Marsilius of Inghen was a scholastic theologian, writer on logical textbooks, and prolific commentator on Aristotle. He played an important role in the foundation of the University of Heidelberg. His significance rests not only on his commentaries on Aristotle—his advocacy and popularization of the new, nominalist logic and semantics—but also on an independent-minded theology that sometimes rejected post-Scotistic positions in favor of thirteenth-century positions (such as those of Thomas Aquinas or Bonaventure).

Marsilius of Inghen was a student at Paris, matriculating there in Arts in 1362, and then in Theology in 1366. At Paris, he was influenced by the thought of John Buridan, and he undertook significant administrative work, including rectorships (1367–68, 1371) as well as representation to the Papal court (1369, 1377–78). Marsilius's whereabouts are largely unknown between 1379 and the founding of the University of Heidelberg in 1386—except, that is, for a Nijmegen banquet he...