The Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica, often referred to simply as the Summa, is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church, intended to be an instructional guide for theology students, including seminarians and the literate laity. Presenting the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, topics of the Summa follow the following cycle: God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God.
Page from an incunable edition of part II (Peter Schöffer, Mainz 1471)
Volumes of the Blackfriars edition of the Summa
Summa Theologica, 1596
Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Panel of an altarpiece from Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)
The Castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano
Thomas is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his proof of chastity. Painting by Diego Velázquez.
Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Communis, between Plato and Aristotle, Benozzo Gozzoli, 1471. Louvre, Paris.