Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
i + 80 + i folios on paper, modern foliation in pencil on the top outer recto corner, 1-80, watermark, fragmentary, seeming to be a shape with two prongs within a circle, complete (collation i10 ii-vi12 vii10), catchwords in bottom margin at the end of quires, ruled in lead with full length vertical and horizontal bounding lines (justification 155 x 100 mm.), additional horizontal ruling lines added for capitals, ff. 1-80 written in black ink in a Gothic Semitextualis (with occasional two-compartment ‘a’) in 24 to 33 long lines, chapter headings written in red ink a Gothic Textualis, likely a different hand than the main text, occasional manicules, the first five chapters of the text are headed with 3-line decorated initials in red ink, the remaining chapters contain blank spaces with visible guide letters, some tearing on the bottom edge of the first leaf, wormholes in the first eight folios, and foxing throughout, otherwise good condition. Modern vellum binding over pasteboard, in very good condition. Dimensions 220 x 140 mm.
At the end of the thirteenth century Hugh of Balma’s Viae Sion lugent digested the abstruse mystical doctrines of Pseudo-Dionysius, long the special purview of highly educated theologians, into a handbook for mystical neophytes. This Italian translation of his text was instrumental in the promotion of the doctrine of Divine Love by the Jesuate order in the fourteenth century. Our manuscript, dated 1442, is evidence of the continued popularity of the text, well suited to the vernacular religious culture so important in late medieval Italy. Intended for personal devotion and to nourish spiritual growth, this manuscript is modest in size, medium (paper rather than parchment), and conservative in script (Gothic rather than humanist).
1. The colophon (f. 80v) of the manuscript reads: Finissce la mistica theologia del divino amore tracta in questo modo da uno venerabile maestro frate dell ordine di certosa (Here ends the Mystica Theologia del Divino Amore written in this style by a venerable maser of the Carthusian Order). A small note attached to the colophon reads “1442 del mese Ottobre” (1442 in the month of October) almost certainly added to the manuscript when it was completed. Certainly copied in Italy, an origin in Tuscany seems likely.
2. Front flyleaf, sticker with the number “133”.
3. London, Sotheby’s, 9 July 1973, lot 36, sold to the Comites Latentes collection, Geneva.
4. Belonged to Sion Segre Amar (1910-2003), who assembled a collection of over three hundred manuscripts in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Comites Latentes (or “hidden friends”), his MS 111 (brown and yellow sticker on the back pastedown reads “SSA – Nasce a guisa di rampollo a pie del vero il dubbio: 111”). Formerly housed at the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Genève, the collection is currently on loan for an extended period of time to the University of Basel (Online Resources).
5. London, Sotheby’s, 1 December 1998, lot 87; private collection.
f. 1-80v, incipit, “Le vie de Sion piagono per che non e chi venga al solenne amore avegnache le predette parole dicesse Ieremia profeta piangendo la presura del popolo suo. … . E poi per uengono all illuminativa , e cosi procedono fino alla unitiva, e cosi a grado a grado l’anima per divina gratia pervenera allo levamento dello affecto amoroso, e meritera diricevere la gloria alla quale tutti ci conduca dio el quale vive e regna in secula seculorum. Amen,” [scribal colophon], Finissce la mistica theologia del divino amore tracta in questo modo da uno venerabile maestro frate dell ordine di certosa [continuing in a smaller script, slightly below the line]1442 del mese d’ottob.
Domenico da Monticchiello completed Le vie de Sion piangono or La mistica theologia del divino amore, sometime before 1367. The work is a translation of Hugh of Balma’s Viae Sion lugent and follows the Latin source closely; edition by Sorio, 1852, using University of Kansas, Spencer Library, MS C66 (Online resources), and Verona, Bibl. Com., MS 824; a census of the surviving manuscripts of this historically important translation is needed. There is a critical edition of the Latin text of the Viae Sion lugent by Ruello and Barbet, 1995, consulting 59 manuscripts. The Viae was first printed in Strasbourg in 1495, where the text is attributed to Bonaventure. This attribution is also found in subsequent editions of Bonaventure’s works: Mayence, 1609; Venice, 1611; Lyon 1647, 1655, 1668; Venice, 1754; and Paris, 1864-1871. The text is first attributed to Hugh of Balma in Dom Th. Loer’s 1534 edition of Denis the Carthusian’s Opuscula, and Bonventure’s authorship was subsequently firmly rejected by the Quarrachi editors.
