Gonsalvo Ispano, called di Vallebona or di Balboa

GONSALVO ISPANO, called di Vallebona or di Balboa. - Franciscan theologian, b. in Galicia, d. in Paris on 13 April 1313. A religious in the province of St. James, of which he became minister around 1290. He completed his studies in Paris; he obtained the baccalaureate around 1288, and the mastership around 1301. In the academic year (scholaris) 1302-1303 he was magister regens at the University of Paris, which he was forced to abandon following the quarrel between Philip II the Fair and Boniface VIII, having refused to subscribe to the convocation of a general Council proposed by the king against the Pope. In Spain, he was elected minister of the province of Castile, and at the General Chapter of 1304, in Assisi, minister general of the Order. During this office he presented G. Duns Scotus, whom he had known experientia longa, to the University of Paris for the attainment of the mastership, with a letter of 18 Nov. 1304, which is the first and most flattering eulogy of the « subtle doctor ».

His principal writings are the Conclusiones theologicae published at Venice in 1503 and at Paris in 1891, always under the name of Scotus; the Quaestiones disputatae and the Quodlibet ed. by L. Amorós in 1935. There follow other minor writings relating to his office as general of the Order or connected with the controversy between the community and the Spirituals.

Celestino Piana