The logic, physics, and metaphysics of the prime Arabic philosophers of the Middle Ages, namely al-Fārābī, Averroes, Avicenna and al-Ġazālī, play a pivotal role in Albert the Great's philosophical commentaries, as well as in his theological works. Albert is deeply aware of the peculiar relationships that link these four authors as they have been known to Latin readers: he expresses the closeness between Avicenna and al-Ġazālī by depicting the latter as a follower of the former; but he also associates Averroes and al-Fārābī in the same function of trustworthy interpreters of Aristotle, resorting to the latter when the commentaries of the former were not available. 

In general, Albert acutely grasps the different options at stake in the dispute between the strictly Aristotelian agenda of Averroes and al-Fārābī and the more encompassing Peripatetic approach of Avicenna and al-Ġazālī. This articulated influence will be investigated in two ways. 

(1) Albert the Great's commentaries on Porphyry’s Isagoge and on Aristotle’s Metaphysics show that Arabic-Islamic philosophy not only governs Albert's interpretation of the beginning and the end of the philosophical corpus, but also encapsulates his entire philosophical system into an inter-cultural framework. 

(2) The influence of al-Fārābī, Averroes, Avicenna, and al-Ġazālī will also be studied transversally, in writings belonging to different stages of Albert's evolution and to different disciplines (philosophy, theology, Biblical exegesis etc.).

In medieval thought, prophets and angels play a fundamental role for explaining the relationship between the divine realm and the human world, being both intermediaries or mediators between God and mankind. In the Bible, prophets and angels are basically seen as God’s messengers. The Latin theological and philosophical tradition, however, is not the only current of thought in which a rational approach to prophecy, meant as a form of knowledge, and to the nature of the angels, as to their ontological status and soteriological function, is developed. Both the phenomenon of prophecy and the role of angels are a common trait of all three “religions of the book”, Judaism, Christianism, and Islam, and topics of discussion by Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic authors. Albert the Great's reflection on these issues is nurtured of contributions coming not only from the Latin traditions, but also from Arabic and Hebrew speculations, in as much as they are all Abrahamitic in origin and are viewed against the background of Aristotle’s philosophy. His works of philosophy and theology are therefore a doctrinally inspiring and historically revealing meeting-point between philosophical and theological theories about prophetology and angelology advanced in these different cultural environments. The research aims at reconstructing the Latin, Arabic and Hebrew sources of Albert in these fields and at studying the later impact of his theories (for example in Dante Alighieri).

The reception and transformation of Greek, Arabic, and Jewish sources in the so-called “Dominican School of Cologne” was mainly due to the mediation of the philosophical and theological works of Albert the Great. In the past decades, the philosophical and scientific specificity of the first school of Albert has been fully recognized, but, despite numerous studies and critical editions, much remains to be done. The research in this area can be further promoted by means of: 

(1) historical-doctrinal papers and monographs on Albert's sources and their influence on the Dominican School of Cologne, taking as case studies Meister Eckhart and Berthold of Moosburg;

(2) critical editions (integral or partial) of unedited texts of the Dominican School of Cologne, such as questions 19-38 of Johannes Picardi of Lichtenberg; 

(3) study of the influence of Albert the Great's natural philosophy on pseudo-Lullian Hermetic texts.

The impact of medieval Hermetism on Albert the Great's legacy can be fruitfully investigated. In mixing the Aristotelian philosophy of nature with a natural magic rooted in individual religious practices from the ancient East, some Hermetic texts provide a program for the exploration of nature and explanations of the phenomenon of action at a distance. Relevant case studies are the Hermetic sources known to the author of the De mirabilibus mundi falsely attributed to Albert, such as the Liber de quattuor confectionibus (quoted in the Speculum astronomiae); the Latin reception of the Picatrix (Ġayat al-ḥākim) and Book of the Cow (Liber vaccae) or Liber Aneguemis (Kitab al-Nawāmis) and their influence on Albert’s legacy on physiology; the astronomical-dietary handbook Die Mainauer Naturlehre. The planned research aims at deepening this area of study through papers and critical editions, and at implementing the data-base “Bibliotheca Philosophica Virtualis” (www.bphv.eu).

