Doing Theology (and Philosophy) in the First Person: Henry of Ghent’s «Quodlibeta»

[From the editor’s Introduction] Pasquale Porro brings a comprehensive doctrinal and bibliographical knowledge of Henry of Ghent to his chapter. Rather than concentrate on specific doctrinal aspects, however, Porro has chosen to investigate how the particular features of the quodlibetal disputation are expressed in Henry’s collection. After reviewing some basic facts concerning the chronology and circulation of the great secular master’s Quodlibeta, he examines the different formulae Henry uses in reference to the nature and place of the disputations and how Henry organized the various sections into which quodlibetal disputations had been traditionally divided (initial arguments ‘pro’ and ‘contra’, the role of the ‘opponens’, the ‘solutio’, and the reply to the arguments). Porro briefly considers all the elements that make the Quodlibeta an exceptional source for reconstructing Henry of Ghent’s intellectual biography and his historical context: the presence of cautionary formulae and personal reminiscences, and references to ‘auctoritates’, contemporary masters, the condemnation of certain doctrines (especially in 1277), historical or contemporary events, and indeed even works by the author himself. This is followed by a statistical analysis of the topics dealt with in the various questions and the criteria Henry uses to divide his material. The aim of Porro’s approach is to demonstrate that, contrary to the traditionally impersonal aspect of works by scholastic theologians, the genre of quodlibetal disputations allowed Henry to deal in the first person singular with the hottest topics of his day, from the purely doctrinal to those provoked by contemporary events. In an Appendix Porro offers a schematic division of Henry’s Quodlibeta.