The Commentary of Conrad of Prussia on the De Ente et Essentia of St. Thomas Aquinas: Introduction and Comments by Joseph Bobik

210 Pages·1974·6.26 MB·English

by  James A. Corbett

THE COMMENTARY
OF CONRAD OF PRUSSIA
ON THE
De Ente et Essentia of St. Thomas Aquinas
THE COMMENTARY
OF CONRAD OF PRUSSIA
ONTHE
De Ente et Essentia of St. Thomas Aquinas
INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTS
BY
JOSEPH BOBIK
TRANSCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT
BY
JAMES A. CORBETT AND JOSEPH BOBIK
01 the
University 01 Notre Dame
•
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1974
© I974 by Martinus Nijhott, The Hague, Netherlands
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1974
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN 978-90-247-1939-6 ISBN 978-94-011-9651-2 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-94-011-9651-2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements IX
I. INTRODUCTION
I. The man, Conrad of Prussia I
2. The manuscript 2
3. Conrad's division of the De Ente et Essentia 3
4. The transcription 4
5. Unlocated quotations 4
6. The date of composition of Conrad's commentary 4
7. Good and bad, worthwhile nonetheless 5
8. Other commentaries on the De Ente et Essentia 7
II. CONRAD'S COMMENTARY
Prooemium Conradi de Prusya 10
Lectio I 14
Lectio II 21
Lectio III 29
Lectio IV 34
Lectio V 40
Lectio VI 47
Lectio VII 53
Lectio VIII 56
Lectio IX 62
Lectio X 65
Lectio XI 70
Lectio XII 74
Lectio XIII 78
Lectio XIV 82
Lectio XV 84
Lectio XVI 87
TABLE OF CONTENTS
III. COMMENTS ON CONRED'S COMMENTARY
Conrad's prooemium 92
I. The nature of philosophy 92
a. Man's need for philosophy rooted in the possible intellect 92
b. Why philosophy ought to be sought 93
c. How philosophy has been defined and divided 94
2. How the De Ente et Essentia is related to other parts of philosophy 97
3. The four causes of the De Ente Essentia 9S
Conrad's lectiones 99
Opening comment 99
Lectio I
100
I. A small mistake in the beginning is a big one in the end 100
2. What the intellect first conceives is being and essence 101
3. The three tasks of the De Ente et Essentia 103
4. From a knowledge of being to a knowledge of essence 103
5. The first task of the De Ente Essentia a linguistic one 104
6. Ipsum ens est communius quam essentia 105
7. Quiditas et essentia non different nisi secundum respectum diversum 106
S. Additum notabile lOS
Lectio II
lOS
I. An aspect of the relation between essence and existence lOS
2. God is a simple substance 110
3. Matter is cause of the unity of a composed substance 110
4. Ipse istud non contirmat rationibus III
Lectio III
112
I. Form and essence as causes of existence 112
2. The difficulty regarding matter and the possibility of definition 113
3. Materia signata nullo modo potest in specie reperiri 115
Lectio IV
116
I. Parts (simples) and wholes (composites) and predication 116
Lectio V lIS
I. The genus is not of one and the same nature as it is found in each
of its diverse species 118
2. The species includes designated matter indeterminately 119
Lectio VI
120
I. The essence signified as a part can be neither a species nor a genus
nor a specific difference 120
2. The nature or essence absolutely considered 122
3. Intelleetus agens taeit universalitatem in rebus 124
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lectio VII 125
I. Averroes' argument for one intellect in all men 125
Lectio VIII 127
I. Avicebron and matter-form composition 127
2. Every intelligent substance is completely immaterial 128
3. Simple because neither generable nor corruptible 130
4. Matter cannot exist without form, but form can exist without
matter 131
5. Verum est de essentia que totum est 132
Lectio IX 133
I. Probat quomodo ipse [substantie separate] componantur ex suo esse
et essentia 133
2. Hoc ipse tanquam manifestum relinquit, et non facit mentionem 135
Lectio X 137
I. Ergo probata est necessitas iZlius dicti, scilicet quod Deus sit esse
suum 137
Lectio XI 141
I. God has no essence 141
2. God is not in a genus 142
3. God and the expression "universal existence" 144
Lectio XII 147
I. Post separationem anime a corpore non erit talis individuatio in
anima que acquisita est [a corpore] 147
2. The multiple dependencies of the human soul on the body 150
Lectio XIII 152
I. The form of a sensible substance is its simple difference 152
2. A possible objection 153
3. A possible misunderstanding 155
Lectio XIV 156
I. Accidental forms are like substantial forms 156
Lectio XV 157
I. Some corrections 157
Lectio XVI 159
I. The concentrating and the scattering 159
Concluding comment 161
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sincere thanks and appreciation are due to Notre Dame's Center for
the Study of Man in Contemporary Society, which most kindly - and,
I must add, most discerningly - awarded me an O'Brien Fund grant,
Conradi causa, for the summer of 1969. Without that grant, what has
now been brought to a happy ending might very sadly have never had
even a beginning.
