Lectura Thomasina. Distinctiones 1-22 libri Secundi

The so-called Lectura Thomasina, a commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, was composed by the Dominican William of Peter of Godin at the beginning of the 14th century. The manuscript tradition provides the text with the title ‘Thomasina’ because of the large number of verbatim quotations from Aquinas’ writings. This text is not a mere compilation of Aquinas’ dicta, but represents an attempt to outline the fundamental elements of Thomas’ doctrine, giving them both unity and coherence. For this reason, Godin’s commentary is an important witness to the reception of Aquinas’ texts during the period between his death and his canonization. The critical edition of the Lectura Thomasina, presented here for the first time, is based on an examination of the entire manuscript tradition and is accompanied by an historical and philological introduction. The first half of the second book (dist. 1-22), edited in the present volume, covers a number of topics (e.g., the eternity of the world, the principle of individuation or the soul-body problem), which have been the subject of a lively debate between Thomists and anti-Thomists in the late 13th and early 14th century.