The medieval sophismata-literature is a vast and complex area of research. Many questions are still unsolved, especially about its historical origins and development. It is of importance for people interested in medieval logic, grammar, and physics, but also for those interested in the history of universities.

The study of “sophismatic works” began around 1940 with Grabmann’s Die Sophismatalitteratur des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, and much research has been done in the last two decades. In 2010 The Catalogue of 13th Century ‘sophismata’ (Ebbesen and Goubier) became available, which contains a host of information about recent scholarship in the field of sophismata (Ebbesen and Goubier 2010, vol. I, pp. 7–9). It also lists all the editions of sophismata literature available up to that date, as well as all the manuscripts the compilers had managed to investigate. It is an invaluable source of information for those wishing to continue the research of sophismata. There are still many texts to read, edit, and analyze.

The bibliography for this entry is far from exhaustive. Most of the logical and grammatical texts on sophismata have been edited by S. Ebbesen and his collaborators in the journal Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen Age Grec et Latin, University of Copenhagen. The primary literature mentions books only.

Primary Literature

• Boethius of Dacia, Boethii Daci aliorumque sophismata, ed. Sten Ebbesen and Irène Rosier-Catach (Corpus philosophorum danicorum medii aevi, IX), Copenhague: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab – University Press of Southern Denmark, 2021.
• John Buridan, Summulae de Dialectica. An Annoted Translation with a Philosophical Introduction, tr. Gyula Klima, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.; tr. Joël Biard, Jean Buridan, Sophismes: Introduction, traduction et notes (Collection Sic et Non), Paris: Vrin, 1993; ch. 8, tr. G. Hughes, John Buridan on Self-Reference, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1982.
• –––, Iohanni Buridani Summularum Tractatus nonus: De practica sophismatum (Sophismata), ed. Fabienne Pironet (Artistarium 10-9), Turnhout: Brépols, 2005.
• Matthew of Orléans, Sophistaria sive summa communium distinctionum circa sophismata accidentium, ed. Joke Spruyt (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 74), Leiden: Brill, 2001.
• Richard Kilvington, The ‘Sophismata’ of Richard Kilvington, ed. Norman Kretzmann & Barbara Ensign Kretzmann, Oxford: University Press for The British Academy, 1990; tr. Norman Kretzmann & Barbara Ensign Kretzmann, The ‘Sophsimata’ of Richard Kilvington. Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. (Scholar)
• Richard Sophista, Master Richard Sophista: “Abstractiones”, eds. Mary Sirridge & Sten Ebbesen, with E.J, Ashworth (Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, 25), Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2016. (Scholar)
• Siger of Courtrai, Sigerus de Cortraco: ‘Summa modorum significandi sophismata’, ed. Jan Pinborg (new edition on the basis of G. Wallerand’s editio prima), Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1977. (Scholar)
• William Heytesbury, On Maxima and Minima. Chapter 5 of ‘Rules for Solving Sophismata’ with an Anonymous Fourteenth Century Discussion, ed. & tr. John Longeway (Synthese Historical Library, 26), Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1984. (Scholar)
• –––, Guillaume Heytesbury: Sophismata asinina. Une introduction aux disputes médiévales, ed. Fabienne Pironet (Collection Sic et Non), Paris: Vrin, 1994. (With texts from the Libelli sophistarum ad usum Oxoniensis.)