There is also that kind gentleman and man of learning, George N.
Schuster, Assistant to the President of the University of Notre Dame,
and Director of the University's Center for the Study of Man, who
greatly encouraged the Conrad project with warmth and understand
ing. It was he who suggested that the project be placed before the
O'Brien Fund Committee for possible initial funding.
And there is Teresa, always unfailingly and impeccably patient in
the face of a writing husband's slighting of wife and children and home
and all that goes with them; and even more so during the endless hours
of inching an often reluctant Conrad into the light of day.
I. INTRODUCTION
I. THE MAN, CONRAD OF PRUSSIA
Conrad of Prussia is not so much as mentioned in any of the usual
sources. And even such notable mediaevalists as Mlle. Marie-Therese
d'Alverny, Conservateur en-chef, and J. Reginald O'Donnell, C.S.B.,
of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada, have
been unable to identify him. Nothing at all, therefore, is known about
Conrad, if that is the author's name. For there is some doubt that it is.
In the colophon of the Admont commentary on Aquinas' De Ente et
Essentia,l we find a word, so completely erased that it is illegible,
followed by the words "de Prusya." Martin Grabmann argues that it
is correct to feel that the erasure is an erasure of the name "Conradi,"
since in the colophon of the Admont commentary on Dominicus
Gundissalinus' De Unitate et Uno,2 which follows the commentary on
the De Ente et Essentia, we find again an erased word followed by the
words "de Prusya." But the erasure is not complete. One can here read
the name "Conradi." 3 And so, the manuscript of the commentary on
the De Unitate et Uno clearly attributed this work to Conrad of Prussia
before the attempted erasure. But is it necessary that the complete
erasure in the colophon of the other work be an erasure of the name
"Conradi," as Grabmann supposes? Grabmann's argument comes to
1 This commentary on the De Ente et Essentia is one of fifteen works contained in codex 36,.
of the monastery library at Admont, Austria.
a This commentary on the De Unitate et Uno is another of the fifteen works in codex 36,..
See below, p. 3, for a listing of the works contained in this codex.
3 "In fine expositionis (fo!. Sor) auctoris hunc in modum mentio fit: Explicit opusculum
super librum de ente et essentia ... de Prusya. Amen dicant omnia amen. Quamvis cogno
men, quod ante 'de Prusya' positum erat, totaliter abrasum et prorsus illegibile sit, tamen
recte '<:onradi de Prusya' supplere et legere nobis licet, quia in fine expositionis in libellum
De unitate et uno hoc nomen tenuiter abrasum est ita ut bene 'Conradi de Prusya' legi
possit." (Grabmann, Martinus, "De Commentariis in Opusculum S. Thomae Aquinatis De
Ente et Essentia," Acta Pont. Academiae Romanae S. Thomae Aq. et Religionis Catholicae,
Nova Series, Vo!. V (1938), p. IS).
2 INTRODUCTION
this. If in a given codex, there are two works, each of which is attributed
to someone from Prussia, and each of which has an erasure of a word
preceding "de Prusya," one of which is still legible as "Conradi," the
other of which is completely illegible, the completely illegible one ought
to be read "Conradi."
