Bero Magni de Ludosia: Disputata super libros De anima Aristotelis - Hardcover

by Robert Andrews (Editor)

Bero Magni de Ludosia was born over 600 years ago, around 1409. His name 'Bero' translated into modern Swedish would be 'Björn', which of course means 'Bear'; 'Magni' means 'son of Magnus' or today 'Magnusson'. The 'Ludosia' of his name refers to Lödösa, which was at the time the major seaport of western Sweden; due to post-glacial rebound the harbor later was relocated to Gothenburg. Bero was sent off to study at the cathedral school in Skara. He must have shown himself to be a promising student, since he left for further study to the university in far-off Vienna. Bero was never to return from that voyage; he spent the rest of his life in Vienna, with a long academic career, first as a student, then as a Master of philosophy, between 1429-1465 - more than thirty-five years.

Among what must have been prolific writing, two philosophical works by Bero have survived: Questions on the De generatione et corruptione of Aristotle; and Questions on the De anima of Aristotle, edited here.

The colophon of this work by Bero describes it as a disputatio, that is, exercises held by a master in private rooms in order to elaborate upon lectures held previously. The genre of the work, a commentary on Aristotle's De anima, was the primary vehicle in the medieval period for the investigation of psychology. Throughout Bero's work, the positions of John Buridan are defended. Indeed, it may be described as a super-commentary - that is, a commentary on John Buridan's commentary on Aristotle's De anima. As such it belongs within a tradition extending from Buridan to the Renaissance.

The extensive footnotes of this edition attempt to identify not only Bero's sources, but also an entire spectrum of commentary, including Buridan (with different versions of his De anima commentary), Nicholas Oresme, Lawrence of Lindores, several anonymous commentaries, Benedictus Hesse (dating from around 1423-31), Ioannes de Lutrea in an edition from 1482, and Arnoldus de Usingen in an edition from 1507. In this progression Bero was on the right path of intellectual history, anticipating both the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution; Usingen, for example, was the professor of Luther, and the Buridanian John of Gogów influenced Copernicus.

In keeping with its origin as a disputatio, Bero's text does not follow a standard model of a question-commentary such as usual in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Instead, the work presents various conclusiones or statements, raising objections to them, and resolving those objections. Thus is emphasized counter-arguments to Buridans' claims, much like the role of preliminary arguments in earlier question-commentaries:

"The creation of these arguments exercised the scholastic ability to consider both sides of a question.... Because of their counterfactual character, arguments pro parte negativa provide some of the most intriguing reasoning of the Middle Ages - for nowhere else can one find more open challenges to Aristotle or to tenets of dogma." (Andrews (2000) 143).

A detailed analysis of the work has been published earlier as Bero Magni of Lödöse, Questions on the Soul: A Medieval Swedish Philosopher on Life, by Robert Andrews (Stockholm: Sällskapet Runica et Mediaevalia, 2016).