Future contingents and Divine Foreknowledge in John Aurifaber’s Questions on Aristotle’s Physics

Scholarly literature has identified two 14th-century masters of the arts named ‘John Aurifaber’: the earlier one was active around 1330 in the city of Erfurt; the later one was a pupil of Lawrence of Lindores and graduated from the University of Paris around 1397. The homonymy between these two Aurifaber has complicated the attribution of a commentary on Aristotle’s Physics , preserved in the manuscript Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, 1423. This paper reassesses the issue in light of L. Tomanek’s recent identification of the Quaestio de eventu necessario rerum quarumlibet , an Averroist-inspired text by the earlier Aurifaber, which defends a deterministic view of future contingents. Notably, similar themes appear in the Leipzig commentary, particularly in Book II, questions 8 ( Utrum propositio de futuro contingenti sit determinate vera vel falsa ) and 9 ( Utrum omnia quae eveniunt eveniunt ex necessitate ). Through a philosophical and textual analysis of these questions, this paper aims to: (1) demonstrate that the solutions in the Quaestio de eventu necessario differ from those in the Questions on the Physics , suggesting distinct authorship; and (2) highlight how the Questions on the Physics present innovative philosophical approaches to the issues of future contingents and divine foreknowledge, proposing a compatibilist solution in a form potentially uncommon in the late medieval period. The article concludes with a critical edition of these two questions.