Prooemium
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/16/d/0/q/bon-sap-prooem
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### Prooemium of the commentary on Wisdom.

#### General introduction.

1. *Love the lumen* *of wisdom, all ye that rule over peoples*, Wisdom, the sixth chapter. Since a thing has its being formed and, once deformed, its being re-formed from the same source; and all things are read to have been made through wisdom, according to that word of the Psalm: *Thou hast made all things in wisdom*; it is necessary that all things be re-formed through wisdom. The image of the rational soul, therefore, which « is read to have been made to the likeness of the whole of wisdom » in the book *On the Spirit and the Soul*, but afterwards through sin so deformed that it may rightly be asked: *Whose is this image and inscription*? must of necessity be re-formed through wisdom. Likewise, because for its re-formation two things are necessary, namely the *expulsion of malice* and the *introduction* of perfect *good*, so that it may be informed by this and be expressly conformed to him whose image it is; and wisdom is *expulsive of malice*, whence Wisdom, the seventh chapter: *Wisdom overcometh malice*; likewise *introductive* of perfect *good*, because « wisdom is that in which the form of the perfect good consists », as Hugh says in the book *On the Origin of the Arts*. And since the divine image, deformed in the soul through sin, needs re-formation according to all three of its parts, which according to Augustine are intelligence, memory and will; therefore the Wise Man entices and invites to wisdom in three ways, namely to the *studious* *acquisition* of wisdom, and this as regards intelligence; to the *firm retention* of wisdom acquired, and this as regards memory; to the *love* of wisdom acquired and retained in memory, and this as regards the will.

2. To the *studious acquisition* of wisdom; Proverbs, the twenty-seventh chapter: *Be studious of wisdom, my son. Son* he calls whomever he informs with fatherly affection, whether he be young or old; Augustine: « For learning what is needful no age can seem to me too late; because, although it befits old men rather to teach than to be taught, yet it befits them more to learn than to be ignorant of what they teach ». *Be studious*, he says, and by this he suggests that vehement diligence is to be applied to the acquisition of wisdom. « For study, as Tully says, is the vehement application of the mind, with the highest pleasure, to doing something ». But this vehement application of the mind requires freedom from exterior occupations. « For he is made unequal to single things who is divided in a confused mind among many », as Gregory says. On which account Ecclesiasticus, the thirty-eighth chapter: *Write wisdom in the time of leisure*, that is, of freedom from exterior work; *for he that is less in action*, namely exterior action, *shall receive wisdom*, as is said in the same place.

3. To the *firm retention* of wisdom; Ecclesiasticus, the fourteenth chapter, where he says: *Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom*; likewise Proverbs, the third chapter:

*Write it out in the tables of thy heart*, that is, in the three parts of the divine image, and especially in the memory, by retaining it firmly. On which account he says: *Write it out*, for what is written is retained more firmly and longer; Proverbs, the twenty-second chapter: *Behold, I have written it out for thee in three ways*, that is, in the *intelligence* through studious acquisition, in the *memory* through firm retention, in the *will* through *love*; to which he admonishes in the words proposed, saying: *Love the lumen of wisdom* etc.

#### On the fourfold cause of this book.

4. In which words four causes of this work are suggested to us, namely the *efficient* cause from the person who speaks, saying: *Love*; the *formal*, that is, the manner of proceeding, is suggested by *lumen*; the *material* is expressed by the name of *wisdom*; the *final* can be understood from the order or *relation of the one speaking to the person* to whom the discourse is directed, when it is said: *All ye that rule over peoples.*

5. Concerning the first it must be noted that the *efficient cause* of this book is threefold: the first by way of *one inspiring*, namely God; whence Job, the thirty-second chapter: *The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding*; likewise Ecclesiasticus, the first chapter: *All wisdom is from the Lord God*, as every *essence* is from his essence, and from his truth every *truth*, and from his goodness every *goodness*. « For the first in each genus is the cause of those things that come after it »; and everything perfect is caused by the perfect, according to Boethius.

