Summa

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Summa (disambiguation) .

The word Summa (or German sum ) comes from Latin and means something like "totality" or "total number". In this way it was initially possible to understand a still quite disordered representation of knowledge in its entirety. In the epoch of scholasticism , “summa” became a fixed technical term for scientific works that were written for the systematic presentation of an entire field of knowledge.

Works

Manuscript page from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas

Most of the works in the form of a "summa" were written between the 12th and 14th centuries, especially in the fields of theology and philosophy, but also in the fields of medicine and jurisprudence, as well as on the artes liberales that are fundamental to the study , the seven liberal arts . Well-known works are z. B. the Summa theologica (theological sum), the Summa contra gentiles (The sum against the Gentiles) by Thomas Aquinas or the Summa logicae by William von Ockham . Through a large number of summary comments, these works have been recorded again and again over the course of the following centuries up to the present day. In modern times the title was z. B. taken up by Stanisław Lem ( Summa technologiae , 1964).

In the late Middle Ages, various summulae (small sums) were put together especially for school purposes .

Characteristic and meaning

A “summa” is about presenting a knowledge or topic area as comprehensively as possible in a systematic structure. This can be done in almost encyclopedic form on the one hand, but also in the form of a summary focused on the essential aspects on the other. It is based on the idea of ​​an order encompassing the whole of creation, which can be recognized and represented by means of reason. The pursuit of a summa is thus also a characteristic feature of medieval thought. At the same time, the basics of modern scientific methodology are being developed, e.g. B. through well-founded work with sources, dialectical argumentation and systematization of the material with the help of conceptual hierarchies.

literature

• Ludwig Hödl / Peter Weimar / Hartmut Zapp : Art. Summa (Summula). A. Scholastic history of literature and science; B. Civil Law; C. Canon Law . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 8 (1997), 306-308. 308f. 309-312.
• Ulrich Gottfried Leinsle : Introduction to Scholastic Theology (UTB 1865). Paderborn: Schöningh 1995, esp. 51-61.
• Ruedi Imbach : Art. Summa, sum literature, sum commentary . In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (LThK), 3rd ed., Vol. 9 (2000), 1112–1117.
• Reinhold Rieger: Art. Scholasticism . In: Gert Ueding (ed.): Historical Dictionary of Rhetoric , Vol. 8 (2007), 518-541, esp. 537f.
• Ulrich Köpf : Art. Sums, theological . In: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG), 4th ed., Vol. 7 (2004), 1865f.
• Volker Leppin (ed.): Thomas [von Aquin] manual. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2016, Register udStw. ,Total'.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Ruedi Imbach: Summa, Summenliteratur, Summenkommentare . In: Lexicon for Theology and Church , 3rd edition, Vol. 9, Freiburg i. Br. 2000, col. 1112.