Albertus Magnus

The bronze statue that graces the entrance courtyard of the Law Center honors Albertus Magnus, or Albert the Great, a medieval theologian and "Man of Universal Knowledge." Born in Lauingen, Bavaria sometime between 1193 and 1206, he was a bishop, doctor and saint of the Roman Catholic Church, having as one of his students Saint Thomas Aquinas. He taught in Paris and at the Studium Generale in Cologne, a university run by the Order of the Dominicans in the 13th century and one of the first universities in Europe. A dominant figure, he was an influential teacher, an experienced traveler, a keen observer of life and nature and the one learned man of the Golden Age to be called "the Great." He was later declared a saint by the Catholic Church. Albertus Magnus is the best-known work of German sculptor Gerhard Marcks (1889 - 1981) and considered to be his finest by many scholars and artists. The Law Center’s signature sculpture was made from a special cast in Dusseldorf by permission of Marcks and his family. Two other castings exist: one at Albertus Magnus University of Cologne, Germany, and another at the La Universidad de los Andes.