Independence of Metaphysics and Theology in the Quaestio de cognitione Dei attributed to Duns Scotus (Münster: Aschendorff, 2022).↩︎

  27. Stephen D. Dumont, “Duns Scotus’s Parisian Question on the Formal Distinction,” Vivarium 43, no. 1 (2005): 14.↩︎

  28. Vos, Philosophy of Scotus, 113–14.↩︎

  29. Vos, 111.↩︎

  30. Cf. Vos, 111.↩︎

  31. Cf. Vos, 114–15.↩︎