Sixteenth-Century Commentary on the Summa

Fr. Benedict O’Cinnsealaigh, President and Rector of the Athenaeum, has donated a 16^th century, three-volume set of the writings of Cardinal Thomas Cajetan to Maly Library’s rare book collection.

“These volumes by Cajetan are a truly a wonderful gift to our collection,” said Associate Librarian Claire Ballinger. “Cardinal Cajetan’s Commentary on the Summa was instrumental in the revival of Scholasticism in the 16th century, a movement that has had an immense impact on the education our seminarians receive today.  And in this anniversary year of the Reformation, it is interesting to see the efforts of devout Catholics to illustrate the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith in that tumultuous time.”

Cardinal Thomas Cajetan (February 20, 1469 – August 9, 1534) was a prominent theologian of his day.

He is primarily known for his works defending Catholicism during the Reformation and for his landmark commentary on Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica. The three-volume set, printed by Jacques Giunta in 1562, contains both this commentary and a collection of Cajetan’s anti-Reformation works. 

The three-volume set will be on display in Maly Library beginning on May 24 and remain up through the summer months.

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