Albert the Great

Nel 1271, Giovanni Da Vercelli, Generale dei frati domenicani, promuove una consultazione fra i più eminenti teologi del suo Ordine. Al centro del dossier di 43 tesi, assieme a temi vari di ordine escatologico e teologico, si trova la questione del movimento dei corpi celesti: un complesso problema aristotelico, giunto agli autori del XIII secolo attraverso la mediazione della filosofia araba ed ebraica. Cosa muove i corpi celesti? È Dio stesso a muovere i cieli in modo immediato oppure si avvale di agenti intermedi? In quest’ultimo caso, si tratta di intelligenze pure, anime celesti, o degli angeli della tradizione biblica? Ai quesiti risponde anche Alberto Magno, tornando così, alla fine della sua carriera, su un argomento che lo aveva già più volte appassionato. La sua posizione è radicale e prende di mira in particolare la tesi «curiosa» e «fatua» dell’azione strumentale degli angeli, di cui mette in luce la profonda estraneità alla tradizione filosofica e alle sue ragioni. In questo modo, a partire da un problema apparentemente tecnico come quello del movimento dei cieli, ma destinato ad avere ancora grande rilevanza nel dibattito filosofico e scientifico dell’età moderna, Alberto Magno prende posizione su grandi temi di carattere teologico, cosmologico e filosofico, come il rapporto fra il punto di vista della fede e quello della filosofia. I Problemata determinata di Alberto Magno sono qui proposti nella prima traduzione italiana corredata di testo latino a fronte.

Dans le récit, la vierge Chimie invite douze nations (égyptienne, hébraïque, grecque, romaine, arabe, germanique, etc.) à un banquet. Leurs principaux représentants (Hermès Trismégiste, Marie la Juive, Démocrite, Morien, Avicenne, Albert le Grand, etc.), réunis autour d’une « table d’or », paient leur écot en faisant tour à tour l’apologie de leur vénérable hôtesse, souillée par les incessantes attaques d’orgueilleux et d’ignorants incarnés par le seul Pyrgopolynice.

Il appartient au lecteur, avec l’aide d’Isis, de récolter, de rassembler et de réunir, dans cette fresque impressionnante d’érudition, les enseignements les plus précieux que l’auteur y a éparpillés:

« Parmi les choses sublunaires, une qui est unique et paraît très abstruse, comme n’existant pas, s’offre à tous ceux qui parlent philosophie à toutes les époques et dans tous les pays, indigne donc d’être recherchée, cependant bien considérée par d’innombrables hommes qui ne s’attachent pas à la surface, mais pénètrent la chose en profondeur, afin de la remarquer des yeux et de la percevoir par l’intellect, comme un point immobile; ils l’ont décrite des milliers et des milliers de fois, en des langages très divers, certes à mots couverts et en figures.

Cette chose, c’est le SUJET DE LA CHIMIE.

S’accordent sur cette chose, à l’exclusion de tous les ignorants : les philosophes de toutes les époques, même les plus reculées ; les plus anciens poètes, dans leurs allégories et fictions primordiales ; les peuples de toutes les nations, quels que soient leurs talents, langues, mœurs, religions, lois ou autres usages, dans les nombreux royaumes non seulement d’Europe, mais aussi d’Afrique et d’Asie. »

The article focuses on the first three chapters of Isaiah. After recalling the results of modern biblical scholarship on the use of legal and forensic jargon in Isaiah (§ 1) and giving a thumbnail sketch of the traditions of Latin Christian exegesis in the Middle Ages (§ 2), I will examine passages of the commentary on Isaiah written by Dominican theologian Albert the Great in the 13th century (§ 3). The aim is to evaluate to what extent the concerns of the original biblical text, when filtered through the Latin Vulgate and through Christian foresight, are captured by the medieval exegete, to what extent Albert is able to understand the peculiar theme of the self-awareness of the history of Israel in the form of a legal contention between God and His people.

Il volume ripercorre lo sviluppo del pensiero del giovane Nicola Cusano dalla frequentazione del maestro albertista Eimerico da Campo presso l’Università di Colonia (1425) e dal confronto con le posizioni filosofiche dei domenicani dello Studium coloniense, fino agli anni della maturità a Roma (1450).

