The four collections of disputed questions in this volume come from two periods in Aquinas's life. The disputed questions On the Soul and On Spiritual Creatures were likely composed, respectively, around 1265–1266 and 1267–1268, during Aquinas's stay in Rome, where he was tasked with setting up a studium at Santa Sabina. The disputed questions On the Virtues and On the Union of the Incarnate Word, on the other hand, were composed toward the end of Aquinas's second teaching period in Paris, around 1271–1272. "Disputed questions" are considerably edited reports of school debates, or disputationes, on various questions or topics, in which supporting and opposing arguments on a given theme were discussed and then resolved by the presiding master. These four groups of disputed questions cover a wide variety of topics and reflect many of the important issues that Aquinas was thinking about; since at this point he was also in the midst of composing his Summa theologiae, there are many parallels in these disputed questions to his treatments therein.

Notes on the Text: 

The Latin text for the Questiones disputatae de anima and the Questio disputata de spiritualibus creaturis is based on the Leonine edition (1996, 2000); the Latin text for the Questiones disputatae de virtutibus and the Quaestio disputata de unione Verbi Incarnati is based on the Marietti edition (1953). The translation of the Disputed Questions on the Soul was prepared by John Patrick Rowan. The translation of the Disputed Question on Spiritual Creatures was prepared by Mary C. Fitzpatrick and John J. Wellmuth. The translation of the Disputed Questions on the Virtues was prepared by Jacob Joseph Andrews. Articles 1-4 of the Disputed Question on the Union of the Incarnate Word were translated by Jason West; article 5 was translated by Madison Zahaykevitz.