John Scottus and his assistant

An imaginary portrait of John Scottus is found in manuscript Paris, BnF, Lat. 6734, fol. 3r, a copy of in Honorius of Autun’s Clavis physicae. In this portrait John Scottus discusses his most famous work, Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature, a theological treatise about the creation of the world) with ‘Abbot Theodorus’. Theodorus holds a banner with the text: “He (that is John Scottus) reveals the light of dogma by the sharpness of his mind”, and John Scottus holds a banner saying: “He (that is Theodorus) seeks to make hidden things clarify themselves.”

Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature) is a dialogue between a master and a pupil about the four divisions of nature: that which creates and is not created; that which is created and creates; that which is created and does not create; that which is neither created nor creates. The method of reasoning is the syllogism: a basic model for logical reasoning. Here we see the model simplified and captured in opposites (contrariae) by Honorius of Autun in the twelfth century, in his Clavis physicae.

John Scottus had a great interest in anything Greek. In manuscripts we recognize his presence by notes annotating and translating Greek passages. In manuscript Leiden, UB, BPL 67, a copy of Priscian’s Institutiones grammaticae, we see his hand in numerous notes adding and explaining Greek. On fol. 32v, for example, he added in his own hand (we know his autograph) a Greek passage from Homerus’ Odyssey and provided a Latin translation above the Greek words.

This is a cartoon made by Randall Rosenfeld, which illustrates an anecdote reported (and perhaps also invented?) by William of Malmesbury (†1143). King Charles the Bald and John Scottus were seated at the same table, and the King said: “What separates a Sot (a drunkard) from a Scot?” To which John answered: “Only a table”, suggesting that the King himself is the drunkard. And ‘Nisifortinus’ softens the insult with: “Nisi forte quis dixerit ...”, “Unless, perhaps, anyone shall say that...”

Just as for John Scottus himself, we are in the rare circumstance that we know the handwriting of ‘Nisifortinus’. The two operated together in several manuscripts, the master adding corrections and notes, the student copying the master’s comments. In this manuscript with the text of Martianus Capella’s On the marriage of Mercury and Philology, Leiden, UB, BPL 88, we find ‘Nisifortinus’ making notes. The philosophical language of John Scottus and his Periphyseon is clearly recognizable: the gloss says, roughly translated, that ‘pure thinking’ is the only way to reach full understanding of the concept of number. The preoccupation with ancient Greek philosophy is also clear: we see Greek words and Greek names such as Theophrastus and Pythagoras.