Claudia Appolloni

Claudia Appolloni is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", working on the project "Books and Readers in Florence from the Thirteenth to the Fifteenth Century: The Library of Santa Croce." Her research focuses on the library of the medieval Franciscan convent of Santa Croce and its intellectual milieu. She recently defended her thesis, titled "Communitas" and "Communicatio:" Theories of Language and Political Philosophy in Thirteenth-Century Thought, which reconstructs late-medieval theories on the relationship between signs and social communities, with particular attention to pragmatic theories of signification in both published and unpublished texts.

Abstract: This project investigates the sacramental and social ontology debates between Peter John Olivi and Thomas Aquinas, focusing on the causality of sacraments. Starting from the unpublished quaestio 4 of Olivi’s De sacramentis, I examine the views of the two medieval theologians regarding the role of intention and will in shaping sacramental and social realities, and how this discourse provides insights into contemporary philosophical inquiries in social ontology. Furthermore, through a critical examination and comparison of their positions, which includes an analysis of Olivi's critique of Aquinas and the perspective of Olivi's pupil, Petrus of Trabibus, this research aims to contribute to the history of philosophy by elucidating the relationship between the two influential thinkers.