Collationes in Hexaemeron

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The Collationes in Hexaemeron ( Conversations about the Six-Day Work ) are an unfinished series of lectures that the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure gave in Paris between Easter and Pentecost 1273 and which are only based on listeners' transcripts ( reportationes ), in a shorter version ( Reportatio A ) and a heavily deviating longer one ( Reportatio B ).

Origin and text history

The author of the shorter Reportatio A offers information on the circumstances of the lecture and the genesis of its text in an addition to the text of the only surviving manuscript of this reportatio, which is now kept in Siena (Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, cod. UV6) and 1934 by F. Delorme was published. Afterwards, these lectures were given in the period between Easter (April 9th) and Pentecost (May 28th) in Paris in front of an auditorium of approximately 160 listeners, consisting of a few masters and bachelor's degrees . The parts of the work originally comprised of seven, each comprising several collationes and titled as Visio ("Inspiration, Show") were then after the fourth Visio because of the promotion of the author to higher dignities (Bonaventura's elevation to cardinal on May 28, 1273) and because of of his death (July 15, 1274) could not be read.

The reporter, who does not give his name and only describes Bonaventure as "master and master (or master) of this work" ("dominus et magister huius operis"), states that he wrote his notes "from the mouth of the speaker" (" ab ore loquentis ") and wrote two other companions' notes, which, however," because of their great confusion and illegibility "were of no use to anyone but these companions themselves. On the other hand, the copy of his own transcript was corrected, checked by other listeners and copied by Bonaventure himself as well as by others. However, the present version of Reportatio A is not based on this first copy, which Bonaventura accepted as a template, but on a book that the anonymous received a long time later from the Provincial of the Province of Alemannia Superior, a Frater Konrad, and then again from memory revised without adding anything of his own, as he affirmed, except for extensions in the explanations of Aristotle's logic and evidence of the locations of cited authorities.

The longer version B is also based on a listener's transcript, the method of which nothing is known in detail, and which, based on the results of Delorme's investigations, was made independently of the shorter report A. Today 10 manuscripts are known for this longer version, one of them (Sigle D, Königliche Bibliothek Königsberg , Cod. 1200, from the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century) is lost today, but could still be copied by Fedele da Fanna in 1875 .

One of these ten manuscripts, Codex 31 of the Munich University Library (Sigle M, end of the 15th century), is just a copy of the first printed edition of the work, which appeared in Strasbourg in 1495 and is based on a text that has been expanded to include additions compared to the older manuscripts . It made the work known under the title Luminaria Ecclesiae and in turn served as a template for further editions and for the Sixtina-Clementina (1588), which was authoritative into the 19th century.

The first and to this day only critical edition of Reportatio B was published in 1891 by the Fathers of the College of St. Bonaventure presented in Quaracchi in Volume V of the Opera omnia . It does not include the text of the manuscript M and the Strasbourg print because of their poor quality and also the Reportatio A because of their strong textual deviations in the critical creation of the text and is instead based on a collation of seven of the other nine manuscripts known today.

Two other manuscripts have only recently been found that have not yet been taken into account in this critical edition: a manuscript from the late 15th century, discovered in 1984 by JG Bougerol in Tours (Sigle T, Bibliothèque municipale de Tours, 409), and probably the one oldest of all surviving manuscripts, the so-called Assisi manuscript. This manuscript, an important copy of other works by Bonaventura, listed in 1380 by Giovanni da Iolo in his inventory of the library of the convent in Assisi, was described by B. Bonelli in the 18th century and dated to the end of the 13th century, was in the following period but then lost and could not be rediscovered until 1984 by Guilbert Ouy in Leningrad (today Saint Petersburg ) ( National Library Saint Petersburg , Lat. Qv. I.219). An excerpt from the text of this manuscript was published in 1993 by P. Maranesi with the variants of all other manuscripts. A new critical edition of Reportatio B remains a desideratum of research.

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The collationes offer a representation of central themes of the theology of Bonaventura and his view of the position on philosophy. In essence, it is a theological introduction to Christianity, the Order and the Church. In terms of form and content, they tie in with smaller and larger works such as De reductione artium ad theologiam , Itinerarium mentis ad Deum and Lignum vitae and appear as the last sum of his theological thinking.

The collationes are about the vision of God in creation . To this end, they indicate the creation story to Christ and his Church . In intellectual argumentation they seek the synthesis of faith and reason. Philosophical and scientific findings of the time should support the argument.

The collationes are strongly structured. They are formally based on the days of creation. Each day of creation corresponds to a vision. Vision can also be understood as an intuition, point of view or view. The term is differentiated in the collationes themselves.

