The project, founded by Riccardo Quinto (1961-2014), is currently coordinated by one of his students, Dr Magdalena Bieniak (Instytut Filozofii UW, Warszawa). Dr. Massimiliano d’Alessandro (Junior Research Fellow at FISPPA from 08/01/2013 to 07/31/2015) collaborated with the research unit based in Padua.

Abstract

The research project consists of a critical edition of the Quaestiones theologiae of Stephan Langton († 1228), who is among the most significant authors working in Paris during the last twenty years of 12th century and the first decade of 13th century (before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury). The Quaestiones are the author’s most interesting theological work: in fact, from a philosophical point of view, they contain more rich and exhaustive arguments than those we find in Langton’s Commentary and his Summa. Each question will be prepared on a basis of the entire manuscript tradition; what is more, in cases where it is impossible to obtain a unique text based on all the witnesses, more than one version of the same question will be presented. The texts will be grouped in five volumes and they will be published by the British Academy in the “Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi” series.
The research project intentionally rests upon interdisciplinary competence and international collaboration. The project requires, in fact, a scrupulous application of philological methodologies to a category of texts which necessitates a proven acquaintance with philosophy in order to be understood and, consequently, correctly edited. The research group is therefore composed of philologists, who are experts in critical editions, of scholars known for their familiarity with the theological texts of the 12th and 13th century and of specialists in logics and semantics of the period. The international character of the project is evident in the involvement in it of the British Academy; similarly, Prof. Kent Emery, who is present in the research group, guarantees an extensive collaboration of the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame, giving access to the materials collected and to the transcriptions made by Joseph N. Garvin and his collaborators several decades ago.

Description

Stephan Langton († 1228) is among the most important authors who worked in Paris during the last twenty years of 12th century and the first decade of 13th century. His activity belongs to the theological current of the so-called “masters of sacra pagina”, inspired above all by Peter the Chanter († 1197) (B. Smalley), and represents an original continuation of the thought of Gilbert of Poitiers († 1154) and Alain of Lille († 1202). Langton’s teaching strongly influenced the first masters of the University of Paris. Our author was well acquainted with the theological literature of his time and with that of the preceding decades; nevertheless, he often openen independent and original paths of the research, as he proposed new solutions to the most frequently treated theological issues (the conception of the Trinity, Christology, the linguistic study of liturgical formulas – especially those necessary for the administration of the sacraments). The solutions proposed by Langton were to influence the most successful theological syntheses, like William of Auxerre’s († 1231) Summa aurea or the Sentences Commentary of Hugh of St.-Cher († 1263).
Among the speculative works of Langton we find: a) a brief Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, b) a Summa and c) the Quaestiones theologiae. Langton’s Commentary on the Sentences is the first work of this kind that can be properly called a ‘commentary’: in fact, although Langton follows the text of the Sentences, he does not only offer explanations concerning the sense of the Lombard’s single propositions, but he also uses the literary genre of the commentary in order to present his own theological and philosophical vision, just as Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas were to do in the second half of XIII century. Langton is also the author of a short Summa theologiae (partially edited), which discusses the principal theological problems (the relation between the unique divine substance and the three persons, the “notions” that distinguish God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the union of the divine and human nature in Christ). The solutions proposed in Langton’s Summa are based principally on theological contextual and analytical semantics, which means that (i) the scientific value of singular theological assertions can be determined on the basis of the meaning of the terms contained in these assertions; (ii) the meaning of the terms depends on the context in which they are inserted; (iii) in each term we can distinguish different semantic components that determine together the meaning of the whole. In this sense Langton can be certainly classified as an author who belongs to the theological current called by the historians “Theologische Sprachlogik”.
In comparison with these two brief writings (which are already partially published), the Quaestiones theologiae are certainly the largest and the most interesting work. First of all, they include various problems that are not treated by Peter Lambrad in his Sentences. Moreover, from the philosophical point of view, they contain more rich and exhaustive argumentations than the ones we find in Langton’s Commentary and in his Summa. Finally, they are also the most popular of his works, as they are present in twelve manuscripts (only one manuscript contains the Sentences Commentary and only four transmit – in an incomplete manner – the Summa).
The whole of the work is composed of more than two hundred questions; most of them remain completely unedited or are published in different journals and books on the basis of one or a few manuscripts. However, the principal feature of Langton’s theology – that is to say the deeply technical semantic excursions – determines the fact that a fruitful analysis of Langton’s thought is impossible without a good textual basis. The advanced stage of the preliminary works finally gives us a possibility of accomplishing a critical edition of the entire collection. The manuscript tradition of the text, which today is very well known, is extremely complex, as the Quaestiones were transmitted in different collections containing a varying number of questions. Some of these collections became a source of their own tradition and, therefore, they can be found in various manuscripts; others exist in just one codex. In order to prepare an edition it is, therefore, necessary to establish a complete catalogue and an order in which the questions will be published. None of the manuscripts contains the entire collection of Langton’s questions, therefore it is impossible to determine what was exactly the author’s plan for the work; however, the ms. Cambridge, St. John’s College Library, C. 7 (57) contains a contemporaneous index of questions. The index systematically divides the majority of questions into four books that roughly correspond to the plan of Lombard’s Sentences. Thanks to this medieval document it is possible to organize all the questions in two series: the questions present in the Cambridge index (173 questions) and the “quaestiones extra indicem” (33 questions). Inside this plan, the single questions can be published according to different existing versions (in chronological order). This research project concludes the preliminary studies, which lasted at least eighty years, and which have allowed us to solve two main editorial problems: the description of the entire manuscript tradition and the definition of the order in which the edition will be presented. Because of their specific character, these problems would not have been resolved without help of computerised analysis, which permitted the simultaneous consideration of numerous variants (cf R. Quinto, Un Data-Base per le Quaestiones medievali: Il catalogo delle Quaestiones theologiae di Stefano Langton, «Studi Medievali», IIIa Serie, 34 (1993), pp. 815-822). After long preparatory operations, the edition appears as the accomplishment of an important international project, as the British Academy is ready to publish the entire work in the “Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi” series.