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Document Details :

Title: Richard Swinehead's Liber calculationum in Italy
Subtitle: Some Remarks on Manuscripts, Editions and Dissemination
Author(s): PODKOŃSKI, Robert
Journal: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales
Volume: 80    Issue: 2   Date: 2013   
Pages: 307-361
DOI: 10.2143/RTPM.80.2.3005400

Abstract :
On the basis of the manuscript evidence, one can easily conclude that Richard Swineshead’s Liber calculationum was of particular interest to fifteenth-century Italian thinkers, since twelve out of seventeen extant copies of this work are in Italian or Vatican libraries. In addition, there were at least three editions of The Book of Calculations printed in Italy at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. In the present article these manuscript copies and printed editions are described and compared. Some conclusions about the contents and the organization of the Liber calculationum are also drawn. The article offers an explanation for why Italian philosophers were interested in Swineshead’s work and why this interest abruptly ceased at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The appendix provides an edition of treatise VIII, De potentia rei, based on eight manuscripts. This text reflects techniques and methods of philosophical inquiry developed by the Oxford Calculators.

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