A Leaf from the Summa Theologica, Connecting the Beginning of University Life in Europe with one of the Great Writers and Thinkers of the Era: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dated from the End of the 13th Century, Paris

The leaf text consists of articles and objections. It references the works of Avicenna, Augustine, Plato.

The University of Paris claims a prized position in the pantheon of early Universities. Its establishment marked an important milestone in the history of organized education and scholarship. What began as a small guild of teachers grew in time to a more organized entity, formally founded in the beginning of the 13th century. It contained 4 separate schools, of which theology was one. The University was recognized by the Crown in 1257 and still retains the common name of its early founder, Robert de Sorbon: The Sorbonne. The area around the University flourished with aspiring scholars from around Europe. It is considered the 2nd oldest university in Europe.

St. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest of the Scholastic philosophers. He produced a comprehensive synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy that influenced Roman Catholic doctrine for centuries and was adopted as the official philosophy of the church in 1917. He lived and worked when the University was in its nascent stage. He was around 30 when it gained royal recognition. He remains to this day one of the most respected and widely quoted of the Church’s theologians, philosophers, jurists, and authors. Indeed much of our modern thought is influenced by his works.

The Summa Theologica, comprised of three parts, is the most famous of Aquinas’s works. Composed in, essentially, a question and answer format, the text was designed for instruction, used as a guide for theological students, such as those who would study at the University. Its influence goes beyond theology. It is a classic of Western literature and thought, philosophy and education.

Its three parts, Thomas wrote, treat ‘first of God, secondly of the journey to God of reasoning creatures, thirdly of Christ who, as man, is our road to God’, is a disarmingly simple summary of a work of over 3,000 articles that constitute an exposition of extraordinary scope and detail. It was left unfinished in the third part when Aquinas decided to abandon writing shortly before his death.

Thomas was a Dominican theologian and he died in the 1274. In 1323 he was canonized by Pope John XXII. From this point forth he has been referred to as Saint Thomas. Prior to that point he was referred to by his fellow theologians as “Brother.”

A leaf from the Summa.

Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274, Summa theologiæ, Quaestio XVI, De Veritate, “On Truth”. One leaf, 25 X 30.5 cm. Black ink on vellum with text 54 ll. in two columns with some marginal notation. Script in semi cursive gothic bookhand with profuse abbreviations, typical of university books produced with the pecia system, wherein the book would be broken into sections called peciae. Individuals – such as students – would rent them, section by section, to copy. Alternative red and blue initials and paraphs, simple penflourishes with slightly curved strokes. Leaf secondarily used as cover for a bookbinding, with visible folding marks in the margins, with some losses. Produced in France, most likely Paris, possibly during the lifetime of Thomas Aquinas or shortly after his death ca 1270-1300. Aquinas wrote the first part of the Summa during his stay in Rome, but continued in Paris where he was appointed regent master at the University of Paris 1269-1272. Ia q. 16 a. 1 co, Nam rectum est – Ia q. 16 a 8 arg. 4. Sed eadem res est causa veritatis.

The text is a section devoted the nature of truth, good, and the soul. The leaf text consists of articles and objections. It references the works of Avicenna, Augustine, Plato.

Avicenna: “The truth of each thing is a property of the essence which is immutably attached to it.”

Plato: “A thought or a word is true ‘from the fact that a thing is, not because a thing is true.'”

A transcription and translation are available.