Albertus Magnus, St, Graf von Bollst�dt, known as Doctor Universalis c.1200-80
German philosopher and cleric

Born in Lauingen, he studied in Padua, and, entering the newly-founded Dominican order, taught theology in the schools of Hildesheim, Ratisbon, and Cologne, where St Thomas Aquinas was his pupil. He lectured in Paris for nine years until 1254, when he became provincial of the Dominicans in Germany, and in 1260 was named Bishop of Ratisbon. In 1262 he retired to his convent in Cologne to write. Noted for the breadth of his learning, in legend he appears as a magician. He was a faithful follower of Aristotle as presented by Jewish, Arabian and Western commentators, and comprehensively documented 13th-century European knowledge of the natural sciences, mathematics and philosophy. He was also an alchemist, although his works express doubts about the possibility of transmutation of the elements, and he gave a detailed description of the element arsenic. Of his works the most notable are the Summa theologiae and the Summa de creaturis. He was canonized in 1931 and named Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI. His feast day is 15 November.

Bibliography: F J Kovach and R W Shahan (eds), Albert the Great (1980)