The Donatus minor between Via antiqua and Via moderna : Grammar education and the Wegestreit

C. H. Kneepkens
University of Groningen

In the 15th and early 16th centuries, educational life at the universities of Western and Central Europe was dominated by serious doctrinal conflicts between several schools of thought (the Antiqui/Reales vs the Moderni/Nominales), the Wegestreit. This clash not only had serious consequences for instruction in philosophy and theology, but was also felt in the grammar courses of the BA programme. Remarkably, we find the old elementary grammar primer, the Donatus minor, as a prescribed textbook in several Arts faculties. This essay examines the impact of the so-called Wegestreit on university grammar instruction with special reference to late 15th- and early 16th-cent. commentaries on the Donatus minor. After a concise sketch of the philosophical and logical roots of the Wegestreit, I present the development of the conflicting approaches to language and grammar in the 14th century that underlay the divergent opinions of the 15th-century masters.The third section deals with the position of the Donatus minor as a textbook for the undergraduate grammar courses of the Arts faculties. The remainder of this essay falls into two sections. First, a discussion of the different ways the Antiqui and Moderni analyse and explain some theoretical and the related practical aspects of syntactic relations in the last decades of the 15th cent. This part is followed by two case studies of the analyses, explanations and applications of these syntactic phenomena in the commentaries on the Donatus minor of the Realist/Thomist, Magnus Hundt (1449–1519) of Leipzig, and the Modernist Florentius Diel (fl.1490–1509) of Mainz.

Table of contents

The title or colophon of some 15th- and early-16th-century commentaries on the Donatus minor informs its readership that the commentary they intend to use has been composed in conformity with the principles and methods (secundum viam) of the Antiqui, the Modist(a)e, Thomas Aquinas, or the Moderni. These signposts reflect the academic clash commonly referred to as the Wegestreit. In this period, a conflict between competing schools of thought disrupted intellectual life at the majority of the universities of Western and Central Europe. At stake was the exclusive right to frame the teaching programmes of a university, faculty, or college according to the tenets of a particular line of thought. The mutual controversies were legion and covered a wide range of doctrinal and methodological aspects, but the origin of the conflict must be looked for in fundamentally different views on the ontological status of the universals. Expressed in general words, the Antiqui, who were sometimes subdivided into Thomists, Scotists, and Albertists, defended a realist position, which held that a universal as a common nature or an idea in God’s mind (ante rem), as an immanent form in the individual existing in reality (in re), and abstracted as a universal concept in the human mind (post rem) was one and the same. This means that, in their view, a universal has some degree of reality independent of the human mind but also that the universal existed as a principle of knowledge in the human mind. The Moderni, on the other hand, adhered to a nominalist or conceptualist view and considered the universal only to be a concept, an exclusive product of the human intellect without any existence outside the human mind (Braakhuis 1989: 16).

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Sigla used throughout the article

Ludger Kaczmarek
DMS = Destructiones Modorum Significandi, 1994. Ed. by Ludger Kaczmarek. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: B. R. Grüner. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinrich KeilGL = Grammatici Latini. Ed. by Heinrich Keil. 8 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1857–1870. (Facs. Repr., Hildesheim & NewYork: Georg Olms), 1981.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
GW = Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Available at Gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke​.de.
Thomas Aquinas
ST = Thomas Aquinas, Pars prima Summae Theologiae, Quaestiones 1–119. Opera omnia, t. IV–V. Roma: S. C. De propaganda fide, 1888–1889.[ p. 385 ]

