Meditations on the Life of Christ

The Short Italian Text

Sarah McNamer

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780268202392, 9780268102852
• eBook ISBN: 9780268102876
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Italian Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Meditations on the Life of Christ was the most popular and influential devotional work of the later Middle Ages. With its lively dialogue and narrative realism, its poignant and moving depictions of the Nativity and Passion, and its direct appeals to the reader to feel love and compassion, the Meditations had a major impact on devotional practices, religious art, meditative literature, vernacular drama, and the cultivation of affective experience.

This volume is a critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of a hitherto-unpublished Italian text that McNamer argues is likely to be the original version of this influential masterpiece. Livelier and far more compact than the Latin text, the Italian "short text" possesses a stylistic and textual integrity that appears to testify to its primacy among early versions of the Meditations. The evidence also suggests that it was composed by a woman, a Poor Clare from Pisa—an author whose work McNamer contends was obscured by the anonymous Franciscan friar who subsequently altered and expanded the text. In bringing to light this unique Italian version and building a case for its origins and importance, this book will encourage a fresh look at the Meditations and serve as a foundation for further scholarship and debate concerning some of the most compelling subjects in Italian and European literary and cultural history, including the role of women in the invention of new genres and spiritual practices, the early development of Italian prose narrative, the rise of vernacular theology, and the history of emotion.

McNamer's volume will be of significant interest to medievalists, especially those who study medieval women, devotional literature, manuscript studies, and textual criticism. The linguistic analysis expands that audience to include those of a philological bent.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• Textual History
• Authorship
• Date and Place of Composition
• The Manuscript
• Linguistic Analysis
• Editorial Principles
• A Note on the Translation
• Meditations on the Life of Christ: The Short Italian Text
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. Here begins the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Chapter 2. How Our Lady went to visit Saint Elizabeth.
• Chapter 3. How Joseph wished to abandon Our Lady.
• Chapter 4. How Lord Jesus Christ was born into the world.
• Chapter 5. How Our Lord Jesus was circumcised.
• Chapter 6. How the kings came to worship Christ with their gifts.
• Chapter 7. How Lord Christ Our Lord was presented at the temple.
• Chapter 8. How Our Lady fled into Egypt with Lord Jesus.
• Chapter 9. How Our Lady returned from Egypt to Nazareth.
• Chapter 10. How the child Lord Jesus remained in Jerusalem.
• Chapter 11. How Our Lord remained subject to his mother and to Joseph from the time he was twelve years old until thirty; and of the things that you may imagine that he did during this time, even though it is not found in any scriptures that he did anything.
• Chapter 12. How Our Lord Jesus Christ went to the river Jordan to be baptized by Saint John.
• Chapter 13. How Lord Jesus Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights in the desert and how he was tempted by the devil.
• Chapter 14. How Jesus Christ Our Lord entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey.
• Chapter 15. How Our Lord Jesus dined on Holy Wednesday with his disciples in Bethany in the house of Magdalene.
• Chapter 16. How Lord Jesus celebrated the supper on Holy Thursday with his disciples on Mount Syon.
• Chapter 17. How Our Lord Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples, and how he established the sacrament of his own body and gave it to his disciples.
• Chapter 18. Of the beautiful sermon that Lord Jesus Christ gave to his disciples after communion, and the departure of Judas.
• Chapter 19. How Lord Jesus Christ went to the garden.
• Chapter 20. How Judas came with the high priests to capture Lord Jesus in the garden with weapons and lances and lanterns.
• Chapter 21. How Lord Jesus was led to Pilate at prime.
• Chapter 22. How Our Lord Jesus Christ was bound naked to a column, and how he was harshly flogged.
• Chapter 23. How Pilate sentenced our savior Lord Jesus Christ to death on the cross, and how he carried the cross on his shoulders, and what was done to him, and how Our Lady went to see him.
• Chapter 24. How Lord Jesus was put on the cross between two thieves to increase his shame.
• Chapter 25. How the soldiers of Pilate came to Mount Calvary to break the legs of the thieves and Lord Jesus.
• Chapter 26. How Joseph and Nichodemus came to Mount Calvary to take the body of Lord Jesus down from the cross.
• Chapter 27. How on Saturday Our Lady remained at the house with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, and how the disciples gathered together.
• Chapter 28. How the soul of Christ went to limbo, and how he rose, and how he appeared to his mother and to the three Marys, and other things that he did.
• Chapter 29. How Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples the week after the Resurrection while they were staying at home with the doors locked; and other things that one can conclude that he did.
• Chapter 30. How our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven and finished his journey.
• Notes to the Meditations
• Bibliography
• Index