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Albertus Magnus

St. Albert the Great
Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus, fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1332)
Doctor of the Church
Birth between 1193 and 1206
Lauingen
Deaths 15 November 1280
Cologne
Nationality German
Beatification 1622
by Gregory XV
Canonization 1931
by Pius XI
Day November 15
Patron saint scientists and scholars
Servant of God Venerable Happy St.
change Consult the documentation of the model

Albrecht von Bollstadt known as Saint Albert the Great, was a Dominican , philosopher , theologian , naturalist , chemist and alchemist Germanic. He was professor of renown in the thirteenth century and in particular the master of Thomas Aquinas.

He is best known for leaving a work of great scientific scope, especially brilliant in the field of natural sciences. It also allowed the entry of the texts of Aristotle in the West and left a sum of theology who has served as a model for the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.

Summary

Biography

Albert the Great was born to Albert Bollstaedt Lauingen in Swabia, between 1193 and 1206 , probably in 1193. He died in Cologne in 1280. He introduced into the universities of Europe's Greek and Arab science. He was already nicknamed "the Great" in his lifetime. It is celebrated on November 15.

After studying literature and medicine in northern Italy (Venice, Padua), he joined in 1223 , Padua , were amplified with the scientific Galilee , then on a philosophical level with Descartes ).

In the Latin Quarter Master Albert Street still bears his name, also found a plaque commemorating the Convent of St. Jacques, the church Saint-Etienne-du-Mont .

Albert founded in 1248 for the Preachers of Cologne Graduate School of Theology (Studium generale), as he leads master regent until 1254.

In 1250 , it deals with the rainbow in his book De Iride. Between 1250 and 1254, he wrote his two contributions to alchemy: the Meteora and the De mineralibus . In 1252, he became a conciliator, in this case between the city of Cologne and its archbishop. From 1254 to June 1257 he was elected provincial (superior officer a series of monasteries) of Germany (the Province of Teutonia), which requires him to visit on foot fifty monasteries. In 1256-1257, he lived with the papal curia, probably as a reader of 'studium' of the curia. In 1257, he becomes a teacher at Cologne. In 1259, the General Chapter of the Dominican order of Valenciennes, he organized with Thomas Aquinas and other brothers, studies of Preachers.

Bishop of Regensburg , 1261

In 1260 he was appointed bishop of Regensburg by Pope Alexander IV, but after three years, he asked Pope Urban IV and it gets permission to leave his office. Maintained at the Curia, he is responsible, in 1263, as a preacher, revive, "in Germany, Bohemia and other German-speaking countries," the crusade (the seventh ends in 1254) until October 1264. He returned to teaching and reconciliations: in Wrzburg (1264), Strasbourg (1267), Cologne (1270).

Not content to challenge promptly the work of Aristotle, he undertook an encyclopedia of ambition comparable animalibus. It includes:

  • ranking of all the wildlife of northern Europe known in his time;
  • A detailed description of the breeding of insects , the growth of chicken , and fish and mammals ;

This vast treatise, completed around 1270 , includes 26 books. The first 19 are comments from the work of Aristotle , the following are devoted to animals that walk, fly, swim and crawl in a classification inspired by Pliny the Elder. In these books, he draws heavily on materials from the Liber de natura rerum of Thomas of Cantimpr. This work will remain isolated in its time slice on those of his predecessors as Isidore of Seville and has many more descriptions based on actual observations.

Nevertheless, for a long time the zoology remain a branch of theology in which animals will be studied for the divine symbols they carry.

Albert the Great also writes for minerals like encyclopedias, De mineralibus and plants, De vegetabilibus. This latter work includes a study on Others respective effects of light and temperature on the growth of plants , and the question of transplants.

These works are rich in historical and lessons we learn for example that Albert knew the use of saltpetre for the manufacture of nitric acid or that the nettle was still cited as textile fiber at that time

In 1274 he took perhaps the Ecumenical Council of Lyons. In 1275, he opened the Abbey of Saint-Vit Mnchengladbach. "By 1276-1277 it had completed a final trip to Paris in order to ease (in vain) the hostility of the theologians of the university against these Greek and Arabic philosophies he had more than anyone helped to make known "(EH Weber).

