Union Académique Internationale

Project nº9-6, adopted in 1965.

The Italian section of the “Corpus philosophorum medii aevi” (“Philosophorum medii aevi opera selecta”) was founded in 1977, on behalf of the Unione Accademica Nazionale, Rome, by a committee of prominent historians of medieval philosophy and culture: Giuseppe Billanovich, Eugenio Garin, Gian Carlo Garfagnini, Tullio Gregory, Claudio Leonardi, Alfonso Maierù, Vittorio Peri, Sofia Vanni Rovighi, Cesare Vasoli.

With this enterprise, Italy institutionalized its contribution to a project founded by the Union Académique Internationale in 1929 – the ninth initiative –, which aimed to bring to light the most important works of medieval philosophers, then largely handed down only in manuscripts or in ancient editions, unusable for scientific works. In fact, the lack of reliable editions is still today a heavily conditioning factor for an adequate and comprehensive interpretation of medieval philosophy and theology.

The series – presently directed by a scientific committee chaired by Loris Sturlese and also including Stefano Caroti, Gian Carlo Garfagnini, Tullio Gregory, Enrico Menestò, Pasquale Porro, Pietro B. Rossi –, consists of two sections: the first (“Texts and studies”) is dedicated to the editions of medieval philosophical texts; the second (“Subsidia”) collects catalogs of manuscripts and philosophical repertoires for the study of unpublished and rare texts.

The project of the series is centered around the research and publication of medieval philosophical texts, although the series is open to monographic studies based on primary sources. In the 40 years since its foundation, twelve volumes of critical edited texts have been published. Among them are works of important medieval authors such as Robert Grosseteste, Giles of Rome and John Duns Scotus. Two further volumes containing texts of Thomas of York and Michael Savonarola are in print.

In order to broaden the documentary basis of the editions, extensive systematic research on the philosophical manuscripts, expecially those preserved in Italian libraries, was immediately started. About 50 libraries were visited by collaborators in this project, the results of their investigations being published in 11 volumes of the series “Subsidia”. Eight supplementary volumes are dedicated to the manuscripts containing works by Giles of Rome. In the same series the important catalogue of the Latin Aristotle Commentaries by Charles H. Lohr was published.

All 41 volumes published so far in the “Philosophorum medii aevi opera selecta” in the 40 years since its foundation have been peer-reviewed.