There seems to be a bit of confusion so far in this discussion about two
very different sets of _Meditationes_. One is the _Meditationes Vitae
Christi_, traditionally attributed to Bonaventure but now plausibly
assigned to Giovanni de' Cauli of San Gimignano; the other is the
_Meditationes piissimae_ traditionally attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux
and printed among his _spuria_ in _Patrologia latina_ 184. The former,
pace Otfried, cannot be attributed to Bernard for the excellent reason that
they quote him extensively and by name. Further, the _MVC_ exist in no
fewer than three versions: the longest narrates Christ's life from the
nativity to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and includes a
substantial treatise on the merits of the active and contemplative lives;
the second longest omits the treatise and quite a bit of the narrative,
jumping from Christ's baptism to the events leading up to the crucifixion;
and the shortest, sometimes called the _Meditationes passionis Christi_,
begins with the Last Supper. Hundreds of manuscripts of all three versions
are extant, and they were also translated into several European vernaculars
(the Nicholas Love edition referred to earlier is presumably "definitive"
only for the English vernacular version and not for the Latin original).
Giorgio Petrocchi dates the first version fairly precisely to 1256-63.
There's a good summary of the evidence in Columban Fischer's article in the
_Dictionnaire de spiritualité_, I, 1848-53, but that has been corrected on
various points by Giorgio Petrocchi, "Sulla composizione e data delle
_Meditationes Vitae Christi_", _Convivium_, Sept-Oct. 1952, 757-78.
Steven Botterill
Associate Professor of Italian Literature & Romance Philology
Chair, Department of Italian Studies
3335 Dwinelle Hall #2620
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2620
(510) 642-6246/642-9884 (FAX)
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