Abstract
In England, as we have seen in the previous chapter, Cambridge was the stronghold first of humanism and then of Ramism. The latter was particularly successful at Cambridge with the institution of its lectureship of dialectic. For instance, as Lisa Jardine has pointed out, of the nine courses required by statute in Trinity College in 1560, five were devoted to dialectic: the first lectureship taught Aristotle’s Topica, which was the basic text for the study of logic; the second explained Agricola’s De inventione dialecticae or Aristotle’s Elenchi sophistici and Analytica priora; the third taught Porphyry’s Isagoge or Aristotle’s De interpretatione; the fourth and fifth lectureship taught using Seton’s textbook.
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Notes
- 1.
Cf. Schmitt, John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England, 45.
- 2.
Cf. Jardine, ‘The Place of Dialectic Teaching in Sixteenth-Century Cambridge’, 44.
- 3.
Cf. Samuel R. Maitland, ‘Archbishop Whitgift’s College Pupils’, The British Magazine and Monthly Register of Religious and Ecclesiastic Information, 32 (1847), 508–528, esp. 509: ‘Primus legat Topica Aristotelis. Secundus exponat vel Rodolphum Agricolam de Inventione, vel librum de Elenchis vel libros qui Analytici dicuntur. Tertius Praedicabilie Porphyrii, vel Praedicamente Aristot: vel libros ejusdem de Interpretatione, prout classis ipsius postulat. Quartus et infimus interpretetur Dialecticae introductionem Johannis Setoni, sic ut classis infima commoda introductione veniat ad Porphyrium paratior’.
- 4.
Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge (London, 1852), vol. 1, 492.
- 5.
Statuta Academiae Cantabrigensis, 229.
- 6.
Cf. Ibid. 228: ‘dialectices professor Aristotelis elenchos aut topica Ciceronis. Praelector rhetorices Quintilianum Hermogenem aut aliquem alium librum oratoriarum Ciceronis. Quos omnes libros vulgari lingua pro captu et intelligentia auditorum explicabit interpretabiturque’.
- 7.
Cf. William A. Wright (ed.), English Works of Roger Ascham (Cambridge, 1904), 277–278: ‘I thinke, I never saw yet any Commentarie upon Aristotles Logicke, either in Greke or Latin, that ever I lyked, bicause they be rather spent in declarying scholepoynt rules, than in gathering fit examples for use and utterance, either by pen or talke. For precepts in all Authors, and namelie in Aristotle, without applying unto them, the Imitation of examples, be hard, drie, and cold, and therfore barrayn, unfruitfull and unpleasant. But Aristotle, namelie in his Topickes and Elenches, should be, not one lie fruitfull. But also pleasant to, if examples out of Plato, and other good Authors, were diligentlie gathered, and aptlie applied unto his most perfit preceptes there. And it is notable, that my frende Sturmius writeth herein, that there is no precept in Aristoteles Topickes, wherof plentie of examples be not manifest in Platos workes. And I heare say, that an excellent learned man, Tomitanus in Italie, hath expressed everie fallacion in Aristotle, with diverse examples out of Plato’.
- 8.
BL, Ms. Harl. 5356.
- 9.
The drafting of the Directions has been attributed to Richard Holdsworth, but it is quite uncertain when they became effective. Harry F. Fletcher has dated their application back to 1615; but some works listed in the Directions were not yet available, and so Trentman dated the text (in its current form) instead to the late 1630s. Cf. Harris F. Fletcher, The Intellectual Development of John Milton (Urbana, 1961), vol. 2, 85; John A. Trentman, ‘The Authorship of Directions for a Student in the Universitie’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 7 (1977–1978), 170–183. Kearney, by contrast, dated the Directions to 1648–1650, mainly following some other directions present in two manuscripts of those years. Cf. Kearney, Scholars and Gentlemen. Universities and Society in Pre-Industrial Britain 1500–1700, 103–104. The two manuscripts considered by Karney are CUL, Ms. Add. 6160 and BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 200. A further proof, although not conclusive, can be Nathaniel Sterry’s Guide included in BD, Ms. Tanner 88 f. 5, which suggested the same books of the Directions. In particular it recommended the reading of Aristotle’s Organon with the use of the Pace’s commentary and the study of Zabarella’s methodology of natural philosophy. Cf. Mordechai Feingold, ‘The Humanities’, in Nicholas Tyacke (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford. IV. Seventeenth-Century Oxford (Oxford, 1997), 211–358, esp. 299, 322–324.
