January 10

Active at the universities of Toulouse and Paris, Petrus Aureolus emerged as a leading Franciscan scholar around the turn of the 14th century. He produced extensive commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, synthesizing Augustine’s and Aquinas’s ideas. His work engaged with emerging nominalist and realist debates, emphasizing the limits of human reason in theological matters. Aureolus also served as a mediator in academic disputes and influenced later thinkers such as Marsilius of Padua. His publications contributed to the transition toward early humanist scholarship in Europe. He died on January 10, 1322, leaving a legacy as one of the last great medieval scholastics.