Conference on friendship in Rome (Santa Croce)

The people at the Ateneo Romano della Santa Croce have announced their 13th conference on philosophy:

THE NECESSITY OF FRIENDSHIP: “For no one would choose to live without friends” (Nicomachean Ethics VIII, 1)

Here’s the description from their web site:

The richness and power of the reflection on friendship in classical philosophy remains unparalleled in the history of philosophical thought. For Aristotle, friendship was “absolutely necessary”, to the point that “no one would choose to live without friends”; by contrast, in the postmodern age, there seems to be neither a satisfying praxis of friendship nor an equally deep philosophical reflection on it. Still, Aristotle’s legacy can be enriched by the profound modern achievements in the articulation of the being and the relations of the human subject. Indeed, thanks to the experience of everyday life as shaped over the course of modern times, friendship has come to the fore as something fundamental and decisive for personal growth; and its adaptability to highly diverse relational contexts and life-situations makes it a prime link in a multicultural and globalized society. The objective of this Conference is to seek to decipher, in a specifically philosophical way, the meaning of friendship within a fragmented society such as today’s, by bringing to light the ontology, anthropology, ethics and social theory that make this relationship a real possibility.

The Conference consists of eight presentations, leaving ample room for discussion and joint reflection in a roundtable setting at the conclusion of each day. It is hoped that these days can serve to initiate the formation of an international and interdisciplinary research network, involving experts in academic, cultural and educational fields, on the theme of “Relationships, Affections, and Reasons”.

You can find out more my going to the conference’s web site, here.

Why Thomas Aquinas' Body Spent Time in Fondi

Chapel With a Storied Past Is Undergoing Restoration

(Fondi, ITALY [Feb 2, 2005] Zenit.org): The Sancta Maria Antiqua chapel in Fondi, which once housed the remains of St. Thomas Aquinas and is undergoing restoration, has offered some unexpected historical revelations.

In the sacred enclosure, adorned with 15th-century frescoes, was kept the body of the Dominican saint between 1355 and 1368, when he had already been canonized.

The remains of the “Angelic Doctor” ended up there, thanks to the fervor of Niccolo Gaetani, a local nobleman, who spirited them away and kept them in the chapel in this town located between Rome and Naples.

The chapel with the restored frescoes belongs to an old hospital, which may have been a Benedictine or Dominican church, according to architectural findings.

So what was the saint’s body doing in that city?

Margherita Maria Rossi thinks she knows. The president of the St. Thomas Institute of the University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome, told ZENIT that Count Gaetani, a great admirer of the saint, took the body to his castle.

Gaetani later brought it to the chapel because, so it seems, “his mother had visions in her dreams of St. Thomas who on two occasions said that he did not like the spot where the count had placed him,” said Rossi.

The count stole the body in Fossanova, where St. Thomas died in 1274. “The news is vague, in part because it was a ‘robbery’ and, therefore, something rather secret,” explained Rossi.

Celebrations for the restoration of the chapel were held last weekend. There was a film festival, attended by Polish film director Krzystof Zanussi, as well as a festival of sacred music.

Later, there were talks by professors and experts on St. Thomas, such as the rector of the Angelicum, Dominican Father Francesco Compagnoni, and Alvaro Cacciotti, of the Order of Friars Minor, president of the College of Medieval and Franciscan Studies of the Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum.

Among the speakers at the celebratory meeting were architects, theologians, restorers, historians and communicators.

Margherita Rossi said that the discovery of this chapel is important, as it shows the great affection that people had already at that time for the saintly philosopher and theologian.

One can thus understand, she added, the way in which the “spread and re-elaboration of his thought ” took place, “which culminated with authors like Cajetan, one of his many commentators, perhaps the sharpest, who wrote wonderful commentaries on the ‘Summa Theologiae’ in the 16th century.”

Moreover, Rossi said, this event has made it possible to address “unpublished topics,” such as the “relation between historical presence and influence of a saint.”

