Petrus Alliacus and the debate on the Grammatica Speculativa

The text Destructiones modorum significandi (1372-1390), attributed to Pierre d’Ailly (known as Petrus Alliacus, 1351-1420), or to another anonymous author, represents one of the four works that expressed an attack on the modists’ theory of language, and this especially against the modi significandi by Thomas of Erfurt. Though such a discussion concerns the (philosophical) differences between nominalism and realism, it is directed against the perception of the role of language as a hermeneutic means of both textual interpretation and reality spread among the modistae that had elevated grammar, or linguistics, to an independent discipline and science for the higher education. After highlighting the terms of the complex philosophical debate ongoing since the 12th century and the specific linguistic position of the different exponents of the philosophical schools, the paper focuses on the role of specific grammatical concepts. Terms such as regimen, constructio, modi significandi in their correlation with the modi intelligendi as an explanatory model of the language and thought system of the modistae are contrastively analysed. The final considerations about the debate against the modi signi- ficandi address the question if the modistic model was partially losing its predominance in the higher formation from the 15th century onwards or if the model has been made suitable for another target of scholars belonging to a different philosophical school. In that case, it is open to discover where the teaching of the modistae has survived.