Quodlibeta

Quodlibeta

Quodlibeta

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During the Middle Ages, quodlibeta were public disputations in which scholars debated questions "about anything" (de quolibet) posed by the audience. The practice originated in the theological faculty of the University of Paris around 1230. Classes were suspended just before Christmas and Easter holidays so that the masters could hold public sessions taking questions from the audience. After 1270, the practice spread beyond Paris, but elsewhere was usually associated with the studia (schools) of the mendicant orders.[1] The first to introduce the quodlibeta to an institution outside of Paris was John of Peckham at Oxford University in 1272–1275.[2] Records of quodlibeta survive on parchment from the 1230s to the 1330s, but thereafter written records are scarce. The practice, however, continued into the sixteenth century.[1]

A catalogue of quodlibetal questions and manuscripts was published by Palémon Glorieux [fr] in two volumes between 1925 and 1932.[3] Glorieux catalogued about 325 recorded quodlibeta by about 120 named authors and 30 anonymous quodlibeta. This amounts to over 6,000 individual questions. About half of quodlibeta and a definite majority of questions and manuscripts are attributed to Dominican or Franciscan scholars.[4]

Some Dominicans produced responses to written quodlibeta, imitating the form in what Russell Friedman calls "anti-quodlibeta", usually in defence of Thomas Aquinas. These writers include Robert of Orford, Thomas of Sutton, Bernard of Auvergne and Hervaeus Natalis.[5]

Authors of quodlibeta

The following list is from Glorieux, except as noted.[6]

Notes

  1. [1]
    Schabel 2006, pp. 1–2.
  2. [2]
    Piron 2006, p. 404.
  3. [3]
    Schabel 2006, p. 2.
  4. [4]
    Schabel 2006, pp. 4–5.
  5. [5]
    Friedman 2007, pp. 402, 474–475.
  6. [6]
    Glorieux 1925–1935, vol. 2, index.
  7. [7]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 385.
  8. [8]
    Friedman 2007, p. 454.
  9. [9]
    Courtenay 2007, p. 697.
  10. [10]
    Schabel 2007, p. 2.
  11. [11]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 387.
  12. [12]
    Courtenay 2007, p. 698.
  13. [13]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 374.
  14. [14]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 376.
  15. [15]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 394.
  16. [16]
    Piron 2006, p. 420.
  17. [17]
    Sullivan 2007, p. 382.

Bibliography

  • Courtenay, William J. (2007). "Postscript: The Demise of Quodlibetal Literature". In Schabel, Christopher (ed.). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century. Brill. pp. 693–699.
  • Friedman, Russell L. (2007). "Dominican Quodlibetal Literature, ca. 1260–1330". In Schabel, Christopher (ed.). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century. Brill. pp. 401–491.
  • Glorieux, Palémon (1925–1935). La littérature quodlibétique de 1260 à 1320. Le Saulchoir.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Piron, Sylvain (2006). "Franciscan Quodlibeta in Southern Studia and at Paris, 1280–1300". In Schabel, Christopher (ed.). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century. Brill. pp. 403–438.
  • Schabel, Christopher, ed. (2006). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century. Brill.
  • Schabel, Christopher, ed. (2007). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century. Brill.
  • Sullivan, Thomas (2007). "The Quodlibeta of the Canons Regular and the Monks". In Schabel, Christopher (ed.). Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century. Brill. pp. 359–400.
  • Sweeney, Eileen (2023). "Literary Forms of Medieval Philosophy". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
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