A Treatise of Master Hervaeus Natalis (D. 1323), the Doctor Perspicacissimus, on Second Intentions

Two Volumes. These volumes present a first critical Latin edition and an English translation of an important, but very difficult to read and understand, medieval treatise.

The notion of intentionality comes from the Middle Ages. What is less known is that Hervaeus Natalis, O.P. (d. 1323) was the first one explicitly to consider it as such. Even less known is the fact that he came to it not immediately from the Aristotelian De Anima, but rather from the division in Aristotle s Metaphysics between being as being and being as true. Hervaeus regards its significance as a relation of reason which runs in the direction of known or knowable to knower.