Philosophy at Universities of the Later Middle Ages

The philosophical conceptions developed at the famous medieval Universities of Oxford and Paris have been received also at the new Central European Universities of Prague (1348) and Vienna (1365) as well as at the schools in Erfurt. Discussing these standard doctrines the scholars active there composed their own works. One of the most important among these scholars was Henry Totting of Oyta (died 1397 in Vienna) who was active as a philosopher and theologian in Prague, Erfurt, Prague, Paris, Prague and finally (since 1384) in Vienna. Only very few pieces of his extensive works, however, have been edited and studied up to the present. Therefore, in this project three bigger philosophical texts by Totting shall be edited and studied, viz. his Questions on the Categoriae and on De interpreatione by Aristotle as well as the part on the contingency of future events and the truth of sentences about such events out of his Questions on the Sentences by Peter Lombard, qu. 10, sect. 1. An also important contemporary, compatriot and academic colleague of Totting in Prague was the professor of philosophy and medicine Wicbold Stutte of Osnabrueck who is documented from 1362 to 1390. An extensive commentary of his on Aristotle`s Parva naturalia has been discovered recently which shall be edited (from the manuscript Mainz I 613) and studied in the second part of this research project. These editions and studies will enlarge our still imperfect knowledge of the teaching and research done at the new Central European Universities. The authors chosen for this project were eminent representatives of their universities and, furthermore, they are especially interesting because of the combination of their fields, viz. philosophy and theology or medicine, respectively.

The philosophical conceptions developed at the famous medieval Universities of Oxford and Paris have been received also at the new Central European Universities of Prague (1348) and Vienna (1365) as well as at the schools in Erfurt. Discussing these standard doctrines the scholars active there composed their own works. One of the most important among these scholars was Henry Totting of Oyta (died 1397 in Vienna) who was active as a philosopher and theologian in Prague, Erfurt, Prague, Paris, Prague and finally (since 1384) in Vienna. Only very few pieces of his extensive works, however, have been edited and studied up to the present. Therefore, in this project three bigger philosophical texts by Totting shall be edited and studied, viz. his Questions on the Categoriae and on De interpreatione by Aristotle as well as the part on the contingency of future events and the truth of sentences about such events out of his Questions on the Sentences by Peter Lombard, qu. 10, sect. 1. An also important contemporary, compatriot and academic colleague of Totting in Prague was the professor of philosophy and medicine Wicbold Stutte of Osnabrueck who is documented from 1362 to 1390. An extensive commentary of his on Aristotle`s Parva naturalia has been discovered recently which shall be edited (from the manuscript Mainz I 613) and studied in the second part of this research project. These editions and studies will enlarge our still imperfect knowledge of the teaching and research done at the new Central European Universities. The authors chosen for this project were eminent representatives of their universities and, furthermore, they are especially interesting because of the combination of their fields, viz. philosophy and theology or medicine, respectively.