Quodlibeta Explained
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. The first to introduce the quodlibeta to an institution outside of Paris was John of Peckham at Oxford University in 1272–1275. 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.
A catalogue of quodlibetal questions and manuscripts was published by in two volumes between 1925 and 1932. 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.
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.
Authors of quodlibeta
The following list is from Glorieux, except as noted.
Bibliography
English editions
- Book: Guerric of Saint-Quentin . Guerric of Saint-Quentin . Quaestiones de quolibet . Walter H. . Principe . Jonathan . Black . 2002 . Brepols.
- Book: Henry of Ghent . Henry of Ghent . Quodlibetal Questions on Free Will . Marquette University Press . 1993 . Roland J. . Teske.
- Book: Henry of Ghent . Quodlibetal Questions on Moral Problems . Marquette University Press . 2005 . Roland J. . Teske.
- Book: John Duns Scotus . John Duns Scotus . God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions . Felix . Alluntis . Allan B. . Wolter . Princeton University Press . 1975.
- Book: Thomas Aquinas . Thomas Aquinas . Thomas Aquinas's Quodlibetal Questions . Brian . Davies . Turner . Nevitt . Oxford University Press . 2019.
Secondary literature
- Book: Courtenay, William J. . Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century . 2007 . Christopher . Schabel . Postscript: The Demise of Quodlibetal Literature . 693–699 .
- Book: Friedman, Russell L. . Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century . 2007 . Christopher . Schabel . Dominican Quodlibetal Literature, ca. 1260–1330 . 401–491.
- Book: Glorieux, Palémon . 1925–1935 . La littérature quodlibétique de 1260 à 1320 . Le Saulchoir.
- Book: Piron, Sylvain . Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century . 2006 . Christopher . Schabel . Franciscan Quodlibeta in Southern Studia and at Paris, 1280–1300 . 403–438.
- Book: Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Thirteenth Century . 2006 . Christopher . Schabel.
- Book: Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century . 2007 . Christopher . Schabel.
- Book: Sullivan, Thomas . Brill . Theological Quodlibeta in the Middle Ages: The Fourteenth Century . 2007 . Christopher . Schabel . The Quodlibeta of the Canons Regular and the Monks . 359–400.
- Encyclopedia: Eileen . Sweeney . Literary Forms of Medieval Philosophy . . 2023 . Stanford University . 11 April 2024.
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