Il saggio illustra il contesto storico-culturale della genesi del De docta ignorantia, testo che suggella la presa di distanza di Cusano dal proprio passato universitario ma anche, al contempo, la sua insoddisfazione nei confronti dell’umanesimo diffuso in Italia negli anni del Concilio di Ferrara-Firenze; e lo segue nella sua ‘caccia della Sapienza’, nell’incontro con differenti tradizioni e contesti, fino alla formulazione dell’ideale del ‘Socrate cristiano’ nell’Idiota.

Il volume, riccamente documentato anche sul piano della storia delle interpretazioni e degli studi su Cusano, contribuisce a far luce sulla formazione del suo pensiero e sulle questioni che ne hanno segnato la vita.

This paper examines the methodology employed by Thomas Aquinas in his two derivations of the categories, or sufficientiae. In these accounts, he shows the distinctiveness of the ten Aristotelian categories as modes of being (modi essendi) through an analysis of modes of predication (modi praedicandi).  The paper considers why Aquinas sees this logical method of predication (via praedicationis) to be an appropriate tool for the metaphysician.  Similarities between Aquinas’s and Albert’s sufficientiae are shown to clarify Aquinas’s methodology. In particular, the paper examines how both thinkers employ modes of denominative predication and modes of opposition to derive the categories.  The paper not only reveals Aquinas’s full methodology in his sufficientiae, but it also provides further insight into how he uses logical methods in general in his metaphysical investigations.

This paper explores medieval Aristotelian perspectives on the phenomenon which we refer to today as a “congenital disability,” i.e. a disability present at or before birth. It was common in the Middle Ages to view congenital disabilities as caused by parental sexual sin or the mother’s misuse of her imagination during pregnancy. In contrast with these views, medieval Aristotelians explained congenital impairments in terms of failures of natural causes. Albert the Great, in particular, developed a detailed taxonomy of types of birth defects and their natural causes within the Aristotelian framework of the four causes. In addition to being relevant to the history of medicine and disability studies, medieval Aristotelian explanations of congenital disabilities are significant for the history of philosophy as such. In the early modern period, the reality of congenital disabilities provided an important battleground for those who sought to overturn the Aristotelian philosophy of nature. Early modern mechanists, such as Francis Bacon and John Locke, claimed that those born with impairments were evidence against the Aristotelian hylomorphic conception of nature. The birth of an organism which appeared to be lacking the features which normally belong to member of its species (e.g. a child born blind or cognitively impaired) was supposed to show that there were no substantial forms in material substances. The paper will discuss how medieval Aristotelians would have approached this challenge, as well as their position that  human beings born with severe impairments are fully human and have equal moral status.

Nel XIII secolo, insieme alle traduzioni latine del corpus aristotelico, circolava un De plantis attribuito ad Aristotele, ma scritto in realtà da Nicola di Damasco, un autore di lingua greca vissuto intorno al II secolo d.C.. Quando nel 1256 Alberto Magno commenta quest’opera, si accorge che il testo condivide ben poco con l’epistemologia e il metodo argomentativo di Aristotele. Così, Alberto interviene sul De plantis con strategie commentaristico-parafrastiche così ricche e integrative che, più che spiegare il testo, finiscono per ristrutturarlo. In questo saggio mostreremo le due alternative che Alberto fornisce in risposta alle lacune botaniche rinvenute nel De plantis, avanzando l’ipotesi che si possa identificare nel Liber de animalibus il modello epistemico al quale Alberto si ispira nel suo tentativo di riscrivere lo scritto sulle piante che Aristotele avrebbe dovuto o potuto comporre.

In this volume, Reiner Schürmann develops the idea that, in between the spiritual Carolingian Renaissance and the secular Humanist Renaissance, there was a distinctive Medieval Renaissance connected with the rediscovery of Aristotle. Focusing on Thomas Aquinas’s ontology and epistemology, William of Ockham’s conceptualism, and Meister Eckhart’s speculative mysticism, Schürmann shows how thought began to break free from religion and the hierarchies of the feudal, neo-Platonic order and devote its attention to otherness and singularity. A crucial supplement to Schürmann’s magnum opus Broken Hegemonies, Neo-Aristotelianism will be essential reading for anyone interested in the rise and fall of Western principles, and thus in how to think and act today

