Here are a few links that are extraordinarily helpful for working with the various “hands” of medieval paleography. 

• • • Resources from a Medieval Latin Paleography course at Stanford. - This is a great resource for manuscripts from Britain, Ireland, the Iberian peninsula, France, Belgium, German, and Italian.
    • D. Tillotson’s Medieval Writing site.
    • EVELLUM - various software programs (for purchase)  for the electronic study of medieval paleography. See especially DUCTUS for the period 150 AD - 1500 AD.
    • Resources for Medieval Studies from Georgetown University - LABYRINTH
    • Collections of Manuscripts online:
• •  
    •  
      • Diocese of Cologne, Codices E. Ecclesiae Coloniensis
      • Dublin, Trinity College Library
      • National Library of Ireland
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library, by period & place
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library, Checklist of Mss. to 1500
      • Oxford, Bodleian Library treasures, shelf mark
      • Philadelphia (?), Lawrence Schoenberg Collection
      • St. Gallen, Switzerland, Codices E. Sangallenses

Enjoy!

As you can probably tell from the various sites that I am visiting, today I have been working on footnotes for parts of the translation of Petrus van Mastricht Theoretico-Practica Theologia (for those of you interested I am about 90 pages into the piece). Mastricht has been interacting with Jesuits, Arminian/Remonstrants, English Puritans, Cameronians (think Amyraut et al), and more recently medieval and renaissance rabbis. I am happy to say that I have found almost all of the texts in some digital library or another. There are a few texts I might have to travel a little in order to check, but over all it was a good day.

One of several medieval rabbis that Mastricht cites favorably at points is Moses Maimonides (1138-1204), who was studied during the medieval period by Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, and Andrew of St. Victor among others. In the renaissance and reformation period he was studied for his emphasis upon the literal sense of scripture and a philosophical defense of God and the authority of Scripture. His work was originally written in Arabic, translated into Hebrew, and then translated again into Latin. The edition that was popular among 17th c. philosophers, humanists, and exegetes was probably the rare and coveted 1629 Buxtorf edition that was translated from the Arabic directly into Latin. (If you find a pdf copy let me know!!)

So today, poking around a bit I was pleased to find a Latin 1520 edition of the Moreh Navukhim by R. Moses Maimonides for free based off of the Hebrew translation from the Arabic as well as several Hebrew editions. Granted it’s not the 1479 Hebrew translation from the Arabic that went for $44k on Christies’ auction block recently (183 pages at  roughly $240/pg!) , and it is not in my favorite pdf format (DJVU … ?), but there is a wonderful digital collection of early printed 15th c. to 19th c. editions of various famous works of Judaica at the Jewish National University and Library Book Repository which I highly recommend. The JNUL (which recently changed its name to the National Library of Israel) is located in Jerusalem and has roughly 5 million books. Their mission is to have copies of everything (regardless of language) which touches upon Judaism, Hebraica, or Israel. Needless to say, their digital library isn’t quite up to their holdings, but there are fine specimens of printed Hebrew and Latin translations from the early renaissance to the early 20th century. (I even found a Latin copy of Nicolas of Lyra …). You can also check out their other online resources here.

By the way, make sure you have the DjVU plugin installed for your web-browser and also for downloading the images (read the system specs carefully!) as well as any necessary Hebrew fonts, as the catalog does list the works in a Western or Hebrew alphabet depending on the titles and language of publication.

You may recall (or may not!) about a year ago I had a post entitled St. Jerome vs. the Council of Trent on Scripture. I would like to continue that “anti-Apocrypha” line into the medievals with Nicolas of Lyra (1270-1340), and while the Roman Catholics might rightly call him Doctor plain and useful (Doctor Planus et Utilis), I think a Protestant might more justly call him either Doctor Sensus Literalis or Doctor Scripturae Canonicae. While reading through this article on Nicolas in the Catholic Encyclopedia, which calls him “one of the foremost exegetes of all time,” I wonder if (more…)

Not only was Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus, 1193-1280) a philosopher and what one might call a medieval scientist, but he was also a monumental medieval theologian. He is known as Doctor Universalis for his vast knowledge and erudition in the classical fields of metaphysics, physics, logic, and ethics. What is more, he was also an active preacher and theologian in the Dominican Order. Thomas Aquinas was his student and protege, whom Albert outlived by 6 years and during that time defended his student’s theology. 

Through the tireless efforts of some staff and faculty at the University of Waterloo in Canada, 38 quarto-volumes (minus the inauthentic works) of the 19th c. Borgnet edition of the corpus of Albertus Magnus are available for download for free. Be warned each “volume” is, on average, a 200MB, 900 page pdf - just so you know. And it is totally in Latin. Volumes 14-38 (minus 5 inauthentic works) are the theological works divided between 8 volumes of scripture commentaries, 6 volumes on the Sentences, the 3 volume Summa Mirabilis Scientia Dei, and three volumes on humanity, the philosophical question of aeviternity as a possible conception of time, the mystery of the mass, and the Lord’s body. For theologians, the Summa and his commentaries on the Sentences are perhaps his most substantial contributions to the corpus of medieval theology.

Still interested? go here. 

Further Reading:

• Albert the Great in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Also has a solid bibliography of critical primary editions and scholarly secondary sources.
• Albert the Great in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexicon
• In the Catholic Encyclopedia

I recently ran across Andreas Wengerscius’ Libri Quattuor Slavoniae Reformatae and must say I wish I knew a group of Latinists that would translate this into the languages of Eastern Europe. (This would also be a valuable work to have in English on one’s shelf right next to D’Aubigne). This work was introduced and endorsed by Voetius and chronicles the ecclesiastical histories of Poland, Bohemia, Russia, Prussia, and Moravia, from the time of the apostles’ through the Reformation. The fact that this work remains untranslated is not a gap in the scholarship but a tremendous chasm in Reformed Protestant Church history: Secondly, it would also give modern missions efforts in Eastern Europe a good back story prior to the modern period of the controversies and various unification efforts that occurred as well as the many persecutions that faced Protestants in largely Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox lands. Thirdly, as a result, on a doctrinal level this also narrates some of the engagements of the Reformed Orthodox with the Eastern Orthodox churches. Also, in the fourth book, some sections read like a roster or missions report of the names, locations, and status of the pastors, churches, and cities in Eastern Europe. It is virtually a Reformed “who’s who” of Eastern Europe chronicling who was where and when and doing what in the mid-17th century. Lastly, there is also a fascinating transcript of the questions, arguments, and responses at the Colloquy of Roznov (in modern day Czech Republic) in 1660. This was a dispute between the “Arians/Socinians” or as they called themselves the Christian Unitarians and the Roman Catholics on a variety of topics but especially the Trinity.

By the way the table of contents is here

Found this the other day while poking about for other “distinction” and “definition” books of theology besides Alsted. This particular piece largely deals with scholastic theological and philosophical distinctions found in Roman Catholic theology, especially the Medieval and patristic period. Not a bad resource to have around. It is totally in Latin.

What’s a Gloss? 

The “study bible” of the late medieval period was called a gloss. Basically it was a rolling commentary including pithy comments from (and sometimes only attributed to) a wide variety of Church Fathers, east and west. Due to its size I am not aware of any English translations of the whole thing. To give you a glimpse of its importance in Medieval theology (and later Protestantism), for example, Thomas Aquinas lectures on and interacts with the Glossa in his  (more…)

For all the students of New Testament exegesis and the history surrounding the texts, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts is a wonderful treasure of free high quality images. I highly recommend spending some time browsing through the manuscripts. Most, if not all, of these have never been in the public eye. Even among scholars in the field, the best that they may have seen is a black and white copy of microfiche. Also, this other site is a good resource for the Codex Sinaiticus.

I want to thank another fellow PhD. student who pointed me to this site, Jordan Ballor, who is a PhD. candidate at Calvin Theological Seminary and a Doktorand at the University of Zurich. Thanks Jordan!

Peter Abelard (aka Pierre Abelard or Petrus Abelardus, 1079 - 1142) was quite a theological phenomenon in his own day as far as the velocity of his ascent and popularity and his calamitous declension in controversy with Bernard of Clairveaux. More recently, since the 19th century, it is common to ascribe a form of the Moral Influence Theory of the atonement to him in such a way that he becomes a proto-modern reactionary against a substitutionary theory of the atonement. The Moral Influence Theory in broad and, unfortunately, brief terms is that Christ died on the cross as an example of God’s love which evokes a deeper love from us which in turn saves us from our sins. The supposed gain is that theologically we gain salvation without, as many modern feminist theologies assert, “divine child abuse.” Thus, Abelard is enlisted to carry the freight of such theories. And so an immediate series of historiographical questions arise, but two suffice:  (more…)

Alexander of Hales (1183? - 1245) was a Franciscan monk born at Hales, Gloucestershire.  He trained at Oxford and the University of Paris, and is known for his Summa Universae Theologiae, a massive series of at least 4 tomes depending on the edition. Francis Bacon is said to have quipped that Alexander’s Summa weighed as much as a horse! Alexander founded the Franciscan school of theology at the University of Paris. As you can find out from here, here, and here, Alexander was innovative in his use of Aristotle (at a time when they were banned!), Anselm of Canterbury, and Pseudo-Dionysius. His works were referenced and employed by Bonaventure and medieval theologians ever after. It is a treasury in its own right as a window into medieval theology prior to Thomas Aquinas (Thomas was 20 when Alexander, dubbed the Theologorum Monarcha, died). 

His Summa is available for download one high quality image at a time from the Verteilte Digitale Inkunabelbibliothek project of the HAB housed at the Universität- und Stadtbibliothek Köln. The VDI have captured stunning images of this hand-copied text). By the way, if your Latin is shakey, this text isn’t for rookies as there are many abbreviations, misspellings by modern standards, and quite a bit of short-hand (see the post about Latin Abbreviations) - it is a literal manuscript. (If you want to try your hand at it, click here for a sample of the text I used)

The second part (membrum) of the first question considers whether theology is categorically distinct from other sciences, here are some of his thoughts in good scholastic order (first the common arguments, then his contra): (more…)