A second scribe has added chapter headings in red ink throughout the text, albeit idiosyncratically and in several places erroneously, e.g. “Capitulo lvii” (sine titulo) is followed by “Capitulo lx” (ff. 33v-34v) and “Capitulo lxxx” is followed by “Capitulo lxxviiiiii” (ff. 45v-46). After “Capitulo ciiiiii (sic)” there are chapter headings without numbers or tituli, with the exception of the titulus, “Dichiaratione et asolutione di questa sapientia” at f. 74. The ad hoc capitulation of this manuscript, absent in the Latin text and markedly different from Sorio’s edition, an attempt by the scribe to bring paratextual order to the work.
Sometime in the late fifth century, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite composed a series of works on mystical theology, which employed Neo-Platonic vocabulary and thought. In the Pseudo-Dionysius’ most influential work Mystic Theology, the author outlines a negative theology that directs its readers to leave behind all the things of the world, including their thoughts, their intellects, and themselves, so that they might achieve union with God. Originally in Greek, his corpus entered the West through the gift of a manuscript to Louis the Pious in 827, but it was only later in the ninth century that John Eriugena provided a suitable translation for scholars and theologians. John Sarracen completed another translation of the Dionysian corpus in the twelfth century. These two translations formed the ground of mystical thought and theology in the following centuries. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Gallus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure commented exhaustively on the corpus using the scholastic methods of their day.
At the end of the thirteenth century (1272-1297), a Carthusian monk, Hugh of Balma, composed his own treatment of mystic theology, known variously as Mystica Theologia, De Triplici Via (a title taken from Bonaventure’s oeuvre), and Viae Sion Lugent. In it, he argues against any rational and intellective conception of God. In fact, he argues that it is as likely for a layperson to achieve mystical union with God as the most accomplished scholar. Hugh’s treatment of mystical practice focuses primarily upon affective piety and an immediate and instantaneous connection to God achieved through the practice of the three ways, purgative (the soul prepares itself for union with God through the recollection sin, the humiliation of the soul, and prayer), illuminative (the soul allows the rays of grace to illuminate the heart through the anagogical understanding of scripture, especially the Lord’s Prayer), and unitive (the soul submits to the impulses and affect of burning love to unite with God). Throughout his handbook, Hugh mentions that even a layperson (laicus) or commoner (simplex) can participate in unitive practice by remembering his sins or his blessings and repeating verses from the bible frequently.
The Viae Sion Lugent became a popular handbook for mystic theology, surviving in whole or part in over one hundred manuscripts, and in many vernacular translations, including Flemish, German, English, Danish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. The Italian translation, contained in our manuscript, was undertaken by the Jesuate, Domenico da Monticchiello, at the request of the founder of the Jesuati, B. Giovanni Colombini before his death in 1367. The Jesuati were instrumental in promoting the doctrine of Divine Love, particularly as it was expressed in Domenico’s translation (Corrubolo, 2020). Although not well-known today, the povari jesuati were a popular religious order in late medieval Italy, approved by the pope in 1367, just before Colombini’s death. A wealthy merchant, Colombini founded the order with his own fortune, endowing a hospital and two cloisters. The povari jesuati received their name from their frequent cries of the name “Jesu!” before and after their prayers. From their start in Siena, they spread throughout Italy, devoting their lives to prayer, caring for the sick, especially those suffering from the plague, and burying the dead. The order was abolished in 1668.
The popularity of the Christian mystical tradition in the later Middle Ages cannot be understated. The period was “convinced that contemplation was an art, not perhaps an art that human effort could master, because only God can raise the soul to the heights of contemplation, but still an art that sound instruction and useful textbooks could encourage, clarify, and facilitate” (McGinn, 2022, 85-86). The translation of mystical handbooks into the vernacular fulfils their promise of a spirituality and a union with God obtainable by every believer regardless of their education. Our manuscript, copied in 1422, and Kansas, Spencer Research Library, MS C66, copied in 1500 by a Franciscan nun, testify to the enduring influence of the Italian mystical text, Le vie de Sion piangono (Online Resources, “Manuscript of the Month”).
