Radulphus Brito

Radulphus Brito (c. 1270 - 1320) was an influential grammarian, based in Paris. He is usually identified as Raoul le Breton, though this is disputed by some.^[1][2] Besides works of grammatical speculation — he was one of the Modistae — he wrote on Aristotle, Boethius and Priscian.

Radulphus was Master of arts in the University of Paris in 1296, and joined the theology faculty in 1311. Very few of his works are edited, although he was a prolific and influential writer. He was one of a group of grammarians called the modistae or modists who flourished around Paris from about 1260 to 1310, so-called because they wrote on the mode of signifying.

References

• Marenbon, J., Later Medieval Philosophy (1150–1350), Routledge 1991, c. 8.

Notes

1. Jean-Luc Deuffic (2002) identifies the two.
2. Confusion is possible since the contemporary Raoul de Presles (1316—1382) is also sometimes known as Raoul le Breton.

Bibliography

• Courtenay, W.J. (2005). Radulphus Brito, master of arts and theology. Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Age Grec et Latin, 76:131–158.
• Deuffic, Jean-Luc (2002). Un logicien renommé, proviseur de Sorbonne au XIVe siècle: Raoul le Breton de Ploudiry. Notes bio-bibliographiques . Pecia. Ressources en médiévistique, 1:45-154.
• Ebbesen, Sten (2000). Radulphus Brito. The last of the great arts masters. Or: Philosophy and freedom. In: Aertsen Jan A., Speer Andreas (eds.), Geistesleben im 13. Jahrhundert. Miscellanea mediaevalia 27. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 231–251.
• Mora-Márquez, A.M. "Boethius of Dacia (1270s) and Radulphus Brito (1290s) on the Universal Sign ‘Every’", Logica Universalis, 9, 2015. doi:10.1007/s11787-014-0112-6
• Patar, Benoît (2006). Dictionnaire des philosophes médiévaux, Fides, 2006, s.v. « Raoul le Breton ».