Bücher der Reihe Notre Dame Texts in Medieval Culture

This translation from the French original includes an introductory interpretive essay by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A., Judith Grant, and J. C. Marler, and a foreword by Kent Emery, Jr. The translators of this Modern English version rely primarily on the original French manuscript, yet also take medieval translations into account. As a result, this edition offers a reading of The Mirror of Simple Souls that solves a number of difficulties found in the French. The valuable introduction by the translators narrates the archival history of the book, for which Margaret Porette was burned alive in Paris in 1310.

Louis IX, king of France from 1226 to 1270 and twice crusader, was canonized in 1297. He was the last king canonized during the medieval period, and was both one of the most important saints and one of the most important kings of the later Middle Ages. In Blessed Louis, the Most Glorious of Kings: Texts Relating to the Cult of Saint Louis of France, M. Cecilia Gaposchkin presents six previously untranslated texts that informed medieval views of St. Louis IX: two little-known but early and important vitae of Saint Louis; two unedited sermons by the Parisian preacher Jacob of Lausanne (d. 1322); and a liturgical office and proper mass in his honor-the most commonly used liturgical texts composed for Louis' feast day-which were widely copied, read, and disseminated in the Middle Ages. Gaposchkin's aim is to present to a diverse readership the Louis as he was known and experienced in the Middle Ages: a saint celebrated by the faithful for his virtue and his deeds. She offers for the first time to English readers a typical hagiographical view of Saint Louis, one in counterbalance to that set forth in Jean of Joinville's Life of Saint Louis. Although Joinville's Life has dominated our views of Louis, Joinville's famous account was virtually unknown beyond the French royal court in the Middle Ages and was not printed until the sixteenth century. His portrayal of Louis as an individual and deeply charismatic personality is remarkable, but it is fundamentally unrepresentative of the medieval understanding of Louis. The texts that Gaposchkin translates give immediate access to the reasons why medieval Christians took Louis to be a saint; the texts, and the image of Saint Louis presented in them, she argues, must be understood within the context of the developing history of sanctity and sainthood at the end of the Middle Ages.

Treatise on Divine Predestination is one of the early writings of the author of the great philosophical work Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature), Johannes Scottus (the Irishman), known as Eriugena (died c. 877 A.D.). It contributes to the age-old debate on the question of human destiny in the present world and in the afterlife.

A translation of Osbern Bokenham's ""Legendys of Hooly Wummen"" (1443-1447), the first all-female hagiography. Translated from Latinale Middle English, it contains the Augustinian friar's version of the stories of 13 women saints from gospel, apocrypha, martyrology and high-medieval history.

An abbess in the Franciscan abbey of Longchamp, Agnes of Harcourt wrote a biography of Isabelle of France and a letter detailing Louis IX's involvement with the abbey, both of which provide a window on 13th-century religious life. This translation also contains an introduction to her life and work.

In this sourcebook, the editors bring together a varied selection of medieval documents on pastoral care. These materials - from administrative, theological, legal, historical and literary sources - are grouped thematically and offer a summary of the multifaceted lives of the parish clergymen.

A modern-language translation of commentaries by the 12th-century arts master, Clarembald of Arras, on two works by the Roman philosopher Boethius (""De Hebdomadibus"" and ""De Trinitate""). The volume includes notes and an introduction, which discuss the biography, writings and style of Clarembald.

In this sourcebook, the editors bring together a varied selection of medieval documents on pastoral care. These materials - from administrative, theological, legal, historical and literary sources - are grouped thematically and offer a summary of the multifaceted lives of the parish clergymen.