Father Mariani’s list of questions, in the right hand column, has one fewer question than does Friedman and Schabel’s list of questions to the left, and this is because Father Mariani does not include as part of the Prologue the question that has the same title as the Principium on the first book of the Sentences. According to Father Mariani, there is one quaestio praeambula to the first book of the Sentences, and this question exists in four redactions. Correspondingly, on Father Mariani’s view, there are only ten questions in the Prologue to the Reportatio version of the Sentences. Schabel and I, on the other hand, hold that two different questions have exactly the same title; one of these two questions is Francesco’s Principial lecture on the first book of the Sentences, the other is the very first question of the Prologue to one of the two versions of Francesco’s Sentences commentary, and there are 11 questions in this Prologue. It should be noted that when Schabel and I formulated our interpretation, we were basing ourselves on evidence found in the medieval manuscripts of Francesco’s works. That a version of our question is the very first question of the Prologue to the Sentences is explicitly stated in one manuscript: Vatican, Ross. 525. Here the question reads in English translation: “Concerning the Prologue of the Sentences, I ask first whether absolutely simple being could be the object of some science in this life” 14. In addition, another manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France 3071) mentions that this question is the “first” question, and then numbers the questions of the Prologue consecutively from this first question, as can be see in the Friedman/Schabel question list above (although an error occurred in the numbering given in the manuscript beginning with q. 7). Moreover, in four other manuscripts, this question has been included by the medieval scribe in the section of the manuscript in which the contemporary rubric Prologus is written as the running title in the top margin 15. In short, the medieval manu-
14. F. 1ra: “Circa prologum Sententiarum quaero primo utrum ens simpliciter simplex possit esse subiectum alicuius scientiae viatoris”. Schabel and I used this exact reading for our question list for the Prologue as presented in our article from 2001 and in the question list given above. 15. I.e. Naples, Biblioteca nazionale VII. C. 27, ff. 1r-3r; Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale 767, ff. 109r-11r; Admont, Bibliothek der Benediktinerabtei 178, ff. 124ra-26vb; Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek 532, ff. 2ra-4vb. Thanks to Chris Schabel for checking microfilms of the first three of these manuscripts for me. Neither Paris 3071, Vat. Ross. 525, nor Vat. Chigi lat. B.VII.113 have running titles, and the question appears in Vat. lat. 943 isolated from the rest of the Prologue.
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