Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

sumo vértice

English translation:

highest summit

Added to glossary by Evan Tomlinson
Feb 22, 2015 17:39
9 yrs ago
Spanish term

sumo vértice

Spanish to English Social Sciences Religion
The context is a paper on Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Contra Gentiles:

En este contexto, el Aquinate procura mostrar que el fin último de toda creatura intelectual es entender a Dios. Lo hace apoyándose en la tesis de que ningún deseo es tan sublime como el deseo de entender la verdad. Ese deseo sólo se aquieta cuando la creatura alcanza (intelectualmente) a Dios, “sumo vértice y hacedor de todas las cosas”.

Proposed translations

+1
43 mins
Selected

highest summit

This refers to Aquinas, Summa contra gentiles, 4.1, prooemium, where the phrase occurs twice.

The standard English translation of Book IV is by Charles J. O'Neil (New York, Hanover House, 1955-57). He renders this as "highest summit both times:

"quia omnes rerum perfectiones quodam ordine a summo rerum vertice Deo descendunt"
"since the perfections of things descend in a certain order from the highest summit of things—God"

"Et quia in summo rerum vertice Deo perfectissima unitas invenitur"
"And because in the highest summit of things, God, one finds the most perfect unity"
http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm#1

It's an accurate translation of "vertex", which means:
"I. whirl, eddy, whirlpool, vortex
II. eddy of wind of flame
III. top or crown of the head, and by transference:
B. 1. The head
2. The pole of the heavens
3. The highest point, top, peak, summit of a mountain, house, tree, etc."
Lewis & Short
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19...

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Note added at 48 mins (2015-02-22 18:27:37 GMT)
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And summus/-a/-um does of course mean "highest".

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Note added at 1 hr (2015-02-22 18:42:45 GMT)
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John I. Jenkins, who uses "supreme vertex" for this, is President of the University of Notre Dame and a very fine scholar. But I don't think the cognate, "vertex", is a good idea, since it is very rarely used in English in any context other than geometry, and the Latin vertex simply means highest point or summit. "Highest summit", following O'Neil's translation, is widely used by Aquinas scholars, as for example in the Oxford Handbooks of Aquinas:
https://books.google.es/books?id=PYXidm1an8IC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA...

And in many other places:
https://www.google.es/search?num=100&q="aquinas" "highest su...

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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-02-22 21:01:26 GMT)
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By the way, although it's not in the question, "hacedor de todas las cosas" corresponds to Aquinas's expression "creator omnium", and the epithet "Hacedor", applied to God, means Maker or Creator, but not Doer, or at least not in this case.

"Dicit enim Eccli. 24-12: dixit mihi creator omnium, et qui creavit me, requievit in tabernaculo meo."
"Et videtur a Platonicorum dictis exorta, qui ponebant summum Deum, patrem et creatorem omnium rerum"

These are from the same part of Summum contra gentiles, 4.1.
Peer comment(s):

agree Elizabeth Joy Pitt de Morales : Outstanding research, as always. Agreed!
2 hrs
Thanks very much, Elizabeth :)
neutral philgoddard : I don't buy this idea of a standard translation - it's not set in stone.
12 hrs
OK. If it's unsatisfactory in some way, by all means use something else, but in this case it's the most accurate and suitable rendering, in my opinion (culmination, for example, implies the end of a process, which is not what it means).
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you for the excellent explanation of "sumo vértice", and incidentally for that of "hacedor". "
+1
15 mins

culminating point

sumo meaning supreme, above all and vértice meaning peak or point, taken in the context you gave of spiritual search.
Peer comment(s):

neutral AllegroTrans : surel;y the point here is to look at an English translation of Thomas Aquinas's work rather than to use personal opinion?
26 mins
agree philgoddard : Nothing wrong with personal opinion, no reason why you have to copy someone else's translation. Just "culmination" would do.
5 hrs
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+1
24 mins

supreme vertex (and doer of all things)

Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas
https://books.google.com.ar/books?isbn=0521581265
John I. Jenkins - 1997 - ‎Philosophy
And therefore in God, as in the supreme vertex of things, all things pre-exist supersubstantially according to His own simple being, as Dionysius says in On ..

The Wisdom Background and Parabolic Implications of Isaiah ...
https://books.google.com.ar/books?isbn=0820486655
Donald E. Hartley - 2006 - ‎Religion
If God is the ultimate agent behind the worst of all possible evils, then there is no ... To deny God is the ultimate cause and doer of all things is to replace theism .
Peer comment(s):

agree AllegroTrans
15 mins
Many thanks :)
neutral Charles Davis : Jenkins does use "vertex", and so do some others, but I think "summit" is better. "Vertex" is rare in English in any context other than geometry. (By the way, "hacedor" means creator.)
19 mins
I know what hacedor means and 'doer' is a perfectly correct option - it is true that there are other words which could be used instead of vertex.
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25 mins

culminating point of the universe

culminating point of what? Of the universe.
Peer comment(s):

neutral AllegroTrans : surel;y the point here is to look at an English translation of Thomas Aquinas's work rather than to use personal opinion?
17 mins
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16 hrs

supreme Being

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