Volume 1
To Our Most Holy Lord Leo XIII, Supreme Pontiff, Most Excellent
Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Leoni XIII Pont. Max. Opt. Quod dudum erat in votis, Beatissime Pater, en tibi eximium Beati Alberti Magni Ordinis Prædicatorum et Ratisbonensis Episcopi opus demum prælo subjicitur, opus plane mirandum hujusce Alberti cujus, ut ait editor Lugdunensis prædecessori Tuo felicis memoriæ Innocentio X omnia Doctoris opera offerens, doctrina prodigio fuit, virtus miraculo, fama tantæ admirationi, ut, etiam dum viveret, Magni sibi nomen apud magnos invenerit: quem in humanis scientiis nihil, in divinis pauca fugisse creditum est; qui verbo et opere potens, Ecclesiam Dei illuminavit; qui de cœlo doctus, Paulum habuit præceptorem, Thomam discipulum, Ecclesiam suæ virtutis et eruditionis theatrum; qui, ne omnia hic aggeram, tanto in pretio a Tuis decessoribus habitus est, ut Legatus Apostolicus in Sarmatiam missus, prædicator Crucis per Germaniam et Bohemiam datus, ab Alexandro IV sacri Palatii Magister creatus, Ratisbonensi Episcopatui, licet tam invitus quam meritus, ab Urbano IV præfectus, a Gregorio X ad concilium Lugdunense inter præcipuos patres vocatus fuerit; vitaque functus, summæ sapientiæ elogia solidæque sanctitatis cum D. Thoma à Pio II divinosque honores in Ecclesia Ratisbonensi, Coloniensi, Lovingensi, et in Ordine Prædicatorum in Germania ab Innocentio XIII, Gregorio XV, et Urbano VIII promeruerit. Talis ac tanti Scriptoris novam hanc editionem, pro viribus et in quantum humana sinit infirmitas innumeris quasi mendis castigatam, Tibi, utpote philosophicorum et theologicorum instauratori studiorum offero. Ipse enim Albertus doctrinam suam non tam suam æstimans, nisi quam Christi Vicarius in terris firmaverit, suumque esse negans nisi quod suum Ecclesiæ caput agnoverit: ipse, inquam, Albertus Tuus esse prius optat quam nasci, et veluti genuinus Ecclesiæ lucisque filius nisi in lumine Tuo, Beatissime Pater, lumen recusat aspicere: tum enim hac ratione iterum probatus, nemini statim non probabitur, nulliusque pertimescens spongiam, sua se satis dignitate tuebitur. Deus interim Tuam Beatitudinem servet incolumen, felicesque diu annos ad Reipublicæ Christianæ felicitatem ac dignitatem largiatur, dum laborem suum satis difficilem ac arduum benigne suscipias exorat. Tuæ Beatitudinis humillimus atque obsequentissimus filius, Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 3 Octobris 1889. L. Vivès.
To our most holy lord Leo XIII, Supreme Pontiff, most excellent. What had long been among our wishes, Most Blessed Father, behold, at last there is submitted to the press for you the distinguished work of Blessed Albert the Great, of the Order of Preachers and Bishop of Ratisbon, the plainly wonderful work of this Albert of whom, as the Lyons editor says when offering all the Doctor's works to Your predecessor of happy memory, Innocent X, his doctrine was for a prodigy, his virtue for a miracle, his fame for such admiration that, even while he lived, he found for himself among the great the name of Great: he whom it was believed that nothing in human sciences, few things in divine sciences, had escaped; who, mighty in word and deed, illuminated the Church of God; who, taught from heaven, had Paul as teacher, Thomas as disciple, the Church as the theater of his virtue and learning; who, lest I heap up all things here, was held in such esteem by Your predecessors that he was sent as Apostolic Legate into Sarmatia, appointed preacher of the Cross through Germany and Bohemia, created Master of the sacred Palace by Alexander IV, placed over the episcopate of Ratisbon by Urban IV, although as unwilling as deserving, and called by Gregory X to the Council of Lyons among the chief fathers; and, when he had completed life, merited, together with St. Thomas, praises of highest wisdom and solid sanctity from Pius II, and divine honors in the Church of Ratisbon, Cologne, and Lavingen, and in the Order of Preachers in Germany, from Innocent XIII, Gregory XV, and Urban VIII. This new edition of such and so great a Writer, corrected, according to my powers and insofar as human weakness permits, of almost innumerable faults, I offer to You, as restorer of philosophical and theological studies. For Albert himself, judging his doctrine not so much his own except insofar as the Vicar of Christ on earth shall have confirmed it, and denying that anything is his own except what his head of the Church shall have recognized as his own: he himself, I say, Your Albert wishes to be Yours before he is born, and, as a genuine son of the Church and of the light, refuses to look upon light except in Your light, Most Blessed Father: for then, tested again by this means, he will immediately be unacceptable to no one, and, fearing the sponge of no one, he will defend himself sufficiently by his own dignity. Meanwhile may God preserve Your Beatitude unharmed, and may He grant happy years for a long time unto the happiness and dignity of the Christian commonwealth, while he begs that you kindly receive his sufficiently difficult and arduous labor. Of Your Beatitude the most humble and most obedient son, Paris, 3 October 1889. L. Vivès.
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