William Arnaud is principally known in medieval philosophy for two reasons: he wrote a very interesting commentary on Peter of Spain’s Tractatus and a course on logica vetus ascribed to Giles of Rome under whose name they have been published. According to L. M. De Rijk, William Arnaud was a Master in Toulouse who taught in the 1240s or in the 1250s. This view has been challenged by R. A. Gauthier (Gauthier 1989a:52*, 69* sq) because William quotes Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on the Peri hermeneias (as ‘‘expositor’’), as well as other works from Thomas and Giles of Rome when commenting on Aristotle’s logic. His activity is therefore to be situated in the late thirteenth century. This date has now been generally adopted by scholars (except Lahey 2005). William’s commentary on the Liber de six principiis has been attributed to ‘‘Master Vital’’ (i. e., Vital du Four) and so edited separately (Gondras 1975). He also wrote a commentary on the Analytics (Prior and Posterior). Not much of his life is known except for these pieces of information on his logical production as a Master in the Arts Faculty of the University of Toulouse, since he is no longer identified With the Archdeacon of Lanta, who died in 1255, with William of Saint Amour or with the inquisitor beaten to death in 1242. A list of his works, manuscripts, and editions are to be found in Weijers (1998).
World History
