The rise and decline of the scholastic Quaestio disputata

This book represents a major contribution to the study of a particular method of teaching the various disciplines of law, theology, the arts and medicine known as the scholastic disputation or quaestio disputata. Based on an ever increasing use of logic this method rapidly became one of the chief tools of instruction in all these disciplines. Its history is traced from its beginnings in the early twelfth century to its decline in the 16th and 17th centuries and ultimate demise in the 18th. Special emphasis is given to its use in the teaching of science (physica) and medicine since it was this very method which helped to lay the foundations of what has been called the Scientific Revolution of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This multidisciplinary approach across the whole spectrum of the period of its use permits a level of analysis and perspective that could not be achieved by any other means.