Book Series Intellectual Practice and Thought at Late Medieval And Early Modern Universities, vol. 1

The Greatest Debate

The 1409 Arts Quodlibet at the University of Prague

Ota Pavlíček, Luigi Campi (eds)

  • Pages: approx. 450 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Illustrations:2 b/w, 10 tables b/w.
  • Language(s):English, Latin
  • Publication Year:2025


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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-61437-3
  • Hardback
  • Forthcoming (Jul/25)
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This volume analyses and contextualises perhaps the greatest quodlibet ever held: the Prague Disputation of 1409, with 149 presenting scholars and many more in attendance.

Subject(s)
BIO

Luigi Campi (Ph.D. 2011), is an Associate Professor of History of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Milan. His research focuses on realist metaphysics, rational theology, and soteriology in the late Middle Ages, with particular interest in John Wyclif's thought and its influence in England and Bohemia. He published the critical edition of John Wyclif's De scientia Dei (Oxford 2017) and co-edited the volume Before and After Wyclif: Sources and Textual Influences (Basel 2021).

Ota Pavlíček (Ph.D. 2014) is a senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. His specialisations include the history of the production and transmission of university knowledge in late medieval Europe. In 2020, he was awarded an ERC grant for his project ACADEMIA, which studies the tradition of quodlibetal debates in Arts. He has edited a volume on Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia (Turnhout 2021) and co-edited A Companion to Jan Hus (Leiden 2015).

Summary

Quodlibetal debates hosted by liberal arts faculties were among the most important discussions at late medieval universities, resembling modern scientific conferences. All scholars associated with the faculty of liberal arts, including those working in higher faculties, presented lectures and shared their knowledge on contemporary scholarly topics. However, these debates as a genre are little known and largely unexplored. This volume, based on research supported by the European Research Council within the ACADEMIA project, therefore focuses on perhaps the greatest quodlibet ever held, namely the Prague Disputation of 1409, with up to 149 scholars presenting papers, and many more in attendance. The significance of this quodlibet is underscored by its probable two-week duration and its occurrence at a time when the future of knowledge production in Central Europe was being decided: around the end of the quodlibet, the Kuttenberg Decree was issued, leading to the departure of the German masters from Prague and the strengthening of surrounding Central European universities, particularly the University of Leipzig. This volume contextualises the 1409 disputation and delves into the genre of quodlibetal debates at liberal arts faculties more generally. It includes an overview of Central European quodlibeta as a genre, updates the literature on Prague quodlibeta, and offers analysis of selected scholarly topics from the 1409 quodlibet and editions of particular texts associated with it, the last “international” scholarly debate at the University of Prague before the onset of the Hussite wars.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Luigi Campi & Ota Pavlíček

Part I: The 1409 Arts Quodlibet at the University of Prague. Its Authors, Contents, Preservation, and Historical Context

1. The 1409 Prague Arts Quodlibet in the Context of Prague and Central European Quodlibetal Tradition
Ota Pavlíček
2. Matthias of Knín’s Road to the 1409 Prague Quodlibet: An Intellectual Biography and Some Notes on the 1409 Quodlibet in Its Historical Context
Luigi Campi
3. The Quodlibetal Book of Matthias of Knín in MS Praha, KMK, L 45, Viewed by a Codicologist
Michal Dragoun
4. Catalogue of MS Praha, KMK, L 45, including Matthias of Knín’s Quodlibet of 1409
Ota Pavlíček

Part II: Selected Themes from the 1409 Prague Quodlibetal Debate

1. Matthias of Knín’s quaestio principalis and Anti-eternalism at the Prague Faculty of Arts in the Wake of Wyclif
Luigi Campi
2. Divine Ideas as a Metaphysical and Theological Topic at the Prague 1409 Quodlibet
Ota Pavlíček
3. Sight and the Rainbow in the 1409 Quodlibet-Related Materials: Drawing Inspiration from Robert Grosseteste and Albert the Great to Nicole Oresme and Themo Judaei
Lukáš Lička
4. The Astronomical and Cosmological Arguments in MS Praha, KMK, L 45
Zuzana Lukšová
5. Zdeněk of Labouň and the Doctrine of Critical Days: Medical Astrology at the 1409 Prague Quodlibet
Karel Dobiáš
6. British Logic in MS Praha, KMK, L 45: consequencie, obligaciones, insolubilia
Miroslav Hanke


Part III: Selected Texts from the 1409 Prague Quodlibetal Debate

1. The Introductory Section of Matthias of Knín’s Quodlibet with a Note on the Edition
Ed. Luigi Campi
2. Matthias of Knín’s and Paul of Prague’s Disputation at the 1409 Prague Quodlibet: Edition of Texts on Divine Ideas
Ed. Ota Pavlíček
3. Editions of the 1409 Quodlibet-Related Sets of Arguments on Sight, Sensible Qualities, and the Rainbow, with a Note on the Edition
Ed. Lukáš Lička
4. Editions of the 1409 Quodlibet-Related Astronomical Texts With a Note in the Edition
Ed. Zuzana Lukšová
5. Matthias of Knín’s and Zdeněk of Labouň’s Disputation at the 1409 Prague Quodlibet: Edition of Texts on Medical Astrology
Ed. Karel Dobiáš
6. Editions of the 1409 Quodlibet-Related Sets of Arguments on Moral Philosophy with a Note on the Edition
Ed. Soňa Hudíková

Indices