Albertus Magnus, Saint

Albertus Magnus, Saint (ălbûr`təs măg`nəs), or Saint Albert the Great, b. 1193 or 1206, d. 1280, scholastic philosopher, Doctor of the Church, called the Universal Doctor. A nobleman of Bollstädt in Swabia, he joined (1223) the Dominicans and taught at Hildesheim, Freiburg, Regensburg, Strasbourg, and Cologne before the Univ. of Paris made him doctor of theology in 1245. Later he taught again at Cologne, and he was also briefly (1260–62) bishop of Regensburg. He was a thorough student of Aristotle, and he not only followed Robert Grosseteste in his approach to Aristotelian thought but also did much to introduce Aristotle's scientific treatises and scientific method to Europe. Like Roger Bacon, he had a scientific interest in nature. He made notable botanical observations (recorded in such works as De vegetabilibus), was the first to produce arsenic in a free form, and studied the combinations of metals. In philosophy he set out in his Summa theologiae to controvert Averroës and others and to reconcile the apparent contradictions of Aristotelianism and Christian thought. He wrote many treatises, and many more have been ascribed to him; the problem of determining which are genuinely of his authorship is difficult. He was a strong influence on his favorite pupil, St. Thomas Aquinas. Albertus was canonized in 1931. Feast: Nov. 15.

Bibliography

See D. H. Madden, A Chapter of Medieval History (1969); F. J. Kovach and R. W. Shahan, Albert the Great (1980).

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Albertus Magnus, Saint

Albertus Magnus, detail of a fresco by Tommaso da Modena, c. 1352; in the Church of San …

(credit: Alinari—Art Resource/EB Inc.)

(born c. 1200, Lauingen on the Danube, near Ulm, Bavaria—died Nov. 15, 1280, Cologne; canonized Dec. 16, 1931; feast day November 15) German cleric, theologian, and philosopher. Son of a wealthy German lord, he studied at Padua, where he joined the Dominican order (1223). At the University of Paris he was introduced to the works of Aristotle and to Averroës' commentaries and decided to present to his contemporaries the entire body of human knowledge as seen by Aristotle and his commentators. For 20 years he worked on his Physica, which encompassed natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, politics, and metaphysics. He believed that many points of Christian doctrine were recognizable both by faith and by reason. In 1248 he organized the first Dominican studium generale (“general house of studies,” a precursor to the university) in Germany, at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas, who had been with Albertus in Paris and joined him in Cologne, was his chief disciple at this time. His works represented the entire body of European knowledge of his time, and he contributed greatly to the development of natural science.