Summa
Summa and its diminutive summula (plural summae and summulae, respectively) was a
Features
It was a kind of encyclopedia that developed a matter about Law, Theology or Philosophy most of all. Matters were divided in a more detailed way as it was in the tractatus (treatise), since they were divided into quaestiones (questions) and these ones were also divided into articles. The articles had the following structure:
- Title of the article as a question and showing two different positions (disputatio).
- Objections or arguments against one of the alternatives, specially the one that defended the author.
- Arguments in favor of such an alternative, based on the Holy Fathersand so on.
- Solution, that includes arguments that combine faith and reason and that express the author's thought.
- The sententia or answer to the question, that consists in the refutation of the initial objections against the author's solution.[2][3]
History
Some historians of theology cite
In the stricter sense of the word, "Summa" is applied to the more technical systematic compendiums which began to appear in the twelfth century. According to the
The first great summist was
How far Peter Lombard was influenced by earlier summists, such as
The term "Summulæ" was used, for the most part, to designate the logical compendiums which came to be adopted as texts in the schools during the thirteenth century. The best known of these is the "Summulæ Logicales" of
Dominican works
Manuals of theology and more especially manuals, or summae, on penance for the use of confessors were composed in great numbers. The oldest Dominican commentaries on the "Sentences" are those of
The "Summa" of St. Thomas (1265–75) is still the masterpiece of theology. The monumental work of Albertus Magnus is unfinished. The "Summa de bono" of
The chief manual of confessors is that of
The Pisan
Law
In the area of Law, the summa is a practical and didactic genre, that was developed from the methodology of the gloss. It was divided into two different literary genres: the summa (derived from the similia), and the questio legitima (derived from the contraria).
The summa was born in the minor Law schools whose aim was to instruct their students with easy summaries of the
The summae were developed specially in the civil law schools of Occitanie specially regarding Justinian's Institutiones.
Some important legal summae
- Azo of Bologna's Summa Codicis.
- Summa Codicis written in Occitan and known as Lo Codi, translated into Latin by Riccardo Pisano.
Theology and Philosophy
The teaching of Theology and Philosophy during the Middle Ages had two different ways: lectio and disputatio:
- The lectio (lesson) was very similar to a present class. The teacher commented the sentences and doctrines of famous and known authors, such as for instance, Aristotle's or Boethius' works, or Peter Lombard's sentences.
- The disputatio (dispute) was more informal than the lectio, and was a real dialogue between teachers and disciples, where arguments in favour of or against any theses or subject were defended.
These two school methods originated their literary forms:
- From the lectio, the commentaria (commentaries) were born. And these ones brought the summae about, which were freer and more autonomous and systematic than the commentaria.
- The disputatio originated the quaestiones disputatae (disputed matters), that gather the material of the disputes that were held every two weeks; and the quodlibeta (random questions), that gathered the disputes that were held in Christmas and Easter. This methodology of the disputationes was the technical model of the famous mediaeval summae.[13]
Theology
There are more or less sixty extant summae in this field, including:
- Simon of Tournai's Summa or Institutiones in sacram paginam, 1165
- Prepositinus of Cremona's Summa de officiis or Summa de poenitentia
- Gerard of Sesso, incipit Ne transgrediaris, c. 1200
- William of Auxerre's Summa Aurea, 1220
- Summa Theologiae, 1274
- Thomas Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles
- Alexander of Hales' Summa Theologiae, 13th century
- Gerard of Bologna's Summa Theologiae, 1317
- Francesc Eiximenis' Summa Theologica (fragments). 14th century
References
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Summæ". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Notes
- ISBN 9780226260709.
- ISBN 978-84-7528-141-4.
- ISBN 978-84-8102-134-9.
- ^ Literary Forms of Medieval Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant, I, 53.
- ^ Martin Grabmann, "Studien ueber Ulrich von Strassburg" in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, XXIX, 1905, 82.
- ^ Ilgner, "Die Volkswirtschaftlichen Anschauungen: Antonins von Florenz", Paderborn, 1904.
- ^ Mandonnet, "Des écrits authentiques de St. Thomas", Fribourg, 1910, p. 86.
- ^ IV, 1880, 191.
- ^ "Miscellan. Lib." (Augsburg, 1723, 59.
- ^ Quétif and Jacques Échard, Scriptores ordinis prædicatorum recensiti, notisque historicis illustrati ad annum 1700 auctoribus; I, passim, Hurter, "Nomenclator literarius; aetas media", Innsbruck, 1906, passim; F. von Schulte, "Gesch. der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts", Stuttgart, II, 1877, p. 410 sqq.; Dietterle, "Die Summæ confessorum von ihren Anfängen an bis zu Silvester Prierias" in "Zeitschrift für Kirchengesch.", XXIV, 1903; XXVIII, 1907).
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ Merino, J.A. OFM. Historia de la filosofía franciscana. Madrid. BAC. 1993, p. 13. (in Spanish)