“The Medieval Sufficientiae: Attempts at a Definitive Division of the Categories”
William McMahon

For a period of about 75 years, from the late 13^th century into the early 14^th, philosophers attempted to “prove” that there are ten and only ten categories. 

Divisions of the categories, known as sufficientiae,appeared in commentaries in response to questions such as, “Utrum praedicamenta sint tantum 10, nec plura nec pauciora”.  The earliest sufficientiae appear to be from Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.  Later they are found in Simon of Faversham, Peter of Auvergne, and Radulphus Brito.  By the 14^th century the interest in sufficientiae subsides, perhaps because of the nominalist critique of the ten categories, as manifested in John Buridan.  One of the most important features of the divisions is the location of the category of relation.  In some sufficientiae it is an intrinsic accident; in others it is extrinsic, and in still others it appears to be neither.