  The title “Abstractiones” was apparently meant to capture the “excerpted” nature of this collection of sophisms that are presented in a somewhat summary   fashion.[1]  This collection of sophisms became a kind of logical textbook used to teach students to identify sophistical fallacies. This book was probably used in several medieval universities for several decades, from the late thirteenth well into the fourteenth centuries. Richard is often referred to as “Magister Abstractionum” or “Magister Richardus Sophista” to give emphasis to the masterful, albeit summary, treatment of a very large collection of over three hundred such sophism  sentences.[2]  The title “sophista” simply meant “logician”.