Pseudo-Bonaventure

The Pseudo-Bonaventura, or 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 Saint Bonaventure: "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". 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 Meditationes de Vita Christi, remains usually described only as a work of the Pseudo-Bonaventura.

Meditationes de Vita Christi

The most popular and important of these works, was the Meditationes de Vita Christi ("Meditations on the Life of Christ"), which appears to date from around 1300; like Bonaventura, the author was probably a Franciscan, and the work is adressed to a Poor Clare. Over two hundred manuscript copies survive, including seventeen illuminated ones, and the popularity of the work increased further with early printed editions. A Venetian edition of 1497 is the only known Italian blockbook. Candidates for the identity of the author of the Meditationes have included Ludolph of Saxony and Henry Balme (Hugh of Balma), but no attribution has been widely accepted.

The work's detailed evocations of moments from the Gospels influenced art, and it has been shown to be the source of aspects of the iconography of the fresco cycle of the Life of Christ in the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto.

Other works

• Stimulus Amoris, of which the Instructio sacerdotis ad se preparandum ad celebrandum missam ("Instructions for priests preparing to celebrate Mass") is part.
• Biblia pauperum ("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
• Legend of Saint Clare
• Theologia Mystica, probably by Henry Balme.
• Philomena, a poem now attributed to John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1279-1292.

References

• Catholic Encyclopedia on Saint Bonaventure (penultimate paragraph).

Further reading

• 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