Summa

Summa is a Latin noun and term used across historical and scholarly contexts to signify a total, the highest degree, or a comprehensive summary. In Latin, summa can mean the entire amount or the greatest extent, and it functions as a feminine noun related to the adjective summus, meaning “highest.”

In medieval and early modern scholarship, summa denotes a comprehensive compendium or treatise that aims to summarize a broad field for study and teaching. Works with this title or function were often intended as authoritative overviews rather than narrow studies, and they became a recognizable genre within scholastic literature.

The best-known example is Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas, composed in the 1260s–1270s. This monumental work organizes Catholic theology into a structured, question-and-answer format and has had a lasting influence on Western scholastic thought. Another prominent example is Summa contra Gentiles, an apologetic work by Aquinas written to present Christian doctrine to non-Christians.

In the realm of mathematics and related disciplines, the title Summa appears in Luca Pacioli’s Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (1494), a foundational text that surveys arithmetic, geometry, and proportion and is notable in the history of accounting as well as mathematics.

Today, summa remains primarily a historical designation in reference to long, synthetic works. In general usage, the term signals a “complete” survey or authoritative summary, and it endures mainly in bibliographic and scholarly contexts related to medieval and early modern literature.