R. De Staningtona was a friar, likely of the Dominican Order

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

, who was at Oxford University in the mid-1250s

1250s

The 1250s decade ran from January 1, 1250, to December 31, 1259.-Events and trends:The decade was perhaps most dominated by the Mongols, who under the leadership of Möngke Khan continued their rapid expansion throughout Asia both to the east and west of their home territories...

. He composed a noteworthy summary of libri naturales (works of natural philosophy) by Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

. His summary was entitled Compilacio quedam liborum naturalium. The manuscript has never been edited although selections from it have appeared in the Journal of the History of Philosophy

Journal of the History of Philosophy

The Journal of the History of Philosophy is an academic journal established in 1957. It publishes articles, notes and reviews about the history of Western philosophy. Time periods covered include everything from the medieval period to modern developments in the study of philosophy...

. The final work he summarized is De anima.

R. De Staningtona made use of the explanations of Averroes

Averroes

' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...

 in compiling his text. His work was probably employed in the Oxford Dominican convent for the preliminary education of the brothers. Many of these people were not degree candidates. De Staningtona's tract was useful in providing a medium for the influence of Richard Fishacre

Richard Fishacre

Richard Fishacre was an English Dominican theologian, the first to hold the Dominican chair at the University of Oxford. He taught at Oxford and authored the first commentary on the Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lombard to be issued from the Oxford schools...

, especially for those who were unlikely to read Fishacre's commentary on the Books of Sentences by Peter Lombard

Peter Lombard

Peter Lombard was a scholastic theologian and bishop and author of Four Books of Sentences, which became the standard textbook of theology, for which he is also known as Magister Sententiarum-Biography:Peter Lombard was born in Lumellogno , in...

.