Nicholas of Cusa: A Sketch for a Biography

Bibliographic Notes on Cusanus Research

155 Bibliographic Notes on cusanus Research The earlier literature is treated in the seminal biography by E. Vansteenberghe, Le cardinal Nicolas de Cues (1401–1464). L’action— la pensée (Paris, 1920; unaltered reprints, Frankfurt, 1963, and Geneva, 1974). The first review of literature appearing after 1920 is in Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft (MFCG) 1 (Mainz, 1961): 95–126 (411 titles), and the review is continually brought up to date in this series; see MFCG 3 (1963): 223–37; 6 (1967): 178–202; 10 (1973): 207– 34; and 15 (1982): 121–47. The critical edition of cusanus’s works is published by the heidelberg academy of sciences (Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften): Nicolai de Cusa Opera omnia. Iussu et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Heidelbergensis ad codicum fidem edita (leipzig-hamburg: Meiner, 1932– ). The Acta Cusana has appeared since 1976 in a special series of the academy edition as the basis for a future biography. sermons, tracts, letters, and other documents are edited in the series Cusanus-Texte as Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie (heidelberg , 1929– ). These are also included later in the Opera omnia. For cusanus’s works that have not yet appeared in critical editions , one can consult the Nicolai Cusae Cardinalis Opera, ed. Faber stapulensis (Paris, 1514; unaltered reprint, Frankfurt, 1962). More recent and better: Nikolaus von Kues. Werke, using the strasbourg edition of 1488, newly published by P. Wilpert (Berlin, 1966). Many writings are available in German translation, a great number of which were commissioned by the heidelberg academy: Schriften des Nikolaus von Cues, im Auftrag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften in deutscher Übersetzung. They appear in the Philoso- 156 Bibliographic Notes phische Bibliothek of the Meiner-Verlag (leipzig-hamburg, 1936– ). in addition, Nikolaus von Kues, Philosophisch-theologische Schriften, Studienund Jubiläumsausgabe, ed. and introduction by l. Gabriel, translation and commentary by D. and W. Dupré (Vienna, 1964–1967). Noteworthy is the great number of translations into other languages , above all into italian (G. santinello, among others), French, English, and Russian (most recently: Moscow 1979/80, 150,000 copies ). in addition, numerous translations of individual works have appeared . of these, De concordantia catholica, De docta ignorantia, De visione Dei, De pace fidei enjoy a particularly lively interest. G. heinz-Mohr and W. P. Eckert, Das Werk des Nicolaus Cusanus (cologne , 1981) continues to stand out as a fine introductory work. complementing this now is the collection, Zugänge zu Nikolaus von Kues. Festschrift zum 25jährigen Bestehen der Cusanus-Gesellschaft (Bernkastel-Kues, 1986), ed. h. Gestrich, in cooperation with the institute for cusanus Research in Trier. The cusanus society, along with being co-sponsor of the cusanus institute, regards updating and popularizing the cusanus legacy as an essential task. Both the institute and the society would be unthinkable without the initiative of R. haubst (d. 1992), who directed the institute from its founding in 1960. in particular, he guided the edition of the sermons in the heidelberg academy collection. in recent times, h. G. senger wrote succinct introductions in Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte iV, ed. M. Greschat, (stuttgart, 1983), 287–307, and in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon Vi (Berlin, 1987), 1093–113. several collections oriented toward a more comprehensive presentation appeared on the occasion of the cusanus Jubilees, for instance MFCG 4 (1964) containing the presentations held in Bernkastel-Kues in 1964; the proceedings of the 1964 Brixen congress published under the title Nicolò Cusano agli inizi del mondo moderno (Florence, 1970); as well as the Cusanus-Gedächtnisschrift, ed. N. Grass (innsbruck-Munich, 1970). contributions of several authors are found in Nikolaus von Kues. Einführung in sein philosophisches Denken , ed. K. Jacobi, Kolleg Philosophie (Freiburg-Munich, 1979); likewise Nicholas of Cusa in Search of God and Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Mor- 157 imichi Watanabe by the American Cusanus Society, ed. G. christianson and T. M. izbicki (leiden, 1991). The last-named collection contains an informative account of the “origins of Modern cusanus Research in Germany and the Foundation of the heidelberg Opera omnia,” M. Watanabe. For further orientation to the development of research one can consult MFCG, of which twenty volumes have appeared up to now (1961–1992). Furthermore , shorter reports of research by h. G. senger are in Contemporary Philosophy. A New Survey Vi, no. 1 (Dordrecht-Boston, 1990), 563–603; and h. G. senger, “Research on cusanus in america,” The American Cusanus Society Newsletter (ACSN) Vii (1990): 34–44...