David of Dinant - Life and Work

Life and Work

Little is known about the details of his life. It is not certain whether he was born at Dinant in Belgium, or at Dinan in Brittany. He is believed to have lived for some time at the Roman Court under Pope Innocent III. He was a magister, or teacher, most likely at the University of Paris, and he studied the classical works of Aristotle which had been reintroduced to Europe after the Crusades. It seems likely he was especially influenced by Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics. It was in Paris that his work, entitled Quaternuli (Little Notebooks), was condemned by a provincial council in 1210. The Council was headed by the Bishop of Sens and ordered the body of Amalric of Chartres to be disinterred and burned, David's writings to be burned, and forbade reading Aristotle's works on natural philosophy. Anyone in the possession of David's writings after Christmas was declared a heretic. This condemnation of both David and Aristotle was repeated in 1215 by a letter of Cardinal Robert Courçon, papal legate. From a work ascribed to Albert the Great, "Compilatio de Novo Spiritu", in the Munich Library, we learn further that in consequence of the condemnation, David fled from France, and so escaped punishment. Besides the "Quaternuli", another work entitled "De Tomis, seu Divisionibus" is mentioned. It is not improbable, however, that this was merely another title for the "Quaternuli". The effect of the order issued by the council was to cause all the writing of David to disappear. Thus, his doctrines are derived from the assertions of his contemporaries and opponents, notably Albert the Great and St. Thomas as mentioned above.