Summa
medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin; manuals or handbooks that 'sum up' knowledge in a field
Summa and its diminutive summula (plural summae and summulae, respectively) was a medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin, born during the 12th century, and popularized in 13th-century Europe. In its simplest sense, they might be considered texts that 'sum up' knowledge in a field, such as the compendiums of theology, philosophy and canon law. Their function during the Middle Ages was largely as manuals or handbooks of necessary knowledge used by individuals who would not advance their studies any further.
Features
It was a kind of encyclopedia that developed a matter about Law, Theology or Philosophy most of all. Matters were divided in a more detailed way as it was in the tractatus (treatise), since they were divided into quaestiones (questions) and these ones were also divided into articles. The articles had the following structure:
Title of the article as a question and showing two different positions (disputatio).
Objections or arguments against one of the alternatives, specially the one that defended the author.
Arguments in favor of such an alternative, based on the Bible, the Holy Fathers and so on.
Solution, that includes arguments that combine faith and reason and that express the author's thought.
The sententia or answer to the question, that consists in the refutation of the initial objections against the author's solution.
The public source identifies “Summa” as medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin; manuals or handbooks that 'sum up' knowledge in a field. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Summa, medieval and didactics.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1788124. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Summa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.