Salmanticenses

The Salmanticenses are the Discalced Carmelite theologians of the College of San Elías at Salamanca, who between 1631 and 1712 wrote together the Cursus theologicus Salmanticensis, a complete commentary on the Summa theologiae. The work was planned by Antonio de la Madre de Dios, who wrote the first volumes, and continued by Domingo de Santa Teresa, Juan de la Anunciación and others. A companion course of philosophy was produced by the Carmelites of Alcalá, the Complutenses.

The Cursus is one of the largest and most consistent works of Thomist theology. Its authors bound themselves to follow Thomas Aquinas and his principal commentators, and they treat each question with the full apparatus of the Baroque schools, examining the positions of Scotists, Jesuits and others. Their treatises on grace and on the Incarnation were particularly valued, and the work was reprinted in Paris in the nineteenth century.

The library holds the first tome, on the first part of the Summa theologiae. Its opening treatises on theology as a science and on God show the method of the whole course.