Delay in first newsletter

Unfortunately I must delay posting my first “Tommaso d’Aquino Newsletter,” which I had promised for January 28th. Although I was most infatuated with the romance of getting the thing posted then, the simple fact is that I won’t make it; I’m working on two papers for upcoming conferences, have my teaching, and of course the millions of other things that fill our days. I’m so very sorry.

That said, I believe it to be completely doable to post the Newsletter instead on March 7, 2005, which is appropriate in its own way. I’m also heartened that by then I will have some pictures from the upcoming conference on “Aquinas the Augustinian” in Florida, a conference at San Domenico’s in Bologna, and will have some facts double-checked by then (which will spare you my errors).

Please accept my apologies, and don’t forget to keep sending in news and information.

Whither thomistic bibliography?

A few years backed I published a short article in David Berger’s wonderful journal, Doctor Angelicus, regarding the problem of Thomistic Bibliography (see: Mark F. Johnson, “The Future of Thomistic Bibliography,” Doctor Angelicus 2 [2002]: 193-198). I very much want that article to start some serious discussion, so I asked David Berger for his permission to post it here, which he immediately and charitably gave. Please take a look at the article and make some comments here. There’s an on-line version, and downloadable versions.

Subscribe to Thomistica.NET updates

I’ve created and included a ‘subscribe’ module to the website. You can now enter your e-mail address to be updated when an announcement about the site is made (I’m planning eventually to distribute the “Tommaso d’Aquino Newsletter” itself by this list). You can subscribe by going here, then entering your e-mail address, and pressing the “sign up” button. You will then be brought to a subscription-verification page, which will double-check your e-mail address (to make sure you got it right), and then ask you some basic demographic questions (i.e., what country do you live in, etc.). This will help us get an idea of where are visitors are, and how we can serve them best.

Of course, this is all totally free.

(A note about privacy. I will never share your e-mail addresses with a third party. This is all supposed to be fun, informative, and hassle-free, right?).

So sign up right away, and we’ll be able to share information regularly, and freely.

Vagantes 2005 conference at Notre Dame (Indiana, USA)

Vagantes 2005 (University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana March 3-5)

Vagantes is an interdisciplinary medieval graduate student conference. Papers will be presented on visual hermeneutics, the social implications of romance, ecclesiastical politics, the medieval Mediterranean, interfaith disputes, conversion, economics, and experimentation with literary genre conventions.

Paul Cobb, assistant professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, and Steven Justice, associate professor of English at University of California at Berkeley, will give keynote addresses.

In an attempt to accommodate a graduate student’s budget, there is no conference fee, three meals will be provided, and the closing banquet costs only $15. Local transportation and a limited amount of free housing will be available. Please see http://www.vagantes.org for more details.

Register at: http://www.vagantes.org.

Send questions to Miranda Wilcox: mwilcox@nd.edu.

A translation of Thomas's Commentary on Job by Brian Mullady, OP

Wow. Fr Brian Mullady, OP, has been working on a translation of Thomas’s Commentary on Job (written in Orvieto, 1262-1265), and has placed it on his webpage. An on-line version is about half-way complete, but the translation of the whole commentary is complete, and is available as an MS Word document! See his webpage devoted to the project here.

Edith Stein Encounters Thomas Aquinas: Symposium at St. Mary's (Notre Dame)

If you’re in the South Bend, Indiana, area on February 19, you might want to swing by St. Mary’s College to attend a symposium on Edith Stein and Aquinas, featuring papers by Constance FitzGerald (“Edith Stein: Contemplative Scholar”) and Sarah Borden (“Edith Stein Encounters Thomas Aquinas”). More information can be found here.

A neat icon of St. Thomas

Nicholas Markell’s icon of Aquinas

(With thanks to Chris Kaczor). There’s this neat icon out there of St. Thomas by the artist, Nicholas Markell. The nice people over at Lasting Visions have a section devoted to the icons (and other religious art) by various artists. You can see the write-up for the icon on St. Thomas (a buy some icon cards, if you wish), here. In addition, there is a section devoted to images of members of the Dominican Order. What??? No Paul of Hungary?

