Peter of Spain

Peter of Spain or, in Latin, Petrus Hispanus^[1] (13th century) is the Mediaeval author of Tractatus, later known as Summulae logicales magistri Petri Hispani (Logical matters of Master Peter of Spain), a standard textbook on logic. There is a large volume of manuscripts and printed editions of that work, a strong indication that it enjoyed great success throughout European universities well into the seventeenth century. His is also often credited with a number of works on medicine.^[2]

Peter's true identity remains debated. The word Hispanus refers to Hispania, often translated as Spain, but including the whole Iberian Peninsula (as a country, Spain has existed since the late 15th century). It is often assumed he was Pedro Julião (ca. 1215-1277), the Portuguese physician known as Petrus Hispanus who in 1276 became Pope John XXI.^[3] Another theory, usually sustained by Spanish authors, asserted the author of the Tractatus was Castilian, and a member of the Dominican Order. Other theories from the fifteenth century point to Petrus Ferrandi Hispanus (d. between 1254 and 1259), or to a Blackfriar (Dominican) from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century.

Dialectica est ars artium, scientia scientiarum, ad omnium methodorum principia viam habens; sola enim dialectica probabiliter disputat de principiis omnium aliarum scientiarum, et ideo in acquisitione omnium aliarum scientiarum dialectica debet esse prior. "Dialectic [that is, logic, in Peter's terminology] is the art of arts, science of sciences, having the way to the principles of all methods; for in fact dialectic alone credibly argues about the principles of all other sciences, and therefore in [one's] acquisition (learning) of all other sciences dialectic must be prior." — Peter of Spain.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Literally "Spanish Peter" or "Peter the Spaniard", where "Spanish" and "Spaniard" refer to the Iberian Peninsula.
2. ^ Spruyt, Joke (2001), "Peter of Spain", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Revised 2007. Eprint.
3. ^ Michael Haren, Medieval Thought (1985), p.148 states that he was a pupil of William of Shireswood and a master of arts at Paris, taught at Siena, was bishop of Braga, and then John XXI. For a more recent defense of the identity between Petrus Hispanus and Pope John XXI, see the preface of W. Degen and B Bapst (2006), Logische Abhandlungen, Munich.
4. ^ As quoted, for instance, in Papst Johannes XXI by Stapper, Richard, p. 5, collected in Kirchengeschichtliche Studien v. 4.

External links

• Peter of Spain at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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