Betsul, Thomas H. “Devotional and Mystical Literature,” in Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, ed. F.A.C. Mantello and A.G. Rigg, Washington, D.C., pp. 694-701.
Bonaventure. Doctoris Seraphici S. Bonaventurae S.R.E Episcopi Cardinalis Opera Omnia, 10 vol., Quaracchi, 1882-1902. (Volume 8 contains Bonaventure’s mystical treatises.)
Bonaventure. Works of St Bonaventure: Writings on the Spiritual Life, intro. F. Edward Coughlin, St Bonaventure, 2006. (includes The Threefold Way)
Clark, Robert L. A. “Spiritual Exercises: The Making of Interior Faith,” in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, Oxford, 2014, pp. 271-286.
Corrubolo, Federico. “Il Divino amore dalla mistica theologia del sec. XIV all pietà romana del Settecento,” in Le vestigia dei gesuati. L’eredità culturale del Colombini e dei suoi seeguaci, ed. Isabella Gagliardi, Florence, 2020, pp. 135-158.
Denis the Carthusian. Doctoris Ecstatici D. Dionysii Cartusiani Opera Omnia in unum corpus digesta ad fidem editionum Coloniensium, 41 vol. in 42, Monstrolii, 1896-1912. (Commentary on Song of Songs found in volume 7.)
Derolez, Albert. The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century, Cambridge, 2003.
Dionysiaca, ed. Philippe Chevalier, 2 vol., Paris, 1937-1950. (The corpus of Latin translations of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius.)
Dondaine, Hyacinthe. Le Corpus Dionysien de l’Univerisité de Paris au XIII. siècle, Paris, 1953.
Eisermann, Falk. “Stimulus Amoris”: Inhalt, lateinische Überlieferung, deutsche Übersetzungen, Rezeption, Tübingen, 2001.
Gagliardi, Isabella. I Pauperes yesuati tra esperienze religiose e conflitti istituzionali, Rome, 2004.
Guinan, Patricia Ann. Carthusian Prayer and Hugh of Balma’s Viae Sion Lugent, San Francisco, 1994.
Hogg, James, ed. The Mystical Tradition and the Carthusians, 14 vol., Salzburg, 1995.
Hugh of Balma. Théologie Mystique, ed. Francis Ruello and Jeanne Barbet, 2 vol., Sources Chrétiennes 408, Paris, 1995.
James of Milan. Stimulus Amoris, Quarrachi, 1905.
McGinn, Bernard. “Mystical handbooks of the late Middle Ages,” Acta Theologica Supplement 33 (2022), pp. 73-88.
Pseudo-Dionysius. The Complete Works, trans. Colm Luibheid, New York, 1987.
Rorem, Paul. Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to their Influence, Oxford, 1993.
“Sion Segre Amar,” Gazette du livre médiéval 43 (2003), pp. 127-8.
Schwengel, Georgius. Propago Sacri Ordinis Cartusiensis per Italiam: British Library London Add. MS 17087, Salzburg, 1982.
Sorio, Bartolomeo, ed. La Teologia Mistica attributa a San Boneventura già volgarizzata prima del 1367 da fratre Domenico da Montechiello Gesuato, Verona, 1852.
Tomistyczny, Przegląd. “Erfurt Carthusian Treatises of the Fifteenth Century on Mystical Theology,” The Annual Review of the Thomistic Institute 25 (2019), pp. 217-40.
Hopkins, Jasper. “Jasper Hopkins.” (Website includes .pdf files of Hopkin’s translation of and introduction to Hugh of Balma’s Viae Sion lugent)
https://www.jasper-hopkins.info/
Overview of Comites Latentes Collection (in German)
https://www.guidle.com/de/veranstaltungen/basel/highlights/comites-latentes--die-handschriftensammlung-von-sion-segre-amar-basel_ANQjR7B
Overview of Comites Latentes Collection (in English)
https://www.hmb.ch/en/news/exhibitions/comites-latentes/
N. Kıvılcım Yavuz, “Manuscript of the Month: Her Book, Written by Her Own Hand” (blog post about University of Kansas, Spencer Research Library, MS C66, Le vie de Sion lugent)
https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/tag/domenico-da-monticchiello-gesuato/
TM 997