SOME MODERN SCHOLARS, such as Jeremiah Hackett and Agostino
Paravicini Bagliani, assert that the thirteenth-century work most commonly known as the Speculum astronomiae should not be attributed to Albertus Magnus. However, this article, based on a close analysis of forty-one of the surviving fifty-nine manuscripts containing the Speculum
in conjunction with a wide array of other primary sources, demonstrates
that the preponderance of the evidence is strongly suggestive that this is
a genuinely Albertine work. Furthermore, this article considers some of
the ways in which astrology fit into Albert’s larger theological and philosophical thought. Since Albert was a bishop and a theologian, it is necessary to see his astrological views as central to his theology, which is why he wrote about the subject almost every time he put pen to paper. Thus, this article not only argues for Albert’s authorship of the Speculum but also demonstrates how it fits within his larger body of writings on astrology and theology, while showing how these two subjects were linked for him.

Aucune des réalités de notre monde n’échappe au mouvement et aucune n’est faite pour y échapper. D’où cette nécessité leur vient-elle ? Toutes rentrent dans l’histoire en ayant leur histoire. Que nous apprend cette manière d’être façonné en habitant le monde? Elles ne se contentent pas d’être là, inertes, mais elles possèdent une alacrité par laquelle elles deviennent. À quelle destinée répondent-elle alors ? Saint Thomas d’Aquin a longuement médité sur ces questions fondamentales pour la métaphysique et la théologie. Dans un contexte médiéval où le regard sur les choses et leur devenir évolue radicalement par rapport aux conceptions antiques —regard dont nous sommes d’ailleurs les héritiers —, il développe un enseignement original aussi ample que profond. Cet enseignement a commencé d’être redécouvert au vingtième siècle en prêtant attention à l’esse, à l’acte consistant à être. Son second volet demeurait pourtant inexploré, celui de l’opération, celui de l’acte dans lequel l’étant atteint sa perfection et exprime pleinement ce qu’il est. La métaphysique thomasienne n’est pas seulement une métaphysique de l’étant qui est, elle est une métaphysique de l’étant qui est bon en ce qu’il opère. Une autre redécouverte en découle : les créatures ne procèdent pas de Dieu seulement en étant créées, mais aussi en étant gouvernées vers le bien dans leurs opérations. Elles opèrent parce qu’elles sont attirées vers Celui qui est bon par essence, comme vers la fin qui les rend bonnes en les assimilant à Lui. Opérer, c’est procéder de Dieu dans le bien. Ainsi, opération des créatures et gouvernement divin sont intimement liés, et l’attrait de Dieu sur toutes choses est la clé de cette intimité.

Table des Matières
Première partie. « Penser l’ἐνέργεια »
Chapitre I. La division de l’étant selon l’acte
Chapitre II. Activité et mouvement chez aristote

Deuxième partie. La dualité de l’action et de l’opération
Chapitre I. une lecture altérée d’aristote
Chapitre II. L’action ou l’étant comme origine
Chapitre III. L’opération ou l’acte du parfait

Troisième partie. Le chemin de la perfection
Chapitre I. L’opération comme intensification de la bonté
Chapitre II. L’opération comme effet de l’attrait du bien

Quatrième partie. Avoir Dieu pour fin
Chapitre I. Être gouverné vers la fin
Chapitre II. Atteindre la fin

--------------------------------------

Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal (Ave Maria University, Naples, Fl.) 2018 Prize.
Nothing in our world is deprived of movement, and nothing is made to elude movement. Why is it so? All things enter history by having their own history. What does it teach us this way of being shaped by inhabiting the world? Beings are not merely there, they do not stay inert, but they possess their own keenness towards their becoming. What destiny then are they answering to? Saint Thomas Aquinas dealt with these fundamental questions for metaphysics and theology in considerable detail. He took part in the new understanding of being and becoming which appeared in mediaeval times (and which we inherited). But he did it in an ample, profound, original way. This teaching has been partially rediscovered in the 20th century, with a focus on the esse, the act which consists in being. But its other main component remained unexplored: as any being is (it possesses esse), any being also operates. Operation is the act through which a being attains its perfection and expresses what it is. Aquinas’ metaphysics is not merely a metaphysics of the being which is, it is a metaphysics of the being which is good in that it operates. This brings into light another aspect of Aquinas’ teaching: creatures do not proceed from God merely in that they are created, they also proceed from God in that they are governed towards the good in their operations. They operate because they are attracted by He who is good in essence and the end which makes them good by assimilating them to his goodness. To operate is to proceed from God according to the good. Therefore, the operation of creatures and the divine government are intimately tied, and the attraction of God upon all things is the key to this intimacy.
Fr. Emmanuel Perrier, o.p., is a French dominican of the Toulouse Province. He is professor of dogmatics at the dominican Studium and the Institut Saint Thomas d’Aquin (Catholic University of Toulouse). He published in the same series a study in trinitarian theology, La Fécondité en Dieu.

