This new website, lauched by Claus Andersen in 2024, is online at the address:
https://sites.google.com/view/formalitas-project
The project website centers on the Formalist tradition in late-scholastic philosophy with its vast literature on metaphysical distinctions and related matters. The website has a comprehensive catalogue of Formalist literature, both late-medieval manuscripts, Renaissance prints (most of which are online), and Early Modern dissertations concerning identity and distinction (the section concerning medieval manuscripts has been contributed by Garrett R. Smith). A full research bibliography is included. A catalogue of Early-Modern manuscripts is in planning.
The aim of this project is to demonstrate the philosophical and historical importance of the “Formalist tradition” in Late-Medieval and Renaissance philosophy. The concepts of identity and distinction are the key components in the “Formalist treatises” that enjoyed vast diffusion during the Renaissance, had roots in Late-Medieval scholasticism, especially in the works of the Franciscan John Duns Scotus, and still played a significant role in textbooks of scholastic philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Some Formalists discussed whether their doctrines constituted a discipline of its own, a “science of the formalities” that would roughly correspond to what to-day goes by the name of “formal ontology”. The rise of a new metaphysical discipline needs to be part of what we know about the intellectual culture of the Renaissance. This project is innovative in its identification and elimination of this gap in our knowledge and in its focus on scholastic metaphysics during the Renaissance.
The main purpose of the FORMALITAS website is to facilitate research into the Formalist tradition. The website contains catalogues of Formalist literature, both such works that have been preserved in manuscript only and such works that were printed during the Renaissance or later. The catalogues strive toward completeness, which in the case of the catalogue of printed material includes all printed editions of Formalist works and, when digitizations exist, their online location. The website further provides a continously updated research bibliography, a list of publications and other news related to the project, and a handy list of useful research links.