Universa Philosophia

On appellation we must appeal to the old Summulists, who sought great distinctions between vidi regem, et regem vidi; amo dulce et dulce amo, Petrus est magnus logicus, et Petrus est logicus magnus. Father Fonseca, book 8, chapters 41 and 42, discusses appellation excellently, or because he hints that he himself is ashamed that there is much in these trifles. Appello is to call, or to impose a name; wherefore appellation (which is what concerns us) is the denomination of one name from another, or the application of what is signified by one name to what is signified by another. For example, homo est species, the significate of the word homo is appellated, or called species; and the significate of the word species is appellated, or attached to the significate of the word homo, whence (if the etymology of the name is inspected) every predicate confers appellation on the subject, as Petrus est doctus, or est homo.

Sometimes a second intention is predicated of a real being, as homo est species, where the predicate appellates or denominates hominem a species, not man as he is on the side of reality or suppositing distributively, but as suppositing confusedly and simply for all known men. Sometimes something is predicated of things suppositing in the direct case for a supposit, but then the predicate appellates the supposits themselves, as Christus est ab aeterno, for Christ is supposited in the direct case for the divine person, who is eternal. Sometimes something is predicated of the supposit itself that belongs to it in an oblique case, as Deus factus est homo: for the divine person has a humanity united to itself. Sometimes, too, an accident is predicated of the subject itself taken materially, which predicate, because it belongs to the subject, appellates it, as grammaticus est obesus, which predicate does not belong to him by reason of grammar, but by reason of material temperament. Sometimes, however, the predicate does not belong to the subject by reason of itself, but by reason of an accident signified by the name, as Tullius fuit magnus Orator, where that greatness was not Tullius's by reason of himself, but by reason of oratory: for it renders this sense, Tullius habet magnam oratoriam. Therefore that greatness is the excellence of oratory.

Hence the Summulists seized an occasion for trifling. But briefly I say that the judgment of appellations depends for the most part on the idiom of languages. In general, however, this equivocation arises from the conjunction of two adjectives, as Petrus magnus est musicus, vel Petrus est musicus magnus: when the adjective name (which is the cause of the equivocation, because it can appellate either a substantive or another adjective) is placed on the side of the subject, it appellates the subject itself materially, and applies its signification to it, not by reason of the other adjective, as Petrus magnus, est logicus, that is, Petrus longus, qui est corpore magno, est logicus, for the word magnus is placed as a property of Peter and a distinction from thin or small Peter. But when the appellating name is placed on the side of the predicate, then it appellates the other predicate, and appellates the subject not by reason of itself, but by reason of the other predicate, as Tullius magnus fuit orator, because it is placed there as a co-predicate to signify the excellence of Tullian oratory. But when it is not perceived whether the appellating name is placed on the side of the subject or of the predicate, then prudence is needed: for if the speech is serious about someone's learning or probity, the name appellates with reference to the predicate, as magnus orator Tullius, or magnus Tullius orator, that is, Tullius excelluit maxime eloquentia; but if the speech is jesting or ironical, it appellates the subject itself, as if you say of a stupid tall man, iste est Scholasticus magnus; likewise if the speech is to distinguish one from another, for example, you see two men, and say, ille magnus est musicus, ille parvus est medicus, then magnum and parvum appellate not music or medicine, but the quantities of the men.