Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

436 Catarina Dutilh Novaes
the spread of ‘British logic’ in Italy in the 14 th century, especially in the second
half of the century. In this period, more and more Italian students were sent to
Oxford 2 , and often brought back to Italy the knowledge they acquired there (cf.
[Courtenay, 1982, p. 17]); British masters such as Ockham and Burley also visited
and worked in Italy (cf. [Courtenay, 1982, p. 17]). It is very telling that he who
is perhaps the most influential logician of the first half of the 15 th century was an
Italian having studied in Oxford in the last decade of the 14 th century, namely
Paul of Venice. After obtaining his degree, he taught in Italy for most of his career
(cf. [Conti, 2005b]), and this exemplifies the aforementioned phenomenon of
spread of knowledge beyond the traditional centers of Oxford and Paris that took
place in the 14 th century. 3
A similar phenomenon occurred in Eastern Europe with the exportation of
Parisian knowledge (logic in particular), which is made even more evident by the
foundation of several influential universities in the region in the second half of
the 14 th century — the Universities of Prague 4 in 1348, Vienna in 1365 (but to
be re-founded in 1384), Erfurt (papal bull in 1379, but inaugurated in 1392),
Heidelberg in 1385 and Cologne in 1388/9 are the main examples. Some of the
most influential masters of the second half of the 14 th century were directly related
to the foundation of these universities, most notably Albert of Saxony for the
University of Vienna 5 (cf. [Biard, 2004, section 1]) and Marsilius of Inghen for
the University of Heidelberg (cf. [Hoenen, 2001, section 1]). These two masters
are particularly representative of the spread of ‘Parisian’ trends (especially the
‘Buridanian’ approach to logic 6 ) into other regions.
2 As a result of the papal schism (1378–1417, a period during which there were two and
sometimes even three ‘popes’, each of whom considering the other(s) to be an usurper), Italians
could no longer go to Paris, since Italy and France supported opposing parties in the papal
dispute.
3 Even before Paul of Venice, Italy had already an important tradition of logicians. See for
example the introduction to Blaise of Parme’s logical Questiones [Blaise of Parme, 2001].
4 In this respect, the University of Prague differs slightly from the other Eastern European
universities at the time in that not only the teaching of Parisian masters was influential; Prague
enjoyed equally close relations with Oxford. Thus, not only Buridan and Marsilius of Inghen
were influential in Prague, but also Heytesbury and later Wyclif (see [Ashworth, 2006, 212]).
5 However, Albert of Saxony stayed only for a year in Vienna (cf. [Shank, 1988, 13]). For
several political and social reasons, the University of Vienna only came to existence with its
re-foundation in 1384; but at that point it was again the importation of Parisian knowledge that
marked its rebirth, as three of the most distinguished Germanic theologians trained in Paris
(Henry of Langenstein, Henry of Oyta and Gerard of Kalkar) were recruited to be at the head
of the reborn university (cf. [Shank, 1988, 17]). However, even before that, the Parisian master
Thomas of Cleves was appointed chief schoolmaster at St. Stephen’s Cathedral School in Vienna
(the basis for the soon-to-be re-founded University of Vienna) (cf. [Read, 1991, 61]).
6 Buridan was certainly one of the most influential logicians in the 14 th century, probably
more than Ockham himself (who, ironically, was more influential in Paris in the first half of the
14 th century than in his own home country, England — cf. [Courtenay, 1984; 1987a]). See also
[Markowski, 1984] for a detailed account of the reception of Buridan’s texts in Eastern Europe.