Pseudo-Bonaventure ( la, Pseudo-Bonaventura) 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 ( ; it, Bonaventura ; la, Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher.
The seventh Minister G ...
: "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'' ( la, Meditationes Vitae Christi 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 ...
'', 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 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 tell ...
*''Legend of Saint Clare''
*''Theologia Mystica'', probably by Hugh of Balma Hugh of Balma, also known as Hugo of Palma or Hugh of Dorche was a Carthusian theologian, is generally acknowledged to be the author of the work which titled ''Viae Syon Lugent'' (''The Roads to Zion Mourn''), after its opening line. That work is a ...
.
*''Philomena'', a poem now attributed to John Peckham
John Peckham (c. 1230 – 8 December 1292) was Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292. He was a native of Sussex who was educated at Lewes Priory and became a Friar Minor about 1250. He studied at the University of Paris under B ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
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