GIOVANNI di Sterngassen. - Dominican theologian and mystic, d. in the first half of the 14th century.
He is found in Strasbourg from 1310 to 1316, in the last year as prior. In 1320 he is *lector*, meaning "regent," in the general study at Cologne. Against M. Grabmann, who does not connect the presence of a Friar John, head of the Cologne study in 1333, with G. di S., G. Löhr inclines to the identification of this Friar John precisely with Sterngassen. Although contemporary with Eckhart, G. di S. does not follow him in doctrine but remains attached to St. Thomas, except in some opinions.
Of G. there exist fragments of sermons and opinions (*Spriche*) in German, published by Pfeiffer and Wackernagel.
Grabmann discovered of G. a commentary on the first two books of the *Sentences*, preserved in two manuscripts, namely codex 102 of the Cistercians of Lilienfeld in Austria and codex Vat. lat. 1092, both from the beginning of the 14th century. Grabmann also identified in codex 2165 of the Hofbibliothek in Vienna a *quaestio quodlibetalis* by Sterngassen on the topic "whether angels or many are of the same species," which is resolved in the sense of St. Thomas, that angels are distinguished specifically from one another.
G.'s commentary on the *Sentences* is not a literal paraphrase but a collection of questions occasioned by Lombard's text. G. expounds and penetrates his theological questions with an original speculative spirit, though substantially faithful to the doctrine of St. Thomas, *our doctor*. When G. departs from the Aquinate, the manuscript notes this in the margin: "this opinion is against Thomas." In the question "whether in creatures being differs from essence," G. does not determine according to St. Thomas but follows Henry of Ghent.