Principia on the Sentences of Peter Lombard: Exploring an Uncharted Scholastic-Philosophical Genre,
Résumé
Principia were an obligatory step on the medieval university path to becoming a master of theology. As inaugural lectures on the four books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, they provided the first opportunity for a scholastic to defend a philosophical-theological worldview. These lectures were also a way for the theologian, now a sententiarius, to present himself and to make a name for himself, initially by delivering in a speech an introduction to the course and by debating with his fellows. The present book takes a collective approach to offer a survey of the evolution of the genre, mapping the dissemination of this exercise during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries across Europe.