Meditations on the Life of Christ

Sarah Mcnamer

Description

The Meditations on the Life of Christ was the most popular and influential devotional work of the later Middle Ages. With its lively dialogue and narrative realism, its poignant and moving depictions of the Nativity and Passion, and its direct appeals to the reader to feel love and compassion, the Meditations had a major impact on devotional practices, religious art, meditative literature, vernacular drama, and the cultivation of affective experience.

This volume is a critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of a hitherto-unpublished Italian text that McNamer argues is likely to be the original version of this influential masterpiece. Livelier and far more compact than the Latin text, the Italian “short text” possesses a stylistic and textual integrity that appears to testify to its primacy among early versions of the Meditations. The evidence also suggests that it was composed by a woman, a Poor Clare from Pisa—an author whose work McNamer contends was obscured by the anonymous Franciscan friar who subsequently altered and expanded the text. In bringing to light this unique Italian version and building a case for its origins and importance, this book will encourage a fresh look at the Meditations and serve as a foundation for further scholarship and debate concerning some of the most compelling subjects in Italian and European literary and cultural history, including the role of women in the invention of new genres and spiritual practices, the early development of Italian prose narrative, the rise of vernacular theology, and the history of emotion.

McNamer’s volume will be of significant interest to medievalists, especially those who study medieval women, devotional literature, manuscript studies, and textual criticism. The linguistic analysis expands that audience to include those of a philological bent.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Literary Criticism
• Medieval
• Edad Media
• Catholicism
• Middle Ages
• Italian
• Catholic
• Christianity
• European

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268102876
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Meditations on the Life of Christ

T H E W I L L I A M A N D K A T H E R I N E D E V E R S S E R I E S

I N D A N T E A N D M E D I E V A L I T A L I A N L I T E R A T U R E

Zygmunt G. Baran´ski, Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Christian Moevs, editors

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V O L U M E 1 4 Meditations on the Life of Christ: The Short Italian Text Sarah McNamer •

V O L U M E 1 3 Interpreting Dante: Essays on the TraditionsofDanteCommentary edited by Paola Nasti and • Claudia Rossignoli

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V O L U M E 1 2 Freedom Readers: The African American Reception of Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy Dennis Looney •

V O L U M E 11 Dante’s Commedia: Theology as Poetry edited by Vittorio Montemaggi • and Matthew Treherne

V O L U M E 1 0 Petrarch and Dante: Anti-Dantism, Metaphysics, Tradition edited by Zygmunt G. Bara´nski • and Theodore J. Cachey, Jr.

V O L U M E 9 The Ancient Flame: Dante and the PoetsWinthrop Wetherbee •

V O L U M E 8 Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and Writers in Late Medieval Italy Justin Steinberg •

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V O L U M E 7 Experiencing the Afterlife: Soul and Body in Dante and Medieval CultureManuele Gragnolati •

V O L U M E 6 Understanding Dante John A. Scott •

V O L U M E 5 Dante and the Grammar of the Nursing Body Gary P. Cestaro •

V O L U M E 4 The Fiore and the Detto d’Amore: A Late 13th-Century Italian Translation of the Roman de la Rose, attributabletoDante Translated, with introduction and • notes, by Santa Casciani and Christopher Kleinhenz

V O L U M E 3 The Design in the Wax: The Structure of the Divine Comedy and Its Meaning Marc Cogan •

V O L U M E 2 The Fiore in Context: Dante, France, Tuscany edited by Zygmunt G. Baran´ski • and Patrick Boyde

V O L U M E 1 Dante Now: Current Trends in Dante Studies edited by Theodore J. Cachey, Jr. •

Winner of the 2017 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies, Modern Language Association

M E D I TAT I O N S

on the L I F E

of C H R I S T

The Short Italian Text

Sarah McNamer

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu

Copyright © 2018 by the University of Notre Dame

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Johannes, de Caulibus, active 14th century. | Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, approximately 1217–1274. | McNamer, Sarah, editor. Title: Meditations on the life of Christ : the short Italian text / [edited by] Sarah McNamer; linguistic analysis by Pär Larson. Other titles: Meditationes vitae Christi. Italian. | Meditationes vitae Christi. English. Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. | Series: The William and Katherine Devers series in Dante and Medieval Italian literature | Contains the Italian text of Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Ital. 174 and English translation. Scholars dispute whether Meditationes vitae Christi originated as a Latin or Italian text. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017035599 (print) | LCCN 2017053556 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268102876 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268102852 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268102856 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ—Biography—Meditations. Classification: LCC BT306.43 (ebook) | LCC BT306.43 .M4312 2017 (print) | DDC 232.9/01 [B] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035599

∞This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

A B O U T T H E W I L L I A M A N D K A T H E R I N E

D E V E R S S E R I E S I N D A N T E A N D

M E D I E VA L I T A L I A N L I T E R A T U R E

The William and Katherine Devers Program in Dante Studies at the Univer- sity of Notre Dame supports rare book acquisitions in the university’s John A. Zahm Dante collections, funds an annual visiting professorship in Dante studies, and supports electronic and print publication of scholarly research in the field. In collaboration with the Medieval Institute at the university, the Devers program initiated a series dedicated to the publication of the most significant current scholarship in the field of Dante studies. In 2011 the scope of the series was expanded to encompass thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italian literature. In keeping with the spirit that inspired the creation of the Devers pro- gram, the series takes Dante and medieval Italian literature as focal points that draw together the many disciplines and lines of inquiry that constitute a cul- tural tradition without fixed boundaries. Accordingly, the series hopes to illu- minate this cultural tradition within contemporary critical debates in the hu- manities by reflecting both the highest quality of scholarly achievement and the greatest diversity of critical perspectives. The series publishes works from a wide variety of disciplinary view- points and in diverse scholarly genres, including critical studies, commen- taries, editions, reception studies, translations, and conference proceedings of exceptional importance. The series enjoys the support of an international ad- visory board composed of distinguished scholars and is published regularly by the University of Notre Dame Press. The Dolphin and Anchor device that appears on publications of the Devers series was used by the great humanist, grammarian, editor, and typographer Aldus Manutius (1449–1515), in whose 1502 edition of Dante (second issue) and all subsequent editions it appeared. The device illustrates the ancient proverb Festina lente, “Hurry up slowly.”

ZygmuntG.Bara´nski,TheodoreJ.Cachey,Jr., and Christian Moevs, editors

A D V I S O R Y

B O A R D

Albert Russell Ascoli, Berkeley

Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia

Piero Boitani, Rome

Patrick Boyde, Cambridge

Alison Cornish, New York University

Claire Honess, Leeds

Christopher Kleinhenz, Wisconsin

Giuseppe Ledda, Bologna

Simone Marchesi, Princeton

Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale

Lino Pertile, Harvard

John A. Scott, Western Australia

Alle mie dilette figlie con affetto

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Chapter 2. How Our Lady went to visit Saint Elizabeth.

Meditations on the Life of Christ: The Short Italian Text

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Chapter 4. How Lord Jesus Christ was born into the world.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Textual History Authorship Date and Place of Composition The Manuscript Linguistic Analysis by Pär Larson Editorial Principles A Note on the Translation

Chapter 6. How the kings came to worship Christ with their gifts.

Prologue. Here begins the prologue of the meditations on the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose teaching is the seed of prudence, whose life is the mirror of temperance and patience.

Chapter 1. Here begins the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Chapter 5. How Our Lord Jesus was circumcised.

Chapter 3. How Joseph wished to abandon Our Lady.

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