Update on 2005-01-17 21:33 by Mark Johnson

No St. Peter Martyr???

Rutgers University post-doc in medieval history

A post-doctoral appointment in medieval history is available in the History Department, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, for the academic year, 2004-2005. The field is open. The appointment, which carries no expectations of promotion or permanence, is offered initially for one academic year. Renewal for a second year is possible but not guaranteed. Scholars at any stage in their careers are invited to apply. Candidates must have completed all requirements for the doctorate by August 31, 2005. Each semester, the recipient of the appointment will teach one undergraduate course in his/her general area of specialization, choosing subjects of the courses in consultation with the department’s director of undergraduate studies. The salary is in the range of $35,000.

Interested scholars should send letters of application, curricula vitarum, transcripts of graduate study (if their doctorates are recent or pending), and the names and addresses of three persons whom they are asking to write testimonial letters. Examples of written or published materials are also invited, though they cannot be returned.

Dossiers, including e-mail addresses, should be sent by regular mail to Professor Karl F. Morrison, Department of History, Rutgers University; 16 Seminary Place; New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1108.

The deadline for receipt of applications is March 15, 2005. Rutgers, an AA/EOE, has a strong commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and respect.

General enquiries may be sent to: kmorriso@ias.edu

Medieval Institute at Notre Dame offers summer courses (languages, paleography)

The Medieval Institute is pleased to offer summer courses in medieval languages and paleography to graduate students and to qualified undergraduates from Notre Dame and all across the country. Offerings are also available in other fields. While in summer residence, students have access to the bountiful resources of the Medieval Institute and its renowned library.

Most summer courses run from mid-June to the beginning of August, an ideal time to enjoy the luxury of uninterrupted study in the pastoral setting of the Notre Dame campus. Participants in the summer program benefit both from the expertise and commitment to their disciplines that our summer faculty members bring to their teaching, and from the smaller enrollments and shorter, concentrated duration of most summer classes, which also permit sustained and frequent contact between student and teacher. While graduate students, especially, find the summer program to be an ideal opportunity to acquire the skills they need for their programs, these classes also appeal to others imbued with a love of the Middle Ages.

Medieval Latin and Paleography, both seven-week courses are taught by Frank A. C. Mantello, professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at The Catholic University of America. Several other language courses are also offered at Notre Dame by both the Medieval Institute and the University’s Summer Institute in Ancient and Medieval Languages.

The Medieval Institute has the privilege of offering two CARA scholarships for summer Latin or paleography study, thanks to the Medieval Academy. See the application details.

Applicants for the summer session at Notre Dame should consult http://www.nd.edu/~sumsess/ for information regarding tuition, fees, housing, and registration.

Unpublished biblical commentary translations of Aquinas

Okay, I promise. This is the last Ave Maria entry for the day.

Ave Maria University’s Aquinas Center has some previously unpublished translations into English of some of Thomas’s biblical commentaries. Here’s what they say:

The following unpublished translations, done years ago by Fr. Fabian Larcher, of St. Thomas Aquinas’s biblical commentaries on Hebrews, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Ephesians. Until a couple years ago, these unpublished translations - good but left unpublished because they are not critical editions (i.e. with footnotes, using the most critically up-to-date Latin text etc.) - existed only in typescripts kept in a box by Fr. Pierre Conway OP of the Dominican House in Washington D.C. He gave the typescripts to the Aquinas Center on the promise that they would be converted into digital format and worked toward publication.

The Adobe Acrobate (PDF) files are as follows:

• Hebrews - Section 1 (845kb)

• Hebrews - Section 2 (1.06mb)

• 1 Corinthians (1.82mb)

• 2 Corinthians (1.36 mb)

• Colossians (454kb)

• Ephesians - entire group (1.84mb)

  • Introduction (210kb)

  • Prologue (79kb)

  • Chapter 1 (227kb)

  • Chapter 2 (188kb)

  • Chapter 3 (190kb)

  • Chapter 4 (240kb)

  • Chapter 5 (212kb)

  • Chapter 6 (158kb)