Albert the Great (d. 1280) was one of the most prolific authors of the Middle Ages. In his own lifetime, Albert's prestige equaled that of the ancients. His contemporary and rather jealous rival, Roger Bacon, praised him as one of the learned or sapientes.[1] Siger of Brabant, a younger contemporary sometimes identified as one of Albert's disciples, regarded him as one of the most eminent men in philosophy. Ulrich of Strassburg, Albert's student, described him as "so godlike in every branch of knowledge that he can properly be called the wonder and marvel of our age."[2] The fifteenth-century biographer Rudolph of Nijmegen insists (in Leonine verse) that Albert illuminated the entire world by his understanding of all things capable of being known.[3] While in the West Albert was known as Doctor universalis and the "sage and philosopher among the Latins," in the East he was specially recognized as the "teacher of the Franks."[4] His renown only increased following his death, as evidenced by an epitaph at his tomb eulogizing Albert as prince among philosophers, greater than Plato, and hardly inferior to King Solomon in wisdom.[5] Albert the only man of the High Middle Ages to be called ‘the Great,’ and this title was used even before his death. Before the canonization of Thomas Aquinas in 1323, Albert’s prestige surpassed that all other Scholastics.

 

Even were we to discount the praise of medieval panegyrists, modern historians, particularly historians of science, have reaffirmed Albert’s importance for natural philosophy or natural science. Lynn Thorndike called Albert "the dominant figure in Latin learning and natural science of the thirteenth century...",[6] while Bernhard Geyer, late director of the Albertus‑Magnus‑Institut, remarked that Albert was "unique in his time for having made accessible and available the Aristotelian knowledge of nature (already enlarged by the Arabs) and for having enriched it by his own observations in all branches of nature. Preeminent place in the history of science must be accorded to him forever."[7] For William Wallace, "Albert the Great is justly regarded as one of the outstanding forerunners of modern science in the High Middle Ages."[8] Accordingly, in 1931 Pope Pius XI elevated Albert to the status of saint and doctor of the Church, while in 1941 Pius XII proclaimed Albert to be the patron saint of students of the natural sciences.

Despite Albert’s historical significance and renown, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding his early life. Both the date of his birth and the date of his entry to the Dominican Order (Order of Preachers) remain uncertain. The following brief chronology identifies some significant moments in his life and provides dates for the composition of his works (indicated in italics).[9] In some instances the dates are approximations at best.

Chronology

 

ca. 1200                       born in Lauingen on the Danube.

 

ca. 1221                       sent to study in Padua.

 

1223 or 1229               enters the Dominican Order either at Padua in 1223, or at Cologne ca. 1229.

 

1229                            provides theological instruction in Cologne at the Dominican priory.

 

1233-34                       begins teaching as a lector at Dominican houses in the German Province (in Hildesheim, in either Freiburg-im-Breisgau or Freiberg in Saxony, in Regensburg, and then in Strasbourg).

                                   

                                    De natura boni

                                    Sermones

 

ca. 1240                       arrives in Paris to continue his studies at the University of Paris.

 

1242-1245                   De sacramentis

                                    De incarnatione

                                    De resurrection

                                    De IV coaequaevis

ca. 1242                       De homine

                                    De bono

1242                            Principium super totam Bibliam

ca. 1242-1250             Quaestiones (theologicae)

1243                            I Sententiarum

                                    III Sententiarum

 

1245                            master of theology and then installed as regent master at the University of Paris.

 

ca. 1246                       II Sententiarum completed

 

15 May 1248               Albert’s name appears as a signatory to the Parisian condemnation of the Talmud.

From 1248                  Albert begins his commentary on the Corpus Dionysiacum

                                    Super Dion. De caelesti hierarchia

                                    Super Dion. De ecclesiastica hierarchia

                                   

Summer, 1248             Returns to Cologne (accompanied by Thomas Aquinas) to establish and direct a studium generale at the Dominican priory of the Holy Cross.

 

1249                            IV Sententiarum completed

                                    Super Dion. De divinis nominibus

1250                            Super Dion. De mystica theologica et Epistulas

 

1250-1252                   Super Ethica (redaction)

 

1251                            Begins his commentaries on the Corpus Aristotelicum

 

1251-1252                   Physica

 

ca. 1251-1254             De natura loci

                                    De causis proprietatum elementorum

                                    De generatione et corruptione

                                    De caelo et mundo

 

                                    Super Porphyrium De V universalibus

 

 

1254                            elected Dominican Prior Provincial for the German province.

 

ca. 1254-1257             Meteora

                                    De mineralibus

                                    De praedicamentis

                                    De anima

 

                                    De sex principiis

                                    Liber divisionum

 

                                    Peri hermeneias

                                    Analytica priora

                                    Analytica posteriora

 

1256-1257                   present at the papal court at Anagni for the condemnation of William of Saint-Amour’s On the Dangers of the Last Times; provides a refutation of the Averroist doctrine of the unity of the intellect.

 

1256                            De fato (treated again in Summa I)

 

                                    Parva naturalia:

                                                De nutrimento et nutrito

                                                De sensu et sensato

                                                De memoria et reminiscentia

                                                De intellectu et intelligibili (1.1)

                                                De somno et vigilia

                                                De spiritu et respiratione

                                                De motibus animalium

                                                De iuventute et senectute

                                                De morte et vita

                                    De intellectu et intelligibili (1.2 before De natura et origine animae)

 

                                    De vegetabilibus

                                   

                                    De unitate intellectus (final version, 1263; incorporated in Summa II)

 

1257                            resigns as Prior Provincial and returns to Cologne (by spring 1258) to lecture.

