Scotus Academicus, Tomus primus: De Deo in se subsistente

To gratify the Roman Pontiff, Leo XIII, to whom the restoration of Scholastic Philosophy and Theology is supremely dear, publishers in very many places have again and again, in these most recent times, printed the works of those who have won a great name among the Scholastics; and some, setting aside the folio volumes, have entered upon such a manner of publishing that, by the smallness of the volume and at the same time the cheapness of the price, the reprinted works might be approved by all, with great benefit to scholastic doctrine.

The happy outcome of an attempt of this kind added incentives to us to publish in like manner certain works composed by Theologians of the Order of S. P. Francisci, whose very rare copies are eagerly sought after by learned men and are sold at the greatest price among booksellers. We have begun with the Summa Theologica excerpted from the works of Ven. Ioannes Duns Scotus by P. Hieronymus de Montefortino, a Theologian of the 18th century, which without doubt brings the greatest advantage to those who, devoting their attention to the most celebrated works of St. Thomas, desire without much labor to discern in what manner the same arguments are developed by the Angelic Doctor and by Ven. Ioannes Duns Scotus; thereafter, in order that the wisdom of the Subtle Doctor might be set in a clearer light and it might appear what is to be thought concerning certain questions, about which there has been dispute on both sides, we again make public this work of P. Claudius Frassen, Doctor of Paris of the 17th century.

There is no need for us to dwell at length upon the merits of this most illustrious Theologian; let the readers, of whatever school they may be, after they have reached the end of the work, pass judgment upon them. It is our part in this place to give the readers one or two admonitions concerning the present edition.

And in the first place we confess that time was lacking to us for comparing the authorities adduced with the original sources: time indeed was lacking, because as soon as we made the proposal public, we were pressed on every side for the new edition, so that it might be completed as quickly as possible. Now that by which our edition excels the three preceding ones — the Parisian of the year 1672, the Roman of the year 1721, and the Venetian of the year 1734 — is this: that ours truly is, and can be called, an edition corrected and augmented by the author himself. For P. Frassen himself had prepared a second edition, but, prevented by death, he could not carry out his proposal. Volumes II, III and IV of the first edition, already corrected and augmented by him, are religiously preserved in the National Library of Paris (5°, 16888); but volume I — alas! — it has not been granted to us to find, perhaps because it has wholly perished. From the same Library, el. P. Antonius de Serent, a son of the Province of Francia, transcribed for us the annotations and notes made by the hand of P. Frassen himself, for which we here give him very many thanks. For the studious we shall mark by the sign (*), in vol. IV and the following volumes, the places in which this edition differs from the rest.

May God grant that our labors and our not inconsiderable expenses may redound to His greater glory and to the advancement of catholic truth.