Completion of a Critical Edition of Henry of Ghent's Quodlibet IV

FAIN: RQ-50118-05

University of North Carolina, Asheville (Asheville, NC 28804-3251)
Gordon Anthony Wilson (Project Director: October 2004 to April 2008)

Completion of preparation for publication of Quodlibet IV, the medieval philosopher Henry of Ghent's longest work, written in 1279. (36 months)

Professors Gordon Wilson, general co-ordinator of the Leuven series HENRICI DE GANDAVO opera omnia, and Girard Etzkorn, former general editor of the philosophical works of John Duns Scotus, have been invited by Leuven University to produce a critical edition of Henry of Ghent's Quodlibet IV, which will appear as volume VIII in the Leuven series. Forty-five volumes are anticipated in this series: 15 are in print and 15 others are in various stages of preparation by an international team of scholars. The Leuven series has quickly become the standard text for subsequent translations and secondary studies. These critical editions have generated a renewed interest in many of Henry's ideas and have highlighted Henry as a major thinker of the Middle Ages, worthy of mention with Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and John Duns Scotus. Henry's Quodlibet IV, composed just two years after the Condemnation of 1277, in which Henry participated, was written at the height of Henry's academic career. Many of Henry's mature ideas are addressed in this text, e.g. the distinction of essence and existence, the number of human substantial forms, individuation, and the primacy of will--all concepts which positively influenced John Duns Scotus. Because of the originality and influence of his philosophy, scholars have asked for and have been consistently promised new editions of his works since the 1880s, but it is only now that these are appearing. Wilson has already published four volumes in this series with NEH support. Because Leuven University Press has taken on the printing of the series, publication is assured.