The Expositio super II libros De anima, including four quaestiones, contains an anonymous transcription of the notes about the Pomponatian course of the year 1508-1509 (uncertain date).
The lessons take place in Padua. The dating of the course is shown by the colophon (f. 141r). However, the colophon presents an obvious dating error committed by the scribe. There is also a change of hand (f. 124r).
The expositio on book I of De anima (prologue and textus commenti 1-16) and that on the book II (textus commenti 1-162) are enhanced by numerous quaestiones.
The expositio on book II is followed by three numbered quaestiones and one unnumbered quaestio. The quaestiones regard the book II. Therefore, the word finis (f. 146v), written on the sidelines of the last unnumbered quaestio, could refer to the end of the lessons on book II.
The text shows a further stage of Pomponatian thought towards the development of psychological and epistemological theories established in the Tractatus de immortalitate animae (1516).
Pietro Pomponazzi
Pietro Pomponazzi, said Peretto, was born in Mantua, on September 16th, 1462.
He studied at the University of Padua in 1484, and he graduated in artibus in 1487.
He taught at Padua from 1488 to 1496.
The composition of the Tractatus de maximo et minimo ad Laurentium Molinum, in manuscript form, is prior to 1496.
From 1496 to 1499, Pomponazzi, as teacher of logic, followed Alberto Pio of Carpi in his exile in Ferrara.
From 1499 to 1509, he returned to Padua to teach.
From 1510 to 1511, he was in retreat in Mantua.
From 1512 to 1524, he taught at the University of Bologna.
There are numerous handwritten reportationes of Pomponatian lectures written by his students and admirers.
In Bologna, Pomponazzi published all his treatises: Tractatus de intensione et remissione formarum (1514), Tractatus de reactione including Quaestio de actione reali (1515), Tractatus de immortalitate animae (1516), Apologia (1518), Defensorium (1519), Tractatus de nutritione et augmentatione (1521).
Two texts remained unpublished: De incantationibus and De fato, composed in 1520 circa and published posthumously, respectively, in 1556 and in 1567.
The Dubitationes in IV Meteorologicorum was published posthumously in 1563.
The collection of the Tractatus acutissimi, utillimi et mere peripatetici, including the six Bononian treatises and Quaestio de actione reali, was printed in Venice in 1525.
Pomponazzi died in Bologna, on May 18th, 1525.
