Summa

views updated Jun 11 2018

Summa. ‘Total’ or ‘totality’, used by medieval writers to denote a compendium of theology, philosophy, or canon law. They became handbooks for the Scholastics, succeeding Peter Lombard's Sentences, and consisted of ‘questions’ systematically arranged. The most famous are Aquinas' Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles.