Folia Theologica 16. (2005)
Pál Bolberitz: The Beginnings of Hungarian Philosphy (The Reception of Nicholas of Cusa in the work of "De homine" by Peter Monedulatus Csokas Laskoi)
THE BEGINNINGS OF HUNGARIAN PHILOSOPHY 9 work, presenting a declaration against the so called dialectical thinkers (the rationalist trend of the age), nevertheless it does not dismiss at all the rationalist tendency of its own age. By applying digressions, interrupting theological thoughts, the author reveals his ideas, very similar to the Neo-Platonism. Besides having a profound knowledge of the Doctors of the Church, the author seems to be familiar with the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. His knowledge of the secular sciences covers roughly the "Etimology" by St. Izidor of Sevilla. That is even in the 11th century the influence of the European philosophical thinking can be traced in Hungary. In the 12th and 13th centuries, during the reign of the rulers of the House of Arpad, especially in the monastical schools of the monastic orders, speading in our country as well, appeared lecturers, scholars, received higher education, and in the beginning attending the universities of Paris, later of Bologna, Padua, Wien, Krakow, and including a big number of lay students besides the clerical ones. In the 14th century in the homeland's conditions the first Hungarian university of Pecs - though working for only a short time - got a greater importance in higher education (the university of Óbuda, founded later by king Zsigmond, was operated for a short time, too, for political reasons). The curriculum of the university of Pecs was compiled like that of the university of Bologna. Among the subjects of philosophy were involved "Logics" by Petrus Hispanus, "Organon" by Aristotle added with his books in the subject of metaphysics, physics and ethics and including the commentaries of Boethius, St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, furthermore, the works of Euklides, Bradwardine in the field of mathematics and the exact sciences were also known in this time. In the field of philosophy primarily the Dominicans and the Franciscans were becoming prominent. In the 14th century Boethius ex Transylvania was a very prominent figure, who explained Aristotle's smaller psychological works7. Tomism, studied mainly by the Dominicans, flourished under the reign of King Matthias. He established in Buda the Dominicans' college on uniTransylvania in 1790. The book was recommended to Insigrin, the teacher of the humanities and the bishop-colleague of St. Gellert. 7 Both the smaller works and the book about the eternity of the university (De aeternitate mundi) by Boëtius had disappeared.