- 10.
According to Trentman, the Directions had a particular setting, which favoured the study of logical controversies, rather than system of logic. Cf. Trentman, ‘The Study of Logic and Language in England in the Early 17th Century’, 182–183.
- 11.
Cf. Pierre Du Moulin, Elementa logices (Leiden, 1596). Du Moulin’s textbook was translated into English from the French edition in 1624, cf. Pierre Du Moulin, The Elements of Logick (London, 1624). However, it is unlikely that the English translation was used for teaching, since all the other textbooks were in Latin. The book was quite simple and did not offer any innovation in the field of logic. It was useful only for didactic purposes.
- 12.
Cf. Holdsworth, Directions for a Student in the Universitie, 635.
- 13.
Cf. Asseline Eustachius a Sancto Paulo, Summa philosophiae quadripartita de rebus dialecticis, moralibus, physicis et metaphysicis (Paris, 1609); later published in Cambridge in 1640 and in 1648.
- 14.
Cf. Didacus Mas, Commentaria in Porphyrium et in universam Aristotelis logicam, una cum quaestionibus, quae a gravissimis viris agitari solent (Köln, 1617).
- 15.
Cf. Commentarii collegii Conimbricensis in universam dialecticam (Coimbra, 1606).
- 16.
Cf. Holdsworth, Directions for a Student in the Universitie, 636.
- 17.
Schmitt, John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England, 46.
- 18.
In support of this claim we can mention the manuscript probably owned by Lawrence Bretton at Queen’s College Library of Cambridge bound with the title From the President’s Lodge 1932 and which can be dated to the first half of the seventeenth century; it states ‘vera et sana philosophia est vera Aristotelica’. On the importance of this manuscript cf. William T. Costello, The Scholastic Curriculum at Early Seventeenth-Century Cambridge (Cambridge, 1958), 30, 175; Kearney, Scholars and Gentlemen. Universities and Society in Pre-Industrial Britain 1500–1700, 84. Isaac Newton’s case is particularly paradigmatic because it seems that he studied the Directions. In fact, the manuscript CUL, Ms. Add. 3996, from around 1661, shows clearly that Newton read the Aristotelian works and studied the Organon, Sanderson’s textbook and the commentaries of Eustachius and Magirus. See especially f. 3r–15r.
- 19.
Cf. Sarah Hutton, ‘Thomas Jackson, Oxford Platonist, and William Twisse, Aristotelian’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 39 (1978), 646–656.
- 20.
Cf. McConica, ‘Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford’, 302–310.
- 21.
Cf. Mark Curtis, Oxford and Cambridge in Transition 1558–1642. An Essay on Changing Relations between the English Universities (Oxford, 1959), 252–253.
- 22.
Cf. McConica, ‘Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford’, 305.
- 23.
Cf. Ibid. 306.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Cf. Alexander Broadie, ‘Scottish Philosophers in France: The Earlier Years’, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 2 (2009), 1–12; Alexander Broadie, A History of Scottish Philosophy (Edinburgh, 2009), 87–93.
- 26.
Cf. McConica, ‘Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford’, 307.
- 27.
Cf. Strickland Gibson (ed.), Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1931), 390: ‘In quaque facultate, hos potissimum ad explicandum scriptores adhibento … in rhetorica, Ciceronis aut Praeceptiones aut Orationes, aut Aristotelis de Rhetorica, libros; in dialectica aut Institutiones Porphirii, aut Aristotelem de quacunque dialectices partes’.
