ALBERT THE GREAT
(Albertus Magnus; ca. 1200–1280). Now remembered as a theologian and philosopher,
this teacher of Thomas Aquinas is perhaps most original in his scientific works. Albert
was born into a noble family in Lauingen on the Danube, near Ulm. He studied at
Bologna and Padua, where he entered the Dominican order in 1222. His theological
training was in Germany, but ca. 1241 he went to Paris, where from 1245 to 1248 he was
a Dominican regent master and taught his most famous pupil, Thomas Aquinas. In 1248,
he and Thomas went to Cologne to start a new Dominican studium generale. In 1253–56,
he was provincial of the German Dominican province, journeying to Rome in 1256 to
defend the mendicants against the attacks of William of Saint-Amour and his followers.
In 1260, he agreed to take the see of Ratisbon, simply to sort out its administrative
disorder. He resigned two years later to return to Cologne and teaching. There was to be
no peace: in 1264–66, he taught at the Dominican house in Würzburg; in 1268, he was at
Strasbourg and elsewhere; in 1269–80, he was based in Cologne (where he is buried),
although he attended the second Council of Lyon (1274) and was in Paris in 1277 to take
part in the arguments over Aristotelian and Averroist doctrine.
Albert, known as Doctor universalis or Doctor expertus, has suffered from the
proximity of his gifted pupil, Thomas, in particular from comparison with Thomas in
theology and philosophy. Albert is a less systematic thinker than Thomas and less
comprehensive. But this is to misjudge his gifts, which were much more for personal
observation, new information, and experimentation. He was much more influential in the
natural sciences, especially biology and zoology, where his warmth comes through with a
sense of his own observations, than in theology.
Albert was fascinated by the created world and wanted to know all about it. The sheer
amount and variety of his work make him difficult to classify and assess: some is simple
collation, some is close analysis. In the mold of a Paris master, he wrote biblical
commentaries, a commentary on the Sententiae of Peter Lombard, theological tracts, and
questions. He commented on the whole of Aristotle and used him for work on the natural
sciences and psychology. Although he could use and understand philo-sophical
principles, he is not a philospher through preference; he prefers to use philosophy as a
tool in other, more interesting, fields.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: AQUINAS, THOMAS; ARISTOTLE, INFLUENCE OF; PHILOSOPHY;
THEOLOGY]
Albert the Great. Opera omnia, ed. Auguste Borgnet. 38 vols. Paris: Vivès, 1890–99.
——. Opera omnia ad fidem codicum manuscriptorum edenda. Monasterii Westfalorum:
Institutum Alberti Magni, 1951–. [15 vols. of a projected 40 have appeared to date.]
——. On the Intellect and the Intelligible (Book I). In Selections from Medieval Philosophers, ed.
Richard McKeon. 2 vols. New York: Scribner, 1929–30, Vol. 1, pp. 326–75.
De Libéra, Alain. Albert le Grand et la philosophie. Paris, 1990.
Glorieux, Palémon. Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle. 2 vols. Paris:
Vrin, 1933, Vol. 1, pp. 62–77. [Complete listing of works.]
Ostlender, H., ed. Studia Albertina: Festschrift für Bernhard Geyer. Münster: Aschendorff, 1952.
van Steenberghen, Fernand. “Albert le Grand et l’Aristotélisme.” Revue internationale de
philosophie 34(1980):566–74.
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