Corpus Thomisticum
| Director | Enrique Alarcón Moreno |
|---|---|
| Institutional setting | University of Navarra |
| Contents | Texts, catalogues, indexes, bibliography, research tools |
| Primary language | Latin |
| Scope | Works and scholarship concerning Thomas Aquinas |
Corpus Thomisticum is a scholarly digital corpus devoted to Saint Thomas Aquinas, providing structured access to Latin works, editorial notices, bibliographies, indexes, and research tools under the direction of Enrique Alarcón Moreno.[1][2]
Purpose and scope
Corpus Thomisticum gives researchers a coordinated entrance to the writings of Aquinas rather than a miscellaneous shelf of web transcriptions. Its Index operum arranges works and identifies authenticity classes, alternate titles, editorial notices, and available texts. The surrounding resources include bibliographies, the Index Thomisticus tradition, and tools for locating Thomistic vocabulary. The director's institutional profile identifies Enrique Alarcón Moreno and connects the project with philosophical research at the University of Navarra.[1][2]
The corpus is especially valuable because titles of medieval works vary. A reader searching for Super Ioannem can be led to Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura; a reader looking for the Corpus Christi office can see separate Sapientia and Sacerdos forms and their different attribution status. A structured catalogue prevents a convenient English label from becoming a false claim that every work is autograph, certain, or transmitted in one recension.
Texts, indexes, and navigation
The user guide describes browsing by work, moving through divisions of a text, searching, and using indexes and stable reference functions. Latin presentation keeps the source language visible and makes word-level comparison possible. Digital retrieval accelerates scholarship but does not perform the act of interpretation for the reader.[3]
The site's work index supplies a valuable first check for authenticity and nomenclature. It groups material according to scholarly judgments rather than presenting all attributions as equal. Editorial notices often give the reporter of a lectura, competing recensions, manuscript complications, or decisive modern studies. Bibliographic pages identify preferred editions and exact publication data. Together these tools support citations that name a work and location rather than linking only to a search-result screen.[1][4]
Relation to Catholic theology
Aquinas is the Common Doctor, and the Church has repeatedly commended his method and doctrine. Corpus Thomisticum serves that inheritance by making primary texts searchable and bibliographically accountable. It does not confer magisterial authority on every sentence it hosts. The Summa's theological conclusion, a papal document quoted within an apparatus, an editor's attribution judgment, and a doubtful medieval prayer remain four different kinds of claim even when one website displays them.[4]
Catholic use should therefore combine confidence and discrimination. The resource permits close study of terms, parallel texts, development across works, and the scriptural texture of Thomas's thought. It also helps stop pseudo-quotations and title confusion. For doctrine, the reader must still consult the Church's authoritative sources. For textual history, the reader must consult critical introductions and manuscripts where necessary. The corpus is a powerful instrument because it supports those distinctions rather than abolishing them.
Editions, citation, and digital form
Corpus Thomisticum is not identical with the Leonine Edition or the Leonine Commission. It may present a Leonine text, another identified edition, or an editorially prepared transcription. Each page and notice must be read for its declared basis. A scholarly citation names Aquinas, the work, its internal division, the edition when material, and the stable Corpus Thomisticum locator used for access. This leaves a trail that can survive changes in navigation or interface.[1][4]
The medieval text, a modern transcription, an editorial notice, an index, and a database structure are distinct layers of Corpus Thomisticum. The age of Aquinas's Latin does not answer historical questions about who prepared a modern contribution or which edition it follows. The project's stable locators and descriptive notices make those layers visible. Used with that distinction in view, Corpus Thomisticum joins broad public access with the exactness expected of serious Thomistic scholarship.[1][5]
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 Back to citation occurrence 1.4 Corpus Thomisticum, Index operum — Scholarly catalogue of Aquinas's works, their authenticity classes, Latin texts, and editorial notices.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Corpus Thomisticum, Director — Institutional profile of project director Enrique Alarcón Moreno and the project's principal editorial resources.
- Back to citation Corpus Thomisticum, User guide — Project guide to work browsing, indexes, searches, and stable reference functions.
- Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 Corpus Thomisticum, Editio Leonina bibliography — Volume-by-volume bibliography under the series title Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera omnia iussu Leonis XIII P. M. edita.
- Back to citation Corpus Thomisticum, Internet links — Project resource page identifying the University of Navarra setting and the collection's maintenance.