The Origins of the               Meditationes vitae Christi

McNamer, Sarah

doi:10.1017/s0038713400208142

Cited by 70 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The affective devotional text, Meditationes Vitae Christi, written for a Clarissan nun and advocating the reader/listener to imagine themselves present at various moments of the life of Christ, narrated with immediacy and charged with emotional affect (Green and Ragusa 1961;McNamer 2009;Holly 2009) is also found in codices owned by women, such as BNCF MS II, VIII, 25, containing the Meditationes Vitae Christi, a fragment of the life of St Elizabeth of Hungary, a passage from the gospel of St John and two laude, which at one time belonged to Antonia, wife of Daniele Canigiani (Mazzatinti 1901, p. 230). Antonia was the daughter of Tommaso di Zanobi Ginori, who married Canigiani in 1434 and died 30 December 1457 (Passerini 1876, Tav, II).…”

Section: Devotional Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Make Your House like a Temple’: Gender, Space and Domestic Devotion in Medieval Florence

Lawless

2020

Religions

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This article will discuss domestic devotions by framing them in terms of devotions carried out in the home, defined by its opposition to ecclesiastical, consecrated space. It will examine how women, considered the laity par excellence through their inability to ever attain sacerdotal authority, were advised spiritually by mendicant friars on how to lead a Christian life according to their status as wives, widows or virgins. It will look at the devotional literature that was widespread in mercantile homes and the devotional images designed to move the soul. This discussion will attempt to show the tensions between ecclesiastical and domestic spaces; between the clergy and the laity, and between the corporeal and spiritual worlds of late medieval devotion. It will argue that, despite clerical unease with the female and domestic space, the importance accorded to female piety by the mendicant orders at the close of the Middle Ages was such that women were entrusted with key educational roles in the family, even leading to the astonishing affirmation of them as ‘preachers’ within the borders of their households.

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Section: Devotional Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Make Your House like a Temple’: Gender, Space and Domestic Devotion in Medieval Florence

Lawless

2020

Religions

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“…Other English works, such as John of Howden or Hoveden's Speculum Laicae (BETA Textid 1300), are present in Spain's manuscript collections (Madrid BNE MS 18465 [Manid 1493). 19 Sarah Mcnamer's research examines different versions in bothItalian and Latin (2009;2017).20 Villena does not follow Ferrer's sermon or sermon content. The comparison is indicated here to show how her literary work correlates with standards of preached sermon technique.…”

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confidence: 99%

Christ’s Holy Week Sermons: Women’s Preaching and its Oral and Written Sources in Late-medieval Valencia

Twomey

2019

Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

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This article begins by reviewing speculation that Isabel de Villena preached to her nuns in the Santa Trinitat convent. The article then examines the nature of women's preaching relating it to female verbal authority expressed in the Vita Christi. It draws evidence drawn from the sermons recorded from other female preachers, such as Hildegard of Bingen, and also from male vernacular preachers, such as the Valencian St Vincent Ferrer, as well as from the medieval Ars Praedicandi in the Peninsula. After contextualizing possible sermonizing in Isabel de Villena's work, the article turns to the Vita Christi to present evidence that Isabel embedded her own sermons, considering whether these might have been preached in the convent and subsequently embedded in the text. To do this, it examines the words of the Christ preaching to the disciples in Holy Week tracing thesources for Villena's Latin quotations. It examines convent records to establish when and where sermons were heard during Holy Week in Valencian convents. It discovers that Villena's preaching is not traceable to standard written Vita Christi sources but rather takes orally delivered liturgy as its starting point. Este artículo empieza con el argumento sostenido durante años de que Isabel de Villena predicaba a sus monjas en el convento de la Santa Trinidad, Valencia. El artículo examina la naturaleza de la predicación femenina la que vincula a la autoridad oral expresada en ciertas partes de la Vita Christi. Refiere a ejemplos de otras predicadoras públicas y privadas, tales como Hildegard of Bingen, y a los predicadores contemporáneos, tales como el fraile dominico San Vicent Ferrer, y además a los Ars Praedicandi peninsulares. Tras contextualizar los rasgos sermonarios en la obra de Isabel de Villena,el artículo se enfoca en la Vita Christi para considerar las ruebas que sugieran que la monja incluyía sus propios sermones en el texto, evaluando si dichos sermons trazados a través de un texto escrito hubieran podido haber se pronunciado en el convento antes de incluirse en la Vita Christi. Examina los sermones pronunciados en el templo en Semana Santa, trazando varias posibles fuentes, incluso la fuente oral de la liturgia. Después considera detalles sobre los sermones profesionales descubriendo que no se oyían sermones profesionales, pagados a los frailes, cada día en la Semana Santa, por lo tanto dejando lugar a sermones pronunciados por una abadesa. Concluyeque los sermones no remontan a las fuentes Vita Christi de sus antepasados en la tradición sino que se construyen a raíz

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“…Also common, the Franciscan Detti di Frate Egidio helped beginners meditate on faith, humility, fear of God, patience, chastity, temptations, penitence, prayer and obedience.42 Another Franciscan work that taught nuns to identify with Christ's birth, life and Passion was the Meditazioni della Vita di Cristo. Addressed specifically to women and possibly written by a nun, the realistic narrative in the present tense, graphic descriptions, and direct appeal to readers fostered affective piety 43. Finally, there were Domenico Cavalca's translations of Latin works, including the Specchio de Croce, the Pungi lingua, the Trenta Stoltizie and the Medicina del Cuore o Trattato della Patienza.…”

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confidence: 99%

‘Feminizing’ Saint Augustine’s City of God: Sister Veronica, the library and scriptorium at Santo Spirito, Verona

Arthur

2019

Renaissance Studies

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Augustine's City of God has been studied in a humanist context and the impact of its vernacular translation on women readers has not been considered. This essay presents an Italian codex copied by nun scribe Veronica in 1472 in the Benedictine convent Santo Spirito, Verona. It examines the convent's social history, literary and devotional culture known through a library inventory dating c.1475, extant manuscripts and early printed books. The content and appeal of the library for elementary and advanced readers is analyzed. The active scribal culture is seen through nun scribe Scholastica Maffei who had strong humanist connections and Domicilla Bernabuzi da Faenza who translated a religious treatise for presentation to a mentor, a reflection of humanist practices. Veronica's City of God, follows no known iconographic model and has unique pen and ink miniatures that express tension, emotional conflict, an understanding of Augustine's philosophy, and her role in mediating the text with allegorical imagery for her community. This is the first study of a vernacular copy produced by a nun and shows how women religious read and reacted to Augustine's popular text.

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The Origins of the Meditationes vitae Christi

Cited by 70 publications

References 4 publications

‘Make Your House like a Temple’: Gender, Space and Domestic Devotion in Medieval Florence

‘Make Your House like a Temple’: Gender, Space and Domestic Devotion in Medieval Florence

Christ’s Holy Week Sermons: Women’s Preaching and its Oral and Written Sources in Late-medieval Valencia

‘Feminizing’ Saint Augustine’s City of God: Sister Veronica, the library and scriptorium at Santo Spirito, Verona

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