Translator's Preface

This translation of Book IV dd.43-49 of the Ordinatio (aka Opus Oxoniense) of Blessed John Duns Scotus is complete. These distinctions fill volume fourteen of the Vatican critical edition of the Latin text edited by the Scotus Commission in Rome and published by Quarrachi.

Scotus’ Latin is tight and not seldom elliptical, exploiting to the full the grammatical resources of the language to make his meaning clear (especially the backward references of his pronouns). In English this ellipsis must, for the sake of intelligibility, often be translated with a fuller repetition of words and phrases than Scotus himself gives. The possibility of mistake thus arises if the wrong word or phrase is chosen for repetition. The only check to remove error is to ensure that the resulting English makes the sense intended by Scotus. Whether this sense has always been captured in the translation that follows must be judged by the reader. In addition, there are passages where not only the argumentation but the grammar too is obscure, and I cannot vouch for the success of my attempts to penetrate the obscurity. So, for these and the like reasons, comments and notice of errors from readers are most welcome.

Note: this volume of the critical text seems to be less well edited than most earlier volumes, and has some infelicities of division and subtitle, as well as of punctuation and grammatical marking, that have had to be changed in the translation. Not all these changes seemed significant enough to need indicating in footnotes.

Peter L.P. Simpson January, 2020