The aim of this volume, then, is to offer an in-depth review and evaluation of the latest research on Thomas's life and work. Torrell reveals along the way his mastery of the Dominican tradition of scholarship on Thomas from Mandonnet to Weisheipl. He shows, too, that he is fully informed about the more recent research of the Leonine Commission, and, as his footnotes indicate, his command of the secondary literature is extraordinary. Taken in itself this first volume is a work of more than ordinary value.
T here are many useful facts and discoveries on hand.
Torrell gives us the best contemporary estimates on the dates of composition of St. Thomas's works and of his sojourns in Paris, Naples, Orvieto, and Rome. He indicates, for example, that St. Thomas's second period of teaching at Paris began in 1268 rather than in 1269, and lasted four years rather than three, as is often supposed. That revised dating, together with the recently established dating of the works assigned to that period, enables us to determine with greater accuracy the reasons for this second assignment to Paris, and so betters our appreciation of the amount and variety of work Thomas accomplished in those productive years. Accurate dating, of course, is only one of the important results of Torrell's recent scholarship. Revision of previously accepted beliefs about certain works of Thomas is another.