Pseudo-Bonaventura

The Pseudo-Bonaventura, or Pseudo-Bonaventure is the name given to the authors of a number of medieval devotional works which were believed at the time to be the work of Saint Bonaventure: "It would almost seem as if 'Bonaventura' came to be regarded as a convenient label for a certain type of text, rather than an assertion of authorship".^[1] Since it is clear a number of actual authors are involved, the term "Pseudo-Bonaventuran" is often used. Many works now have other attributions of authorship which are generally accepted, but the most famous, the Meditationes de Vita Christi, remains usually described only as a work of the Pseudo-Bonaventura.

Meditationes de Vita Christi

For the book by Ludolph of Saxony see Vita Christi

The most popular and important of these works, was the Meditationes de Vita Christi ("Meditations on the Life of Christ", or The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ), which appears to date from around 1300; like Bonaventure, the author was probably a Franciscan, and the work is addressed to a Poor Clare. Over two hundred manuscript copies survive, including seventeen illuminated ones,^[2] and the popularity of the work increased further with early printed editions. A Venetian edition of 1497 is the only known Italian blockbook.^[3]

The work's detailed evocations of moments from the Gospels influenced art, and it has been shown to be the source of aspects of the iconography of the fresco cycle of the Life of Christ in the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto. It has also been credited with inspiring the great increase in depictions of the Veil of Veronica from the late 14th century.

Other works

• Stimulus Amoris, of which the Instructio sacerdotis ad se preparandum ad celebrandum missam ("Instructions for priests preparing to celebrate Mass") is part.
• Biblia pauperum ("Poor Man's Bible" - a title only given in the 20th century) a short typological version of the Bible, also extremely popular, and often illustrated. There were different versions of this, the original perhaps by the Dominican Nicholas of Hanapis.
• Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis by Conrad of Saxony
• Speculum Disciplinæ, Epistola ad Quendam Novitium and Centiloquium, all probably by Bonanventura's secretary, Bernard of Besse
• Legend of Saint Clare
• Theologia Mystica, probably by Henry Balme.
• Philomena, a poem now attributed to John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1279-1292.

References

1. ^ Medieval texts and their first appearance in print, E. P. Goldschmidt, p. 128
2. ^ JSTOR, 1st page
3. ^ Metropolitan Museum

•  "St. Bonaventure". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.  (Penultimate paragraph.)

Further reading

• Lawrence F. Hundersmarck: The Use of Imagination, Emotion, and the Will in a Medieval Classic: The Meditaciones Vite Christi. In: Logos 6,2 (2003), S. 46-62
• Sarah McNamer: Further evidence for the date of the Pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitæ Christi. In: Franciscan Studies, Bd. 10, Jg. 28 (1990), S. 235-261