Besides noting the erasures, Grabmann notes that he had not found
a single philosopher or theologian with the name Conrad of Prussia,
from the I3-th and early I4-th centuries up to I938, the year his article
was published, whether a member or not of the Order of Preachers.4
Moreover, he notes, not a single one of the oldest catalogues of Domini
can authors mentions any commentator on Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia
prior to Armandus de Bellovisu, who composed his commentary some
time after July I323 but before the end of I328.5 Grabmann concludes,
on the basis of these negative facts, and of the added negative fact
that the words "de ordine praedicatorum" do not follow Conrad's name,
that Conrad was not a Dominican; he appears, rather, according to
Grabmann, to have been a secular priest. 6
2. THE MANUSCRIPT
As far as has been determined, there is but one manuscript of Conrad's
commentary on Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia in existence. It was
discovered in the monastery library at Admont, Austria, along with
fourteen other works, by Grabmann, and brought to the attention of
readers of the Acta Pont. Academiae Romanae S. Thomae Aq. et Religio
nis Catholicae in I938.7 When I learned of its existence through Grab
mann's article, I began what proved to be a fruitless search for other
manuscripts of the text. And so, for better or for worse, the present
transciption is based on the one Admont manuscript.
The manuscript, sharply abbreviated and often difficult to read, is
clearly fourteenth century, written, according to Mlle. d' Alverny, about
4 "Inter scholasticos saeculi XIII et XIV ineuntis sive intra sive extra Ordinem Praedi
catorum usque adhuc nullum philosophum vel theologum inveni, qui Conradus de Prussia
appellatur." (Ibid., pp. 15-16).
5 Ibid., p. 16; see also p. 8.
6 Ibid., p. 16.
7 "Commentarium adhuc incognitum in codice 367 Bibliothecae Monasterii Admontensis
inveni. Hie codex membranaceus per manus varias saeculi XIII, et saeculi XIV ineuntis
conscriptus, ... opera et opuscula scholastica partim rarissima, que alibi vix reperiuntur,
comprehendit." (Ibid., p. 13).
Grabmann includes in this article his transcription of Conrad's prooemium to his com
mentary on Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia, as well as his transcription of a short passage tram
Lectio I X on the distinction between essence and existence (see Grabmann's article, pp. 16-
20). A letter to the keepers of Grabmann's papers brought back word that Grabmann had not
done any transcribing beyond the two selections he had included in this article.
INTRODUCTION 3
the middle of it. It is certainly not an autograph, since it contains many
uncorrected faulty readings.
The following, based on Grabmann's article,S is a list of the fifteen
works included in Admont's codex 367:
a) fo1. rr: Quaestio, utrum intellectus sit forma incorporea.
b) fo1. zL8v: Co mmentarius (anonymus) Boetii de Dacia in libros A risto
telis Topicorum.
c) fo1. 9r-35v: Quaestiones anonymae in tres libros Aristotelis de anima.
d) fo1. 36L43r: Expositio Aegidii Romani in librum Aristotelis de bona
fortuna.
e) fo1. 44L50r: Expositio Conradi de Prussia in librum S. Thomae Aquina
tis De ente et essentia.
f) fo1. 50v: Queritur, utrum species intelligibilis sit id quod intelligitur.
g) fo1. 5rL53r: Expositio Conradi de Prussia in librum Dominici Gundis
salini De unitate et uno.
h) fo1. 53L54v: Quaestiones super librum Aristotelis de longitudine et bre
vitate vite.
i) fo1. 54v: Consequenter queritur, utrum corpus celeste sit secundum se totum
luminosum.
j) fo1. 54v-6or: Expositio super librum Alfredi Anglici De motu cordis.
k) fo1. 60r-6rv: Liber Avicennae de congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum.
1) fo1. 6rv-63v: Expositio magistri Ulrici in librum Avicennae de congela-
tione et conglutinatione lapidum.
m) fo1. 63v-67v: Expositio in Oeconomica.
n) fo1. 67v-'7gv: Commentarius in librum De differentia spiritus et animae
Costae ben Luca.
0) fol. 7gL86r: Commentarius in librum De motu animalium.
3. CONRAD'S DIVISION OF THE DE ENTE ET ESSENTIA
Conrad divides the text of the De Ente et Essentia into sixteen parts,
to each of which he devotes a lectio. And he divides each lectio, in turn,
into its parts, to each of which he refers by employing certain key
beginning-words, which he also employs in typical mediaeval fashion
to guide his readers through his commentary.
Since it is difficult, at least inconvenient, to read a commentary on
a text without having the text itself in hand, I have included the text
of Aquinas.9 Following Conrad's lead, I have divided Aquinas' text
into sixteen parts, each followed by the corresponding lectio of Conrad.
Finally, I have superimposed on Conrad's divisions, for the conve
nience of the reader, a division of each lectio into two main sections:
8 Grabmann, art. cit., pp. 13-15.
9 The text used is that of the Ludwig Baur edition. For bibliographical details, see footnote
16 below.