Pseudo-Bonaventura

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 Vitae Christi, remains usually described only as a work of the Pseudo-Bonaventura.

Other works

• Biblia pauperum ("Poor Man's Bible" - a title only given in the 20th century) a short typological version of the Bible, also extremely popular, and often illustrated. There were different versions of this, the original perhaps by the Dominican Nicholas of Hanapis.
• Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis by Conrad of Saxony
• Speculum Disciplinæ, Epistola ad Quendam Novitium and Centiloquium, all probably by Bonanventura's secretary, Bernard of Besse
• Legend of Saint Clare
• Theologia Mystica, probably by Henry Balme.
• Philomena, a poem now attributed to John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1279-1292.

References

•  "St. Bonaventure". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.  (Penultimate paragraph.)

Further reading

• Lawrence F. Hundersmarck: The Use of Imagination, Emotion, and the Will in a Medieval Classic: The Meditaciones Vite Christi. In: Logos 6,2 (2003), S. 46-62
• Sarah McNamer: Further evidence for the date of the Pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitæ Christi. In: Franciscan Studies, Bd. 10, Jg. 28 (1990), S. 235-261