MEDIAVILLA, RICHARDUS DE

Commentum super quarto sententiarum. (ed. by Franciscus Gregorius)

      Dionysius Bertochus 10 November 1489, Venice - Early blind tooled pigskin backed wooden boards; at a later time the boards were covered with leaves from an incunable and spine labels added Folio . FIRST EDITION to be edited by Franciscus Gregorius of this commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard written in 1294 by the English theologian and philosopher Richard Middleton (or Mediavilla; ca. 1249-1308?) who was a leading Franciscan teacher of the thirteenth century. He served as chancellor for several years from 1269 to 1272 and taught theology at Oxford and Paris. Richard of Middletown (A Media Villa): "Flourished at the end of the thirteenth century, but the dates of his birth and death and most incidents of his life are unknown. Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire and Middleton Cheyney in Northamptonshire have both been suggested as his native place, . He probably studied first at Oxford, but in 1283 he was at the University of Paris and graduated Bachelor of Divinity in that year. He entered the Franciscan order. In 1278 he had been appointed by the general of his order to examine the doctrines of Peter Olivus, and the same work was again engaging his attention in 1283. In 1286 he was sent with two other Franciscans to Naples to undertake the education of two of the sons of Charles II, Ludwig, afterwards a Franciscan, and Robert. After the defeat of Charles by Peter of Arragon the two princes were carried as hostages to Barcelona and Richard accompanied them, sharing their captivity till their release in 1295. The rest of his life lies in obscurity. A new point of interest at the present day lies in the fact that, medieval scholastic though he was, he knew and studied the phenomena of hypnotism, and left the results of his investigations in his "Quodlibeta" (Paris, 1519, fol. 90 8) where he treats of what would now be termed auto-suggestion and adduces some instances of telepathy. "His works include "Super sententias Petri Lombardi", written between 1281 and 1285, and first printed at Venice, 1489; "Quaestiones Quodlibetales" in manuscript at Oxford and elsewhere; "Quodlibeta tria" printed with the Sentences at Venice, 1509; "De gradibus formarum" in manuscript at Munich; and "Quae stiones disputatae" in manuscript at Assisi. . His death is assigned by some to 1307 or 1308, by Pits to 1300, by Parkinson to some earlier date on the ground that he was one of the "Four Masters", the expositors of the Rule of St. Francis" (Cath. Enc.) 217 (first leaf blank, without last blank leaf). Roman type; 2 columns; 64 lines; capital spaces with guide letters; rubricated with initials provided in red by a fine contemporary hand; few tiny round worm holes in first few leaves; small marginal worm hole in top margin of a few leaves. Fine fresh wide margined copy. § Hain-Copinger 10986; Pellechet 9919; Polain 3354; IGI 8365; Proctor 5274; BMC V, 488; Goff M 425; CIBN M- 268; BSB R-171. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]