The annals of humanities computing: The index Thomisticus

I entered the Jesuit order in 1933. I was then 20. Later my superior asked me: "Would you like t o become a professor?" "In no way!" My wish was t o be a missionary to take care of the poor. "Good. You'll do it, all the same." By 1941, when Italy entered the Second World War, I had been assigned t o work towards a Ph.D. in Thomistic philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. My research was aimed at exploring the concept of presence according to Thomas Aquinas. At that time the Italian Navy was interested in drafting me as a chaplain, an assignment which would have greatly appealed to me. My superior, however, managed to have someone else take the post. Thus, up until the end of 1945, my principal interest was focused on philosophy and philosophical texts whlle I was surrounded by bombings, Germans, partisans, poor food and disasters of all sorts. According to the scholarly practices, I first searched through tables and subject indexes for the words of praesens and praesentia. I soon learned that such words in Thomas Aquinas are peripheral: his doctrine of presence is linked with the preposition in. My next step was to write out by hand 10 000 3" X 5" cards, each containing a sentence with the word in or a word connected with in. Grand games of solitaire foilowed. On January 28, 1946, I defended my doctoral thesis, which was published in 1949: La Terrninologia Tomistica dell'lnteriorita: Saggi d i metodo per una interpretazione della rnetaftsica della presenza (Milano: Bocca). While I was involved with this research, two major considerations became evident. I realized first that a