“It is well-known that the Thomist doctrine of esse underwent an important rediscovery in the 20th century, in many different ways. However the doctrine of operatio has not received a similar attention until now. Emmanuel Perrier’s book addresses this shortcoming. In this regard, the present publication is a milestone within Thomistic studies. […] In sum, this superb work of Emmanuel Perrier invites us to read again, under the light of the doctrine of operation, the whole theology of Aquinas! The invitation isn’t limited to the divine government, it starts with the study of God one and triune: this book sheds a deeply evocative light on the trinitarian foundation of divine government, referring to the Holy Spirit and the causality of the processions in the Trinity. Under the light of the doctrine of operation, the treatise on beatitude, the study of the human act, and in particular the theological operations and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, deserve a new reading. Lastly, the study of the human operation of Christ could benefit greatly by being placed under this new light cast upon this notion of operation. All this makes clear that this highly specialized book leads us right to the heart of the metaphysics Aquinas formulated and upon which he based his theological teaching. This book should be received with all the attention it deserves because it is a true gift given to theology.”
Fr. Gillles Emery, o.p., from the Foreword of the book.

Table of contents
Part 1. “To think ἐνέργεια through”
c. 1: The division of being according to the act; c. 2: Activity and movement in Aristotle.
Part 2. The duality of action and operation
c. 1: A distorted reading of Aristotle; c. 2: Action, that is, the being as an origin; c. 3: Operation, that is, the act of the perfect.
Part 3. The path to perfection
c. 1: Operation as the intensification of goodness; c. 2: Operation as the effect of the good’s attractiveness.
Part 4. To have God as one’s end
c. 1: To be governed towards the end; c. 2: To attain the end.

According to Aristotle, eutrapelia is the virtue that disposes us rightly with regard to relaxing amusments, in particular by means of witty conversation. This article examines the reception of eutrapelia by Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Gerald Odo. Philosophically, the main issue is to clarify in which sense eutrapelia is a virtue, indeed a moral virtue. Historically, it is a case study of how a specific Aristotelian topic is approached differently in works of various authors or in diverse works by the same author.

In this paper I will argue that Albert – by reworking the definition of mysticus that he inherited from the Pseudo-Dionysius – finds an equilibrium between an emotional and intellectual mysticism: although intellect remains the noblest among our faculties and the one in which is impressed the divine image of creation, it will be clear that the intellectual faculty ultimately needs a completion from passions. In this respect, I will show how repentance and love have both a prominent role in supporting the conversion and the assimilation of the soul to its Creator.

This article analyzes the fifteenth-century attempt by the Dominican order, especially in Cologne, to win canonization for the thirteenth-century natural philosopher Albert the Great. It shows how Albert's thought on natural philosophy and magic was understood and variously applied, how the Dominicans at Cologne composed his vitae, and how the order's Observant movement participated in these developments. It situates the canonization attempt at the intersection of two significant trends in which the order was a leading participant: first, the late medieval efforts to reform Christian society beginning with the religious life of monks and mendicants; second, the increasing concerns about the practice of learned and demonic magic that laid groundwork for the witch-hunting of the early modern period. The article aims to shed light on intersections of science and religion - their apprehension and negotiation - at a decisive moment in European history for both fields of human endeavor.

“Goodness comes from a single and whole cause, while evil comes from numerous partial deficiencies.”
This brief saying from Pseudo-Dionysius is one of the crowning principles of chapter 4 “on good and evil” in his work On The Divine Names. It is a crown because it is the final conclusion that follows logically from all that comes before in the chapter on the nature of goodness, but it is likewise a principle for two of his faithful commentators, St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, who use it in their moral theology to manifest why all the elements of an act must be good in order for the act itself to be good. In this paper I will seek to clarify how Dionysius arrives at this principle of the integrity of goodness, showing that it flows from his understanding of the nature of good and evil, then, I will examine how this principle was interpreted and developed by Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas and used by them as a source for the rest of their moral theology.

