The Pseudo-Bonaventura, or Pseudo-Bonaventure is the name given to the authors of a number of medieval devotional works which were believed at the time to be the work of Saint Bonaventure: "It would almost seem as if 'Bonaventura' came to be regarded as a convenient label for a certain type of text, rather than an assertion of authorship".[1] Since it is clear a number of actual authors are involved, the term "Pseudo-Bonaventuran" is often used. Many works now have other attributions of authorship which are generally accepted, but the most famous, the Meditationes de Vita Christi, remains usually described only as a work of the Pseudo-Bonaventura.
Contents |
The most popular and important of these works, was the Meditationes de Vita Christi ("Meditations on the Life of Christ", or The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ), which appears to date from around 1300; like Bonaventure, the author was probably a Franciscan, and the work is addressed to a Poor Clare. Over two hundred manuscript copies survive, including seventeen illuminated ones,[2] and the popularity of the work increased further with early printed editions. A Venetian edition of 1497 is the only known Italian blockbook.[3]
The work's detailed evocations of moments from the Gospels influenced art, and it has been shown to be the source of aspects of the iconography of the fresco cycle of the Life of Christ in the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto. It has also been credited with inspiring the great increase in depictions of the Veil of Veronica from the late 14th century.