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[THOMAS AQUINAS]

Leaf from a large copy of Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum

[England (probably Oxford)
14th century]

€300 - €500

Single large leaf, with double column of 54 lines of a good university hand, capitals touched in red, paraphs in red or blue, 3-line initials in same with contrasting penwork, running titles in red or blue capitals, recovered from reuse as a pastedown in a later bookbinding and hence with scuffs, discoloured areas, small holes and splits, and slightly cockled overall, parchment somewhat dry and brittle and reverse almost unreadable, overall fair condition, 340 by 210mm

From a once fine and impressive English copy of this seminal university text, by perhaps the most important scholastic theologian of the entire Middle Ages. The text was a well-structured and significantly expanded version of his Summa contra gentiles, drawing in Classical sources (such as Aristotle, Plato and Cicero), Byzantine sources (such as pseudo-Dionysius), Muslim sources (such as Avicenna, Averroes and Al-Ghazali), and Hebrew sources (such as Maimonides). It was begun while teaching in the stadium of Santa Sabina, and extensively worked on after he moved to the University of Paris. It remained unfinished on his death, but still commanded the intellectual field and held its own until the modern age

Manuscripts