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The Logic of «SIT VERUM" in RICHARD BRINKLEY and WILLIAM OF OCKHAM Introduction In 1980, Gedeon Gal and Rega Wood first called scholars' attention to Richard Brinkley, the author of a Summa logicae written perhaps sometime between 1360 and 1373.1 Recently, Gordon A. Wilson and I published an edition of the final treatise from this Summa logicae, Brinkley's Obligationes (see n. 1). The present paper will explore one strand of this treatise, Brinkley's treatment of the 'Gedeon Gal and Rega Wood, "Richard Brinkley and His Summa Logicae," Franciscan Studies 40 (1980): 59-101. The date has been contested in Michael J. Fitzgerald, ed. & trans., Richard Brinkley's Theory of Sentential Reference: "De significato propositionis" from Part Vofhis Summa nova de lógica, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, Bd. 18 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1987): 3-12; Fitzgerald suggests 1356-63. See the discussion in Paul Vincent Spade and Gordon A. Wilson, Richard Brinkley's Obligationes: A Late Fourteenth Century Treatise on the Logic of Disputation, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, neue Folge, Bd. 43 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1995): 1-2. (Cited hereafter as 'Brinkley,' with references to paragraph and line numbers.) Gal and Wood's paper includes five chapters from three different tracts of the Summa logicae; Fitzgerald's book is an edition and translation of part of Tract 5, De propositionibus in genere. In addition, in 19691 prepared a transcription of Tract 6, De insolubilibus, from a single anonymous copy found apart from the two manuscripts containing the whole of the Summa. See Paul Vincent Spade, "An Anonymous Fourteenth-Century Treatise on Insolubles: Text and Study" (M. S. L. diesis; Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1969). For a discussion of some of Brinkley's other writings, see Zenon Kaluza, "L'oeuvre théologique de Richard Brinkley," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen-âge 56 (1989): 169-273. The present paper presupposes some knowledge of the obligationes-hterature. For background, see Eleonore Stump, "Obligations: From the Beginning to the Early Fourteenth Century," in Norman Kretzmann et al., eds., The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy (New York: Cambridge, 1982), Ch. 16A (315-34); Paul Vincent Spade, "Obligations: Developments in the Fourteenth Century," ibid., Ch. 16B (335-41); Paul Vincent Spade, "Three Theories of Obligationes: Burley, Kilvington and Swyneshed on Counterfactual Reasoning," History and Philosophy of Logic 3 (1982): 1-32; and Mikko Yrjönsuuri, Obligationes: 14th Century Logic of Disputational Duties, Acta Philosophica Fennica, vol. 55 (Helsinki: Societas Philosophica Fennica, 1994). 227 Franciscan Studies (54) 1994-1997 228PAUL VINCENT SPADE kind ofobligatio known as "sit verum" or "sit rei Veritas."2 For context and comparison, we shall look at Ockham's treatment of the same issue. Several earlier treatises on obligationes distinguish a relatively large number of kinds or "species." Thus, the Obligationes Parisienses, from no later than the mid-thirteenth century, distinguishes six: positio, depositio, dubitetur, institutio, rei Veritas, and petitio) Walter Burley's treatise from 1302 lists the same six species,4 as does William of Ockham's account in his Summa logicae.5 Later treatises, however, generally tend to reduce the number of species to three or even fewer.6 Brinkley's is one of them; he lists only impositio (=institutio), positio, and depositio.1 What has 2Like other authors, Brinkley treats the phrases 'sit rei Veritas' (='Let the truth of the matter be') and 'sit verum' (='Let it be true') as interchangeable. See, for example, Text [8] below. In addition, phrases such as 'rei Veritas' (='the truth of the matter') and 'sit . . . in rei veritate' (='Let it be as the truth of the matter') are often used as mere stylistic variations on this vocabulary. In this paper, I shall use the phrase 'sit verum' as a blanket expression for all these terminological variants. 3L. M. De Rijk, "Some Thirteenth Century Tracts on the Game of Obligation, II," Vtvarium 13 (1975): 22-54 at 27-28. De Rijk dates this work from the early thirteenth century, but a somewhat later date is also possible. See Paul Vincent Spade and Eleonore Stump, "Walter Burley and the Obligationes Attributed to William of Sherwood," History and Philosophy of...

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