- 28.
Cf. Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford (Oxford-London, 1853), vol. 3, 50.
- 29.
McConica, ‘Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford’, 292–293. Cf. Charles Webster, ‘The Curriculum of the Grammar Schools and Universities, 1500–1660’, History of Education, 4 (1975), 51–68.
- 30.
Ibid. 296.
- 31.
Cf. Howell, Logic and Rhetoric in England 1500–1700, 65.
- 32.
Cf. Oldrini, La disputa del metodo nel Rinascimento. Indagini su Ramo e sul ramismo, 245–246.
- 33.
Cf. Anthony à Wood, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1796), vol. 2, 176.
- 34.
Ibid. vol. 2, 139. Evidences of anti-Ramist positions in favour of Aristotelianism cf. BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 274.
- 35.
Cf. BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 985, f. 52v: ‘Expectamus avide Tempelli Cantabrigiensis refutationem ab Oxoniensibus elaboratam’. Against Gabriel Harvey’s De restitutione logica (1583) and the hope in the coming of anti-Ramist as Henry Savile or William Fulbecke cf. BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 985, f. 46 r-v. On the anti-Ramist position of Batt cf. Schmitt, John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England, 55; Mack, Elizabethan Rhetoric. Theory and Practice, 61. Many other letters included in this manuscript reveal interesting anti-Ramist and anti-Ciceronian elements. On the content of Batt’s letters cf. Robert W. Jeffery, ‘History of the College 1547–1603’, in Brasenose College Quatercentenary Monographs (Oxford, 1909), vol. 2, 12–16.
- 36.
Cf. Gibson (ed.), Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis, 437.
- 37.
Cf. Christopher Wordsworth, Scholae academicae. Some Account of Studies at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1910), 124.
- 38.
McConica, ‘Humanism and Aristotle in Tudor Oxford’, 301.
- 39.
Pace’s edition of Aristotle’s Organon was published in 1585, the year before the statutes, which seem to have contributed to the rapid dissemination of this and related works.
- 40.
Gibson (ed.), Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis, 437: ‘Praeterea cum authorum varietas multas peperisset in scholis dissentiones, statuerunt vel Aristotelem secundum vetera et laudabilia universitatis statuta, vel alios authores secundum Aristotelem defendendos esse, omnesque steriles et inanes quaestiones ab antiqua et vera philosophia dissidentes, a scholis excludendas et exterminandas’. The aim of the new statutes was to attack Ramism. On the teaching of logic in Oxford during this period cf. E. Jennifer Ashworth, ‘Die philosophischen Lehrstätten. 1. Oxford’, in Jean-Pierre Schobinger (ed.), Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts. Bd. 3. England (Basel, 1988), 6–9.
- 41.
Cf. Johann Jakob Brucker, Historia critica philosophiae (Leipzig, 1766), vol. 5, 148–352.
- 42.
Schmitt, John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England, 43.
- 43.
Against Ramism in favour of Aristotelianism cf. Daniel Fayreclough’s Oratio in laudem Dialecticae Aristotelis of 1606 included in BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 47. On the mathematical and scientific errors of the Ramist cf. Brian Twyne’s notes in CCC, Ms. F. 263. Both Fayreclough and Twyne referred to Zabarella to emend Ramist’s error. Cf. Ashworth, Introduction, XXVIII–XXXI.
- 44.
Schmitt, John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England, 43.
- 45.
Ibid. 44.
- 46.
Cf. Nicholas Tyacke, ‘Science and Religion at Oxford before the Civil War’, in Donald H. Pennington and Keith Thomas (eds.), Puritans and Revolutionaries (Oxford, 1978), 73–93.
- 47.