Secondary Literature

• Biard, Joël, 1989, “Les sophismes du savoir: Albert de Saxe entre Jean Buridan et Guillaume Heytesbury”, Vivarium, 27: 36–50. (Scholar)
• –––, 1990, “Verbes cognitifs et appellation de la forme selon Albert de Saxe”, in Simo Knuuttila, Reijo Työrinoja, and Sten Ebbesen, (eds.), Knowledge and the Sciences in Medieval Philosophy. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy (S.I.E.P.M.), Helsinki, 24–29 August 1987 (Acta Philosophica Fennica, 48-2), Helsinki: Yliopistopaino, pp. 427–35. (Scholar)
• Braakhuis, H.A.G., 1979, De 13de Eeuwse Tractaten over Syncategorematische Termen. Inleidende Studie en Uitgave van Nicolaas van Parijs’ Syncategoremata, Nijmegen (diss.). (Scholar)
• Ebbesen, Sten, 1979, “The Dead Man is Alive”, Synthese 40: 43–70. (Scholar)
• –––, 1997, “Doing Theology with Sophismata”, in C. Marmo (ed.), Vestigia, imagines, verba: Semiotics and Logic in Medieval Theological Texts (XIIth-XIVth Century). Acts of the XIth Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics, San Marino, 24-28 May 1994 (Semiotic and Cognitive Studies, 4), Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 151–169. (Scholar)
• –––, 2015, “Si tantum pater est non tantum pater est. An English Sophisma from the Late Thirteenth Century”, Vivarium, 53: 236–352. (Scholar)
• Ebbesen, Sten, and H.A.G. Braakhuis, 1997, “Anonymi Erfordensis (= Roberti Kilwardby?) Sophisma TANTUM UNUM EST”, CIMAGL, 67: 105–125. (Scholar)
• Ebbesen, Sten, and Frédéric Goubier, 2010, A Catalogue of 13th-Century Sophismata, Part I: Introduction and Indices; Part II: Catalogue of Sophismata (Collection Sic et Non) Paris: Vrin (Scholar)
• Grabmann, Martin, 1940, Die Sophismatenliteratur des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts mit Textausgabe eines Sophisma des Boetius von Dacien (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters: Texte und Untersuchungen, Band 36, Heft 1), Münster i. W.: Aschendorff. (Scholar)
• Kneepkens, C.H., 2015, “The Collection of Grammatical Sophismata in MS London, BL, Burney 330. An Exploratory Study”, Vivarium, 53: 294–321. (Scholar)
• Knuuttila, Simo and Anja Inkeri Lehtinen, 1979, “Plato in infinitum remisse incipit esse albus. New Texts on the Late Medieval Discussion on the Concept of Infinity in Sophismata Literature”, in Esa Saarinen, Risto Hilpinen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, and Merrill Provence Hintikka (eds.), Essays in Honour of J. Hintikka (Synthese Library, 124), Dordrecht: D. Reidel, pp. 309–29. (Scholar)
• Kretzmann, Norman, 1982, “Syncategoremata, exponibilia, sophismata”, in Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg (eds.), The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy from the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100–1600, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 211–45. (Scholar)
• –––, 1982, “Continuity, Contrariety, Contradiction and Change”, in Norman Kretzmann (ed.), Infinity and Continuity in Ancient and Medieval Thought, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 322–40. (Appendix: “Text of Walter Burleigh and the Sophisms 8 and 16 of Richard Kilvington”). (Scholar)
• –––, 1988, “Tu scis hoc esse omne quod est hoc. Richard Kilvington and the Logic of Knowledge”, in Norman Kretzmann (ed.), Meaning and Inference in Medieval Philosophy. Studies in Memory of Jan Pinborg, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 225–45. (Scholar)
• Libera, Alain de, 1986, “La littérature des Sophismata dans la tradition terministe parisienne de la seconde moitié du XIIIe siècle”, in M. Asztalos (ed.), The Editing of Theological and Philosophical Texts from the Middle Ages: Acts of the Conference Arranged by the Department of Classical Languages, University of Stockholm, 29–31 August 1984, Acta universitatis Stockholmiensis (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia, 30), Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, pp. 213–44. (Scholar)
• –––, 1983, “La littérature des Abstractiones et la tradition logique d’Oxford”, in Patrick Osmond Lewry (ed.), The Rise of British Logic. Acts of the Sixth European Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics, Balliol College, Oxford, 19–24 June 1983 (Papers in Mediaeval Studies, 7), Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, pp. 63–114. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989, “La problématique de l’instant du changement au XIIIe siècle: contribution à l’histoire des sophismata physicalia”, in Stefano Caroti (ed.), Studies in Medieval Natural Philosophy, Florence: Leo S. Olschki, pp. 43–93. (Scholar)
• –––, 1991, César et le Phénix. Distinctiones et sophismata parisiens du XIIIe siècle (Centro di cultura medievale, 4), Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore. (Scholar)
• Murdoch, John Emery, 1982, “Mathematics and Sophisms in Late Medieval Natural Philosophy”, in Les genres littéraires dans les sources théologiques et philosophiques médiévales.Actes du colloque international de Louvain-la-Neuve, 25-27 mai 1981, Université Catholique de Louvain, (Publications de l’Institut Supérieur d’Etudes Médiévales, Deuxième Série: Textes, Etudes, Congrès, 5), Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut d’Études Médiévales de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, pp. 85–100. (Scholar)
• –––, 1982, “Infinity and Continuity,” in Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg (eds.), The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy from the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100–1600, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 564–91. (Scholar)
• d’Ors, Angel, 2015, “Tu scis an de meniente sit falsum esse illum. On the Syncategorema ‘an’”, Vivarium, 53: 269–293. (Scholar)
• Stephen Read (ed.), Sophisms in Medieval Logic and Grammar (Acts of the Ninth European Symposium for Medieval Logic and Semantics, St. Andrews, June 1990), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993. (Scholar)
• Rijk, L. M. de, 1988, Some Earlier Parisian Tracts on Distinctiones sophismatum (Artistarium, 7), Nijmegen: Ingenium Publishers,. (Scholar)
• Rosier, I., 1991, “Les sophismes grammaticaux au XIIIe siècle”, Medioevo, 17: 175–230. (Scholar)
• Rosier, Iréne, and Bruno Roy, 1990, “Grammaire et liturgie dans les sophismes du XIIIe siècle”, Vivarium, 28: 118–35. (Scholar)
• Sylla, Edith D., 1981, “William Heytesbury on the Sophism ‘Infinita sunt finita’”, in Wolfgang Kluxen (ed.), Sprache und Erkenntnis im Mittelalter.Akten des 6. Internationalen Kongresses für mittelalterliche Philosophie der Société Internationale pour l’étude de la philosophie médiévale, 29. August-3. September 1977 im Bonn (Miscellanea Mediaevalia, 13.1–2), Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1981, Vol. 2, pp. 628–36. (Scholar)