Armand A. Maurer, CSB (1915-2008)

Reverend Armand Maurer, CSB, died on Saturday, 22 March, 2008 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Fr Lawrence Dewan passed along the death notice from the Toronto Globe and Mail:

At Mount Sinai Hospital, on Saturday, March 22, 2008. Father Armand Augustine Maurer, C.S.B., son of the late Armand, Sr. and Louise (nee Ribson), brother of Dorothy Maurer and the late Robert, Lorriane, and Richard. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1938, he entered the Basilian Novitiate in 1940 and made profession of vows on September 12, 1941. He taught English at Aquinas Institute, Rochester N.Y., 1941- 1942 and then returned to Toronto for theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on August 15, 1945 by Archbishop James Charles McGuigan. He completed his doctoral programme at the University of Toronto in 1947 and was sent for post-doctoral studies in Paris. In 1949 Father Maurer was appointed to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, where he spent the rest of his life engaged in research, publication and teaching. Concurrently he taught philosophy at St. Michaels' College and in the Graduate Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. In 1954 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue research in mediaeval philosophy. In 1966 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He spent two terms teaching at the Basilian Center for Thomistic Studies in the University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX. Father Maurer remained actively engaged in scholarship after retirement. He was a gentle and inspiring presence in his local Basilian community. Friends may call at the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre, 95 St. Joseph Street on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Prayer vigil at 7:30 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. at the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre. Interment Holy Cross Cemetery.

Fr Maurer was a fixture at PIMS for decades—he marked my paper on motion, which I had written for James Weisheipl's course on Thomas's commentary on Aristotle's Physics, when Fr Weisheipl died in December of 1984. But that was all the opportunity I ever had to study with him. Others were more blessed than I.

His literary output is impressive. And his students, colleagues, and admirers published a book but a few years ago in honor of him. But his name likely entered the consciousness of most English-speaking Thomists as the translator and editor of Thomas's On Being and Essence or his The Division and Methods of the Sciences (from Thomas's scriptum on the De trinitate of Boethius, qq. 5-6), these two being long-time staples in the PIMS publication catalog.

Fr Dewan communicated to me that Fr Maurer was editing Gilson's last Toronto lecture, "three lectures of species." Requiescat in pace.

Summer conference on Aquinas and the Arabs

From Dick Taylor at Marquette University, an announcement of a summer conference: "Aquinas and the Arabs: A Conference on Issues in Medieval Arabic / Islamic & Jewish Philosophy and their Influence on Medieval Philosophy and Theology in the European West." The conference will be held on June 20-21, 2008, on the Marquette University campus (Milwaukee, WI). Papers are welcome on issues in (i) Arabic / Islamic & Jewish Philosophy, (ii) Medieval Latin Philosophy and Theology, and (iii) (particularly) influences and/or parallel philosophical developments. See the conference's website here.

Quaracchi books, cheap!

Just in, from the Frati editori di Quaracchi:

I Frati Editori di Quaracchi hanno lanciato una vendita promozionale di sconto 50% su tutte le opere inserite nel sito a l’occasione del trasferimento a Roma.

I wrote about the Quaracchi web site a year or so ago. It’s where to go to find the writings of St. Bonaventure, the Summa fratris Alexandri, the Vatican edition of the works of Scotus, and other franciscana. If you want the discount, go to http://www.fratiquaracchi.it.

Best wishes to i Frati as they move to Rome (or, at least, the books move!).

Last fall’s SIEPM conference line-up

This is so late it's almost silly to mention it. The SIEPM's world congress last fall sported a wide range of fascinating papers, so, even long after the fact, the list of papers given at the congress is an education in itself on the current state of the study of medieval philosophy (PDF).

Fear in Heaven?

Gary Culpepper of the Department of Theology at Providence College (Rhode Island) sent me the following inquiry:

Does anyone know of any significant research into ST II-II, 19, 11, utrum timor remaneat in patria? Or any allied research into medieval inquires into religious fear, whether in Jesus or the saint who is on the road to wisdom?

E-mail any responses or ideas to Gary directly.

Cappelli never goes away

It's going to be a paleography-intensive rest-of-the-semester for me, as I return to some editing projects. It can be really good to return to, and tarry in, one's roots.

Two weeks ago my teaching assistant kindly Xeroxed off for me Auguste Pelzer's Abréviations latines médiévales. Supplément au Dizionario di abbreviature latine (Paris: Béatrice-Nauwelaerts, 1966)—twice, actually, so that I can have a copy for work and a copy for home. As its name suggests, Pelzer's short book is a supplement to Adriano Cappelli's essential tool, Lexicon abbreviaturarum: dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, which was in its fifth edition when I bought my first copy in 1983. Pelzer based his work on manuscripts at the Vatican Library, with an eye towards medieval philosophical and theological texts.

