"Eum mori oportebat" in Nicholas of Cusa’s Glosses of the Alkoranus Latinus (Vat Lat. 4071)

Abstract

Nicholas of Cusa wrote two sets of glosses that comment on important themes of Alkoranus Latinus, the first Latin translation of the Qur'an done by Robert of Ketton in the year 1143 in the Iberian Peninsula. The first group of glosses, used to write De pace fidei in 1453, are found in the Bernkastel-Kues Bibliothek, manuscript Kues 108. The second set of glosses, recently identified in manuscript 4071 of the Vatican Library, and used to write Cribratio Alkorani in 1462, presents extensive doctrinal treatises on Quranic subjects. We find, among others, the consideration of the necessity of the death of Christ for the redemption of the human race.