Albertus Magnus
Anonymous painting
Anonymous painting
Credits and thanks
Bruno Tremblay (Philosophy, St.Jerome’s University) is the project's initiator and Director.
Frank Tompa (Computer Science, University of Waterloo) contributed greatly to the development of the software that is at the basis of the Alberti Magni e-corpus search engine. He also supervised the undergraduate student from Computer Science who helped build the first version of the website and of the corpus. He devised and implemented the new marking system in use in the 2013 iteration of the searchable corpus, and made further modifications and improvements to the search engine. He also helped greatly in 2017 and 2018, when time came to incorporate a new group of works into the corpus and when he added a "flexible spelling" function to the engine.
David Porreca (Classical Studies, University of Waterloo) has contributed by helping find undergraduate students from Classical Studies able to work on the transformation of image files of Albert’s works into machine-readable texts, by supervising the work done by some of them, and by transforming some texts himself.
Thérèse Bonin (Philosophy, Duquesne University) kindly sent and let Tremblay use the proofread copy of De natura et origine animae which she had prepared for her own work.
Shadab Rashid is the CS assistant who was involved in the building of the first version of the website and searchable database, under the supervision of Drs. Tompa and Tremblay. The current interface of the website was realized by Tremblay (with some help from Rebecca Thomson, from the UW Arts Computing helpdesk).
Many people have been involved in what is assuredly the most arduous aspect of this project, that is to say turning image files of Latin texts into good-quality, machine-readable texts. The main steps that were required were usually the following: 1) each image file was turned into a text file, using the software OmniPage Pro, and revised in the process; 2) the text file was proofread two more times, so that the text reflects more closely the printed edition; 3) the text of the printed edition was itself partly corrected, usually in light of the Jammy edition. Steps 2 and 3 were in each case performed by Bruno Tremblay (with help from David Porreca for Super II librum Sententiarum and Mineralia, from Thérèse Bonin for De natura et origine animae, and from Caley McCarthy for Super Lucam), whereas different people, for the most part undergraduate students supervised by Tremblay, have contributed to the first proofreading:
Work |
First proofreading |
Work |
First proofreading |
| Super Porphyrium De V universalibus (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | Metaphysica (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Bruno Tremblay / Caley McCarthy |
| De praedicamentis (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | De unitate intellectus (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Tatianna Bechal |
| De sex principiis (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | De XV problematibus (ed. Mandonnet, 1908) | Bruno Tremblay |
| Liber divisionum (ed. de Loë, 1913) | Bruno Tremblay | De fato (ed. Mandonnet, 1927) | Bruno Tremblay |
| Peri hermeneias (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy / Bruno Tremblay | De causis et processu universitatis (ed. Borgnet, 1891) | Ellen Bleaney |
| Analytica priora (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | Super Iob (ed. Weiß, 1904) | Tanner Rudnick |
| Analytica posteriora (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | De muliere forti (ed. Borgnet, 1893) | Tanner Rudnick |
| Topica (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | Super Ieremiam (frag.) (ed. Meersseman, 1932) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De sophisticis elenchis (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Margaret McCarthy | Super Ezechielem (frag.) (ed. Heusgen-Ostlender, 1933) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De caelo et mundo (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Mitchell Elvidge | Super Threnos (ed. Borgnet, 1893) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De natura loci (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Tatianna Bechal | Super Baruch (ed. Borgnet, 1893) | Mitchell Elvidge |
| De causis proprietatum elementorum (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Tatianna Bechal | Super Danielem (ed. Borgnet, 1893) | Tanner Rudnick / Bruno Tremblay |
| De generatione et corruptione (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Ellen Bleaney | Super prophetas minores (ed. Borgnet, 1892) | Mitchell Elvidge |
| De anima (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Mitchell Elvidge / Tatianna Bechal | Super Marcum (ed. Borgnet, 1894) | Mitchell Elvidge |
| Mineralia (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | David Porreca | Super Lucam (ed. Borgnet, 1894-1895) | Mitchell Elvidge / Caley McCarthy |
| De nutrimento et nutribili (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | Super Iohannem (ed. Borgnet, 1895) | Mitchell Elvidge |
