summa

plural summas · plural summae

1. A comprehensive summary of, or treatise on a subject, especially theology or philosophy.
2. figurativelyA culmination or archetypal example.

   In size, scope, and graphic ambition [the map] is a summa of the mapping art of the day, represented in paint by Vermeer.

   1987, Svetlana Alpers, “The Mapping Impulse in Dutch Art”, in David Woodward, editor, Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays, page 57

   2 more examples

   The painting is a “summa” of the various trends that intertwined and developed during those crucial years of the early sixteenth century in Florence.

   1993, Franca Falletti, The David and the Accademia Gallery, page 6

   Rockefeller Center is at once a summa of the Art Deco style, and a look ahead to the Internationalist style that dominated after World War II.

   1999, Eric Nash, Manhattan Skyscrapers, page 93

plural Summas

1. A surname from Italian.