Abstract

Bonaventure’s De reductione artium ad theologiam is a classic of medieval literature that every student of medieval philosophy or theology is likely to have read during his or her career. Given the scholarly attention the work has attracted, one might, therefore, be tempted to consider that there remains little to add to its interpretation. Yet, as Joshua C. Benson has shown in a series of articles, this is clearly a fallacy. In his inquiries concerning the literary genre of the De reductione, Benson has put forward strong arguments suggesting that the text in question formed part of Bonaventure’s principium, that is, his inception ceremony as a master of theology.1While it is true that the principia express...