The overall aim of the six-year project Filling the Gap is to analyze the reception of Aristotelian logic in the 13th and 14th centuries with a particular focus on the development of Aristotle’s notions of inference and proof and related theories.

The main task of the research group is to (1) edit a number of important medieval works that are still only accessible in medieval manuscripts but highly relevant for the period studied, and (2) – in collaboration with other leading scholars in the field – produce a co-authored volume that will present and comment on the group’s findings.

Research on ancient and medieval Philosophy with a strong philological orientation has developed at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science in the course of the last decade. The research conducted within the area has so far focused on the reception of Aristotle’s logic and natural philosophy in the Medieval West. A more detailed description of the background of the research environment in the history of philosophy and philology at the University of Gothenburg can be found on the web page Research in Classical Philology and History of Philosophy.

The present project took its start in 2018; Ana Maria Mora Marquez took the initiative to the project and did a preliminary draft in collaboration with Laurent Cesalli and Leone Gazziero. Further contributions were made by Sten Ebbesen and Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist. In accordance with the project group’s request, Thomsen Thörnqvist applied as project leader, and was granted 17,8 milion SEK to lead the project in accordance with the application 2019–2024.

The core of the project’s outcome will be critical editions of the following important medieval works:

(Cesalli) Richard Brinkley’s (†1379) Summa logicae (new edition of parts I, III, and IV with revision of the previously edited parts II, V, VI, and VII).
(Gazziero) Robert Kilwardby’s (c. 1215–1279) commentary on Aristotle’s Sophistici elenchi.
(Thomsen Thörnqvist) Simon of Faversham’s († 1306) question commentary on Aristotle’s Analytica priora.

The international collaboration between the three universities involved is an essential element of the project. In addition to the three senior researchers, three post docs will be recruited and contribute further to the corpus of critical editions that will form the basis for the project’s answer to the overarching research question of the role of Aristotelian logic in the development of the 13th and 14th centuries.