He died in Cologne November 15, 1280.

The honors follow: in 1931, canonized by Pope Pius XI proclaimed patron of Christian scholars in 1941 by Pius XII.

Philosophy

As one of the first to receive comment and teach the texts of Aristotle, his work consisted mostly philosophical paraphrase Aristotle and commentaries of Averroes. It has thus first broadcast in the West Greek and Arabic philosophies long before that following the fall of Constantinople (quickly echoed by his disciple Thomas Aquinas ) and compare them with Christian doctrine. St. Albert thrives on Greek sources ( Empedocles , Euclid , Plato , Aristotle ), Latin ( Seneca ) and Arab ( Al Kindi , Averroes and Avicenna and Alhazen in his later works) .

Theology

Science

Modeled on the treaties of Aristotle , his treatises on natural science condense the Greek and Latin texts annotated and supplemented by the Arabs (in the fields of astronomy , of mathematics , of medicine ), but Albert added his own criticism and comments. He advocates the experience, not hesitating to ask himself specialists. He was a tireless and encyclopedic, who did not hesitate to go and ask the experts directly.

Thus his treatment of animals is composed of nineteen books and related data of seven ancient books that are the fruits of his observations and surveys of hunters, falconers, whalers ... It ranks more than four hundred species of plants (see Plant List Simples De Vegetabilibus and their properties ). Taking its criticizing Aristotle corrects it whenever it sees fit errors of the ancient heritage.

Posterity

It is known in history as the "Universal Doctor" in the company of "Angelic Doctor" (his own pupil St. Thomas Aquinas ), the "Seraphic Doctor" (St. Bonaventure ) and the "admirable Doctor" (the Franciscan Roger Bacon , as his criticism of Aristotle to St. Thomas Aquinas who had been more lenient). This gave birth to the idea that "for a long time, philosophy was primarily an editorial footnotes page in Aristotle's work." Albertus Magnus alchemist or magician?

by Joos van Gent

Albert the Great was he an alchemist ? He is interested in alchemy and his Meteora in his De mineralibus, dating from around 1250. According to Robert Halleux (alchemical texts, Turnhout, Brepols, 1979, p. 103-104), "the corpus

and Albert Alkimia seem minor. The Semita recta (Right channel) is a compilation of the Summa perfectionis Pseudo-Geber (Paul Taranto, 1280) . Neither De occulta naturae, or the compound of the compounds (compositum composites) (compiled in 1331) , neither of Libellus alchimia. Semita recta, a work on alchemy practice, clear , are authentic . Here are the principles of Alkimia:

"- The Alchemist is quiet and unobtrusive. Not disclose to anyone the results of its operations. - He will live away from the men a particular house, in which there will be two or three pieces exclusively for research. - He will choose the hours and days of his work. - It will be patient, diligent, persevering. - It will run according to rules of the necessary operations. - It will use as vessels (containers), glass or glazed pottery. - It will be rich enough to make independent expenditures required research. - It will avoid having sex with the princes and lords. "

Albert the Great was it magic ? He said: "Nay, we are experts in magic. Etiam ipsi sumus our expert appraisals in Magic" (De anima, I, 2, 6, ed. Stroick p. 32). He knows the magical works of Ibn Qurra and Picatrix. He played: "... truth that we have experienced through our practice of magic "(De anima, I). He speaks of the stamps and images occult incantations. But astronomiae Speculum, reference to the Archmage Agrippa of Nettesheim , comes from another, which is perhaps Richard Fournival , around 1277.

Specialists detect a change in his thought: first Albertus Magnus accepts magic and alchemy of Hermes (From mineralibus, 1251-1254), then he rejects as necromancy, that is to say, demonic magic (Summa theologiae, circa 1276). The famous book of folk magic The Big Albert is not his, but it contains some elements of his education in gynecology , circa 1245. "As for" history of the famous Albert PLC have built and Thomas Aquinas would have destroyed "is a fable dating from the nineteenth century "(Bernard Husson).

Bibliography

Texts of Albert the Great

74 works are recognized authentic. The best known are (in alphabetical order):


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