Ut limpidius hoc clarescat. A Survey of al-Ġazālī’s Quotations in Albert the Great’s Works

This article presents an overall analysis of the explicit quotations of the Arabic speaking theologian and philosopher Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī (Latin Algazel) in Albert the Great’s entire work. The quotations, which are taken from the Summa theoricae philosophiae (the Latin translation of al-Ġazālī’s Arabic work Maqāṣid al-falāsifa) are classified on typological grounds, and thus subdivided in nominal or indeterminate, doctrinal or textual, verbatim or paraphrastic quotes. The article discusses the different forms of the name employed by Albert to reference al-Ġazālī ; the tight link between al-Ġazālī and Avicenna established in Albert’s works ; the other auctores — both classical and medieval — that appear associated to Algazel in Albert’s quotations. Thanks to a discussion of the diversified indeterminate expressions that Albert employs when referring to al-Ġazālī, the paper will also delineate his identity as it emerges from Albert’s writings. The article will also analyse the distribution of Albert’s quotations as to the three different sections of al-Ġazālī’s Summa — Logica, Metaphysica, and Physica —, showing the continuity of Albert’s interplay with Algazel all along his work. The conclusions will raise some further questions about the cases escaping the general framework sketched in the article, i.e. the quotations which seem to describe Algazel in non-standard ways and could thus open new fields of inquiry concerning al-Ġazālī’s Latin reception. The Appendix will provide a comprehensive table of the 335 explicit citations of al-Ġazālī that are to be found in Albert’s work.