Summa (literature)

The Summa is a medieval didactic literary genre written in Latin . This genre of literature originated in the 12th century and was developed over the following centuries.

Mark

It was a kind of encyclopedia that specially developed a subject on law , theology, or philosophy . The subjects were divided in a more detailed way than on the Tractatus . They were divided into quaestiones (questions) and these into articles . The articles had the following structure:

• 1. Title of the article as a question. Two or different positions were posed (disputatio) .
• 2. Contradictions or disputes against the idea defended by the author.
• 3. Reasons for this idea. They were built on the Bible , the church parents , and so on.
• 4. Solution that combined reasons of faith and reason. This solution usually showed the author's opinion.
• 5. The sententia, or answer to the question, which consists of a challenge to the original contradictions to the author's thesis.

The sums in the legal area

In the legal field, the summa is a practical and didactic literary genre that developed the methodology of the gloss . It had two different forms: the summa , which came from the similia , and the questio legitima , which came from the contraria .

The Summa was born in small schools of law. The purpose was to teach the students with simple summaries of the codes of Justinian . To achieve this, simple and systematic summaries of entire works have been drawn up. Thus the literary genre of Summae in the legal field was born.

The Summae were especially in the private law schools in the South of France with regard to the Institutiones written Justinian.

Some important sums in the legal field

• Azo s Summa Codicis .
• Summa Codicis written in Occitan and known as Lo Codi . It was translated into Latin by Riccardo Pisano .

The sum total in theology and philosophy

Theology and philosophy teaching during the Middle Ages had two different forms: lectio and disputatio :

• The lectio (lesson) was very similar to today's class. The teacher commented on the statements (sentences) of famous and well-known authors, such as B. the works of Aristotle or Boethius , or Petrus Lombardus ' sentences.
• The disputatio (argument) was more informal than the lectio , and there was a real dialogue between teachers and students. Arguments for or against any thesis were issued and defended.

These two methods gave rise to their literary forms:

• The Commentaria (comments) emerged from the lectio . And from these emerged the Summae , which were freer, more autonomous and more systematic than the Commentaria .
• The disputatio gave rise to the quaestiones disputatae (disputed subjects), which gathered material from the arguments that took place every two weeks; and the Quodlibeta (aleatory themes), which gathered the clashes of Christmas and Easter . This methodology of disputationes was the technical model of the famous medieval summae .

Some important theological sums

There are more than sixty remaining totals in this area. The following need to be highlighted:

• Simon of Tournais Summa or Institutione in sacram paginam , 1165.
• Prepositinus from Cremonas Summa de officiis or Summa de poenitentia .
• William of Auxerres Summa Aurea , 1220.
• Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae , 1274.
• Thomas Aquinas Summa contra gentiles .
• Alexander von Hales ' Summa Theologiae , XIII. Century.
• Gerard von Bolognas Summa Theologiae , 1317.
• Francesc Eiximenis ' Summa Theologica (parts). XIV century.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mateu Ibars, Josefina. Braquigrafía de sumas: estudio analítico en la traditio de algunos textos manuscritos, incunables e impresos arcaicos, p. XIII-XVI . Barcelona: Edicions Universitat Barcelona, ​​1984 https://books.google.es/books?id=HsPEsH9MMX4C&dq=suma+%22g%C3%A9nero+literario%22&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s (Spanish)
2. ↑ (Spanish): Carlos Nieto Blanco: Lecturas de historia de la filosofía . Ed. Universidad de Cantabria, 1996, ISBN 978-8-481-02134-9 ( limited preview in Google book search).
3. ↑ Merino, JA OFM. Historia de la filosofía franciscana . Madrid. BAC. 1993, p. 13. (Spanish)