Wisdom, Law, and Virtue: Essays in Thomistic Ethics

Chapter 26: "Obiectum": Notes on the Invention of a Word

Chapter 26 ‘‘OBIECTUM’’: NOTES ON THE INVENTION OF A WORD Introduction The importance for theology, at least from the mid-thirteenth century onward, of the Latin word ‘‘obiectum, -i’’—a substantive meaning the object of a power—is easily shown. The case of St. Thomas Aquinas is entirely symptomatic. The word figures prominently in his explanation of the beatitude promised to man as the goal of life. And it is accordingly used to explain the nature of Christian charity: charity is the love of God, that is, the love one has for God, considering God not merely as the author of natural reality but as the obiectum of supernatural beatitude.1 The word is found in general use in the writings of theologians contemporary with St. Thomas.2 And it is scarcely necessary to say that subsequently it came into heavy and exceedingly complex use.3 However, it occurs rarely in works dated before 1240. In the first two books of Glossa in quatuor libros sententiarum of Alexander of Hales, written circa 1223– 1227, I have not found a single instance of the word. In the third book I found one instance.4 The aim of the present study is to initiate investigation of the invention of this word. By way of preliminary, I will look at the entries in some dictionaries. Next, I will examine the two earliest texts in which I have found the word used in a fairly elaborate way. And last, I will consider some of the background indicated by these earliest uses. The Dictionaries Let me indicate more precisely the word I mean. If we consult Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, we do not find an entry   Wisdom, Law, and Virtue for ‘‘obiectum, -i.’’ The closest principal entries are ‘‘obiectus, -a, -um,’’ a participle and participial adjective from the verb ‘‘obicio,’’ and ‘‘obiectus, us ,’’ a masculine noun also deriving from ‘‘obicio.’’5 ‘‘Obiectus, -us’’ has a rather verbal meaning, namely, a casting before, a putting before, a lying before, a being interposed. Also, there is a second, transferred meaning: ‘‘that which presents itself to the sight, an object, appearance, sight, spectacle.’’ However, the only reference given by Lewis and Short for this meaning is to a doubtful reading.6 Under ‘‘obicio,’’ we find at the end of the entry a section devoted to ‘‘obiectus, -a, -um,’’ meaning (1) ‘‘lying before or opposite,’’ (2) ‘‘exposed,’’ and (3), the word now being a neuter plural substantive ‘‘obiecta, -orum,’’ ‘‘charges, accusations.’’ These entries are as close as we can come to our word in Lewis and Short. Albert Blaise, in his Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens, dedicated to the period from Tertullian to the end of the Merovingians, has an entry for ‘‘obiectum, -i,’’ but it is the plural, meaning objections, that he has in mind.7 The same author’s Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aeui tells us that ‘‘obiectum , -i’’ is both classical and to be found in his Dictionnaire just mentioned . He tells us that it means ‘‘l’objet,’’ and sends us for an instance of its use to St. Thomas Aquinas. However, the classical and early Christian word he has in mind is clearly ‘‘obiecta, -orum,’’ meaning accusations.8 The Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources, prepared by R. E. Latham, lists ‘‘obiectum’’ meaning objection or charge as occurring in texts circa 1125 and circa 1343. It also lists it with the meaning ‘‘object (phil.),’’ with the dates 1286 and 1444.9 The use of ‘‘obiectum, -i’’ to mean an objection is quite common by the early thirteenth century. The use with the meaning ‘‘the object of a power’’ is only just being invented. It is the latter phenomenon with which we are concerned.10 Two Early Texts The word occurs several times in the De anima attributed to Robert Grosseteste . This treatise was published in print by L. Baur in 1912.11 S. Harrison Thomson dated it, on paleographical grounds, at 1208–1210.12 Leo Keeler has argued its dependence on Philip the Chancellor, and his hypothesis is that it is a reportatio by Robert Grosseteste, as a student in ‘‘Obiectum’’ 405 Paris in 1209 or thereabouts, of the teachings of Philip the Chancellor13 . Even if we were to add ten years to Thomson’s estimate and say ‘‘circa 1220,’’ it would still be a very early instance of the use of...