 In both the treatises, Burley follows Averroes in solving the question of the relationship between the essence as forma totius (in human beings, the humanity) and the forma partis (in human beings, the soul). In his opinion, the forma totius of a thing is the same entity as the forma partis of that thing. But we can refer to this entity by means of two different concepts, depending on two different points of view. So according to him, the noun ‘humanity’ and the expression ‘intellective soul’ have the same reference, but different senses. ‘Humanity’ means the intellective soul considered as completing and perfecting a certain kind of body, and not by itself, as such and such an entity. On the contrary, ‘intellective soul’ does refer to the intellective soul insofar as it is such and such an entity, and not insofar as it is the entity complementing such and such a body. Hence ‘humanity’ is equivalent to the expression ‘intellective soul informing a body’ (Tractatus de abstractis, Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat. 2146, fol. 249rb). In this way, through the reference to body, Burley tried to preserve Thomas Aquinas’s idea (De ente et essentia, ch. 2) that the definition of the essence of a thing must contain not only its form, but its matter as well. 