Volume 1
Life of Blessed Albert the Great
B. Alberti Magni, Ratisbonensis Episcopi, Ordinis Prædicatorum, Vita, cui adjicitur Operum omnium bibliographia critica. B. Albertus Magnus sic vulgo dictus clarissimum fuit sæculo XIII Ecclesiæ totius et Ordinis lumen, cujus tamen vitam tot fabulis dehonestarunt et contaminarunt nostrates et extranei, ut gestorum ejus chronologiam visum fuerit prius simpliciter exponere, quibus postea annotationes nostras subjiciemus, fabulas explodendo, et rei veritatem ex auctoribus æqualibus saltem certioribus statuendo et confirmando. Urbs est Thuringiæ clara, Lavinga Latinis, Laugingen incolis vernacule dicta, ad Danubii ripam sita vix una leuca supra Dilingam, Ulmam vero inter in occasum, Vertamque sive Donavertam media in ditione ducis Neoburgensis; ibi ¹ natus est Albertus anno MCXCIII forte sub finem ex illustri et antiqua regulorum Bolostratensium sive Bolstatensium stirpe. ² Aptissimum disciplinis omnibus a natura sortitus ingenium, mirum illud excoluit tum sub cura parentum in patria, ³ tum in Gallia Parisiis, ⁴ tum in Italia Patavii avunculo ubique comite. In hac postrema urbe degebat omnigenis scientiis philosophicis, mathematicis, etiam medicinæ apprime institutus, ⁵ cum eo advenit Beatissimus vir Jordanus magister Ordinis ab institutore Dominico secundus, cujus verbis excitatus, et adversus non perseverandi formidinem confortatus, ab eodem receptus est et Ordini cooptatus ac veste donatus anno MCCXXII, vel ut verius crediderim MCCXXIII ætatis annorum XXIX, certe nondum XXX expleto. Ex more tum apud nos servato ibidem, scilicet ⁶ Patavii, vel Bononiæ quibusdam annis theologiæ operam dedisse conjicio. Exinde jubentibus superioribus in patriam redux ad scholarum regimen applicatus est, ac Hildeshemii, Friburgi Brisgoiæ, Ratisbonæ, Argentinæ, Coloniæ philosophiam ac theologiam tandem e superiore loco docuit, quo tempore ⁷ F. Thomam Cantimpratanum inter discipulos habuit. ⁸ Inter hos etiam annos Parisios ad gymnasium Sanjacobeum in theologia perficiendum missum fuisse autumo, nam cum ex singulis provinciis tres quorum major spes erat quotannis eo mitterentur, an Albertum tantis ingenii dotibus eminentem Teutonia neglexisset? Jam inde Coloniam redierat, et a pluribus annis studium Coloniense regebat, cum anno MCCXLIV juvenis F. Thomas de Aquino eo advenit a magistro Ordinis IV F. Joanne Teutonico ductus, ac sub tanti viri disciplina erudiendus. ⁹ Anno MCCXLV ex ordinatione seu magistri Ordinis seu capituli generalis Coloniæ celebrati, Albertus Parisios missus est ad gradus promovendus, et scholam nostram Sanjacobeam pro rata extraneorum recturus, ac triennium solitum magisterii egit ibidem eumdem Aquinatem inter auditores habens. Anno MCCXLVIII solemni illi sententiæ, quam de comburendis libris Talmudicis Odo cardinalis Tusculanus de Castro Radulphi in Francia tum legatus pronuntiavit maii XV adfuit inter magistros theologiæ vocatos et ipse consultor allectus. ¹⁰ Sub finem ejusdem anni cum suo Aquinate Coloniam rediit, primarium lectorem ac studii generalis eo anno in comitiis Ordinis Lutetiæ coactis erecti regentem acturus. Eodem anno, stylo veteri Gallico, novo MCCXLIX, Wilielmum Hollandum recens Aquisgrani coronatum Cæsarem Colonia transeuntem, ut festum Epiphaniæ seu trium Regum ibidem solemnissimum
The life of Blessed Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon, of the Order of Preachers, to which is added a critical bibliography of all his works. Blessed Albert the Great, so commonly called, was in the thirteenth century a most illustrious light of the whole Church and of the Order, whose life, however, our own writers and outsiders have dishonored and contaminated with so many fables that it seemed good first to set forth simply the chronology of his deeds; to these afterward we shall add our annotations, by driving out fables and by establishing and confirming the truth of the matter from contemporary authors, or at least from the more certain ones. There is a famous city of Thuringia, Lavinga to Latin writers, called Laugingen in the vernacular by its inhabitants, situated on the bank of the Danube hardly one league above Dillingen, but midway between Ulm toward the west and Wörth, or Donauwörth, in the dominion of the duke of Neuburg; there ¹ Albert was born in the year 1193, perhaps near the end, from the illustrious and ancient stock of the petty rulers of Bolostratensium or Bolstatensium. ² Having obtained from nature an intellect most apt for all disciplines, he cultivated that marvelous intellect, first under the care of his parents in his homeland, ³ then in Gaul at Paris, ⁴ then in Italy at Padua, with his uncle everywhere as companion. In this last city he was living, very excellently instructed in sciences of every sort, philosophical, mathematical, and even medical, ⁵ when there came to him the most blessed man Jordan, master of the Order, second from the founder Dominic; stirred by his words, and strengthened against fear of not persevering, he was received by the same man and enrolled in the Order and given the habit in the year 1222, or, as I have believed more truly, 1223, at the age of twenty-nine years, certainly before completing the thirtieth. According to the custom then observed among us, I conjecture that in the same place, namely ⁶ at Padua, or at Bologna, he devoted himself for some years to theology. Thereafter, having returned to his homeland by command of his superiors, he was applied to the governance of schools, and at Hildesheim, Freiburg in Breisgau, Ratisbon, Strasbourg, and Cologne he at last taught philosophy and theology from the higher place; at that time ⁷ he had Brother Thomas of Cantimpré among his disciples. ⁸ I suppose that among these same years he was sent to Paris, to the gymnasium of Saint-Jacques, to be perfected in theology, for since from individual provinces three men of whom there was greater hope were sent there each year, would Teutonia have neglected Albert, eminent with such gifts of intellect? Already from there he had returned to Cologne, and for several years was governing the Cologne study, when in the year 1244 the young Brother Thomas of Aquino came there, led by the fourth master of the Order, Brother John the Teuton, and to be instructed under the discipline of so great a man. ⁹ In the year 1245, from the ordinance either of the master of the Order or of the general chapter celebrated at Cologne, Albert was sent to Paris to be advanced to degrees, and to rule our school of Saint-Jacques for the share of foreigners, and he completed there the customary three years of mastership, having the same Aquinas among his hearers. In the year 1248, at that solemn sentence concerning the burning of the Talmudic books, which Odo, cardinal of Tusculum, of Châteauroux in France, then legate, pronounced on the fifteenth of May, he was present among the masters of theology who had been called, and he himself was chosen as consultant. ¹⁰ Toward the end of the same year he returned to Cologne with his Aquinas, about to act as primary lector and regent of the general study erected in that year in the assemblies of the Order convened at Paris. In the same year, according to the old Gallic style, but by the new 1249, William of Holland, recently crowned Caesar at Aachen, passing through Cologne, in order that the feast of Epiphany, or of the Three Kings, there most solemn
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