Albert the Great's biblical commentaries (both on the Ancient and New Testament), far from being purely exegetical and/or spiritual, reveal deep interactions between disciplines (theology, metaphysics, logic, natural philosophy, medicine, zoology, and botany) and incorporate many lay sources. It is the aim of the Unit to investigate the reuse and transformation of naturalistic and ethical-anthropological notions in Albert the Great's biblical commentaries. This will be performed through an in-depth study of the texts , by resorting to a rigorous lexical analysis, a systematical identification of keywords-in-context or recurrent word-associations, and an accurate map of the sources.

These writings will be faced from three interrelated points of view. 

(1) They document relevant advancements in Albert's ethics and physiology: in discussing biblical events and figures, AtG reshapes and often sharpens his previous ethical-anthropological theories (also developing distinctive doctrines on male/female interrelation, and on theories of paternitas and maternitas in dialogue with theological and philosophical issues); 

(2) The dismissal of heretical doctrines about the generatio Christi rests on an embryology different from that of the commentary on De animalibus; 

(3) The Super Iob and the Summa theologiae provide significant quotations and allusions to the Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides, showing that the current “idealized” picture of Maimonides as a philosopher-scientist in Albert the Great should be complemented by a less overt recourse to Maimonides as a Talmudic-Jewish source.

Albert the Great's theory of human intellect and knowledge is presented in several of his works, as De homine, De anima, De natura et origine animae, De intellectu et intelligibili, De unitate intellectus, De quindecim problematibus, and Summa theologiae. In these writings Albert develops his conception of the human being at the crossroad of distinct disciplines (theology, metaphysics, epistemology, natural sciences and ethics) and abundantly draws from Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew sources, though remaining firmly on the track of Christian doctrine. The research focuses on the philosophical context of Albert the Great's reflection on the soul, in particular on its relations to the writings – some of which still unpublished – of the Masters of Arts, who commented on Aristotle’s works sharing the same sources. This type of inquiry, which has not yet had the attention it deserves, can contribute to clarifying crucial aspects of the circulation and reuse, at the time, of doctrines from the Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew philosophical tradition and on the mutual relationship between Albert the Great and the coeval Faculties of Arts. A crucial and traditional topic as the human soul, framed and systematically studied in this particular context, can provide  new insight into Albert’s doctrines, also in order to clarify his relations with some prominent Masters of the Faculty of Arts, such as Siger of Brabant, and reveal how authors, through continuous exchanges, actively reinterpreted the sources within medieval universities.

The Unit aims at studying the intellectual context linking Albert the Great with his sources and followers. The focus will be Albert's scientific theories and sources, in a bid to clarify the interplay between science and myth that characterized many medieval scientific debates. To this aim, the unit will jointly analyze Albert the Great's sources, works, and influence, with the following objectives. 

(1) A clearer view of Albert’s scientific sources, by means of an online database in which these sources are placed in their proper contexts (in cooperation with University of Foggia – see supra); a commented translation of Maimonides’ Treatise on the stars worshippers (Hilkhot ‘avodat kochavim), the part of the Repetition of the Torah (Mishneh Torah) devoted to idolatry and the distinction between astronomy and astrology, a work which provides relevant clues to explain Albert's role in the burning of the Torah in Paris (1248). 

(2) Studies on Albert’s views on celestial causality, divinatory disciplines, and medical science, esp. in works such as De natura loci, De causis proprietatum elementorum, Meteora, Summa theologiae. 

(3) Studies on the impact of Albert’s scientific reflection on the vernacular pseudo-Albertina, Berthold of Moosburg, and Henry of Herford. A critical edition of Book 1 of the Catena aurea entium, a repository of classical myths, is planned.