On the Aristotelianism of natural philosophy and mathematical sciences in the English universities, cf. Mordechai Feingold, ‘Aristotle and the English Universitities in the Seventeenth Century: A Re-Evaluation’, in Helga Robinson-Hammerstein (ed.), European Universities in the Age of Reformation and Counter Reformation (Dublin, 1998), 135–148. On the Aristotelianism of seventeenth-century textbooks of natural philosophy, see Patricia Reif, ‘The Textbook Tradition in Natural Philosophy, 1600–1650’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 30 (1969), 122–138.
- 48.
Various manuscripts, not exclusively from Oxford, testify to the importance of Zabarella for the methodology of physics, cf. BL, Ms. Arun. 284; BL, Ms. Harl. 6292; BL, Ms. Harl. 6929; BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 274; BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 986; BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 1146; BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 1413; EL, Dc. 3. 89. Sometimes Aristotelian natural doctrines were related to corpuscular theories, cf. Stephen Clucas, ‘The Infinite Variety of Formes and Magnitudes: 16th- and 17th-Century English Corpuscular Philosophy and Aristotelian Theories of Matter and Form’, Early Science and Medicine, 3 (1997), 251–271.
- 49.
Cf. Ashworth, ‘Introduction’, XIV–XV.
- 50.
Ibid. XV. The text of Sixsmith in BD, Ms. Brasenose 80 includes many references to Aristotelian treatises also in physics and metaphysics. In the Bodleian Library in the collection Rawl. there are some manuscripts that testify to the support of Zabarella’s interpretation of Aristotle’s Physica, BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 1423.
- 51.
Cf. Ibid.: ‘1. Preface to Mons Le Clercs Ars Ratiocinandi. 2. Scholastic Logic. Sanderson or Aristotle himself. Wallis Du Trieu Stierius & Smith with Brerewoods Elementa may be read as Comments on Sanderson. Burgersdicius Herebord Cracanthorp Alstedius &c either read or occasionally consulted 4. For Disputations Vallius and Smiglecius. 4. For an Insight into the antient Socratic or Platonic Methodo of Disputing, Mr Le Clercs last Chapt. De Socrat. disputat. Methodo in his Ars Ratiocin. & for Example of it see Platos first and 2a Alcibiades & other Dialogues of his about Definit. Divis. &c. may not be useless. 5. For ye new Logic Ars Cogitandi Colberti Logica Cartesius de Methodo Du Hamel de mente humanâ. 6. For ye better under standing of Tullies and other Classic Authors Arguing Miltons Logic’. Ashworth refers to BD, Ms. Rawl. D. 1178.
- 52.
Cf. Seth Ward, Vindiciae Academiarum (Oxford, 1654), 39: ‘The chief reason as I conceive why Aristotle hath been universally received as Magister Legitimus in schooles hat been: the universality of his enquiries; the brevity and method fitting them for institutions and not the truth or infallibility of his works’.
- 53.
Cf. Ibid. 25: ‘Aristoteles Organon is not read to the youth of this University, (how justly I contend not) neither was it ever understood’. This does not mean, however, that professors did not read or know the Aristotelian works in depth. Ward’s attitude was generally critical towards Aristotelian philosophy; see Allen G. Debus (ed.), Science and Education in the Seventeenth Century: The Webster-Ward Debate (London, 1970).
- 54.
Cf. BD, Ms. Locke f. 11. Paul Schuurmann, Ideas, Mental Faculties and Method. The Logic of Ideas of Descartes and Locke and Its Reception in the Dutch Republic 1630–1750 (Leiden, 2004), 12.
- 55.
Cf. Obadiah Walker, Of Education especially of Young Gentlemen (Oxford, 1673), 120–121: ‘Besides that Aristotle himself, whom all Universities, Christian, have followed about 400 years … but Grecians and Arabians much longer time, was not a novice in natural history; witness those most learned works in that subject. Yet did he write his philosophy conformable, not contradictory, to his knowledge in particulars; and therefore it must needs be very difficult to overthrow that which is so well grounded, which was product of so much experience; and by none but those who are better versed in that learning than himself’. The frontmatter reveals that it is a second edition with some new annotations, but we have no information about the first edition, which was probably printed in the same year.
