Bücher von Walter W. Seton

Walter Seton's 1915 book focuses on one of the key, understudied figures of the early Franciscan movement. Abbess of the Convent of Prague, Blessed Agnes was central to the establishment of the Order of Saint Clare. She presented persuasive arguments to convince the Holy See to permit female Franciscans to live according to their Rule and practise voluntary poverty. Seton's edition, drawn from manuscripts in German libraries, includes the oldest extant Latin version of Agnes' Life together with a fifteenth-century German version and German copies of four letters she received from Saint Clare. Praised in 1916 for its 'admirable thoroughness', this edition sheds new light on Blessed Agnes, whose importance was long overshadowed by her more prominent contemporaries, Saint Clare and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, her cousin. This reissue makes this valuable primary material accessible again to scholars working on Franciscan history and medieval women's spirituality.

One of the original disciples of Saint Francis, Blessed Giles of Assisi preached a message of poverty and penance throughout Italy, the Holy Land, and North Africa before turning to a life of contemplation. His Life, here edited and translated by Walter Seton, offers valuable perspectives on this devout man, who strove not just to follow but to embody the Franciscan Rule. Seton analyses the sources for the short and long versions of the Life, arguing influentially that the Short Life represents the earlier, more authentic recension. His 1918 edition was based upon a previously unnoticed version of the Short Life contained in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canonici Misc. 528. Facing-page Latin and English make the text accessible to students and experts alike. A vital addition to Franciscan studies when first published, this important work is now available to a new generation of scholars.