Summary

Summary: This work analyzes the concept of "verbum formabile", which Saint Augustine discusses in De Trinitate XV,xv,25. This reality, present to our mind in an initially formless way and yet true and real, is a still silent verb, but a necessary presupposition of that interior activity, which is the utterance of the verbum cordis, which is the human word, already in formed and intelligible part, which is born from this initial formless verb, to the contact of man with the real world, through the activity of cogitatio. The generation of the verb in the human mind, in fact, requires, within the human being, not only a mere and passive tabula rasa, but an essentially intelligible actuality, participation in the eternally generated Truth, although in our vision, initially indeterminate. . The word of the human mind is not, therefore, the mere product of the finite essence of man, but rather a dynamic participation in the infinite action that has its origin in the creative activity of the divine Trinity, and whose reflection in the sensible cosmos is It really projects, although enigmatically, in the wonderful inner mirror of the mind.
Keywords: Augustine, De Trinitate, verbum formabile, gnoseology.
Abstract: This work analyzes the concept of «verbum formabile», that Saint Augustine discusses in De Trinitate XV,xv,25. Such reality is present to our mind in an initially “formless”, but nevertheless, true and real way: it is a “silent” word, but a necessary presupposition of that inner activity that is the pronouncement of the verbum cordis, which is the human word, partly already formed and intelligible, that is born from that initial formless word, with man's contact with the real world, by the activity of the cogitatio. In fact, the word's generation in the human mind needs, in man's interior activity, not a mere passive tabula rasa, but an intelligible actuality, a participation in the eternally generated Truth, although initially undetermined to our vision. The word of the human mind is not, therefore, the mere product of the finite human essence, but a dynamic participation in that infinite action that takes its origin in the creative activity of the divine Trinity, whose reflection in the empirical universe projects itself really , though enigmatically, in the marvelous interior mirror of the mind.
Keywords: Augustine, De Trinitate, verbum formabile, gnosiology