Martin Grabmann (5 January 1875 – 9 January 1949) was a German Roman Catholic priest,

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He was a pioneer of the history of

medieval philosophy Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, ...

and has been called "the greatest

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scholar of his time."

Early life

Grabmann was born in Winterzhofen,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany, on 5 January 1875 to a deeply religious Bavarian parents, Joseph Grabmann (1848-1915), a farmer, and Walburga Bauer (1850-1886). He had two brothers. He attended the gymnasium in

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

. At the College of Philosophy and Theology the Bischoefliches Lyzeum, a centre of scholastic renewal, Grabmann was influenced by his teacher Franz von Paula Morgott (1829-1900) to study the work of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

Religious life

In August 1895, Grabmann entered the Dominican novitate at what is now Olomouc in the Czech Republic, but he left six months later to pursue the secular priesthood. He was ordained on March 20, 1898. He became a

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of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

in 1921. After

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

, he was sent by his bishop to study in

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Research

Grabmann was an

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of the ''Collegium Divi Thomæ de Urbe'', the future Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas ''Angelicum'' in

(

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). At the ''Angelicum'', he obtained a baccalaureate, a licentiate and a doctorate in philosophy by 1901 and a doctorate in theology in 1902. Grabmann studied palaeography at the

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and was encouraged by two of the most distinguished palaeographers of the time, Henry Denifle, the prefect of the Vatican library, and Cardinal

Franz Ehrle Franz Ehrle (17 October 1845 – 31 March 1934) was a German Jesuit priest and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Archivist of the Secret Archives of the Vatican, in the course of which he became a leading agent in t ...

Career

Grabmann was made a professor of theology and philosophy at the

Catholic University of Eichstätt The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international instituti ...

in 1906. The first of his great works, ''Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode'', in two volumes, 1909 and 1911 made extensive use of unpublished medieval texts. After the publication of his two-volume work, he was awarded an honorary doctorates by the ''Institut supérieur de philosophie'' (Higher Institute of Philosophy) of

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in 1913. Grabmann was called to the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

in 1913 to fill the chair of Christian philosophy at the Faculty of Theology. There, he completed pioneering research on the history of

Aristotelianism Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by Prior Analytics, deductive logic and an Posterior Analytics, analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics ...

in the 13th century which was published in 1916 as ''Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristoteles-Übersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts''. Grabmann returned to Bavaria in 1918 to serve as professor of dogmatic theology at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. His research and publications flourished, including 212 books, articles, and reviews. Between 1921 and 1938, his research took him to most of the major

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libraries specializing in medieval studies, as well as to libraries in

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, and

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Influence in philosophy

Grabmann's thought was instrumental in the modern understanding of scholasticism and the pivotal role of Aquinas. He was the first scholar to work out the outlines of the ongoing development of thought in

scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...

. He was first to see that Aquinas had a response and development of thought rather than a single, coherently emerged and organic whole. According to Battista Mondin, Grabmann interprets Aquinas' metaphysics as an advanced version of Aristotle's based on the notion of common being (''ens commune'') and his rational theology as employing an original concept of being to describe the Divine attributes based on the notion of subsistent being itself (''esse ipsum subsistens'').''La metafisics di S. Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti'' 2002, 44 ff. Grabmann was foundational in fostering the variety of contemporary interpretations of both scholasticism and Aquinas.

Death

He died in Eichstätt.

Works

Grabmann's 2-volume masterpiece ''The History of Scholastic Method'' (Die Geschichte der scolastischen Methode) (1909-1911) is the first scholarly work to outline the ongoing development of scholasticism. His “Thomas Aquinas: His Personality and Thought” (Thomas von Aquin, eine einführung in seine persönlichkeit und gedankenwelt) (1912) emphasizes Aquinas' development of thought more than a single, coherent system. Although Grabmann's works in

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are numerous, only ''Thomas Aquinas'' (1928) is available in English.

References

Sources

*Cross, F.L., Livingstone, E. A. (eds.), "Martin Grabmann," in: ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 585. *Rosemann, Philipp W., "Martin Grabmann (1875–1949)," in ''Medieval Scholarship: Biographical Studies on the Formation of a Discipline,'' ed. Helen Damico, vol. 3: ''Philosophy and the Arts,'' Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 2110 (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), pp. 55–74. {{DEFAULTSORT:Grabmann, Martin 1875 births 1949 deaths 20th-century German historians 20th-century German Catholic theologians Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas alumni People from Neumarkt (district) Dominican tertiaries Lay Dominicans German male non-fiction writers Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin