The 17th century is one of the interesting historical periods for theologians and philosophers in regard to the tectonic shifts that occured on such topics as causality, virtue, the human will, and the knowledge of God. This post is not so much interested in the changes that would come via Descartes, Bacon, Wolff, and others, but rather in suggesting a baseline by which one should measure the changes and differences that would occur in the 17th century. Since this is a modest post, I certainly recognize the volumes that need to be written on these issues as well as the depth of the secondary literature among philosophers of science and historians of science. Theologians as well need to be involved in these conversations, and many are. That being said,forgive the general introduction.

Indeed it is difficult to analyze the period properly given the contemporary naturalistic and generally deterministic assumptions regarding efficient causality in the physical and moral realm. Thus, it is often the case that 17th c. Reformed theology is viewed, both by some of its contemporary proponents and critics, as contrary to true human freedom. Please understand that

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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.

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