Books by Albert The Great
Questions concerning Aristotle's On Animals (Fathers of the Church Medieval Continuations)
After the Latin translation of Aristotelian works outside the logica vetus began in earnest in twelfth-century Spain, it remained to Scholastic philosophers to assimilate the new materials. Although many individuals commented on the logica nova and on some of Aristotle's books on natural philosophy, Albert the Great is one of only a very few Scholastics to comment on the entire collection of Aristotle's biological works.
This text, the Questions concerning Aristotle's On Animals [Quaestiones super de animalibus], recovered only at the beginning of the twentieth century and never before translated in its entirety, represents Conrad of Austria's report on a series of disputed questions that Albert the Great addressed in Cologne ca. 1258. The Questions, in nineteen books, mixes two distinct genres: the scholastic quaestio, with arguments pro et contra, a determination, and answers to the objections; and the straightforward question-and-response found, for example, in The Prose Salernitan Questions.
Here, even more clearly perhaps than in his slightly later and much larger paraphrastic commentary On Animals [De animalibus], Albert adduces his own views―often criticizing other medieval physicians and natural philosophers―on comparative anatomy, human physiology, sexuality, procreation, and embryology. This translation, based on the critical edition that appeared in the Cologne edition of Albert's work, helps to explain the title "patron saint of scientists" bestowed upon Albert by Pope Pius XII.
This work should find its audience among medievalists and historians of science and culture. More so than the massive On Animals, it should prove useful in the classroom as an encyclopedia or handbook of medieval life.
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Albert and Thomas: Selected Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality (Paperback))
by Thomas Aquinas, Albert The Great
"...a milestone in American religious publishing." New Catholic World In one series, the original writings of the universally acknowledged teachers of the Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic and Native American traditions have been critically selected, translated and introduced by internationally recognized scholars and spiritual leaders. ALBERT AND THOMAS-SELECTED WRITINGS translated, edited, and introduced by Simon Tugwell, O.P. preface by Leonard E. Boyle, OP "He who is the preeminent cause of all that the mind understands is not any of the objects of our understanding." Albert the Great (1200–1280) This volume contains writings by two thirteenth-century Dominicans, both canonized saints, both doctors of the Church: Saint Albert the Great, patron saint of natural scientist, and the "common doctor," Saint Thomas Aquinas. Both are famous for their contributions to philosophy and theology, but they are also, in different ways, both important in the history of spirituality. In particular, Saint Thomas' huge common sense gives his message an abiding value which can be appreciated by ordinary Christians, trying to practice their faith, as well as by people who are concerned with more sophisticated attempts to articulate and understand their religion. The editor of the volume, Simon Tugwell, OP, has supplied a full biographical introduction to each of the two saints, and an introduction to relevant aspects of their thought, so that this book serves as a real invitation to those who are unfamiliar with them, as well as making a contribution to the scholarly study of their lives and works. †
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On the Body of the Lord (Fathers of the Church Medieval Continuations)
Albert the Great wrote On the Body of the Lord in the 1270s, making it his final work of sacramental theology. A companion volume to his commentary on the Mass, On the Body of the Lord is a comprehensive discussion of Eucharistic theology. The treatise is structured around six names for the Eucharist taken from the Mass: grace, gift, food, communion, sacrifice, and sacrament. It emerges from the liturgy and is intended to draw the reader back to worship.
The overall movement of the treatise follows the order of God's wisdom. Albert begins by discussing the Eucharist as a gift flowing from the goodness of the Trinity. He touches on its relation to redemption and the Church, including a rigorous Aristotelian analysis of Eucharistic change and presence before ending with a discussion of Mass rubrics. The most significant theological emphasis is on the Eucharist as food given to feed the people of God.
The style varies to suit the content: certain sections are terse; others are devotional, allowing the reader to enter the saint's own prayer. Perhaps most characteristically Albertine is an extended meditation that compares the process of digestion to the incorporation of the Christian into the Body of Christ. The mixed style allows this work to integrate rigorous aspects of scholastic thought with a fervent love for God, making On the Body of the Lord one of Albert's most human as well as one of his most beautiful works.
On the Body of the Lord was well received, particularly in areas that came to be influenced by the devotio moderna. By 1484, three separate Latin editions had been printed, two of which were the inaugural works on new presses. In the following century the Protestant Reformation brought an end to its popularity. On the Body of the Lord is here translated into English for the first time.
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