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THE PSEUDO-BONAVENTUIUAN « SYMBOLICA THEOLOGIA » 181 theologia relied upon. On the other hand, the purpose of these notes upon the Scriptures was, according to the prologue of the Symbolica theologia, not so much to provide preachable subject-matter as to sow the seed for a symbolical theology the Seraphical Doctor had in mind to mature. While it is certain that the Symbolica theologia was composed after the death of Saint Bonaventure, it seems that the work was finished before 1294. In the chapter on Saint Dominic and his Order 13 it is said that the founder of the Friar Preachers can be represented by the elder son of Abraham, namely Ismael, who was the father of twelve commanders (see Gen. 17, 20). And yet this relates, according to the author of the Symbolica theologia, to the twelve provinces in which the whole Order is divided. This division in twelve provinces surely dates from the year 1228. Since 1266 the Dominicans discussed in their chapter about a further division and in 1268 some provinces already introduced a division in vicaries. But only in 1294 the new province of Sicily was separated from its Roman mother-province and the number amounts to thirteen 14 • The Symbolica theologia must date from the time that there were still only twelve provinces in the Dominican Order, that is before 1294. We did not discover other evidence to fix the time of origin of our treatise more exactly. The purpose that the author of the Symbolica theologia had in view was « to investigate the symbolical or figurative knowledge of Holy Scripture » 15 • Theoretically speaking, this could be done in two different ways. He could just begin with the first chapter of Genesis and successively pass through all the Scriptures until the last verse· of the Apocalypse, or at least comment on some select parts of the Bible. In this way Saint Bonaventure wrote his tropological notes upon the Gospel of Saint John, which survive as the Collationes in Evangelium S. Ioannis. Possibly also his note-books that happened into the hands of our author, were arranged on these lines. The other way that could be followed was to put his symbolical explanations of disparate Scripture texts in a systematical order. This procedure was prefered by the author of the Symbolica theologia: « It seemed right to me to distinguish this little work into ten parts, which I therefore liked to call distinctions, and each of them has its own chapters » 16 • The first part or distinction, containing nine chapters, bears upon .1a See below p .194. 14 See A. WALZ, Compendium historiae Ordinis Praedicatorum, Romae 1948, 124s. 10 See below p.184. rn See below p. 184.