 

Late 1257-1264           Super Matthaeum

 

1258                            participates in the Great Arbitration to negotiate a settlement between Cologne’s burghers and Cologne's Archbishop Conrad von Hochstaden.

 

1258-1262/1263          Quaestiones super de animalibus

                                    De animalibus

 

                                    De natura et origine animae

                                   

                                    De principiis motus processivi

 

1259                            Participates in the General Chapter of the Dominican Order in Valenciennes; collaborates on the development of a new curriculum of study for Dominicans.

 

 

1260                            named Bishop of Regensburg by Pope Alexander IV; consecrated in March 1260.

 

ca. 1260                       Super Isaiam

 

1262                            travels to the papal court to obtain permission to resign his Regensburg bishopric, which was granted by Alexander IV’s successor, Pope Urban IV.

 

ca. 1262                       Ethica

ca. 1262/1263              Super Euclidem

 

1263-1264                   Pope Urban IV commissions Albert to preach the Crusade in German lands.

 

ca. 1264                       Metaphysica

ca. 1264-1267             De causis et processu universitatis a prima causa

 

1264-1270                   Death of Pope Urban IV on 10 October 1264. Albert resigns his commission to preach the Crusade.

Albert resides in Würzburg and travels widely across Germany in service to the Dominican Order and the Church.

 

 

ca. 1264                       Topica

                                    De sophisticis elenchis

after 1264                    Politica

 

1264-1268       Prepares biblical commentaries:

                                    Super Marcum

                                    Super Lucam

                                    Super Iohannem

                                    Super Ieremiam

                                    Super Threnos

                                    Super Baruch

                                    Super Ezechielem

                                    Super Danielem

                                    Super Prohetas minores

                                    Super Iob (completed 1272 or 1274)

 

1267-1270                   Lecturer in Strassburg and Pommern

 

after 1268                    Summa theologiae pars I

 

1270                            returns to the Dominican priory of the Holy Cross in Cologne to teach and to write.

 

1270 (before 10 Dec.) De XV problematibus

 

1271                            negotiates peace between the townspeople of Cologne and Archbishop Engelbert II.

 

                                    Problemata determinata

 

May 1274                    likely attended the Second Council of Lyons.

 

after 1274                    Summa theologiae pars II

                                    Super missam

                                    De corpore domini

 

15 November 1280     Albert dies in Cologne.

 

1670                            beatified by Pope Clement X.

 

1931                            canonized as a saint by Pope Pius XI.

 

16 December 1941      Pope Pius XII declares Albert the patron saint of students of the natural sciences.

 

For additional discussion of Albert’s life and of his intellectual legacy one may wish to consult two recent books:

Hannes Möhle, Albertus Magnus, Zugänge zum Denken des Mittelalters, 7 (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2015)

Irven M. Resnick and Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., Albertus Magnus and the World of Nature (London: Reaktion Books, 2022)

For further research, we recommend Albert the Great: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (1900–2000), edited by Irven M. Resnick and Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr., and Bruno Tremblay, “Modern Scholarship (1900–2000) on Albertus Magnus: A Complement”, Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch fur Antike und Mittelalter 11 (2006): 159–94. Both are available on this site. For more specialized investigations, see A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, ed. Irven M. Resnick (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

 

 

 

   [1]       Roger Bacon, Opus Tertium, in Opera Quaedam Hactenus Inedita, ed. J.S. Brewer (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859), 1: 30.

    [2]      “Vir in omni scientia adeo divinus, ut nostri temporis stupor et miraculum congrue vocari possit": quoted in Hieronymus Wilms, Albert the Great: Saint and Doctor of the Church, trans. Adrian English and Philip Hereford (London: Burns, Oates, 1933), 136.

   [3]        "Mundo luxisti quia totum scibile scisti": Legenda Beati Alberta Magni, ed. Heribert C. Scheeben (Cologne: Kölner Görres-Haus,1928), 16.

   [4]        "Latinorum sapiens et philosophus" and "Doctor Francorum": quoted in Angelus Walz and Heribert Scheeben, Iconographia Albertina (Freiburg: Herder, 1932), 28.

   [5]        "Philosophorum Princeps ... Maior Platone vix inferius Salomone ...": Legenda Beati Alberta Magni, 94.

   [6]        Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science. 2nd ed. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1929), 2:521.

   [7]        Bernhard Geyer, “Albertus Magnus,” Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1973), 1: 529 (italics added).

   [8]        William A. Wallace, “Galileo's Citations of Albert the Great,” in Albert the Great: Commemorative Essays, ed. Francis J. Kovach and Robert W. Shahan (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980), 261.

   [9]           Dates for Albert’s works are based on “Zeittafel (Chronologie nach derzeitigem Forschungsstand,” in Albertus Magnus und sein System der Wissenschaften, ed. Hannes Möhle, Henryk Anzulewicz, Maria Burger, Silvia Donati, Ruth Meyer, Martin Bredenbeck, and Susana Bullido del Barrio (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2011), 28-31.