A. Primary literature

Paul Uiblein
, 1985. Ed. by Paul Uiblein. Graz-Wien-Köln: Böhlaus Nachf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alexander de Villa-DeiDietrich Reichling
. 1893. Doctrinale. Ed. by Dietrich Reichling. Berlin: A. Hofmann (Repr., New York: Alexander B. Franklin, 1974).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedrich Zarncke
. 1861. Ed. by Friedrich Zarncke. Leipzig: Hirzel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boethius DacusJan Pinborg and Heinrich Roos
, 1969. Modi significandi sive quaestiones super Priscianum maiorem. Ed. by Jan Pinborg and Heinrich Roos. Copenhague: G. E. C. Gad.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DonatusHeinrich Keil
. De partibus orationis Ars minor. Ed. by Heinrich Keil (= GL, vol. IV, pp. 355–366).
Florentius Diel
. 1490. Etymologia Donati. Speyer: Drach. (GW 8985; ex.: BSB, 4 Inc. c.a. 747).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Florentius Diel
. Not before 1490. Modernorum de collegio Maguntino exercitata librorum Perihermenias. Speyer: Drach. (GW 8336; ex.: BSB, Ink. D-135).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gerardus Zuthphaniensis
. 1488. Glosa notabilis IIa Pars. Köln: [Zell]. (GW 1084; ex. Darmstadt, UB, Inc-ii-14).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guillelmus Zenders
. After 1496.11.20. Opus minus. IIa Pars. Deventer. (GW 1172; ex. BSB-München Ink-A-290).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johannes BuridanusRia van der Lecq
, 2005. Summulae de propositionibus. Ed. by Ria van der Lecq. Turnhout: Brepols. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johannes of Glogów
. 1506. Donati minoris Grammatici non uulgaris de octo partibus orationis egregia utilisque declaratio. Leipzig: Wolfgang Stöckel (Monacensis).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ps-Johannes Versor
. 1489. Octo partium orationis explanatio. Heidelberg: [Friedrich Misch] (GW M50207).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Magnus Hundt
. 1489. Expositio Donati secundum viam Doctoris Sancti perutilis baccalariandis. [Leipzig]: Conradus Kacheloven. (GW 13657; ex. Darmstadt, UB, inc.-ii-20).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petrus de AlliacoClaudius Clerardus
. 1489/95. Conceptus. Ed. by Claudius Clerardus. Paris: Durand Gerlier. (GW M31921; ex. Ste-Geneviève, Paris).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
PriscianusMartin Hertz
. Institutionum Grammaticarum Libri XVIII. Ed. by Martin Hertz (= GL II–III).
Radulphus BritoHeinz W. S. Enders & Jan Pinborg
, 1980. Quaestiones super Priscianum minorem. Ed. by Heinz W. S. Enders & Jan Pinborg. 2 vols. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ps-RemigiusJan Pinborg
. 1982. Remigius A Latin grammar in facsimile edition with a postscript ed. by Jan Pinborg. København: Munksgaard. [Originally published Schleswig, 1486].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bianco
1398, in: Bianco. 1855: 59–73.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
H. Ott & J. M. Fletcher
, 1964. Ed. by H. Ott & J. M. Fletcher. Notre Dame, Indiana: The Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas Aquinas
, 1989. Expositio Libri Peryermenias ed. by René-Antoine Gauthier. Roma & Paris: Commissio Leonina-J. Vrin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas of ErfurtGeoffrey L. Bursill-Hall
, 1972. Grammatica speculativa. Ed. by Geoffrey L. Bursill-Hall. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jan Pinborg & Erik Dal
, 1979. Ed. by Jan Pinborg & Erik Dal. Copenhague: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rudolph von Roth. Ed. by Rudolph von Roth. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1877. (Repr., Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1973.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eduard Winkelmann
, 1886. Ed. by Eduard Winkelmann. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.[ p. 386 ]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar

