Richard Kilvington’s Quaestiones super libros Physicorum

Richard Kilvington (c. 1302–1361) was a foundational figure in the formation of the so-called School of Oxford Calculators and stands out as one of its most innovative thinkers. Distinguished by his integration of mathematical reasoning and logical analysis in addressing problems in natural philosophy, Kilvington developed a distinctive method of argumentation that profoundly influenced both his contemporaries and subsequent medieval thinkers. His question-commentary on the Physics addresses a wide range of philosophical themes, including physical change (such as generation, alteration, mixing, and local motion), the nature of knowledge, the theory of the soul, and key logical concepts. Through his inquiries, Kilvington helped to lay the groundwork for a more rigorous, analytical approach to natural philosophy. This volume offers a critical edition of Kilvington’s Quaestiones super libros Physicorum accompanied by an analytical introduction. The entire commentary was dispersed early on, and individual questions survive only in a small number of manuscript sources. Its full reconstruction has been achieved primarily through a comparison of internal cross-references within Kilvington’s own questions. This editorial approach represents a rare and methodologically significant contribution to the recovery of medieval philosophical texts.