Well, Cappelli itself is now on-line, and impressively, at Moscow State University. Follow this link. I'm not sure whether used copies of Cappelli are readily available, but this on-line version will certainly be helpful if you've got a computer nearby as you transcribe.

Thanks to Dick Taylor for the link.

Interesting read from Mortimer Adler

Jack Calahan over at Resources for Modern Aristotelians lets us know that his site has an article from Mortimer Adler that "should be required reading for all philosophy graduate students and advanced undergraduates. (Shame on those who do not have their students read it!)." The article is entitled "The Superiority of Aristotelian to Modern Philosophy and the Failings of Modern Aristotelian Philosophers," and can be downloaded here (14 pages).

More like Riviste on line

A follow-up to the post on the Riviste on line. This is probably common knowledge, but the Portal du Réseau, Maisons des Sciences de l’Homme is another such (but more international) source, i.e. one that “indexes” a number of journals of interest to Thomists:

http://www.msh-reseau.prd.fr/RevuesSom

Go here to see the long list of journals covered, and to select those whose tables of contents you wish to receive on a regular basis via e-mail:

http://www.msh-reseau.prd.fr/RevuesSom/inscription.jsp

There are other such, of course, some with “current awareness” services and some without, e.g. the Universitätbibliothek Tübingen’s Index Theologicus (http://www.ixtheo.de/cgi-bin/ixtheo/maskeeng.pl?db=ixtheo), COMPLUDOC (http://europa.sim.ucm.es/compludoc/), DIALNET (http://dialnet.unirioja.es/index.jsp), and so forth.  And some of these, too, “index” at least some of the journals of interest to Thomists.  Hopefully they haven’t all been mentioned here already.

Riviste on line: a new Italian research site

Thanks, as always, to Jörgen Vijgen, for sending this along. There is a new, on-line database of titles and abstracts of articles published in Italian Journals: Reviste on-line (or ROL). Here is the presentation, by the site’s project-leader, Francesco Testaferri:

Presentazione del progetto “Riviste on line”

Gentili Responsabili Istituti Aggregati e Affiliati PUL:

Ho il piacere di segnalare l’inaugurazione del nuovo sito: www.rivisteonline.org, un progetto da me curato col sostegno dell’Istituto Teologico di Assisi e della C.E.I. Il progetto rende disponibile gratuitamente a tutti i visitatori del sito, docenti, studenti, ricercatori e altri interessati, una grande banca dati contenente lo spoglio delle riviste teologiche italiane.

Si tratta di una risorsa informatica in crescita, di notevole valore e agilità già allo stato attuale. Risulterà a studenti e studiosi di grande vantaggio nella conduzione delle ricerche bibliografiche.

Tutti gli interessati possono liberamente consultare il sito: www.rivisteonline.org e se lo desiderano leggere la prima presentazione del progetto reperibile nella pagina “informazioni” alla sezione “comunicati stampa”, ove si trovano anche altre particolari indicazioni.

Considerando estremamente utile il servizio di indicizzazione proposto, con la presente si chiede la possibilità di una segnalazione nel modo che vi sar possibile.

Con l’occasione, in attesa di un riscontro, si porgono distinti saluti, chiedendo, nella misura del possibile, di favorire al meglio la divulgazione della notizia di modo che il progetto venga conosciuto nel miglior modo possibile e raggiunga rapidamente tutti i possibili destinatari e gli interessati.

Rimanendo a disposizione per qualsiasi chiarimento o suggerimento, ci è gradito porgere distinti saluti.

Prof. Francesco Testaferri
Ideatore e curatore del progetto
Istituto Teologico di Assisi
mail: informazioni@rivisteonline.org

You can access the site at http://www.rivisteonline.org. Many journals that Thomists regularly consult are found on the site: Angelicum, Aquinas, Gregorianum, Studi morali, on and on. A great find.

American Theological Inquiry is published

American Theological Inquiry is now out with its inaugural issue—I posted about this upcoming publication a while back. You can download the PDF of the first issue here; it contains an article by Fr Thomas Weinandy, OFM.

Another link to Farrell's "Companion to the Summa"

From Thérèse Bonin of Duquesne University, a link to a different on-line version of Walter Farrell’s Companion to the Summa (see the original post). This one is found on catholicprimer.org, and has the advantage of not requiring frames. You can access the microsite here.

Harvard University Press to open a medieval "Loeb"

According to Karen Green, the Ancient and Medieval History and Religion Librarian at Columbia University, Dr. Jan Ziolkowski, the new director of Dumbarton Oaks, recently talked Harvard University Press into opening a new “Loeb” for the medieval period, to be entitled something like the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library.  Ten titles within two years, and then eight (or is it four?) per year thereafter.  Note that this is in addition to what it’s been doing for the Renaissance (I Tatti Renaissance Library).  An English translation facing the original.