| De sensu et sensato (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | De quiditate et esse (ed. Grabmann, 1942) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De memoria et reminiscentia (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | De IV coaequaevis (ed. Borgnet, 1895) | Brenda Lauritzen |
| De intellectu et intelligibili (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | Super Sententiarum (ed. Borgnet, 1893-1894) | Brenda Lauritzen (Lib. I and IV) / David Porreca (Lib. II) / Lillian Wheeler (Lib. III) |
| De somno et vigilia (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | Summa theologiae (ed. Borgnet, 1894-1895) | Lillian Wheeler (Pars I) / Brenda Lauritzen (Pars II) |
| De spiritu et respiratione (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | Super Dionysii Mysticam theologiam (ed. Borgnet, 1892) | Tatianna Bechal |
| De motibus animalium (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | De mysterio missae (ed. Borgnet, 1899) | Tanner Rudnick |
| De iuventute et senectute (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | De corpore domini (ed. Borgnet, 1899) | Mitchell Elvidge / Tanner Rudnick |
| De morte et vita (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Brenda Lauritzen | Determinatio Magistri Alberti de novo spiritu (ed. de Guibert, 1931) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De vegetabilibus (ed. Meyer-Jessen, 1867) | Brenda Lauritzen | Sermones parisienses (ed. Geyer, 1966) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De animalibus (ed. Stadler, 1916-1920) | Brenda Lauritzen | Sermo de sancto Martino (ed. Hoßfeld-Nellessen, 1980) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De natura et origine animae (ed. Borgnet, 1890) | Thérèse Bonin | Sermones de sancto Augustino (Augsburg) (ed. Schneyer, 1969) | Bruno Tremblay |
| De principiis motus processivi (ed. Stadler, 1909) | Bruno Tremblay | Sermones (Leipzig, UB 683) (ed. Schinagl, 2001) | Bruno Tremblay |
| Ethica (ed. Borgnet, 1891) | Margaret McCarthy / Brenda Lauritzen / Aiofe Richmond | Epistula de ungelt (ed. Riedler, 1901) | Bruno Tremblay |
| Politica (ed. Borgnet, 1891) | Tyler Flatt | Testamentum Domini Alberti (ed. Anzulewicz, 2008) | Bruno Tremblay |
Thank you to Henryk Anzulewicz, the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Frau Nellessen, the Pfarrverbrand Bad Honef, the journal Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale and Elisabeth Schinagl for their generous permission to use recent editions of some of Albert's sermons and of his testament. (If I have failed to identify and obtain permission from a legitimate rights holder, please get in touch with me immediately so I can remedy the situation.) Those more recent and still-covered-by-copyright-laws publications are the following: B. Geyer, Die Universitätspredigten des Albertus Magnus, München: Verlag der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1966 [Sermones parisienses]; P. Hoßfeld and E. Nellessen, Die Predigt des hl. Albertus Magnus zu Honnef, Bad Honnef, 1980 [Sermo de sancto Martino]; J. B. Schneyer, "Alberts des Grossen Augsburger Predigtzyklus über den hl. Augustinus", Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 36 (1969), 100-147 [Sermones de sancto Augustino (Augsburg)]; E. Schinagl, Naturkunde-Exempla in lateinischen Predigtsammlungen des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts, Bern: Peter Lang, 2001 [Sermones (Lepizig, UB 683)]; and H. Anzulewicz, "Das Testament des Albertus Magnus nach der Abschrift des Narcissus Pfister (Clm 4384)", in Rheinisch—Kölnisch—Katholisch. Beiträge zur Kirchen- und Landesgeschichte sowie zur Geschichte des Buch- und Bibliothekswesens der Rheinlande. Festschrift für Heinz Finger zum 60. Geburstag, ed. S. Schmidt, Köln: 2008, 163-180 [Testamentum Domini Alberti].
Université Laval and the University of Saskatchewan provided the hard copies of the Borgnet volumes that were scanned for this project. Most of the scanning was done by Graphics, from the University of Waterloo.
Many years ago, Albert Pinto patiently scanned each page of the Jammy edition, and he generously allowed for them to be posted on this website. Mr. Pinto’s thousands of files were organized, formatted and turned into 21 .pdfs by Bruno Tremblay.
The library of Stanford University created the .pdfs of De animalibus and De vegetabilibus that can be downloaded from the present website.
Rega Wood and the libraries of Stanford University and the University of San Diego made available the .pdf of de Loë’s edition of Liber divisionum that can be downloaded from the present website.
Pictures and images were obtained from the website of Europeana, whose terms of use can be found here.
Thank you to Henryk Anzulewiscz, David Twetten, Thérèse Bonin, and Burkhard Mojsisch for their encouragements and good counsel.
Financial support, without which the Alberti Magni e-corpus would not exist, has come from St.Jerome’s University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Research Fund (ORF), the University of Waterloo, and Stanley Cunningham. The University of Waterloo also provides and maintains the server on which the Alberti Magni e-corpus is hosted.