medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Jun 16, 2006, at 6:08 PM, Bethanie Petersen wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> I asked a colleague of mine who is currently working with a similar
> text
> and have given her response below.
>
> Best,
> Bethanie Petersen
>
> This sounds exactly like what I was reading about for my paper. Lina
> Bolzoni discusses it her book on Medieval spiritual imagery. I think if
> Im correct, she talks about a similar methodology coming from a text in
> the 15th century. I cited it in my paper.
>
> This is what she says in her book:
> in a work written around the year 1480 by an anonymous master of the
> art
> of memory-in a section dedicated to figured alphabets-a traditional
> mnemonic device [is used where] the author presents an alphabet
> entirely
> inspired by the Passion. Thus, A is the ladder leaning against the
> Cross, B is the noose around the neck of Jesus, C is the basin in which
> he washed his hands at the Last Supper before announcing his own death
> and so on.
>
> [1] Bolzoni, Lina. The Web of Images: Vernacular Preaching from Its
> Origins to St. Bernardino da Siena. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. p.158
>
That certainly looks like a good source. Thank you for passing it on!
I'm particularly interested, however, in the fact that the letter is
imagined to be on a geometrical figure which is in turn on one of the
arms of the cross. So the devotee is supposed to envision a crucifix,
with abstract shapes on each arm, with letters at each point of the
shapes.
Now that I think about it, perhaps it is an odd combination of the
memory devices Carruthers discusses and the spiritual alphabet device,
which was common in Spain at the time.
Jessica A. Boon, PhD
Mellon Lecturing Fellow
University Writing Program, Box 90025
Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0025
Assistant Professor of Church History (term starting Jan 1, 2007)
Perkins School of Theology (SMU), Dallas, TX
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