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Document Details : Title: Boethius noster Subtitle: Thierry of Chartres's Arithmetica Commentary as a Missing Source of Nicholas of Cusa's De docta ignorantia Author(s): ALBERTSON, David Journal: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales Volume: 83 Issue: 1 Date: 2016 Pages: 143-199 DOI: 10.2143/RTPM.83.1.3154587 Abstract : Nicholas of Cusa is known to have used several sources stemming from the twelfth-century master Thierry of Chartres in the composition of his treatise De docta ignorantia (1440). To date these works have included Thierry’s famous hexaemeral commentary, his three commentaries on Boethius’s De trinitate, and later anonymous works by Thierry’s readers. Given Irene Caiazzo’s recent discovery of Thierry’s commentary on Boethius’s De arithmetica, we can now evaluate the possibility that this work was another Cusan source before 1440. Numerous parallels in Books I and II of De docta ignorantia suggest that Cusanus made use of Thierry’s Arithmetica commentary while adapting four Boethian concepts to theological ends: precise equality, primordial number, the quadrivial arts, and folding. This finding raises new questions about the status of the controversial Fundamentum naturae manuscript. |
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