- 56.
Cf. Ashworth, ‘Introduction’, XV: ‘Nomina Auctorum cum Abbreviaturis Smiglecius Crakanthorpus Isindorn Pacius in Arist. organ. Burgesdicius Sanderson Fasciculus Logicae Brerewood de praed. Stierius Derodon Herebord in Burg. Keckerman Miltonus Zaberella Flavel Scheiblerus Du Trieu’.
- 57.
Ibid. XIV.
- 58.
The curricula of Scottish universities towards the end of the sixteenth century were based, according to Alexander Grant and Robert S. Rait, on the Ramist teaching of Andrew Melville, cf. Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh During Its First Three Hundred Years (Edinburgh, 1884), 78–82; Robert S. Rait, The University of Aberdeen. A History (Aberdeen, 1895), 105–117. On the same opinion see Christine M. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th century (Edinburgh, 1975), 30–31. Melville’s teaching of logic involved the study of Ramus’ Dialectica and of Omer Talon’s Rhetorica. The official documents, as we shall see, seem to deny the adoption of Ramism.
- 59.
On John Major and his impact on the history of logic cf. Alexander Broadie, The Circle of John Mair: Logic and Logicians in Pre-Reformation Scotland (Oxford, 1985).
- 60.
On George Lockhart and his impact on the history of logic cf. Alexander Broadie, George Lokert: Late-Scholastic Logician (Edinburgh, 1983).
- 61.
On the Aristotelian school of Scottish scholars working in France cf. Broadie, A History of Scottish Philosophy, 93–97.
- 62.
Cf. Robert Balfour, Commentaria in organum logicum Aristotelis (Bordeaux, 1616).
- 63.
Cf. Mark Duncan, Institutionis logicae libri quinque (Saumur, 1612). According to William Hamilton this textbook of logic was the model for Burgersdijk’s work, who was a colleague of Duncan in Saumur. Cf. William Hamilton, ‘In Reference to the Recent English Treatises on that Science’, in Id., Discussions on Philosophy and Literature (New York, 1861), 120–173, esp. 123.
- 64.
Cf. William Chalmers, Disputationes philosophicae (Paris, 1630); William Chalmers, Introductio ad Logicam (Anjou, 1630).
- 65.
Cf. Walter Donaldson, Synopsis locorum communium (Frankfurt, 1612).
- 66.
Cf. John Veitch, ‘Philosophy in the Scottish Universities (I)’, Mind, 5 (1877), 74–91; Id., ‘Philosophy in the Scottish Universities (II)’, Mind, 6 (1877), 207–234;
- 67.
Cf. C.M. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 61.
- 68.
Cf. Ibid. 64.
- 69.
Cf. Thomas Craufurd, History of the University of Edinburgh from 1580 to 1646 (Edinburgh, 1808), 58–60; Alexander Morgan (ed.), University of Edinburgh: Charters, Statutes and Acts of the Town Council and the Senatus 1583–1858 (Edinburgh, 1937), 110–114. This curriculum became standard in the Scottish universities cf. Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland, Stationery (London, 1837), vol. 2, 257; vol. 3, 205.
- 70.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 71.
- 71.
Cf. James Knox, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1605).
- 72.
Cf. John Adamson, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1604).
- 73.
Cf. James Reid, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1610); James Reid, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1618); James Reid, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1622).
- 74.
Cf. William King, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1612).
- 75.
Cf. William King, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1616); William King, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1624).
- 76.
Cf. Andrew Stevenson, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1625); Andrew Stevenson, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1629).
- 77.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 66.
- 78.
Cf. Robert Rankine, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1631).
- 79.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 67.
- 80.
Cf. Ibid. 71.
- 81.
Cf. Ibid. 67.
- 82.
Cf. Alexander Cockburn, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1675), 5.
- 83.
