Coming Closer to Aquinas' Writings

In the last twenty years, or since the introduction of Internet, scholars from all over the world had the chance to get closer and closer to Aquinas' writings. Manuscript repositories from various European and American parts opened their pages via virtual libraries to almost anyone interested. HMML's Vivarium is making no exception. The Vivarium is hosting an on-line selection of folios from two 14th cent. manuscripts containing Aquinas' Catena Aurea (Arca Artium; aap2094) and Expositio in Job (Codex Campililiensis 10).

Other mss. of Aquinas' work:

• Two folios (40r-4ov) of a late XVth cent. vellum ms. containig Aquinas' In libri Sententiarum
• Compendium theologiae (Codex Sedinensis I, 14th-15h cent ms.)
  

Why is it important to come closer to Aquinas' writings in manuscript? I think at least two answers can be offered to this question: first, the paleographical scholarship may help restore an original text reflecting the ideas intended by Thomas Aquinas himself and not those introduced by his editors or copyists.

Weisheipl ([1974] p. 222) wrote that the Summa Theologiae “was the most widely circulated work [of all the writings of Thomas Aquinas] both in manuscript and in print”. But we are still far from appreciating at full extent its circulation and influence. As I have tried to explain in my PhD thesis, which I hope will be printed in fall 2008, the Thomist tradition has had a great influence on our current moral traditions and especially on the modern interpretations of Aristotle's moral thought. But also the modern Thomists influenced Aquinas' reading. So, by unfolding the layers of tradition, contrary to the principle exploited by the bee allegory, we will be able to uncover not only Aquinas' thinking, but also that of Aristotle.

Other useful links:

• The Aquinas Translation Project (DeSales University, Dir. Stephen Loughlin)
• Robert Pasnau's Aquinas Latinus

Aquinas' works on-line:

• Corpus Thomisticum (Dir. Enrique Alarcon)

• La Somme contre les gentils (French trans., Editions du Cerf, Preface par James A. Weisheipl, trad. par R. Bernier & M. Corvez)
• Le Somme de Theologie, 4 tomes (French trans., Editions du Cerf) - tome 1; tome 2; tome 3; tome 4
  
• Summa Theologicae (English trans., tr. Alfred J. Fredosso, translation & commentary)
• Summa Theologiae, Ia, qq. 75-89 (English trans., tr. Robert Pasnau)

• COMMENTARIES ON THE BIBLE
  
• Le Commentaire des Psaumes (French trans., Editions du Cerf, Preface par Mark D. Jordan)
• Postilla super Pslamos, I-54 (French trans., tr. J.E. Stroobant de Saint-Eloy, Editions du Cerf, 1996)
  
• Expositio super Iob at litteram (French trans., tr. O.P. J. Kreit, 2001)
• Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram (French trans., tr. by monks of the Fontgombault Abbey, 2007)
• Super Jeremiam (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2006, Ist ed.)
• Super Threnos (French trans., tr. Dominique Pillet, 2005)

• OTHER COMMENTARIES
  
• Commentaires des Sentences de Pierre Lombard (French trans., tr. Raymond Berton, 2005)

• COMMENTARIES ON ARISTOTLE'S WORKS
  
• Commentaire sur l'Ethique a Nicomaque (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Commentaire du Traite de l'Ame (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Commentary on De memoria et reminscentia, II-III (English draft trans., tr. Robert Pasnau)
• Sentencia libri De sensu et sensato, l. I-II (French trans., tr. Alain Blachair)
• Expositio libri Peryermeneias (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier, 2000)
• In libros Physicorum, lb. 1,2, 4 (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier, 1998)
  

• QUESTIONS
  
• De veritate (French trans., tr. Madeleine du Barroux, in progress since 2005)
• De veritate (English trans., tr. Robert W. Mulligan, 1952)
• De falaciis (French trans., tr. Yvan Pelletier)
• Questions disputees de l'ame (French trans., tr. Francois Genuyt, 2000)
  
• De potentia (French trans., tr. Raymond Berton, 2004)
• De spiritualibus creaturis (French trans., tr. Cecile Wattiaux & Raymond Berton, 2005)
• De malo (French trans., tr. Damien Saurel, 2005)
• De virtutibus (French trans., tr. coord. Raymond Berton, 2007)
• De unioni Verbi incarnati (French trans., tr. Jean Sebastien, 2005)
• Quaestiones quodlibetales (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2005)

• OTHER WRITINGS
  
• Contra impugnates (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• De perfectione spiritualis vitae (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• Contra doctrinam retrahentium a religione (French trans., tr. Jacques Menard, 2007)
• De ente et essentia (French trans., tr. Alain Blachair, 2005)
• De principiis naturae (French trans., tr. Jean Madiran, 1977)
• De regno ad regem Cypri (French trans., tr. O.P. Martin-Cottier, 1946)
• Super Decretales (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• Epistola ad Bernardum (French trans., tr. Stephane Mercier, 2004)
• Contra errores graecorum (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De forma absolutionis (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De secreto (French trans., tr. Charles Duyck, 2005)
• De judiciis astrorum (French trans., tr. Pierre Monat, 2007)
• Epistola ad comitissam Flandria (French trans., tr. Stephane Mercier, 2004)

PS: I agree with those that say that not everything on the Internet can be useful for research, but there are some reliable sources that any scholar cannot overlook. For example, some respectable researchers have decided to post on the Internet their pre- and post- printed materials. Why not use them if the references are in a standard form?