Although Olivi has not always been recognized even by medieval scholars, he was one of the most original thinkers of the age, and he also had a major influence on the development of intellectual history. His ideas are clearly present in writings by well-known Franciscan philosophers like John Duns Scotus, Peter Auriol, and William of Ockham, who nevertheless rarely cite Olivi by name. The silence is partly due to the dubious reputation Olivi had as the leader of a social reformist movement and the recurring doctrinal suspicions against him. Some of his views were condemned by the Council of Vienne (13111312) and in 1326 by Pope John XXII. Most of his works have survived in the Vatican library but remain in obscurity. As research has shown beyond doubt, Olivi’s ideas on the philosophy of history, on Aristotelian metaphysics and especially on human freedom were highly original but gained currency through discussions by these well-known thinkers. In fact, Olivi turns out to be a central innovator in respect of distinctively modern views developed in the later Middle Ages.
Olivi’s modernity is obvious from the style of his writing. He composed works that fit the standard medieval genres of academic writing: commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences and the Bible, quodlibetal questions, etc. However, he writes with a personal tone that seems to spring from an intimate experiential touch of his philosophical thinking. He clearly has a liking for arguments, and often puts forward positions only to later reject them. In many cases, he states the common view, shows its problems and puts a new, innovative view against it, but ultimately refrains from taking a formal stance on the issue. This is not because of general hesitation, since in many cases he does not hesitate to take a strong, controversial, view. Rather, it seems that Olivi enjoyed philosophical reasoning even in matters that he himselfthought to be of limited real significance and thus could be left open. In general, his writings do not have the abstract, universalizing overtones that are so typical for the Scholastics.
World History
