De coniectura quadam prius inaudita: A Brief Note on Cusanus’ Geistphilosophie

In Nicolas of Cusa’s De li non aliud, chapter 19, one should read “in prima seu metaphysicali philosophia” instead of “in prima seu mentali philosophia.” This conjectural emendation is required because the identification of ‘first philosophy’ with ‘mental philosophy’ is attested nowhere else. The paper shows that the huge literature on Cusanus’ alleged re-interpretation of metaphysics as Geistphilosophie rests on a copyist’s mistake.