Glosa Victorina super partem Prisciani De Constructione (ms. Paris, Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal 910)
Edited by K M Fredborg
From the twelfth century onwards, notable advances in the theoretical development occur in independent treatises on syntax, which on their side are intimately linked with medieval commentaries on the last two books, the so-called Priscian Minor, of the Institutiones Grammaticae I-XVIII, where Priscian deals with syntax. A number of the independent treatises on syntax are now available. But of the many commentaries on Priscian Minor known, only a few have been edited; therefore, Fredborg edits an interesting 12th c. gloss on Priscian Minor, called the Glosa Victorina. Priscian Minor itself begins with introducing the notion of what is a perfect sentence, what is a well-formed utterance and which parts of speech are indispensable or the most important, stating their order of importance : noun, verb, participle, pronoun, and the indeclinable word classes. As the argumentation unfolds, comparisons between letters, syllables and words are introduced providing a continuity and refinement on what was taught earlier in the so-called Priscian Maior, and how this concerns grammar on the level of syntax. Very quickly, this leads to an interdisciplinary discussion of what constitutes a perfect sentence (according to the grammarians and the dialecticians), involving the commentators in redefinitions of the principal parts of speech and explaining their distinguishing features. In this process, notions of substance, of person, of deixis, of reference – signification, and many other important grammatical issues are discussed. So in principle, the beginning of any commentary on Priscian Minor provides its author with scope for developing his particular doctrines and ideas of prime importance in linguistics. Here the Glosa Victorina deserves a closer look, because it provides us with insights into discussions normally only hinted at by Abelard, or a use of terminology which then becomes refined and partially rejected by William of Conches and Petrus Helias.
From the twelfth century onwards, notable advances in the theoretical development occur in independent treatises on syntax, which on their side are intimately linked with medieval commentaries on the last two books, the so-called Priscian Minor, of the Institutiones Grammaticae I-XVIII, where Priscian deals with syntax. A number of the independent treatises on syntax are now available. But of the many commentaries on Priscian Minor known, only a few have been edited; therefore, Fredborg edits an interesting 12th c. gloss on Priscian Minor, called the Glosa Victorina. Priscian Minor itself begins with introducing the notion of what is a perfect sentence, what is a well-formed utterance and which parts of speech are indispensable or the most important, stating their order of importance : noun, verb, participle, pronoun, and the indeclinable word classes. As the argumentation unfolds, comparisons between letters, syllables and words are introduced providing a continuity and refinement on what was taught earlier in the so-called Priscian Maior, and how this concerns grammar on the level of syntax. Very quickly, this leads to an interdisciplinary discussion of what constitutes a perfect sentence (according to the grammarians and the dialecticians), involving the commentators in redefinitions of the principal parts of speech and explaining their distinguishing features. In this process, notions of substance, of person, of deixis, of reference – signification, and many other important grammatical issues are discussed. So in principle, the beginning of any commentary on Priscian Minor provides its author with scope for developing his particular doctrines and ideas of prime importance in linguistics. Here the Glosa Victorina deserves a closer look, because it provides us with insights into discussions normally only hinted at by Abelard, or a use of terminology which then becomes refined and partially rejected by William of Conches and Petrus Helias.
- Edited by K M Fredborg
Other Titles in this Series
Lectura Erfordiensis in I-VI Metaphysicam, together with the 15th-century Abbreviatio Caminensis
Introduction, Critical Edition and Indexes
Volume 16
Mentale Satze und das Problem semantischer Antinomien
Die Insolubilia von Pierre d'Ailly: Historische Studie und textkritische Edition
Volume 46
Priscien lu par Guillaume de Champeaux et son ecole. Les Notae Dunelmenses (Durham, D.C.L., C.IV.29)
Volume 43
Radulphi Britonis Quaestiones super librum Divisionum Boethii
Radulphi Britonis Opera Philosophica, volume 1
Volume 50
Breve compendium in duo prima capita tertii De anima Aristotelis
A Critical Edition with Introduction and Indices
Volume 52
De la Lune a la Terre
Les debats sur le premier livre des Meteorologiques dAristote au Moyen Age latin (XIIe-XVe siecles)
Volume 53
Neoplatonism in the Middle Ages.
New Commentaries on 'Liber de Causis' and 'Elementatio Theologica'
Volume 42
Non est excellentior status
Vaquer a la philosophie medievale: Etudes offertes en hommage a Claude Lafleur
Volume 49
Hervaeus Natalis O.P. De quattuor materiis sive Determinationes contra magistrum Henricum de Gandavo
Vol. II: De esse et essentia. De materia et forma. A Critical Edition from Selected Manuscripts
Volume 35
Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia
Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge
Volume 48
Hervaeus Natalis O.P. De quattuor materiis sive Determinationes contra magistrum Henricum de Gandavo
Vol. I: De formis (together with his 'De unitate formae substantialis in eodem supposito'). A critical Edition from Selected Manuscripts
Volume 30
Memory and Recollection in the Aristotelian Tradition
Essays on the Reception of Aristotle's De memoria et reminiscentia
Volume 47
Similar Books
«Solazoxa festa, stradolze e stracomplia»
Festschrift für Raymund Wilhelm zum 65. Geburtstag mit Beiträgen zu Diskurstraditionen und mittelalterlicher Philologie
Volume 249
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes – Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies
Volume 51
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Éthique, politique, religions
Superstition (XVIIe - XXIe siècles). Sémantique, histoires et cultures
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
La Lettre clandestine
La littérature philosophique clandestine, ses éditeurs et ses éditions
Volume 34
Libertinage et philosophie à l’époque classique (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)
Athéisme, Modernité et Sécularisation / Atheism, Modernity and Secularization
Volume 23
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