Written probably around the end of the 60s of the 13th century, Ulrich’s ‘De summo bono’ can be rightly defined as a work of philosophical theology, for it deliberately conciliates philosophical rationality with theological wisdom and mixes philosophical with theological subjects. Aside from all the specific conceptual and doctrinal disagreements, it is this conception of the relationship between philosophy and theology that marks the radical difference from his master Albert.
Yet, the great originality of Ulrich’s only surviving work does not stop there. Paradoxically, the constant recourse to Albert’s writings is by no means a sign of Ulrich’s total dependence on his master, but only the epiphenomenon of a new intellectual undertaking. The passages taken from Albert’s writings are freely adapted, combined, managed, interpreted, manipulated. In other words, Ulrich’s summa is not an anthology of texts slavishly copied, but a complex work that offers two interrelated levels of understanding.
At the doctrinal level, it is the work of an auctor that puts forth not only incidental personal views, but a comprehensive and coeherent conception of the world and a theory of the epistemological status and relationship of the branches of knowledge. The doctrine of fate, which is part of this general system of thought, provides a clear example of Ulrich’s relevance as an autonomous thinker. His views on providence, celestial causality and contingency were indeed an original contribution to the debates on fate and related issues which were taking place in the second half of the 13th century.
Given the textual relationship with Albert’s texts, ‘De summo bono’ also has an undeniable hermeneutical value, for it is a key to understanding Albert’s works. In this regard, Ulrich develops a multifaceted exegetical approach by reorganizing, reinterpreting and correcting Albert’s texts. The cases that have been examined (i.e., the substitution of Empedocles with Antiphon and the complex strategy regarding angelic apparitions) are representative of what can be called a ‘manipulative’ interpretation.

ABSTRACT

Paying careful attention to his use of language, this chapter introduces Albert the Great’s (1200-80) contribution to natural rights into the scholarly debate between subjective and objective rights. Teacher of Thomas Aquinas, Albert’s work on ius naturale has been overshadowed in many aspects by the significance and impact of his student’s. However, Albert’s early appearance on the stage of empirical sciences as a student of nature has been widely recognized. Ecclectic in his use of sources, Albert would generously use Stoic writings, and would become as well a first rate commentator of Aristotle’s works. As a theologian, Albert’s Agustinian influences cannot be neglected. The text examined here, De bono (1242), constitutes an early and thorough elaboration of an original doctrine of natural right and, importantly, of natural rights. The natural rights that Albert describes appear to the modern student both curiously subjective and objective, not fitting the scholarly divide between Aquinian objective system of right and Ockhamist subjective powers as rights. Naturalism, jurisprudence and the demands of society concoted within a theological framework of the mind describe private property, occupation of free things, health, self-defence, worship and even elections as rights implanted in nature. On the one hand, God creates the human being to be good through universals of right inserted in nature. On the other hand, Albert encounters already the problem of the epistemological autonomy of the human being on the face of defective reason. In an uneasy equilibrium of authorities, Albert’s theology of human being’s participation in divine intellect, a power, concurs with the individual’s difficulty in applying the right in the concrete case.

This paper focuses on Albert's reflections on the scientific character of ethics as a philosophical discipline which can be found in his two commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. My considerations are divided into five parts: first, the basic texts an which my interpretation is based will be introduced. In the second part, I will give a
short sketch of Aristotle's treatment of ethics as a science. In the third and fourth part, I will try to show how Albert depicts ethics as a practical science in his commentaries. My concluding remarks in the final part concentrate an the rather neglected relationship
between the two commentaries and their contribution to Albert's ethics.

The article studies the reception of Aristotle’s treatments of voluntariness and decision (EN 3.1–5) in the first three Latin commentaries (two by Albert the Great, one by Thomas Aquinas) that are based on the integral text of the Nicomachean Ethics. In particular, my goal is to examine how Albert’s and Thomas’s non-Aristotelian concepts of the will as a faculty distinct from reason influences their explanations of the Aristotelian account. It is argued that the Dominican commentators emphasize the idea of freedom more than Aristotle did.