Descartes was never an authority in Britain in the field of logic as he was in metaphysics, cf. John G.A. Rogers, ‘The English Turn in Cartesian Philosophy’, in Paola Dessì and Brunello Lotti (eds.), Eredità cartesiane nella cultura britannica (Florence, 2011), 11–27.
- 84.
The first English translation of Port-Royal’s logic was published only in 1685.
- 85.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 75.
- 86.
Cf. Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis. II Statutes and Annals (Glasgow, 1854), 25–26: ‘Ordinaria vero audienda sunt haec. Primo scilicet, in veteri arte, liber Universalium Porphyrii, liber Praedicamentorum Aristotelis, duo libri Peri Hermeneias ejusdem. In nova logica duo libri priorum [Analyticorum], duo posteriorum, quatuor ad minus Topicorum, scilicet primus, secundus, sextus et octavus, et duo Elenchorum. In Philosophia, octo libri Phisicorum, tres de caelo et mundo, duo de generatione et corruptione, tres libri de Anima, etiam de sensu et sensato, de memoria et reminiscentia, de somno et vigilia, et septem libri Metaphysicae. Audiantur libri extraordinarii in toto vel in parte, ubi facultas mature dispensabit, si fiat defectus: scilicet in logica textus Petri Hispani, cum syncathegorematibus; tractatus de distributionibus, liber G. Po[rretani], sex principiorum. In Philosophia, tres libri meteorologicorum, tractatus de sphera sine dispensatione; sex libri ethicorum, si legantur; perspectiva; algorismus; et principia geometriae, si legantur et ut studium juvenum de bono in melius usque in finem optimum laudabiliter suscipiat incrementum statuimus et ordinamus quod vetus ars legatur per sex septimanas Priorum per tres Posteriorum per tres Topicorum et Elenchorum per totidem continue perlegantur’.
- 87.
Cf. Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis. III List of Members and Internal Economy (Glasgow, 1854), 403–406.
- 88.
Cf. Ibid. 409–411.
- 89.
Cf. James Dalrymple, Theses logicae, metaphysicae, physicae, mathematicae et ethicae (Glasgow, 1646).
- 90.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 76.
- 91.
William Hamilton, Preface, in The Works of Thomas Reid (Edinburgh, 1863), 30.
- 92.
Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 79.
- 93.
Alexander Bain, Practical Essays (New York, 1884), 184; Rait, The University of Aberdeen. A History, 56–57. Kearney confirms Bain’s and Rait’s supposition, cf. Kearney, Scholars and Gentlemen. Universities and Society in Pre-Industrial Britain 1500–1700, 89: ‘Aberdeen, the seat of episcopalianism, seems to have been the most Aristotelian of the Scottish universities’.
- 94.
Cf. Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland, vol. 4, 236.
- 95.
Rait, The University of Aberdeen. A History, 117. Peter J. Anderson (ed.), Notes on the Evolution of the Arts Curriculum in the Universities of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1908), 2: ‘Primae et infimae classi praefectus Graecae linguae institutionem profitebitur, addita enarratione quam facillimorum et optimorum authorum utriusque linguae, eosdemque frequenti styli exercitio … Proximus praecepta inventionis, dispositionis et elocutionis quam possit facili methodo suos auditores docebit, usumque praeceptorum ex optimis utriusque linguae authoribus praeceptis adjunget, adolescentesque tum scribendo tum declamando exercebit, ut in utriusque linguae facultate pares ad Philosophiae praecepta capessenda magis idonei evadere possint … Tertius Arithmeticae et Geometriae rudimenta, selectionem ex Aristotelis organo logico unicum ejusdem libris ethicen et politicen e Graeco contextu enarrabit … Quartus, quem subprincipalem nominamus … Physiologiam omnem eamque quae de natura animalium utpote imprimis necessario de Graeco Aristotelis contextu enarrabit’.
- 96.
Cf. Rait, The University of Aberdeen. A History, 33.
- 97.
Cf. Alexander Lunan, Theses philosophicae (Aberdeen, 1622). Cf. Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 83.
