753J — John Duns Scotus (c.1265–1308)
Quaestiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi
Edited by Thomas Penketh and Bartholomaeus Bellatus. Part IV only.
Venice: Johannes de Colonia, 1476 (before 3 October 1477).
Price: $9,900
Folio (28 × 20 cm). Collation: a–g¹⁰ h–i⁸ k–o¹⁰ p–q⁸ r–z¹⁰. 240 leaves. Bound in later but early vellum, recently re-backed. The first few leaves (including the first leaf) lightly dusty and slightly stained; the remaining leaves exceptionally clean and fresh. A large-margined copy.
Extensively annotated throughout by a near-contemporary scholastic reader in a 15th-century Gothic cursive, with sustained academic marginalia reflecting active use in a Scotist curriculum. The annotations mark objections and responses, reject false inferences, and articulate doctrinal positions on free will, sin, grace, and Eucharistic presence. Several extended marginal arguments address the non-dimensional, non-local presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the formal rooting of sin in the will rather than in external act—features characteristic of advanced late-medieval Franciscan teaching within a university studium.
This volume contains Book IV of Peter Lombard’s Sententiarum libri quattuor, the portion devoted primarily to the sacraments and the “last things.” Of its fifty distinctions, Book IV treats baptism (2–6), confirmation (7), the Eucharist (8–13), penance (14–22), extreme unction (23), holy orders (24–25), and marriage (26–42), concluding with discussions of resurrection, judgment, and eternity. Penance and the Eucharist—both heavily annotated here—were among the most intensely debated topics in late-medieval theology.
John Duns Scotus, the Franciscan “Doctor Subtilis,” lectured extensively on Lombard’s Sentences at Oxford and Paris, and his commentary became one of the most influential theological works of the later Middle Ages. While the commentary survives in numerous medieval manuscripts, it was also widely printed in the final decades of the fifteenth century. The present volume—issued separately from the other three parts—preserves unusually clear evidence of university-level engagement with Scotist theology at the moment of its early transmission into print.
References: Goff D-379; Hain-Copinger 6416*; GW 2124; Pell 4451; CIBN D-256; IGI 3598; IBP 1993; Oates 1721 (IV); and others.
“The first question raised in the Prologue to John Duns Scotus’s Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard is “Whether it is Necessary for Man in His Present State To Be Supernaturally inspired with some doctrine.” Scotus’s answer is “Yes,” but only after a discussion of several important epistemological issues connected to understanding and faith.” [Mann, William E.(1992) “Duns Scotus, Demonstration, and Doctrine,” Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 9: Iss. 4 , Article 2.]
Duns Scotus’s commentary was based upon his University lectures; but there is controversity around this because no manuscripts exist at Oxford, which has manuscript evidence for lectures on the other three books.
ISTC: https://data.cerl.org/istc/id00379000
Goff D379; HC 6416*; C 2124 (I); Pell 4451; CIBN D-256; Hillard 753; Girard 174; Lefèvre 163; Parguez 392; Péligry 314; Richard 199; Castan(Besançon) 401; Polain(B) 1353 (II,III); IDL 1638; IBE 2197; IGI 3598; IBP 1993; SI 1398; Sajó-Soltész 1211; IBPort 619; Martín Abad D-76; Mendes 442, 443, 444, 445, 446, 447; Madsen 1459 (IV); Lőkkös(Cat BPU) 175; Voull(Trier) 1862 (II); Voull(B) 3747 (III), 3751 (I), 3752 (II); Ohly-Sack 1052; Sack(Freiburg) 1300; Walsh 1693, 1694; Oates 1721 (IV)
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