The present study focuses on Albert the Great’s reception of Arabic sources – especially of Avicenna – in his commentary on the Isagoge, i.e., the Super Porphyrium de V Universalibus. The paper is articulated into two main sections (I and II) and six appendixes (A-F). The first section (I) offers a preliminary evaluation of Albert’s use of Arabic sources in the SP. The second section (II) aims to assess Avicenna’s impact on Albert from the viewpoint of his doctrinal digressions. Two major doctrines of Avicenna are integrated into Albert’s theory of the predicables: first, the Avicennian distinction between an ontological consideration of the predicables, which pertains to metaphysics, and a logical one, which pertains to logic; second, Avicenna’s redefinition of the epistemological status of logic, which is reassessed as a science in its own right with its own subject-matter, ceasing to be considered as a mere instrument for the other sciences. Both points were crucial to the thirteenth-century debate on the subject-matter of logic and the universal predicables: a comparison between Albert the Great’s and Robert Kilwardby’s treatments of these themes shows that Albert might have engaged in a debate with his colleagues which has gone unnoticed so far. It is argued that the recourse to Avicenna has provided Albert with a set of arguments which, assimilated and rearranged in his theory of the universal predicables, enabled him to elaborate original answers to the problems differently faced by his contemporaries.

The notion of 'virtus formativa', i.e., a shaping force responsible for crucial dynamics in the formation of living beings, plays a central role in the history of embryology. Among 13th century Latin authors, the Dominican magister Albert the Great (ca. 1193-1280) gives this notion an innovative and extensive treatment, crossing boundaries between theology and philosophy. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this lecture will explore Albert’s doctrine on formative power, by investigating its metaphysical and theological premises and its pivotal role in the dynamics of configuration and transmission of the living.

"Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences is, alas, rarely read. Thanks to Krause's English translation of the gigantic q. 2 of book 4, distinction 49 (on the beatific vision), however, Aquinas's early thought on this important theological and philosophical puzzle is now accessible to a wider readership. This book is more than a text translation: It is a veritable goldmine of information about the historical and conceptual dimensions of the problem with which Aquinas grapples. Its extensive volume introduction, which lays out all the strands of discourse-Greek, Arabic, Latin-in the historical conversation that Aquinas inherited, is a must-read for scholars working in the area, while also being clear and accessible for non-specialist readers. Additionally, Krause has provided lluminating introductions that clearly and elegantly map out the concepts at issue in each article. With Krause's aid, readers will find themselves well-equipped to plunge into these deep waters with Aquinas." - Prof. Therese Cory, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

"Thomas Aquinas on Seeing God is a genuine highlight in Aquinas studies-the only available extensive study on Aquinas's earliest account of the beatific vision in his commentary on Sentences IV.49.2. Offering a fully annotated translation of the Latin text and paving the way for a no doubt equally valuable follow-up, Krause shows in detail how resourcefully the young Aquinas developed his understanding of the beatific vision, on the shoulders of giants: his teacher Albert the Great, as well as Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes on the one hand, Augustine and pseudo-Dionysius on the other. Krause's remarkable study fills an important gap in the literature by acknowledging the novelty of Aquinas's contribution to the fiercely disputed question of the beatific vision. It seems to suggest that this question hermeneutically transcends the problem of knowledge of God and reaches into the larger ontological and theological context of man's return to God." - Dr. Henryk Anzulewicz, Albertus Magnus Institute, Bonn, Germany

"Katja Krause's Thomas Aquinas on Seeing God underscores the importance of Thomas Aquinas's early commentary on Sentences IV.49.2, one mostly neglected today. With her richly annotated and felicitous translation, overarching general historical introduction, and masterfully textured individual introductions to each of the seven articles of Aquinas's treatment of the beatific vision, Krause guides the reader through the meanings, nuances, and allusions of young Aquinas's learned teachings on ultimate human happiness and the surprising extent to which pagan Greek and Muslim philosophers helped to determine his own position on this much-debated theologicophilosophical topic. This refreshing and intelligent book will captivate neophytes in Scholasticism and seasoned Thomas scholars alike." - Prof. (emeritus) Steven Harvey, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Certain traits of the magnanimous man of the Nicomachean Ethics seem incompatible with gratitude and humility. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas are the first commentators of the Latin West who had access to the integral portrayal of magnanimity in the Nicomachean Ethics. Surprisingly, they welcomed the Aristotelian ideal of magnanimity without reservations. The paper summarizes Aristotle’s account of magnanimity, discusses briefly the transformation of this notion in Stoicism and early scholasticism, and analyzes Albert’s and Thomas’s interpretation of Aristotle. Thomas is found to be a more faithful and ingenious interpreter than Albert. He addresses and solves a number of philosophical problems of Aristotle’s account that still puzzle contemporary interpreters.

