Brief Notices

BRIEF NOTICES Preliminary notice of a new Latin edition of the Summa Theologica, edited and published by the INSTITUTE OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES, OTTAWA, CANADA. Assuredly it cannot be said of our American continent that it is a place where centers of religious teaching are least devoted to the doctrine o£ St. Thomas. A considerable number of our theological students are anxious to have, at all costs, the works of the Angelic Doctor. Further, they have consistently held their place among the good clients of the Leonine Commission of Rome. At present, due to the unfortunate conditions of the times, we are entirely cut off from those European booksellers who formerly supplied us with the precious volumes. The necessity for an edition of St. Thomas in America is clearly becoming ever more urgent. Consequently, the Institute of Medieval Studies, Ottawa, is preparing a new edition of the Summa of St. Thomas, based on the "Piana." Possibly this name " Piana " is unknown to some of our readers. This word is an Italian adjective, derived from the proper name Pius (Pio) , and so, when we speak of the "Piana Edition," we are referring to the edition made by St. Pius Fifth, Pope-reformer of the latter part of the sixteenth century (1566-157~) . This Pontiff, who claims the distinction of carrying out the reforms of the Council of Trent, felt, as did many of his predecessors, that the way to ensure a sound theology for the Church was to adopt that of St. Thomas. After having bestowed the title of "Angelic Doctor " upon the thirteenth-century theologian-an unprecedented honorhe commanded a complete edition of his works to be made, the first ever given to the Church. Marriquez, a Dominican holding the Vatican post of Master of the Sacred Palace, who was given the charge of preparing the text, was guaranteed the assistance of his Order's top-ranking theologians. The work progressed rapidly and in less than five years it was completed. However, because of the condition of the medieval texts after three centuries of manuscript transcriptions, the task was a delicate one. The medieval writer, the master of the University of Paris, did not have professional publishers at his disposal, nor was it always possible even to have his writings reread. When St. Thomas, for example, composed a work, he would hand the manuscript-a mere scrawl-to a professional scribe, who would transcribe it on separate sheets known as pecie. The copy would then be deposited in an editing office. If someone wished to procure the work in question, he could order a copy, provided he had sufficient funds to do so. By means of a pledge, needy students would obtain a pecia, which 5~1 522 BRIEF NOTICES they would transcribe themselves. The sheets thus circulated would be replaced by others, the text of which was necessarily still further removed from the original. · When a master enjoyed a certain prestige, the manuscripts of his work would perhaps number thousands, and would go beyond Paris to England, Spain, Germany, and Italy, there to undergo further transcription, particularly in the local convents. This, evidently, was the case with the writings of St. Thomas, for they were among the most widespread of the thirteenth century. What peril for the text in this very multiplication! It would seem that the Thomists were soon aware of this danger, for in the manuscripts we discover a certain critical preoccupation, which is manifested by later corrections added by other hands. The copies which come to us from the convents of lower Italy are particularly important in this regard, for they were frequently revised according to the autographs of St. Thomas. These had been left at the convent of Naples by Reginald of Piperno, socius or companion, of Master Thomas. At the time of Pius V, a number of these specimens, "revised and corrected," had already found their way to the Vatican Library. Moreover , the collaborators of Marriquez could peruse them for the purposes of their edition. Nevertheless, due to the rapidity with which it was accomplished , the work of these latter was soon regarded with suspicion. In 1610, a new edition appeared in Antwerp, professing to...