GIOVANNI di STERNGASSEN. — Dominican theologian and mystic, who died in the first half of the fourteenth century.
He is found in Strasbourg from 1310 to 1316, in the latter year serving as prior. In 1320 he was lector, that is, «regent», at the general studium in Cologne. Against M. Grabmann, who does not connect the presence of a Friar Giovanni, head of the Cologne studium in 1333, with G. di S., G. Löhr inclines to identify this Friar Giovanni precisely with Sterngassen. Although a contemporary of Eckart, G. di S. does not follow him in doctrine, but remains attached to s. Tommaso, except in some propositions.
Fragments of sermons and sayings (Sprüche) by G. exist in German, published by Pfeiffer and Wackernagel.
Grabmann discovered a commentary by G. on the four books of the Sentences, preserved in two manuscripts, namely cod. 102 of the Cistercians of Lilienfeld in Austria and cod. Vat. lat. 1092, both from the beginning of the fourteenth century. Grabmann also identified in cod. 2165 of the Hofbibliothek in Vienna a quaestio quodlibetalis by Sterngassen on the subject «utrum et angeli vel plures sint eiusdem speciei», which is resolved in the sense of s. Tommaso, namely, that angels differ specifically from one another.
G.’s commentary on the Sentences is not a literal paraphrase, but a collection of questions raised in connection with the Lombard’s text. G. presents and penetrates his theological questions with an original speculative spirit, although substantially faithful to the doctrine of s. Tommaso, the doctor noster. When G. departs from the Aquinate, the manuscript notes it in the margin: «opinio haec contra Thomam». In the question «utrum in creaturis differat esse ab essentia», G. does not decide according to s. Tommaso, but follows Enrico di Gand.
Jahrg. 1921), Monaco 1922, pp. 7-34; E. Krebs, s. V. in Verfasserlexikon, II, coll. 635-36; G. Löhr, Die Kölner Dominikanerschule vom 14. bis zum 16. Jahrh., Friburgo 1946, pp. 38-39. Angelo Walz