Writings

Marsilius’ writings were the product of a medieval academic. Most important are (1) a collection of small logical treatises that deal with the properties of terms such as supposition and ampliation, and which later were referred to under the general title of Parva logicalia Marsilii; (2) several commentaries in various forms on the Logica vetus and the Logica nova; (3) commentaries on Aristotle’s physical treatises, such as the Physica, De caelo, De generatione et corruptione, De anima, and the Parva naturalia; (4) a commentary on Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea; (5) a commentary on Aristotle’s

Metaphysica; (6) commentaries on two books from the Scriptures, namely, Daniel and Matthew; and finally (7) a commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences.

All ofthese works arose out ofhis teaching, which is to say, his reading of the works of Aristotle, Peter Lombard, and the Scriptures in the classroom. Notably, his commentaries on Aristotle were structured in a manner very similar to those of John Buridan and Nicholas Oresme. Even the titles of the many questions addressed were similar, although the solutions differed. As a rule, these questions followed the text of Aristotle sequentially, though not all parts were discussed. Marsilius followed the same structure in his commentary on Lombard’s Sentences, although the arguments in it were much more elaborate, and referred to a wide array of sources.

Only a small number of his writings are available in a modern critical edition. Several of his treatises were printed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Approximately thirty-five modern libraries contain manuscript copies of his works, particularly libraries in Erfurt, Krakow, Munich, and Vienna. The strict format of his writings may create the impression that their content is uniform and formalistic; however, this is not the case. Marsilius imbued his writings with a personal outlook through the sharpness of his mind and his individual approach to a number of problems.