 The question of how being and essence are related to each other, and in particular whether they are really identical or not, attracted considerable interest in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, with all major masters devoting some discussion to it. James of Viterbo is no exception. Drawing his inspiration from Anselm’s semantics, he attempts to articulate a compromise solution (Gossiaux 2018) between the main competing solutions on offer in his day.