Between Peckham and Buridan: Visual Representation in 15 th-Century Vienna Disputations

This article analyses theories of visual representation extracted from various, mostly unpublished, texts from the 15th-century University of Vienna: disputation materials, commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima and John Peckham’s Perspectiva communis, and compendia of natural philosophy. It examines two idiosyncratic claims developed and defended by Vienna masters: the first claim proposes that visual representations are extended and, in some way, ‘shaped’ according to the objects seen, with parts distinctly representing the respective parts of the latter. The second claim is that acts of the external senses are concepts of a sort, signifying the substance of the object seen and connoting its colour, shape, place, and other accidents. Thus, the Vienna masters advocated and expanded the Buridanian idea of the rich content of visual representation: we see not only colours, but objects as modified by diverse visible properties. The article investigates whether any Vienna scholar endorsed both claims, and whether they are compatible in principle. This study is a part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 949710). The project ACADEMIA: Reconstructing Late Medieval Quests for Knowledge: Quodlibetal Debates as Precursors of Modern Academic Practice is carried out at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences.