This one was too easy. Some required ICANN checking lead me to a reminder to see whether the name “thomistica,” was available on twitter. I was shocked, truly shocked, to find out that it was, so I nabbed it, and have set things up here. Now you can follow us here on thomistica (link) when I tweet about the small things.
You’ll also note on the right sidebar that I’ve included that last few tweets. All the best.
Now and then one needs to blow off a little steam, and such was the case for me today, as I worked on the site and, generally satisfied with things, played a bit. In this case “playing” meant trying some ideas out with Photoshop CS4 and CafePress, where I had created a few “products” some years back, but never took things seriously.
But today was different, because I’d fallen in love with the humor of the phrase “Got Summa?,” a take-off from the ever-pliable meme that goes back to the famous “Got Milk?” campaign of many years back. So I came up with the following, which is now available on Thomistica.net’s CafePress store:
At the very least, it’s good for a grin. But of course, if you actually bought one (or ten, because they’ll make great Christmas gifts for your favorite Thomists), I’d be most grateful.
If you've come by the site in the past day or so you'll have noticed that things were in flux, as I changed the site's formatting and color themes, as well as rearranged things. Sorry for any confusion and, on occasion, total breakdown—at one point I had made a single change and the whole site's content disappeared!
The color change was much-needed, as the previous color scheme and layout (3 column) made things hard to read and to navigate. I knew the overall effect was too dark when a visitor asked "why the Darth Vader mode?" I hope that the new look will be much lighter and more navigable.
I've added some photos that Jörgen Vijgen took this past summer, switched to a two-column layout, and restructured the main menu bar. Other changes will come as I'm able to find out what will, and what won't, break the site. Some general notes:
More real news posts should follow in short order, now that I've got the site looking more organized. Thanks to all for their suggestions.
After much delay I'm now finally moving the website to Squarespace's 5.0 formats (i.e., the fabled "three-column" look), and have changed the color-scheme. Things will be in flux with the general look of the site over the next few days, as I add new graphics and other formatting. Thanks for your patience.
As a follow-up of this post in 2007, we can now inform you that the Cursus Philosophicus by John of St. Thomas is back in print.
Johannes Poinsot [Ioannes a S. Thoma O. P. - João Poinsot] Cursus philosophicus Thomisticus. Nova editio a P. Beato Reiser O.S.B. (1929), Reimpressio revisa. 3 Bände. Rom 1948. Reprint: Hildesheim 2008. Introductory remarks by John Deely. Einleitende Bemerkungen von Martin Walter. LXIV/2348 Seiten Leinen
Here is the blurb from the publisher:
This reprint of the Cursus Philosophicus Thomisticus in the critical edition prepared by B. Reiser OSB (2nd ed. 1948) makes available once again one of the most important works of Spanish baroque scholasticism. Johannes Poinsot (1589-1644) was described by Martin Grabmann as being “among the best guides to the intellectual world of Thomism”. The author’s aim in compiling this philosophical course was to explain philosophy according to St Thomas Aquinas and his interpretation of Aristotle. As well as this didactic aim, two other aspects of the Cursus deserve to be emphasised: first, Poinsot was one of the most important opponents in the contemporary discourse with Suarez and Vasquez and second, in recent years his achievements in the theory of semiotics and indeed in logic as a whole have been rediscovered.
The reprint will appeal to all students of St Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy and the history of Thomism or of logic in general. A bibliography of source material and of the major literature on Johannes Poinsot is appended as an aid to further study.
An extended bibliography, compiled by Marco Forlivesi, can be accessed here.
A big shout-out to Robert Barry and the Theology Department at Providence College (RI), who must have read my plaintive post from last fall, and remembered it. Because of him—and a generous, anonymous student—almost four-months of hosting costs here on Thomistica.net were taken care of! Bob wrote:
A student in our graduate program made an anonymous donation to some faculty for us to forward to a cause we find worthwhile. I believe this site qualifies.
Sincere thanks to him and to the anonymous student. During these tight fiscal times every little bit helps.
I couldn’t bear to include a request for donations in the mailing I sent out earlier today, but am compelled to make this request to our visitors nonetheless, so here goes.
Thomistica.net is a labor of love, but it’s a labor of love that costs money to produce (web hosting costs over the past four years have totaled $850.00—Squarespace is the best, and workers are worth their wages). Although the single most important contribution visitors can make is providing information to the site, to be dispersed to others via the site, it is also possible to help the site financially. You can make an outright contribution via PayPal (click here, or on the button below), or you can have a little fun and purchase items from Amazon.com that are linked to on the site. Or you might find some trinkets of interest on our on-line store at CafePress.com (c’mon, you really do need a new mousepad. Have you looked at yours lately?).
In any case, I’d grateful for any support you can provide. Even a few visitors tossing in a donation of $15.00 dollars could help fund the hosting costs for half a year.
Thanks to everyone for visiting, and for their support.
I just sent out a note to all who have been on the site's mailing list, explaining why I am ending the practice of using a mailing list (why? RSS). I also mentioned that I will be working away on a number of changes over the weekend:
For four years Thomistica.net has been hosted on the wonderful Squarespace publishing system, which has recently been upgraded to version 5 of the system's web-software. This new version allows me the opportunity to introduce some important changes, including a 3-column layout, new look-and-feel, reorganization, updated wallpapers, and some added features (a forum, perhaps?). In addition, there are some stories that I've wanted to get posted, including a report on the marvelous new annual bibliography, entitled Thomistica (note: not related to thomistica.net), Maria Berger's important discovery in Cologne, plus other updates. If you visit the site regularly—we get over 150 unique visitors daily—you'll see changes over the next week or so.
I've had to turn-off the ability for visitors to create references to articles on the web site because in the last two days fully thirty-five spam references have been created, pointing to web sites whose content would make one's skin crawl. We'll see whether an extended period of down-time will calm the storm, and allow me to open things up again.
I decided to remove the "guestbook" feature from the site. No-one was really using it, and it was serving as something of a honey-pot for spammers, thus distorting the number of real visitors to the site (and unduly inflating traffic numbers). People who wish to make comments about the site can use the "contact" page of the site, anyway. No big loss.
With both spring and Easter coming I decided today that I wanted to change the look of the site. This also led to some other changes that I'd wanted to make—after all, two solid years of the same look is way too long in "Internet time," no? So in a flurry of activity I've made the following changes:
All of these changes are a prelude to what I hope will be an interesting and packed Newsletter within the next month or so (likely in mid-May, after my academic year [and reading two doctoral dissertations!] is completed). As always, I am eager to get news about Thomistic comings-and-goings.
Finally, thank you for visiting the site. Thomistica.net averages more than 250 distinct visitors each day, and I am eager to make the site be as helpful to visitors as possible. Please don't hesitate to contact me with suggestions regarding the site.
Narrowed the main column’s width, because 900 pixels is probably a bit too wide, and the banner graphic “loomed” a bit to large.
By way of Peter Kwasniewski, an addition to the fledgling bibliography I put together on the Lectura romana, as well as some additions:
William B. Stevenson, "The Problem of Trinitarian Processions in Thomas’s Roman Commentary," The Thomist 64 (2000): 619-629—rats! I forgot about this article!
Mario Coccia, “Credit Where Credit is Due: St. Thomas Aquinas versus Peter Lombard on the True Nature of Charity,” Doctor Angelicus 5 (2005): 165–178.
A translation, in English, is on its way out (eventually) that will include both the Paris and Roman versions of Book I, distinction 17.
Again, if you have some items to contribute on the topic of the Lectura romana, please don’t hesitate to contact me, so that I can put you in touch with others.
Under the direction of the Sacra Doctrina Project
