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ITINERARIES OF PHILOSOPHY
Itineraries of Philosophy and Science from Baghdad to Florence: Albert the Great, his Sources and his Legacies
is a multi-institutional research project funded by Italian Ministry under the programme PRIN 2022
Itineraries of Philosophy and Science from Baghdad to Florence: Albert the Great, his Sources and his Legacies
is a multi-institutional research project funded by Italian Ministry under the programme PRIN 2022
The Project
The Project
In medieval philosophy, theology, and science, Albert the Great (d. 1280) represents the highest example of reliance on authors of different cultural provenances, and his multifarious references to sources granted him paramount influence in coeval and subsequent European thought. Building on previous research, the project aims at a systematic analysis of the multi-cultural background of the philosophical, theological and scriptural works of Albert, and of the impact of his use of sources in contemporary and later authors, circles, and intellectual trends.
Research on a series of representative test-cases chosen among the main disciplinary and doctrinal areas of Albert's production will lead to:
A) a full appreciation of the wide range of Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew and other oriental sources employed by Albert in his writings, a detailed explanation of the finality of this intertextual and intercultural strategy, and a study of the wide resonance in subsequent authors of the repository of sources which Albert made available to Latinity, with respect to university institutions (faculties of arts), ecclesiastic academic centers (Dominican school of Cologne), and non-academic contexts (cultural environments of Dante Alighieri), involving pseudo-epigraphical writings, vernacular productions, and encyclopedias;
B) a new interpretation of the crucial phase of the Middle Ages in which Albert the Great lived (13th century) from an intercultural perspective, with the philosophy of Greek origin playing the pivotal role of rational common ground at the intersection of the three Mediterranean cultures, across dogmatic barriers and political fluctuations;
C) an attempt to apply Albert the Great's model of intercultural philosophical dialogue to contemporary concerns, with special regards to issues like the theory of the alleged “clash of civilizations”, the debate about the “cultural roots” of Europe, and the project of a sustainable, inclusive, and tolerant society, respectful of human diversity and attentive to environmental needs.
The most up-to-date technologies in digital humanities and computer science will assist the historical and philological research of the project by planning and start building an online inventory of the sources quoted by Albert the Great in his works, in the form of a searchable repository of citations. In its final form, the project’s front-end will also contain codicological and bibliographical tools, as well as devices for facilitating the exchange of ideas between experts of Albert the Great and of medieval philosophy in general. This technical apparatus aims to become progressively a full-fledged open-access portal on the life, works, and thought of AtG and on his fortune until nowadays.
Our Protagonist: Albert the Great
Our Protagonist: Albert the Great
Beato Angelico, Clipeus with Albert the Great (Clipeo con Alberto Magno), detail from the so-called "genealogia domenicana" (Dominican genealogy) in the Crucifixion with Saints (Crocifissione con i Santi) , Firenze, Museo di San Marco, 1441-1442 ca.
The philosopher, theologian, and scientist Albert the Great (Albert of Lauingen, 1200ca.-1280), born in Germany and active in Italy, France, and Germany, Dominican friar, bishop, doctor universalis, and patron saint of scientists, in his huge production on all areas of thought has exhibited an unparalleled capacity of including into a unified and articulated intellectual project the contributions of philosophy, theology, medicine and natural sciences of numerous Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew sources. This inclusiveness and open-mindedness has not been hampered by duties of opposite sign that Albert as a man of Church has undertaken (preaching of the crusades against Muslims, condemning the Jewish Talmud), in the name of the universal value and scope of philosophy and rationality.
In view of his intelligent and systematic reliance on previous authors, Albert the Great marks the highest peak of a more general tendency of Latin medieval philosophy and represents a landmark to properly understand subsequent developments. Being at the crossroads of an unprecedented circulation and exchange of texts, ideas and opinions, Albert’s intellectual activity provides a paradigmatic insight into the medieval civilization, in its quintessence of a product of Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and vernacular cultures.
The all-encompassing and dialogizing character of Albert the Great's forma mentis represents not only a peculiar trait of this key figure of the European culture of all times, but also an impulse to revise and update the old-fashion and obsolete view of the Middle Ages still dominant, in order to underscore the deep philosophical roots that European culture and other Mediterranean civilizations have shared in a crucial age of the past and continue to share today, and to stimulate reflections on the role of the science in a modern, multicultural and inclusive society.
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