https://www.edizionistudiodomenicano.it/Docs/Libri/9788870949506.pdf

Nella tradizione che si ispira ad Aristotele, l'intelletto agente è fonte di numerose dispute. L'articolo si propone di investigare il tema sia in Alberto Magno sia dal punto di vista critico, con particolare riguardo alla questione del limite conoscitivo umano.
Restano all'autore due domande: come è possibile all’uomo intendere pienamente (totaliter) una qualsiasi cosa, anche un solo aspetto della realtà, se la Verità, fondamento dell’intendere umano, non è mai completamente raggiungibile dall'intelletto umano finito ed è semplice? Inoltre, come può l’uomo, nella condizione beatifica, intendere che l’Assoluto è in sé stesso maggiormente intelligibile rispetto a quanto egli Lo intenda?

In the tradition inspired by Aristotle, the agent intellect is a major source of dispute.
The article’s aim is to investigate the topic both in Albert the Great and from a critical point of view with particular regard to the question of the human cognitive limit.
Two questions remain that the author poses: how can human being fully (totaliter) understand something, even only a single aspect of reality, if the Thruth, foundation of the human understanding, cannot be completely understood and is simple? Furthermore, how can Man understand, in the beatific vision, that the Absolute is in itself more intelligible in comparison to how he understands Him?

Catastrophes, such as inundations, deluges, conflagrations, famines, and plagues, regularly affected daily life in the Middle Ages. These were devastating, tangible events that disrupted the fabric of social and family life, affected the economies of communities, cities, and regions, and left permanent scars on the lives of the people. Unsurprisingly, medieval intellectuals were led to reflect on these unsettling phenomena, oscillating between the theological interpretation that they constituted divine punishments for human sins and more naturalistic explanations 1. Proponents of the latter approach could base their investigation into the origins, mechanisms, and effects of natural calamities on a range of philosophical sources (Aristotle, Albumasar, Avicenna, Averroes, etc.). Albert the Great was certainly one of the medieval authors most interested in the study of natural disasters. Elsewhere, I have described his analysis of the Great Year 2 and the great conjunctions 3 , both celestial periodicities capable of causing catastrophic events on Earth 4. While Albert was aware of the doctrinal risks of these two theories for Christian religion (e.g., their deterministic stance and a cyclic conception of time), he also saw their philosophical potential. The Great Year and the great conjunctions, in particular, allowed him to focus and better define the relationship between astrology/natural philosophy and escathology and to exploit a powerful explanatory tool for natural catastrophes. Albert's analysis of natural calamities is thus closely tied to both theories, their astrological content, and their naturalistic implications. In what follows, I intend to shed light on Albert's theory of deluges. The discussion of catastrophes, and floods in particular, as proposed in the De causis proprietatum elementorum and the Meteora, is part of a larger scientific project. When it comes to describing what happens in the natural realm, Albert is concerned with offering an explanation that does not resort to supernatural interventions and miracles 5. This is not tantamount to denying the existence of a supreme cause for all reality, that is God, who is also the first origin for all naturals events, but to recognizing the autonomy of philosophical discourse and its suitability for exploring causae secundae: deluges of

The paper examines how the figure of the biblical Moses was philosophically interpreted in medieval Jewish and Christian writings. It highlights a turning point in a new concept of prophecy and scriptural authority and suggests that this transformation was made complicated for both Jewish and Christian intellectuals by the appearance of Moses Maimonides, who was most influential in promoting the Muslim model of philosophic interpretation of prophecy, and at the same time confusingly emerged as a living manifestation of semi-biblical authority. Against Jewish exclusivist interpretation of Mosaic law as the leading polemical argument to encounter competing revelations, the first part of my paper points out a mechanism of "Jewish successionism", i.e., the re-interpretation of the biblical Moses as an instrument for rationalizing normative paradigmatic shift. The second, main part of the paper turns to the Latin translation of Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed, placing it in the midst of a crucial western Latin turn into a new phase of engagement with Old Testament concept of prophecy. A short comparison between some prominent twelfth century figures and later Scholastic thought demonstrates the central role of the new Arab Aristotelianism in general, and that of Maimonides in particular. Maimonides reception among the schoolman will culminate in the writings of Meister Eckhart, exposing the full potentiality of the double appearance of the Egyptian (Rabbi) Moses.