Introduction

Unlike the Book of Causes and the (authentic) Aristotelian works, there is no evidence that the Elements of Theology was part of the curricula of European universities. There might be evidence of its teaching in the second half of the 14th century in the German mendicant studia, with the purpose to introduce novices to philosophy, as one can deduce by studying the diffusion of John Krosbein’s commentaries, or rather paraphrases, on all the Aristotelian works, as well as on the Book of Causes and the Elements of Theology. The anonymous commentary preserved in the MS Vat. lat. 456710 is also a paraphrase of Proclus’ Elements of Theology, chapter by chapter, which does not seem to have had a significant diffusion.