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Dear list members, in an article on Dante, written in Danish (1985), Brian P. McGuire characterizes the Divina Commedia as a "whole that is greater than the sum of its parts." As is well-known, the Commedia has been characterized in many ways throughout the history of Dante reading. One of the more persistent ones, which has a long tradition, is the comparison with a Gothic Cathedral. More recently Stephen Botteril, in his book on Dante and the mystical tradition (1994), has proposed the picture of the Commedia as "a Heraclitean river, into which no reader can ever step twice and find it unaltered." Now I assume that many Dante scholars would confirm to McGuire's characterization because of the complexity of the work, although it constitutes a huge obstacle in interpretive practice since the result is a capture in the hermeneutic circle. No doubt, the very notion of "the whole as being greater than the sum of its parts" is essentially a feature of medieval scholasticism, and I have been told by Brian P. McGuire that the very expression might even be found in St. Thomas' writings. Since I have not come across such a statement in St. Thomas, I wonder whether anyone among the participants in the mailbase discussion could provide me with reference to its occurence, whether it be in St. Thomas or somewhere else, if it is traceable in medieval writings. Any kind of answer will be of great interest. Jesper Hede %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%