B. Secondary literature

Bianco, Franz Joseph von
. 1855. Die Alte Universität Köln. 2. Auflage. Band II: Nachtrag: Ausführliche Nachrichten über die Niederlassung und das Wirken der Gesellschaft Jesu in Köln. Anlagen: Akten und Quellen. Köln: Chr. Gehly. (Repr., Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1974.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biard, Joël
. 1989. Logique et théorie du signe au XIVe siècle. Paris: J. Vrin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braakhuis, H. A. G.
1989. “School Philosophy and Philosophical Schools: The semantic-ontological views in Cologne commentaries on Peter of Spain, and the “Wegestreit”. Die Kölner Universität im Mittelalter. Geistige Wurzeln und soziale Wirklichkeit. Ed. by Albert Zimmermann, 1–18. Berlin & New York: Walter De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bursill-Hall, Geoffrey L.
1971. Speculative Grammars of the Middle Ages: The Doctrine of Partes orationis of the Modistae. The Hague & Paris: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bursill-Hall, Geoffrey L.
1981. A Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Covington, Michael A.
1984. Syntactic Theory in the High Middle Ages. Modistic models of sentence structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Covington, Michael A.
1986. “Grammatical Theory in the Middle Ages”. Studies in the History of Western Linguistics. Ed. by Thea Bynon & Frank R. Palmer, 23–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebbesen, Sten & Irène Rosier-Catach
. 1997. “Le trivium à la Faculté des arts”. L’enseignement des disciplines à la Faculté des arts (Paris et Oxford, XIIIe-XVe siècle). Ed. by O. Weijers & Louis Holtz, 97–128. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fredborg, K. Margareta
. 2014. “Medieval Commentators on the Notion ‘persona agentis’ in Priscian’s Syntactic Theory”. Historiographia Linguistica 41. 219–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gabriel, Astrik L.
1955. Student Life in Ave Maria College, Mediaeval Paris. History and Chartulary of the College. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hasenbrink, Burkhard
. 2000. “Latinität als Bildungsfundament”. Schulliteratur im Späten Mittelalter. Ed. Klaus Grubmüller, 49–76. München: Wilhelm Fink.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoenen, J. F. Maarten
. 1995. “Late Medieval Schools of Thought in the Mirror of University Textbook: The Promptuarium argumentorum (Cologne 1492)”. Philosophy and Learning: Universities in the Middle Ages. Ed. by J. F. Maarten Hoenen, J. H. Josef Schneider, Georg Wieland, 329–369. Leiden–New York– Köln: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hübener, W.
1981. “‘Oratio mentalis’ und ‘oratio vocalis’ in der Philosophie des 14. Jahrhunderts”. Sprache und Erkenntnis im Mittelalter. Ed. by W. Kluxen et al., 488–497. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaczmarek, Ludger
. 1992. “The Age of the Sign: New Light on the Role of the Fourteenth Century in the History of Semiotics”. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 31. 509–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaczmarek, Ludger
. 1995a. “Sprach- und Zeichentheorie in der deutschen Spätscholastik: Gabriel Biel, ‘Ultimus scholasticorum’, Florentius Diel, ‘Primus modernorum’ und die Grammatiker des 15. Jahrhunderts”. Sprachtheorien in Spätantike und Mittelalter. Ed. by Sten Ebbesen, 207–236. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaczmarek, Ludger
. 1995b. “‘Magister Sotphi’. Gerhard von Zutphens Glosa notabilis (1487–88) und die Geschichte der Grammatik im. 15. Jahrhundert”. History and Rationality. Ed. by Klaus D. Dutz & Kjell Å. Forsgren, 75–92. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaczmarek, Ludger
. 2000. “Erhard Knab von Zwiefalten (†1480): Improbatio modorum significandi .” Edition nach den Handschriften. Individuation, Sýmpnoia, Harmonia, Emanation. Festgabe H. Schepers. Ed. by Klaus D. Dutz, 109–155. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[ p. 387 ]
Kaluza, Zenon
. 1988. Les querelles doctrinales à Paris. Nominalists et réalists aux confins du XIVe et du XVe siècles. Bergamo: Pierluigi Lubrina.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kleineidam, Erich
. 1985. Universitas Studii Erffordensis. Überblick über die Geschichte der Universität Erfurt. Teil I: Spätmittellater 1392–1460. Leipzig: St. Benno-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klima, Gyula
. 2001. John Buridan. Summulae de Dialectica. An annotated translation, with a philosophical introduction. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 1990. “Erfurt, Ampl. Q.70A: A Quaestiones Commentary on the second part of Alexander de Villa Dei’s Doctrinale by Marsilius of Inghen? An explorative note on a specimen of conceptualist grammar”. Vivarium 28. 26–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 1992. “On the Notion of constructio in Conceptualist Grammar: Quaestio XXXV of the Doctrinale. Commentary Preserved in Erfurt, Amplon. Q 70A and attributed to a Master Marcilius”. Marsilius of Inghen: Acts of the International Marsilius of Inghen Symposium organized by the Nijmegen Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS) Nijmegen (18–20 December 1986) ed. by H. A. G. Braakhuis & M. J. F .M. Hoenen, 143–172. Nijmegen: Ingenium.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 1995. “The Priscianic Tradition”. Sprachtheorien in Spätantike und Mittelalter. Ed. by Sten Ebbesen, 239–264. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 2003. “The Tradition of Universal and Speculative Grammar in the Late Middle Ages”. El Brocense y las Humanidades en el siglo XVI. Ed. by Carmen Codoñer, Santiago López Moreda & Jesus Ureña Bracero, 31–60. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 2004a. “Some Notes on the Revival of Modistic Linguistics in the Fifteenth Century: Ps.-Johannes Versor and William Zenders of Weert”. John Buridan and Beyond: Topics in the language sciences, 1300–1700. Ed. by Russell L. Friedman & Sten Ebbesen, 69–119. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 2004b. “The Via antiqua and the Via moderna in Grammar: The Late Medieval discussions on the subject of the sentence”. Medieval Theories on Assertive and Non-Assertive Language. Ed. by Alfonso Maieru & Luisa Valente, 219–244. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 2006. “Dyophysitism in grammaticis. William Zenders: Alexander de Villa Dei and Lorenzo Valla in One Mind”, Erziehung, Bildung, Bildungsinstitutionen / Education, Training and their Institutions. Ed. by Rudolf Suntrup, Jan R. Veenstra & Anne M. Bollmann, 131–160. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
. 2013. “A Note on articulatio and University Grammar”. Logic and Language in the Middle Ages: A Volume in Honour of Sten Ebbesen. Ed. by Jakob Leth Fink, Heine Hansen & Ana María Mora-Márquez, 221–237. Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krauze-Błachowicz, Krystyna
. 2003. “Johannes Glogoviensis’ Concept of Construction”. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 6:19.31–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leader, D. R.
1983. “Grammar in Late-Medieval Oxford and Cambridge”. History of Education 12.9–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lenz, Martin
. 2003. Mentale Sätze: Wilhelm von Ockhams Thesen zur Sprachlichkeit des Denkens. Wiesbaden & Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harro Stammerjohann
, 1996. Ed. by Harro Stammerjohann. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lhotsky, Alphons
. 1965. Die Wiener Artistenfakultät 1365–1497. Wien: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marenbon, John
. 1999. The Philosophy of Peter Abelard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meuthen, Erich
. 1988. Kölner Universitätsgeschichte, Bd. I: Die alte Universität. Köln & Wien: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[ p. 388 ]
Normore, Calvin
. 2009. “The End of Mental Language”. Le langage mental du Moyen Âge à l’Âge Classique. Ed. by Joel Biard, 293–306. Louvain-la-Neuve ˗ Louvain ˗ Paris ˗Walpole, Mass.: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panaccio, Claude
. 1999. Le discours intérieur: De Platon à Guillaume d’Ockham. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Percival, W. Keith
. 1975. “The Grammatical Tradition and the Rise of the Vernaculars”, Current Trends in Linguistics. Ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok. Vol. XIII: Historiography of Linguistics, 231–275. The Hague: Mouton. (Repr. in Percival, Studies in Renaissance Grammar. New York & London: Routledge, 2004).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinborg, Jan
. 1967. Die Entwicklung der Sprachtheorie im Mittelalter. Münster & Kopenhagen: Aschendorff.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinborg, Jan
. 1975. “Die Logik der Modisten”. Studia Mediewistyczne 16: 39–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinborg, Jan
. 1982. “Speculative Grammar”. The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: From the rediscovery of Aristotle to the disintegration of Scholasticism 1100–1600. Ed. by Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny & Jan Pinborg, 254–269. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Puff, Helmut
. 1995. “Von dem schlüssel aller Künsten / nemblich der Grammatica”: Deutsch im lateinischen Grammatikunterricht 1480–1560. Tübingen & Basel: Francke.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosier(-Catach), Irène
. 1983. La grammaire spéculative des modistes. Lille: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosier-Catach, Irène
. 2014. “Grammar”. The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy. Ed. by Robert Pasnau, 196–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spade, Paul V.
1980. Peter of Ailly: Concepts and insolubles. An annotated translation. Dordrecht – Boston – London: D. Reidel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steiner, Jürgen
. 1989. Die Artistenfakultät der Universität Mainz 1477–1562. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tavoni, Mirko
. 2000. “The Traditional Study of Latin at the University in the Age of Humanism”, History of the Language Sciences (= Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, XVIII.1). Ed. by Sylvain Auroux, E. F. Konrad Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe & Kees Versteegh, 650–656. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thurot, Charles
. 1850. De l’organisation de l’enseignement dans l’université de Paris au Moyen-Age. Paris & Besançon: Dezobry & Magdeleine / Veuve Charles Deis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Worstbrock, Franz J.
2008a. “Diel (Dül, Tyll), Florentius”. Deutscher Humanismus 1480–1520: Verfasserlexicon. Ed. by Franz J. Worstbrock, 557–564. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Worstbrock, Franz J.
2008b. “Hundt (Hund, Hunt; Canis, Magnus, d. Ä. (Magnus Magdeburgensis, Pathenopolitanus)”. Ibid., 1176–1185.[ p. 389 ][ p. 390 ]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue