Franciscan Studies

BOOK REVIEWS Delhaye, Ph. (Edit.), Florilegium morale oxoniense, Ms. Bodl. 633, Pars Prima: Flores philosophorum (Analecta mediaevaUa namurcensia, 5), Louvain-LUle, 1955; 130 pp. We have here a critical edition of the first part of a Twelfth Century florilegium morale, now preserved at the Bodleian Library of Oxford. The work is not only anonymous, but has no title, and as far as we know is not preserved by any other codex. The Introduction (pp. 9—68), compared with the text-edition (pp. 70—106), is long, but most interesting and very well written. It is subdivided into a literary presentation of the text (pp. 9—21) and a doctrinal introduction (pp. 22—64). The literary introduction contains a careful description of the manuscript. One learns that the codex formerly belonged to the monastery of Worcester; it is made up by different manuscripts, containing various tracts on asceticism and liturgy, plus the florilegium, which is of a philosophical nature. The florilegium was not redacted at Worcester monastery; it is rather the work of a Canon Regular of St. Augustine writing for a younger confrere. The date of redaction is most likely at the end of the Twelfth Century, though the beginning of the Thirteenth Century is not entirely excluded. As for the structure of the florilegium, the first and smaller part, the one published by Delhaye, is a tract on general Ethics; it is conceived by the redactor as an introduction to the much longer second part on special Ethics, which will be published by C. H. Talbot of Warburg Institute. As to the contents, the first part is a collection of texts taken from philosophical writings; the second part has texts of a more literary origin. The flores philosophorum following a rather traditional pattern, has five chapters: 1. on good and evil; 2. on the human soul; 3. virtue and virtues; 4. vices; 5. a picture of wise and evil men. The flores are taken mainly from Apulaeus, De Piatone et eius dogmate; Cicero (De inventions), the pseudo-Cicero (Rhetorica ad Herennium), Macrobius (In somnium Scipionis) and other pagan writers are used, too; but the author more or less christianizes this literature, either by simply omitting pagan elements in the phrases quoted, or else by omitting entire passages which were too obviously non-Christian. From Christian sources the author cites mainly Isidore, Gregory the Great and Martin of Braga. With the exception of the second half of the chapter on vices, Delhaye discovered all the immediate sources of the tract. Incidentally, it should be noted that none of the sources is Aristotelian. Influence of the tract on later medieval literature is not mentioned. Delhaye gives, also, a faithful and interesting account of the ideas of the tract; we cannot summarize them here. The principles followed in editing 85 86FRANCISCAN STUDIES the text closely resemble those of the "Union Académique Internationale" as published at Brussels in 1938. Prof. Delhaye is to be congratulated for his edition as well as for his scholarly introduction; both of these are models in their field. E. M. Buytaert, O. F. M. Lottin, Odon, O.S.B., Psychologie et Morale aux XIIe et XIII" siècles, Tome IV: Problèmes de Morale, Troisième Partie, vol. I—II, LouvainGembloux , 1954; 944 pp. These two volumes conclude the great work of Dom Lottin on Psychology and Moral Theology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. The topics treated are: the theories on original sin from Saint Anselm to Thomas Aquinas; original sin and baptism according to the authors of this period; moral intention from Abelard to Thomas Aquinas; "finis operantis" in the doctrine of Saint Thomas; Thomas Aquinas and the Faculty of Arts of Paris at the end of the Thirteenth Century; the connection of acquired moral virtues from Saint Thomas to Duns Scotus; the gifts of the Holy Ghost from Thomas Aquinas to Peter Aureoli; infused moral virtues at the beginning of the Fourteenth Century. Then follow some short "addenda" to the preceding volumes (pp. 809—814), an epilog (pp. 815—828), and indexes covering all the volumes of the work (pp. 829:—944). In the body of the latest volumes (pp. 9—807), the method...