«Locus autem prophetarum Spiritus sanctus est». Il profeta e la profezia nei commenti biblici di Alberto Magno

Prophecy is a topic of interest within the theological and philosophical tradition of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Albert the Great writes a specific text (quaestio de prophetia, 1245-1248) in order to explane how prophetic knowledge takes place: in doing so, he recovers some theoretical features elaborated in the theological tradition before him (for exemple by William of Auxerre or Hugh of St. Cher) and, at the same time, innovates the conceptual lexicon concerning prophecy. Exploring Albert’s biblical commentaries (1257-1268) gives here the opportunity to underline some new observations that Albert makes not only about the prophecy as a form of knowledge (for exemple the prophetic intellectual vision, the eternal mirror – speculum aeternitatis – or the prophecy of threat of Jonah), but also about the person of the prophet (the natural requirements he must have, his task, the criterion for distinguishing true and false prophets) and some historical “prophets” such as Moses, John the Baptist and Christ himself