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Supersapientia: Berthold of Moosburg and the Divine Science of the Platonists
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This study examines the motivations and doctrinal coherence of the Commentary on the Elements of Theology of Proclus written by Berthold of Moosburg, O.P. († c. 1361/1363). It provides an overview of Berthold’s biography and intellectual contexts, his manuscript remains, and a partial edition of his annotations on Macrobius and Proclus. Through a close analysis of the three prefaces to the Commentary, giving special attention to Berthold’s sources, it traces the Dominican's elaboration of Platonism as a soteriological science. The content of this science is then presented in a systematic reconstruction of Berthold’s cosmology and anthropology. The volume includes an English translation of the three fundamental prefaces of the Commentary.
The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu).
"This is, indeed, a precious insight into the spirit of Berthold’s philosophical thinking. Overall, the monograph’s ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached."
-Giuseppe Thomas Vitale, Thomas-Institut der Universität zu Köln, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 89.2
The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu).
"This is, indeed, a precious insight into the spirit of Berthold’s philosophical thinking. Overall, the monograph’s ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached."
-Giuseppe Thomas Vitale, Thomas-Institut der Universität zu Köln, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 89.2
Evan King, Ph.D. (2017), University of Cambridge, is a post-doctoral researcher in the ERC-funded project NeoplAT. Neoplatonism and Abrahamic Traditions (University College Dublin). He has co-edited (with Dragos Calma) a volume of conference proceedings on Berthold of Moosburg to be published by Brill in 2021: The Renewal of Medieval Metaphysics. Berthold of Moosburg’s Expositio on Proclus’ Elements of Theology.
"Resulta sumamente importante [...] el extenso apéndice del libro, que ofrece la traducción (una versión brillante, que plásticamente sigue tanto la frecuente sequedad del original cuanto sus ocasionales efusiones) al inglés de los tres textos introductorios de la Expositio. Si exceptuamos la versión francesa realizada por Alain de Libera de solo uno de los tres prólogos, no existía hasta el momento traducción de estos textos a lenguas modernas." - Ezequiel Ludueña, in: Patristica et Mediævalia 44.1 (2023)
"...the monograph's ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached." - Giuseppe Thomas Vitale
"...the monograph's ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached." - Giuseppe Thomas Vitale
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
1 Life and Contexts
2 Toward a Reconstruction of Berthold’s Library
3 The Commentary on Proclus: Background, Purpose, and Exegetical Methods
PART 1
Non secundum nos. Platonism as Philosophical Revelation
1 Prologus
1 Hermes Trismegistus and Thomas of York
2 Hermes Trismegistus and Albert the Great
3 Approaching and Entering the House of God
2 Expositio tituli
1 Plato’s Theorems
2 The Three Motions of the Soul
3 The Two Orders of Providence
3 Praeambulum libri
1 Theology as a Science
2 “Our Divinising Theology”
PART 2
Providere cum diis. The Philosophical Principles of the Expositio
4 Exstasis divini amoris
The Macrocosm
1 Plato and Aristotle on the One and the Good
2 Creation
3 The Trinity and the Gods
4 Limit and the Unlimited
5 Determination, Generation, and Light
5 Epulatio entis
The Microcosm
1 Human Nature and the Spiritual Body
2 Between Being and Becoming
3 The Goodness of Silence: Deification and Providential Cognition
Conclusion
1 Legacy
2 Lady Philosophy’s Vesture
Translation
Prologue
Exposition of the Title
Preamble of the Book
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
Index of Authors (Ancient)
Index of Authors (Modern)
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
1 Life and Contexts
2 Toward a Reconstruction of Berthold’s Library
3 The Commentary on Proclus: Background, Purpose, and Exegetical Methods
PART 1
Non secundum nos. Platonism as Philosophical Revelation
1 Prologus
1 Hermes Trismegistus and Thomas of York
2 Hermes Trismegistus and Albert the Great
3 Approaching and Entering the House of God
2 Expositio tituli
1 Plato’s Theorems
2 The Three Motions of the Soul
3 The Two Orders of Providence
3 Praeambulum libri
1 Theology as a Science
2 “Our Divinising Theology”
PART 2
Providere cum diis. The Philosophical Principles of the Expositio
4 Exstasis divini amoris
The Macrocosm
1 Plato and Aristotle on the One and the Good
2 Creation
3 The Trinity and the Gods
4 Limit and the Unlimited
5 Determination, Generation, and Light
5 Epulatio entis
The Microcosm
1 Human Nature and the Spiritual Body
2 Between Being and Becoming
3 The Goodness of Silence: Deification and Providential Cognition
Conclusion
1 Legacy
2 Lady Philosophy’s Vesture
Translation
Prologue
Exposition of the Title
Preamble of the Book
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
Index of Authors (Ancient)
Index of Authors (Modern)
Students and specialists of medieval philosophy and the history of Platonism, especially those interested in the influence of late-antique Neoplatonism on medieval natural philosophy and theories of contemplation.
The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu).
