Summa (genre)

The summa (word in Latin) is a medieval didactics literary genre that was written in Latin. This genre was born during the 12th century and was developed during the following centuries.

Features

It was a kind of encyclopedia that developed a matter about Law, Theology or Philosophy most of all. Matters were divided in a more detailed way as it was in the tractatus (treatise), since they were divided into quaestiones (questions) and these ones were also divided into articles. The articles had the following structure:

• 1. Title of the article as a question and showing two different positions (disputatio).
• 2. Objeccions or arguments against one of the alternatives, specially the one that defended the author.
• 3. Arguments in favor of such an alternative, based on the Bible, the Holy Fathers and so on.
• 4. Solution, that includes arguments that combine faith and reason and that express the author's thought.
• 5. The sententia or answer to the question, that consists in the refutation of the initial objections against the author's solution.^[1][2]

The Summae in the area of Law

In the area of Law, the summa is a practical and didactic genre, that was developed from the methodology of the gloss. It was divided into two different literary genres: the summa (derived from the similia), and the questio legitima (derived from the contraria).

The summa was born in the minor Law schools whose aim was to instruct their students with easy summaries of the Justinian codes. In order to achieve this goal, easy, simple and systematic summaries of whole works were made, and the literary genre of the summae in the legal area was born.

The summae were developed specially in the civil law schools of Occitanie specially regarding Justinian's Institutiones.

Some important legal summae

• Azo of Bologna's Summa Codicis.
• Summa Codicis written in Occitan and known as Lo Codi, translated into Latin by Riccardo Pisano.

The Summae in the areas of Theology and Philosophy

The teaching of Theology and Philosophy during the Middle Ages had two different ways: lectio and disputatio:

• The lectio (lesson) was very similar to a present class. The teacher commented the sentences and doctrines of famous and known authors, such as for instance, Aristotle's or Boethius' works, or Peter Lombard's sentences.
• The disputatio (dispute) was more informal than the lectio, and was a real dialogue between teachers and disciples, where arguments in favour of or against any theses or subject were defended.

These two school methods originated their literary forms:

• From the lectio, the commentaria (commentaries) were born. And these ones brought the summae about, which were freer and more autonomous and systematic than the commentaria.
• The disputatio originated the quaestiones disputatae (disputed matters), that gather the material of the disputes that were held every two weeks; and the quodlibeta (random questions), that gathered the disputes that were held in Christmas and Easter. This metodology of the disputationes was the technical model of the famous mediaeval summae.^[3]

Some important theological summae

There are more or less sixty extant summae in this field. The following ones must be pointed out:

• Simon of Tournai's Summa or Institutiones in sacram paginam, 1165.
• Prepositinus of Cremona's Summa de officiis or Summa de poenitentia.
• William of Auxerre's Summa Aurea, 1220.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1274.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles.
• Alexander of Hales' Summa Theologiae, 13th century.
• Gerard of Bologna's Summa Theologiae, 1317.
• Francesc Eiximenis' Summa Theologica (fragments). 14th century.

References