Aleksander Birkenmajer jako historyk filozofii

The figure of Alexander Birkenmaier is well known among modern medievalists and it was several times presented (e.g. by M. Kurdziałek, B. Korolec and Th. d’Alverny), notwithstanding, it is worth to be re-analyzed and re-estimated along the changing context in which his studies are read. Though for Birkenmaier a history of medieval philosophy was not the main point of interest, he managed to formulate many theses that paved the way for the next generations of scholars. Among his academic achievements the discovery of the fragments of Quaternuli by David of Dinant and the sketch of the Aristoteles Latinus project have and will be always recalled. From the today’s perspective the effects and style of Birkenmaier’s research evoke a kind of nostalgia for the pioneer’s period of the medieval studies that offered much broader possibilities than the times, in which we work now.