The 23 collationes are divided into a foreword (I-III), a treatise on the first vision (IV-VII), on the second vision (VIII-XII), on the third (XIII-XIX) and fourth (XX- XXIII). They are supplemented by an additamentum (appendix). Each Collatio begins with a quote for the day of creation, followed by a summary of the previous Collatio.

From Collatio III, 24-31 it emerges: Corresponding to the six days of creation, the divine vision is based on six visions. The seventh day of rest corresponds to the eternal vision of God as the seventh vision after death. The eighth day as the return of the first is interpreted as the day of the resurrection. Four visions are carried out in the factory, the last three are named again in the appendix as a topic.

The visions are assigned to topics. The first vision is about insight and virtue, the second vision is about faith, the third vision is about the Bible and the fourth vision is about the church.

In his work, the author also states that the various fonts are clearly valued. For him, the Bible as Holy Scripture comes first. In second place are the writings of the saints, in third place are the Church Fathers . He regards the pagan philosophers as less valuable and gives them the fourth place. The Creator can also be recognized from creation, but only with the help of the Bible.

In interpreting the Bible, he follows Jerome and Augustine, whose knowledge he necessarily assumes. Accordingly, he largely rejects a literal interpretation of the Bible. He contrasts the literal sense ( sensus litteralis ) with the threefold spiritual interpretation ( triplex intelligentia spiritualis ), for which he sees many possibilities. The biblical texts are largely understood as images and symbols for Christ, the Trinity and church life. Depending on the assignment to the subject areas, it is an allegory , anagogy or tropology . The allegory is about Christ, the anagogy about heaven, the tropology about church life. How the spiritual interpretation is to be applied is made clear in the book using the example of the interpretation of the sun symbolism.

The author also explains the principle of theological speculation, which is derived from the Latin word speculum (mirror). According to this, divine reason is reflected in reason, the macrocosm of creation in the microcosm of the soul , in the Old Testament the New Testament according to the principle of promise and fulfillment and in the Church the heavenly Jerusalem.

Philosophically, the collationes are in the Neoplatonic- Christian tradition of Dionysius Areopagita and Augustine and deal critically with Aristotle . Without prejudice to the criticism of his doctrine of God and creation, the Collationes follow Aristotle's doctrine of ethics and virtue with regard to measure and middle (VI, 12).

Critical text editions

  • Reportatio A (shorter version):
    • Ferdinand Marie Delorme: S. Bonaventurae Collationes in hexaëmeron et Bonaventuriana quaedam selecta . Quaracchi 1934 (= Bibliotheca Franciscana Scholastica Medii Aevi, 8).
  • Reportatio B (longer version):
    • Doctoris Seraphici S. Bonaventurae SRE Episcopi Cardinalis Opera omnia, iussu et auctoritate Rmi. P. Bernardini a Portu Romatino (..) studio et cura PP Collegii a S. Bonaventura ad plurimos codices mss. emendata anecdotis aucta prolegomenis scholiis notisque illustrata , vol. V: Opuscula varia theologica , Quaracchi 1891, col. 329-449
    • Pietro Maranesi: Bonaventura of Bagnoregio: A transcription of the third collation of the Hexaëmeron from the St. Petersburg manuscript . In: Franciscan Studies 53 (1993), pp. 47-78

Translations

  • Bonventura Sanctus: The Six Day Work. Latin and German. Translated and introduced by Wilhelm Nyssen , Kösel, Munich 1964; 2nd edition 1979, 3-466-20016-4. - The Latin text B is taken from the Quaracchi 1891 edition, with additions in brackets from A after Delorme 1934
  • Obras di San Buenaventura , Vol. III: Colaciones sobre el Hexaemeron o Iluminaciones de la Iglesia ( inter alia). Ed., With introductions and comments by Leon Amoros, Bernardo Aperribay and Miguel Oromi, 2nd edition, La editorial catolica, Madrid 1957, pp. 176–659 (Latin text B based on the Quaracchi 1891 edition with Spanish translation)
  • Saint Bonaventure: Les six jours de la création . Translation, introduction and notes by Marc Ozilou, foreword by Olivier Boulnois, Desclée / Cerf, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-7189-0549-2
  • Opere di San Bonaventura: edizione latino-italiana , Vol. VI.1: Opere teologici . Translation by Pietro Maranesi, introduction and notes by Bernadino de Amellada, Città Nuova Editrice, Rome 1994, ISBN 88-311-9427-5

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