SOBRE O CURSUS PHILOSOPHICUS DE FREI GASPAR DA MADRE DE DEUS - DESCRIÇÃO DE MANUSCRITOS INÉDITOS (1)

Abstract

In this article, we have the purpose of giving start to the description of
manuscripts that contain the philosophical work bequeathed by the Benedictine Friar
Gaspar da Madre de Deus (1715–1800). The work received the title Philosophia
platonica seu cursus philosophicus, rationalem, naturalem et transnaturalem
philosophiam, sive Logicam, Physicam et Metaphysicam, complectens. After brief
remarks on the life and work of Friar Gaspar da Madre de Deus and a summary report
of the state of the art with regard to the research on his thought, we offer a description
of the first part of his philosophical course, namely, his “Logic” or “Rational
Philosophy”. In the sequence, the article brings the Latin version of the Preface to the
Reader of the Philosophia platonica and a translation of it into Portuguese, as well as a
detailed Table of Contents containing all divisions and subdivisions of the “Rational
Philosophy”, based on a study of the original manuscript. By so doing, we launch a
series of studies on the work of Friar Gaspar, which should eventually lead to the
critical edition of the first part of his Cursus and to a transcription of his Philosophia
naturalis.