6. The second efficient cause, by way of *one finding*, is Solomon himself; whence in the ecclesiastical history « the whole chorus of the ancients said that the book which is entitled Wisdom is Solomon's ». Whence the book itself is inscribed *The Wisdom of Solomon*, and by ecclesiastical custom there is set before the lessons taken from this book: « Solomon said to the children of Israel », because, namely, this book was compiled from his sentences. — The proximate efficient cause, by way of *one compiling*, was Philo, the wisest of the Jews, who lived in the times of the Apostles, as the ecclesiastical history relates; who from the love of wisdom is not undeservedly called *Philo*. Rabanus too asserts that this book was written, that is, compiled, not by Solomon, as is supposed, but rather by Philo, a most wise Jew.

7. But the *formal* cause, that is, the manner of proceeding, is suggested, as has been said, by *lumen*, because, as lumen has the hiddenness of its radical origin, in its going forth a clear manifestation, in its flowing a continuation; so also this book of Wisdom has in its sentences a profound difficulty and *hiddenness* of origin, according to that word of Job, the twenty-eighth chapter: *Wisdom is drawn out of secret places*; in its discourses a clear *manifestation*, Wisdom, the sixth chapter: *Clear is wisdom, and such as never fadeth away, clear*, I say, through the charm of eloquence; « for the style of this book, according to Jerome, savours of Greek eloquence »; but in the procession of its reasons a *consequence and ordered continuation*, Ecclesiasticus, the twenty-first chapter: *The knowledge of a wise man shall abound like a flood*, flowing continuously, not in drops; *and his counsel continueth like a fountain of life.*

8. But the *material* cause is expressed by the name of *wisdom*. « Now wisdom, according to Augustine, is the cognition of divine things »; and the divine things are the *power*, *wisdom* and *goodness* of God; of which this book treats, although *wisdom* is intended more principally. It makes known the *power* of God in the punishing

of the rebellious, as is clear in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth chapters; his *wisdom* in the illumination of the humble, as is clear in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth chapters; his *goodness* in the conferring of benefits, as regards both, as is clear from the tenth chapter onward. But here it is treated not only of *uncreated* wisdom, by dwelling on its praises, but also of *created* wisdom, by showing its usefulness; whence below, in the sixth chapter: *Now what*, that is, of what kind, *wisdom is*, namely uncreated wisdom, *and how she was made*, namely created wisdom, *I will declare* etc.; although that whole can be understood of *uncreated* wisdom as of the subject. Rightly therefore is it entitled *the book of Wisdom*, because in it wisdom is principally treated as the subject or the matter, as *the book On the Soul* is so called because in it the soul is principally determined.

9. But the *final* cause can be understood from the order of the person speaking to those to whom the discourse is directed; who are touched on there: *All ye that rule over peoples.* For as it is in the *angelic* illuminations, that the ray of divine light, according to blessed Dionysius, is received first by the Angels of the first hierarchy, secondly by those of the middle, lastly by those of the last — « for the law, as he himself says, has been divinely promulgated, to lead back the middle things through the first and the last through the middle », whence in the Psalm: *Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting mountains*, that is, the inferior Angels from the superior — as we also see in *bodily* illuminations, because the illumination of the sun is derived first to the higher places and those nearer to heaven, then to the middle, lastly to the lowest, Ecclesiasticus, the forty-third chapter: *For the sun, burning the mountains threefold, breathes out its rays*, namely into the valleys: so also it ought to be in *human* illuminations, that the lumen of wisdom be diffused first into the highest, that is, into prelates, then into the middle, that is, into their ministers, thirdly into the lowest, that is, their subjects, according to that word of the Psalm: *Let the mountains receive peace for the people* etc. For this is the procession of wisdom. *For she reacheth from end*, namely the supreme, *to end*, the last, *and ordereth all things*, namely the middle ones, *sweetly*, below in the eighth chapter. On account of this Plato said that « commonwealths would be blessed or good if wise men ruled them, or if their rulers were studious of wisdom », as Boethius says in the book *On Consolation*. *For as* is *the judge of the people, so are his ministers; and what manner of man the ruler of the city is, such also are they that dwell therein*; where he touches on three orders, namely of judges, of ministers and of subjects. On account of the foregoing this author first and principally intends to diffuse the lumen of wisdom into lofty places, that is, into superiors, and through them into inferiors. Whence it is clear that the final cause of this teaching is the exhortation or provocation of princes and prelates, and consequently of all, to the study and love of wisdom.

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