An unknown edition of the Liber de secundis intentionibus by Francesco da Prato ?
s1 recto
This text is seemingly identifiable with the Liber de intentionibus by the 14th-century Dominican friar Franciscus de Prato.
The readings of its incipit and explicit correspond to those published in Jean-Pierre Rothschild, Bibliographie annuelle du Moyen Age tardif, 11 (2001), no. 1129, as the beginning and the end of a treatise attribuited to Franciscus Pratensis in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS. 3368, fols 70 recto-80 recto. These readings also match the incipit and explicit of the already known edition of Franciscus’s text printed on leaves v2 verso-v6 recto of Johannes Versoris, the Dicta super septem tractatus Petri Hispani, edited by Petrus de Sancto Johanne and published in Venice by Hermannus Liechtenstein on 22 May 1487 (ISTC iv00238500; see GW M32404).
t4 verso
If the identification of the anonymous text is correct, there are two more lingering questions: the attribution of the printing to Pachel and Scinzenzeler rather than to Johannes Antonius de Honate, and the dating of the book to around 1481-83 instead of circa 1488 (as suggested by BSB-Ink V-181).
Only the carefull consideration of the types used in the edition and the philological comparison of the text with the surviving manuscripts copies and the 1487 edition will answer the final question: it this the editio princeps of Franciscus’s Liber de intentionibus?
Bibliography for the text:
Fabrizio Amerini, “La Quaestio Utrum subiectum in logica sit ens rationis e la sua attribuzione a Francesco da Prato. Note sulla vita e gli scritti del domenicano Francesco da Prato”, Memorie Domenicane, n.s. 30 (1999), 147-217 (p. 211).
Fabrizio Amerini, “La figura e la filosofia di Francesco da Prato”, in Dal convento alla città. Filosofia e teologia in Francesco da Prato O.P. (XIV secolo), Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Storia della Filosofia Medievale, Prato, Palazzo Comunale, 18-19 maggio 2007, ed. Fabrizio Amerini, Firenze, 2008, 15-29 (p. 17 and n. 8).
Comment by GW (type assessment by Martina Nickel):
The Versor edition GW M50275 shows three typographic particularities:
1) Rubrum alpha (which is identical to Pachel-Scinzenzeller’s Rubrum gamma);
2) Majuscule “G” without a double shaft
3) Interspersed majuscule letters “S” and “A” from Pachel-Scinzenzeller’s rarely used type 7:74G (not to be confused with type 7:113G, later used by Pachel alone).
ad 1) Honate’s rubrum alpha can be found in confirmed editions from 1478-1486, but has not been used with type 7 in any other edition that we have seen. The same goes for Pachel-Scinzenzeller’s rubrum gamma, which can only be found in connection with other types.
ad 2) In all confirmed editions from 1488/89 printed in type 7, Honate uses a double-shafted G (cf. GfT 1675; exception: GW M46023, Thomas Aquinas, Opuscula, dated 1488, with both forms of the G), whereas a type 7 edition from 29 August, 1483 (GW 5213) has a G with a single shaft, as in the Versor and in Pachel-Scinzenzeller type 7:74G.
ad 3) The Versor edition also has majuscule letters S and A from Pachel-Scinzenzeller type 7, documented between 1481-83 only.
Hence, the type assessment makes it very likely that GW M50275 was printed by Johannes Antonius de Honate. In this regard, GW agrees with BSB-Ink and Oates, but not in the date “[c. 1488]”. Having taken into consideration all Honate editions printed in type 7:73G which name place of printing, printer, and date, it becomes evident that the timespan “c. 1488/89” – as proposed for this type by BMC – should be revised, because BMC did not consider (or know) the Honate edition GW 5213 of 29 August, 1483.
Conclusion: The imprint for GW M50275 should be [Milan: Johannes Antonius de Honate, c. 1483]. From a typographic point of view it is possible that M50275 indeed contains the first edition of Francesco de Prato’s “Liber de secundis intentionibus”.
Thank you to Martina Nickel and Falk Eisermann for the detailed and authoritative reply to our hypothetical question.
[…] The discovery of an unknown edition of the Liber de intentionibus, a work by the 14th-century Dominican friar Franciscus de Prato, in an edition of Johannes Versoris’s Quaestiones librorum praedicabilium et praedicamentorum et posteriorum Aristotelis (Inc.5.B.7.10[4004]). […]