L'auditio del pulchrum musicale in Tommaso d'Aquino e Bonaventura da Bagnoregio

In the Ars Antiqua period, dominated by the philosophical and theological system of Scholastic thought, the speculation about Pulchrum (the «Beautiful») has a pivotal role. Since it was not included among the three transcendental principles (i.e. the universal principles of reality: Unity, Truth, and Good), Beauty manages, with great effort, to gain an independent status in thirteenth-century Scholastic thought . This chapter investigates how such Beauty is addressed and understood in the works of St Thomas Aquinas and St Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. Both philosophers address the question of the role of Beauty in relation to music and liturgy. Recognizing Beauty as an essential feature of the liturgy, by means of music, would imply that Beauty itself is not a mere source of enjoyment that distracts the faithful from the holiness of the liturgy, but rather a means to the knowledge of God. The Dominican Aquinas admits that musical pulchrum may indeed have a vis cognoscitiva, i.e. a gnosiological value: since hearing, together with sight, is the most cognitive sense, the musical pulchrum is crucial to the understanding of the role and aim of Beauty in the liturgical context. However, Aquinas does not directly list it among the transcendental principles and shares the same hesitations that St Augustine expressed in his Confessions in regards to music. Albeit Aquinas’s notions are original and significant, it is with the Franciscan Bonaventure’s thought that music gains a predominant position in the enjoyment and reception of Beauty. His thought concerning Beauty is detailed in his Commentaries to Ecclesiastes, which have not yet received their due attention, as far as the concept of pulchrum is concerned. Bonaventure unambiguously admits musical pulchrum within the transcendental principles and even proposes that the pleasure derived from music is not to be avoided. Beauty, according to Bonaventure, is what leads the faithful to the knowledge of God. In addition, the Franciscan philosopher does not simply justify the use of music (and thus the presence of Beauty and its enjoyment) within the liturgy, but even in non-religious contexts, such as in dances. Both Aquinas’ and Bonaventure’s approaches to Beauty have been summarized in Dante Alighieri’s Comedy, where the poet re-elaborates the philosophers’ thought in the light of his own vernacular Aesthetics.