Ad fontes

All you want to know about Ad fontes

Ad fontes is a Latin expression which means "to the sources" (lit. "to the fountain"). The phrase epitomizes the renewed study of Greek and Latin classics in Renaissance humanism.^[1] Similarly, the Protestant Reformation called for renewed attention to the Bible as the primary source of Christian faith. The idea in both cases was that sound knowledge depends on the earliest and most fundamental sources.

This phrase is related to ab initio, which means "from the beginning." Whereas ab initio implies a flow of thought from first principles to the situation at hand, ad fontes is a retrogression, a movement back towards an origin, which ideally would be clearer than the present situation.

The phrase ad fontes occurs in the Latin Vulgate version of Psalm 41:

quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum ita desiderat anima mea ad te Deus.^[2]

(In the same way that the stag is drawn unto the sources of water, so is my soul drawn unto you, God)

According to Hans-Georg Gadamer,^[3] there is evidence provided by E. Lledo that Spanish humanists drew the expression from this source.

References

J.D. Tracy, Ad Fontes: The Humanist Understanding of Scripture as Nourishment for the Soul, in Christian Spirituality II: High Middle Ages and Reformation, (1987), editor Jill Raitt

Notes

^ The fundamental feature of Renaissance Humanism is summed up in the concept of ad fontes. It was believed that by studying the original texts whether, classical or Biblical, that there could be an actualization of the events described.[1]
^ Latin Vulgate Bible, Book Of Psalms Psalm 41
^ Truth and Method, p.502 of the 1989 revised English translation.