- 98.
Cf. Ibid.
- 99.
John Seton, Theses philosophicae (Aberdeen, 1631), 3.
- 100.
Ibid.
- 101.
Ibid. 5, 8, 14.
- 102.
Cf. Patrick Gordon, Theses philosophicae (Aberdeen, 1643).
- 103.
Rait, The University of Aberdeen. A History, 154.
- 104.
Cf. Anderson (ed.), Notes on the Evolution of the Arts Curriculum in the Universities of Aberdeen, 4: ‘to the second classe, Rami dialectica; Vossii retorica; some elements or arithmetick; Porphyrie; Aristotill his categories, de interpretatione and prior analyticks, both text and questiones. To the third classe, the rest of the logicks’.
- 105.
Cf. Ibid.: ‘unto the second classe a breiff compend of the Logickis, the text of Porphirie and Aristotellis organon accuratly explained, the haill questiones ordinarly disputed to the end of the demonstrationes’.
- 106.
For the King’s College, Ibid. 5: ‘studiosis secundi ordinis praelegantur Rami dialectica, Talei aut Vossii Rhetorica, Alstedii compendium Arithmeticae et Geometricae ex ejusdem admirandis Mathematicis, Porphyrii Isagoge, ex Aristotelis Organo lib. Categor., lib. de Interpretatione, libri duo priores analytici, Topicen libri 1 et 8, cum caeterorum epitome, et lib. de Sophist. Elenchis. … Studiosis tertii ordinis praelegantur libri duo posteriores Analytici’. For the Marischal College, Ibid. 6: ‘Prima classis … Augusti in Dialecticis quae ex Ramo addice exercetor … Secunda classis … Augusti in Aristotelis organo logico versator. Tertiani ingressi examini se denuo subijciant, et ubi probarint diligentiam in grecis latinis Rhetorica et Dialectica, primo honoris gradu quem Baccalaureatum vocant ornentur; ornati hoc honore si quid in logicis adhuc superest addiscant; … Eodem anno acroamaticos Aristotelis libros praeceptor proponito’.
- 107.
Cf. Evidence, Oral and Documentary, Taken and Received by the Commissioners Appointed by His Majesty George IV … for Visiting the Universities of Scotland, vol. 3, 195.
- 108.
Cf. James Weymss, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1612).
- 109.
Cf. John Wedderburn, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1629).
- 110.
Cf. James Barclay, Theses philosophicae (Edinburgh, 1631).
- 111.
Shepherd, Philosophy and Science in the Arts Curriculum of the Scottish Universities in the 17th Century, 100.
- 112.
Cf. Edmund J.J. Furlong, ‘The Study of Logic in Trinity College, Dublin’, Hermathena, 58 (1941), 38–53.
- 113.
Cf. John W. Stubbs, The History of the University of Dublin from Its Foundation to the End of the Eighteenth Century (Dublin, 1889), 43–44.
- 114.
Cf. John Mahaffy, An Epoch in Irish History. Trinity College, Dublin, Its Foundation and Early Fortunes 1591–1660 (Dublin, 1903), 351–352: ‘in hac Classe Dialectica praelegatur: quam bis ad minimum quotannis integram praelegi volumus. Discipulus hujus Classis aliquam quavis hebdomada Analysin Inventionis et Elocutionis Rhetoricae praestato, eamque Praelectoris Examini et Censurae subjicito. Praelector secundae Classis controversa Logicae disciplinae capita explicato, et disceptato. Quae veritati consentanea reperientur, ea Auditoribus suis commendabit: Quae vero falsa fuerint, ea argumentorum viribus convicta repudiabit. Hujus Classis Discipuli aliquam Inventionis et Judicii Analysin per singulas Septimanas instituant’.
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Sgarbi, M. (2012). Logic in the Universities of the British Isles. In: The Aristotelian Tradition and the Rise of British Empiricism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4951-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4951-1_3
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