Berthold of Moosburg

Berthold of Moosburg (died after 1361 ^[1] ) was a German Dominican theologian and neo-Platonist of the 14th century, teaching in Regensburg in 1327. ^[2] He is notable for his work on the neo-Platonist Proclus Lycaeus' Elements of Theology (Institutio Theologica) in Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli, the only commentary on Proclus' work that came from the middle ages ^[3] . He attended Oxford, being dispatched there by his Dominican chapter for his studium generale. ^[4] It is believed that during this time he would have discovered works that influenced him in his writings such as Thomas of York's Sapientiale, Macrobius' Comentarii in Somnium Scipionis, and most notably Proclus' Elementationem Theologicam, which Berthold cited ten times just in his glosses on Macrobius. ^[4]

His Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli , written between 1340 and 1361, ^[5] was a major statement of the importance for Platonism of Proclus. ^[6] He opposed his Christian-Platonic synthesis to Aristotelian philosophy. ^[7] His sources included Theodoric of Freiberg and Albertus Magnus. ^{[8] [9]} Following Proclus's model of two modes of duration, eternity and time, Berthold rejected the aevum, an intermediate mode of time held by Theodoric and Albertus. ^[8] In Expositio Berthold makes 132 citations from 93 differnt chapters from Clavis. He uses these citations to reinterpret and to correct Proclus's doctorines to make it more inline with Christian belief. ^[10]

Legacy

Berthold's Expositio has notably have been influential on Nicholas of Cusa's works, and has been cited among a list of authoritative Neoplatonic authors in Cusa's Apologia doctae ignorantiae ^[11]

Works

• Expositio super elementationem theologicam Procli 184-211. De animabus, edited by Loris Sturlese, Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1974.
• Bertoldo di Moosburg, Tabula contentorum in Expositione super Elementationem theologicam Procli, edited by A. Beccarisi, Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2000.
• Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli, in Corpus philosophorum Teutonicorum medii aevi, vol. 6, edited by Loris Sturlese:
  • 6/1: Prologus. Propositiones 1-13, Meiner, Hamburg 1984. ISBN   3-7873-0599-8
  • 6/2: Propositiones 14-34, Meiner, Hamburg 1986. ISBN   3-7873-0673-0
  • 6/3: Propositiones 35-65, Meiner, Hamburg 2001. ISBN   3-7873-1560-8
  • 6/4: Propositiones 66-107, Meiner, Hamburg 2003. ISBN   3-7873-1655-8
  • 6/6: Propositiones 136–159, Meiner, Hamburg 2007
  • 6/7: Propositiones 160-183, Meiner, Hamburg 2003

References

• Markus Fűhrer, Stephen Gersh, Dietrich of Freiberg and Berthold of Moosburg, in Stephen Gersh (ed.), Interpreting Proclus from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 299-317.
• Antonella Sannino, Berthold of Moosburg's Hermetic Sources, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 63, 2000 (2000), pp. 243–258
• Beukes, Johann. (2021). Neoplatonism in the Cologne tradition of the later Middle Ages: Berthold of Moosburg (ca. 1300–1361) as case study. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies. 77. 10.4102/hts.v77i4.6281.

Notes

1. Ashley/Dominicans: 3 Mystics 1300s Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
2. Gieraths: Life in Abundance – 1 Archived April 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
3. Beukes, Johann (2021-03-19). "Neoplatonism in the Cologne tradition of the later Middle Ages: Berthold of Moosburg (ca. 1300–1361) as case study". HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies. 77 (4). doi:10.4102/hts.v77i4.6281. ISSN   2072-8050.
4. Calma, Dragos; King, Evan (2021). The Renewal of Medieval Metaphysics: Berthold of Moosburg’s Expositio on Proclus’ Elements of Theology. University College Dublin: Brill.
5. D. N. Sedley, The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy (2003), p. 327.
6. André Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Michael Lapidge, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (2001), p. 1153.
7. George Henry Radcliffe Parkinson, Stuart Shanker, Routledge History of Philosophy (1999), p. 235.
8. Steel, Carlos (2001-06-21). Porro, Pasquale (ed.). "The Neoplatonic Doctrine of Time and Eternity and its Influence on Medieval Philosophy" . The Medieval Concept of Time. doi:10.1163/9789004453197_003. ISBN   9789004453197.
9. Albert the Great (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
10. King, Evan (2019). "Eriugenism in Berthold of Moosburg's Expositio super Elementationem theologicam Procli". In Calma, Dragos (ed.). Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes Volume 1: Western Scholarly Networks and Debates. Leiden: Brill. p. 399.
11. Fiamma, Andrea (2017). "Nicholas of Cusa and the so-Called Cologne School of the 13th and 14th Centuries". Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age. 84: 91–128. ISSN   0373-5478.

See also

• Neoplatonism
• Proclus
• Theodoric of Freiberg