Giovanni Lasorella

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Thomas-Institut of the University of Cologne, specialized in critical editions of medieval Latin texts, with particular interest in the history of medieval metaphysics and scholastic traditions. My recent research focuses on the German theologian John Picard of Lichtenberg, whose Quaestiones shed light on the reception and interpretation of Thomas Aquinas' ideas within the Dominican studium generale of Cologne. Furthermore, as a current researcher at the Thomas Institut, I also curate the digital edition of Durand of Saint-Pourçain's Commentary on the Sentences as part of the Digital Durandus Research Portal.

Abstract: My project focuses on the critical edition and study of Johannes Picardi de Lichtenberg’s Quaestiones, a series of scholastic disputed question written in late 13th- and early 14th-century in Cologne. Picard’s work represents a unique defense of Thomas Aquinas’ controversial ideas in a Dominican intellectual environment often critical of Thomas’ texts, exemplified by figures like Dietrich of Freiberg and Meister Eckhart. Despite its significance for understanding the reception of Aquinas’ thought in the German Dominican studium generale, Picard’s Quaestiones remain understudied, and the section dedicated to his works within the Corpus Philosophorum Teutonicorum Medii Aevi remains unpublished. This project aims to finalize the critical edition of Picard’s Quaestiones I–XIX, initiated during doctoral research at the Thomas-Institut of the University of Cologne, by developing a comprehensive introduction that examines Picard’s contributions to late medieval scholasticism, including his ideas on the theory of matter, the epistemology of theology, and the metaphysics of substance. Furthermore, the study will explore textual correspondences between Picard’s Quaestiones and the writings of John Dymsdale, an Oxonian Master of Arts, to uncover how Aristotelian metaphysical ideas were transmitted and debated across different intellectual traditions. By conducting a detailed philological comparison, the project aims to highlight the influence of Oxonian scholasticism on Cologne’s intellectual milieu and challenge assumptions about the autonomous and alternative nature of German scholastic traditions. This project not only seeks to bring attention to an underrepresented figure in medieval philosophy but also contributes to broader debates on the transmission of ideas and the interconnectedness of scholastic thought in the Middle Ages.