 There is a large body of medieval literature which deals with general change of state: it is important because it led to a great deal of careful analysis of continuous change (under the heading of “intension and remission of forms”), and this body of analysis was one of the contributing currents which led to the invention of the calculus in the sixteenth century. So, we can look at this literature from two viewpoints: either from the tradition which it grew out of – that of interpretations on Aristotle’s Physics and the picture of change found there – or from the viewpoint of what it led to, that is, the analysis of continuous change. Either viewpoint can be regarded as doing violence to the historical material, either by disregarding what was new in it, or by isolating the innovation from the tradition.