Simon of Faversham

Simon of Faversham (Simon Favershamensis, Simon de Faverisham, Simon von Faversham, Simon Anglicus).

Life

Simon of Faversham was born around 1260 in Faversham, a small port on the North coast of Kent in England. He received his Masters degree at Oxford. However, the presence of his writing in continental manuscripts, and references to him in some manuscripts as ‘Simon Anglicus’ suggest that he taught at Paris in the 1280's. The colophon to his Questions on the Prior Analytics in Ms V speaks of him as ‘magistro Symone Anglico Parisius’. His return to England is suggested by his ordination as a deacon in 1290 he was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Peckham. He received the rectorship of Preston, a village near Faversham, a sinecure suitable for the support of a scholar. He never became a priest, and seems to have spent most of his scholarly life in the Arts faculty, a somewhat uncommon practice for his day, though it was done more frequently in the next century. He became chancellor in January 1304, but served only a short time, dying in 1306.

Apart from the opusculum, Sophisma: A Universal is an Intention, Simon’s work consists entirely of commentaries and questions on Aristotle's logical and psychological works. His questions are similar in content and form to the work of Parisian writers, especially that of Peter of Auvergne, in the 1270's and early 1280's. However, according to Longeway, his work seems unaffected by later Parisian developments of Radulphus Brito's day. He follows Henry of Ghent in adopting the phrase esse in effectu for existence, from Avicenna (On First Philosophy V 1).

Primary sources

• De Rijk, L.M.: 1968, “On the Genuine Text of Peter of Spain's Summule Logicales. II: Simon of Faversham (d. 1306) as a Commentator of the Tracts I-V of the Summule,” Vivarium 6, 69-101.
• Ebbesen, Sten: 1980a, “Gerontobiologiens Grundproblemer.” Museum Tusculanum 40-43, 269-88. (Contains extracts from Simon's quaestiones on De longitudine et brevitate vitae.)
• Longeway, John L.: 1977, “Simon of Faversham's Questions on the Posterior Analytics: a Thirteenth-Century View of Science.” Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University. [Dissertation Abstracts International 38.7: 4211-A.]
• Ottaviano, Carmelo: 1930, “Le Quaestiones super libro Praedicamentorum di Simone di Faversham.” Atti della Reale Accademia Nazionale die Lincei, serie 6, Memorie della Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, 3: 257-351.
• Pinborg, Jan: 1971, “Simon of Faversham's Sophisma: Universale est Intentio: A Supplementary Note.” Medieval Studies 33, 360-65.
• Sharp, D.: 1934, “Simonis de Faverisham Quaestiones super tertium De anima.” Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 9, 307-368. (Contains an edition of Book III from one manuscript.)
• Simon of Faversham: 1957, Magistri Simonis Anglici sive de Faverisham Opera Omnia. Vol.1: Opera logica, tomus Prior. (1) Quaestiones super libro Porphyrii. (2) Quaestiones super libro Praedicamentorum. (3) Quaestiones super libro Perihermeneias. Edited by Pasquale Mazzarella. Pubblicazioni dell'Instituto universitario di magistero di Catania, serie filosofica, testi critici, 1. Padua: Cedam.
• Simon of Faversham: 1984, Quaestiones super libro Elenchorum. Edited by Sten Ebbesen, Thomas Izbicki, John Longeway, Francesco del Punta, Eileen Serene, and Eleonore Stump. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies.
• Vennebusch, Joachim: 1963, Ein anonymer Aristoteleskommentar des xiii. Jahrhunderts: Quaestiones in tres libros de Anima (Admont: Stiftsbibliothek, cod. lat. 367). Paderborn: F. Schöningh. (See pp. 25-27. Edits one question from Simon's commentary.)
• Vennebusch, Joachim: 1965, “Die Quaestiones in tres libros De anima des Simon von Faversham.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 47, 20-39. (Lists the questions in Simon's commentary.)
• Wolf, Friedrich Antonius: 1966, Die Intellektslehre des Simon von Faversham nach seinem De-anima-Kommentaren. Inaugural-Dissertation. Bonn: Universität. (Contains many excerpts from both the literal and the question commentaries on De anima, and an appendix editing three questions from the latter.)
• Yokoyama, Tetsuo: 1969, “Simon of Faversham's Sophisma: Universale est intentio.” Medieval Studies 31, 1-14. (An edition of the work.)
• Zimmermann, Albert: 1971, Verzeichnis Ungedruckter Kommentare zur Metaphysik und Physik des Aristoteles aus der Zeit von etwa 1250-1350. Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 8/9. Leiden/Cologne: E.J. Brill. (See pp. 10, 32-33, 190-96.)

Links

• Simon of Faversham (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy).
• Simon of Faversham page by John Longeway.

Notes

1 1260 1295 England 1306 Oxford England