Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes

The aim of the present edition of Harvey Nedellec's De quattuor materiis
is to make a collection of texts available that can throw some more
light upon the ongoing debates around 1300 about some highly
controversial issues, including the plurality of forms, the relationship
between being and essence, the significance (or superfluity) of the
intelligible species, and the intellect's priority to the will. Harvey's
polemic interventions, which are explicitly directed against the
ontological positions held by Henry of Ghent, are the more interesting
as they are coloured by a manifest animosity against his opponent and
the Ghentian way of doing philosophy in general. The author's attitude
is most prominent in the first tract of the collection presented in the
first volume, De formis. In order to put the impact of this tract into a larger perspective, Harvey's extensive treatise De unitate formae substantialis in eodem supposito has been added.

L.M. de Rijk (1924) is emeritus professor of Ancient and Medieval
Philosophy of Leiden University. He was a member of the Dutch Parliament
(Senate 1956-1991) and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Sciences (KNAW). He is the author of a large number of publications,
particularly on Ancient and Medieval philosophy, including John
Buridan's Lectura Erfordiensis in I-VI Metaphysicam (Brepols 2008).