GRABMANN, MARTIN. - Historian of theology, born at Winterzhofen (Bavaria) on 5 January 1875, died on 9 January 1949 at Eichstätt, where he had definitively retired in 1943. Ordained priest in 1898, he was a resident at S. Maria dell'Anima in Rome (1900-1902), doctor in philosophy and theology, and devoted a few years to sacred ministry. He taught dogmatic theology at the diocesan lyceum of Eichstätt (1906-13), Christian philosophy at the University of Vienna (1913-18), and dogmatic theology at that of Munich (1918-39), until the Nazi government suppressed the Faculty of Theology. In his lectures, his preferred authors were St. Thomas Aquinas and Scheeben, whom he described as “the greatest in dogmatic theology in the 19th century.”
Grabmann’s scholarly activity is evident from the extraordinary volume of his publications, which mainly concern medieval theology and philosophy. About a hundred items could be added to the 215 entries in the bibliography appended to the miscellaneous collection of 77 articles, *Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kultur des Mittelalters* (= Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, Supplementband III, Münster), offered to him on his sixtieth birthday in 1935. For the history of theology from the age of the Fathers onward, three works are fundamental: *Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methoden*, 2 vols., Freiburg im Breisgau 1909 and 1911, carried down to the beginning of the 13th century; *Die theologische Erkenntnis- und Einleitungslehre des Thomas von Aquin auf Grund seiner Schrift in Boethium de Trinitate* (Freiburg 1948), a complement to the *Geschichte* awaiting a second volume on the Aquinate’s *Philosophische Wissenschaftslehre*; *Die Geschichte der katholischen Theologie seit dem Ausgang der Väterzeit* (Freiburg im Breisgau 1933; Italian trans., *Storia della teologia cattolica dalla fine dell'epoca patristica ai tempi nostri*, 2nd ed., Milan 1939).
Among his numerous publications on St. Thomas Aquinas, the following deserve special mention: *Thomas von Aquin, seine Persönlichkeit und Gedankenwelt* (Munich 1946, 8th ed.; Italian trans., Milan 1920); *Das Seelenleben des hl. Thomas von Aquin* (Munich 1931; 3rd ed. 1934); *Die Werke des hl. Thomas von Aquin* (Münster 1931; 3rd ed. 1934); *Einführung in die Summa theologiae des hl. Thomas von Aquin* (2nd ed., Freiburg im Breisgau 1928; Italian trans., Milan 1929); *Die Lehre des hl. Thomas von Aquin von der Kirche als Gotteswerk* (from *Aus der Geisteswelt des Mittelalters*, Munich 1935); *Die Idee des Lebens in der Theologie des hl. Thomas von Aquin* (Paderborn 1922); *Die Kulturphilosophie des hl. Thomas von Aquin* (Augsburg 1925; Italian trans., Bologna 1931).
*Mittelalterliches Geistesleben* (2 vols., Munich 1926, 1936) is, with a few exceptions, a collection of 42 treatises previously published but here reworked or expanded, on the history of scholasticism and medieval mysticism; it examines Aristotle, St. Augustine, Proclus, and Pseudo-Dionysius in relation to the Middle Ages, the influence of Albert the Great and St. Thomas, treatises on logic, commentaries by St. Thomas, Dominican authors, and Averroist writers.
For the study of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, important works include *Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des 13. Jahrhunderts* (Münster 1916), *Die Aristoteleskommentare des Aegidius Romanus und ihre Bedeutung für die mittelalterliche Philosophie* (Rome 1941), *Guglielmo di Moerbeke O.P., il traduttore delle opere di Aristotele* (ibid. 1946). The influence of Aristotelian logic in the Faculty of Arts is treated especially in *Die Sophismataliteratur des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts mit Textausgabe eines Sophismus des Boetius von Dacien* (Münster 1940). Numerous are his studies on the “artists,” especially in the *Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften* (philosophical-historical section). The influence of Aristotelian philosophy on medieval political-ecclesiastical writings is examined, author by author, in *Der Einfluss der aristotelischen Philosophie auf die mittelalterlichen Theorien über das Verhältnis von Kirche und Staat* (Munich 1934).
In addition to obituaries and necrologies of scholars, mention should be made of Grabmann’s collaboration in the *Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche* (1930-38), his direction—assumed after the death of Cl. Baeumker (1925)—of the series *Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters*, of the *Philosophisches Jahrbuch* (from 1927 onward, with publisher Hartmann), and of the *Series scholastica*, founded in 1929 with Fr. Pelster in the collection *Opuscula et textus historiam Ecclesiae eiusque vitam atque doctrinam illustrantia*.
In his publications, Grabmann did not treat authors and works as isolated entities to be considered in themselves, but placed them within the series of their genre, also examining, as the case required, the influences they received or exerted. The singular merit of his publications (studies or texts) lies in his recourse to sources and an immense number of manuscripts, and in his extraordinarily rich bibliographical information. Thus he corrected many false attributions and illuminated numerous authors and writings, often reproducing excerpts or entire texts. Among his discoveries may be cited those relating to Albert the Great, William of Shyreswood, Peter of Spain (John XXI), Siger of Brabant, Boethius of Dacia, Eckhart, Taddeo da Parma, and Henry of Brussels.
Grabmann was an apostolic protonotary, a member of the academies of Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, of the Academy of St. Thomas in Rome, a doctor *honoris causa* of the universities of Louvain, Innsbruck, Milan, and Budapest, and a member of the central board of the *Monumenta Germaniae Historica*. Pious, modest, and affable, he made an exceptionally important contribution to the scientific understanding of medieval philosophy and theology in this century.