DOROTA GACKA, Fragments of the Works of Thomas Aquinas in the Commentum of John of Dąbrówka

SUMMARY

In this article, I present nine fragments from the works of Thomas Aquinas quoted by John of Dąbrówka in his Commentum in Chronicam Polonorum magistri Vincentii dicti Kadłubek. This Commentum is reckoned to be the first textbook of Polish history ever produced. Its chapters are divided into two parts: in the first, John of Dąbrówka summarizes the historical facts described by Vincentius Kadłubek; in the second, he gives us a philosophical and moral commentary on them. In this commentary, he quotes many ancient, medieval, and early-Renaissance authors. Aquinas is among them, but he is quoted infrequently. Because John of Dąbrówka is most interested in questions of state, authority, civic virtues, and the problems of society, he quotes the Secunda secundae of the Summa theologiae most frequently. Yet we also find in this work fragments from the Prima secundae, the Sententia libri Ethicorum, Super Epistolam B. Pauli ad Romanos and Super Evangelium S. Matthaei. Some of these quotations are explicit and some are hidden or inexact. The article presents these citations in a wider context, providing longer fragments from Vincentius Kadłubek and John of Dąbrówka. Some fragments from John of Dąbrówka presented herein have been never translated into Polish until now.