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
Bonaventure
Bonaventure ( ; ; ; born Giovanni di Fidanza; 1221 – 15 July 1274) was an Italian Catholic Franciscan bishop, Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal, Scholasticism, scholastic theologian and philosopher.
The seventh Minister General ( ...
: "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".
Medieval texts and their first appearance in print, E. P. Goldschmidt, p. 128
/ref> 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 ''Meditations on the Life of Christ
The ''Meditations on the Life of Christ'' ( or '; Italian ''Meditazione della vita di Cristo'') is a fourteenth-century devotional work, later translated into Middle English by Nicholas Love as '' The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ' ...
'', remains usually described only as a work of Pseudo-Bonaventure.
Other works
*"Biblia pauperum
The (Latin for "Paupers' Bible") was a tradition of picture Bibles beginning probably with Ansgar, and a common printed block-book in the later Middle Ages to visualize the typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments. Unlike ...
" ("Poor Man's Bible" – a title only given in the 20th century), a short typological
A typology is a system of classification used to organize things according to similar or dissimilar characteristics. Groups of things within a typology are known as "types".
Typologies are distinct from taxonomies in that they primarily address t ...
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 Bernard of Besse was a French Friar Minor and chronicler.
He was a native of Aquitaine, with date of birth uncertain; he belonged to the custody of Cahors and was secretary to St. Bonaventure. He took up the pen after the Seraphic Doctor, he tells ...
*''Legend of Saint Clare''
*''Theologia Mystica'', probably by Hugh of Balma.
*''Philomena'', a poem now attributed to John Peckham
John Peckham (c. 1230 – 8 December 1292) was a Franciscan friar and Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292.
Peckham studied at the University of Paris under Bonaventure, where he later taught theology and became known as a co ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
from 1279 to 1292.
References
* (Penultimate paragraph.)
Further reading
;Meditationes de vita Christi
*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
*Livario Oliger: ''Le meditationes vitae Christi del pseudo-Bonaventura.'' In: Studi Franciscani 18 (1921), S. 143–183; 19 (1922), S. 18–47
*Giorgio Petrocchi: ''Sulla composizione e data delle Meditationes Vitae Christi''. In: Convivium, N.S. 5 (1952), S. 757–778
;Bonaventura
*Balduin Distelbrink: ''Bonaventurae scripta: authentica, dubia vel spuria critice recensita''. Istituto storico Cappuccini, Rom 1975 (= Subsidia scientifica Franciscalia, 5)
*
{{authority control
Christian theologians
Medieval Christian devotional writers
Medieval theologians