Cruising though the ‘net last evening—where did I start from?—I came across an on-line version of a short course in natural philosophy, taught by one of my Dominican heroes of the River Forest School (though he was never located at River Forest, Illinois), Fr William A. Wallace, OP (also here). The course is affiliated with Ralph McInerny’s International Catholic University. The course exists in six-parts, and constitutes a wonderful overview of Thomistic natural philosophy (based on Aristotle), as well as the other elements of philosophy in a Thomistic worldview. A good way to get “up and running.”

You can also see Fr Wallace himself read through the opening lecture on YouTube:

A follow-up of sorts. You can see a two-part interview with Fr Wallace on the Dominican Order and the Intellectual Life, dating from 1982, which has much of Fr Wallace’s own life-experience (part 1 / part 2).

This is surely for medievalist geeks. Reading through Eric Knibbs, "How to Use Modern Critical Editions of Medieval Latin Texts," History Compass 5, no. 5 (2007): 1521-49, I came across a link to web page with what seem to be all the abbreviations one is likely to find in a critical edition of a classical—I add: medieval—text. The page (here) is put together by Karl Maurer of the University of Dallas.

Maurer's page is probably overkill for the Thomist. Still useful—indeed, normative, perhaps—is Fr Antoine Donaine's «Liste des abbréviations latines et sigles recommandés pour l'apparat critique,» Bulletin SIEPM 2 (1960): 142-149, which you can see on Enrique Alarcon's miraculous Index Thomisticus website (here).

The people at Ave Maria University's Aquinas Center have posted a PDF containing an English translation of Aquinas's commentary on Romans (based upon Fr Fabian Larcher, O.P.'s translation). Jeremy Holmes did the updating and editing. As mentioned here three years ago (!), the Aquinas Center has a page on their website linking to PDFs of Aquinas's commentaries in English on: Hebrews, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Colossians and Ephesians. The one on Romans now joins that earlier group.

The Medieval Institute at Notre Dame has just set up a blog. Here is the announcement from Roberta Baranowski:

Dear Medievalists,

During this past year, our University of Notre Dame Medieval Institute graduate students have been particularly active in encouraging a sense of community among our medievalist community on campus by sponsoring coffee and social hours, a field trip to the Newberry library for students, and other activities.

In the same spirit, I am initiating an Internet blog for current and past students, faculty, and visitors to the Medieval Institute. My recent pilgrimage to Kalamazoo reminded me that one of the real pleasures of academic life is the opportunity to meet and re-meet interesting colleagues and maintain relationships with individuals who actually get excited about most things medieval.

I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to share your own thoughts and comments with others who have journeyed through our reading room. Your participation in our on-line community is most welcome and I encourage you to share the following link with other colleagues who may want to keep in touch with our company of scholars.

http://ndmedinst.blogspot.com

I confess to knowing almost nothing about the mechanics of blogging, so I've gone the way of using a template that put me in business in under 5 minutes. Refinements, suggestions, and of course, postings, are very welcome.

Cordially,

Roberta Baranowski
Assistant Director, Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame

The publications department at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto (PIMS) has placed some PDF versions of the annual Etienne Gilson Lecture onto their site for free downloading. Every year the Institute invites a senior medievalist to deliver the lecture—this spring's lecture was by M. Michèle Mulchahey—and thereafter publishes the lecture in a small booklet. Leonard Boyle's epic The Setting of the Summa theologiae of Saint Thomas (link), published many times, first saw light as this lecture, as did Mark Jordan's The Alleged Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas (link). The Institute provides a separate page devoted to it, which includes the detailed on the following past lectures, and links to the PDF versions of their lectures. Here is a sampling:

• 2000: Marcia L. Colish. Remapping Scholasticism. Etienne Gilson Series 21. 2000; 21 pages. ISBN 0–88844–721–3. Available in a PDF version.
• 2002: Francis Oakley. Omnipotence and Promise: The Legacy of the Scholastic Distinction of Powers. Etienne Gilson Series 23. 2002; 28 pages. ISBN 0–88844–723–X. Available in a PDF version.
• 2004: Karl F. Morrison. The Male Gaze and Other Reasons for the Hypothetical End of Christian Art in the West. Etienne Gilson Series 26. 2005. 36 pages. ISBN 0–88844–726–4. Available in a PDF version.
• Related Lecture (NOTE: not a Gilson Lecture, but a fine one, indeed): Anthony J. Celano. From Priam to the Good Thief. The Significance of a Single Event in Greek Ethics and Medieval Moral Teaching. EGS 22 / Studies in Medieval Moral Teaching 2. 2001. 24pp. ISBN 0–88844–722–1. Available in a PDF version.

Of related interest is this: PIMS has republished nine of these lectures in a single volume as part of its Spring 2008 catalog of publications. This volume includes the lectures of the well-known Thomists, Leonard Boyle, Edward Synan, James Weisheipl, Mark Jordan, and James P. Reilly.