Inventio meditativa
The Rhetoric and Hermeneutics of Meditation in Hugh of Saint-Victor, Guigo II, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio
By (author) Rafael Simian
A new conceptual framework for late-medieval meditation and the Christian religion in the works of Hugh of Saint-Victor, Guigo II, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.
The present volume develops a new conceptual perspective on late-medieval meditation, particularly in Hugh of Saint-Victor, Guigo II, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. For the most part, modern commentaries on the subject have relegated rhetoric to the margins of attention, if not to complete silence. In contrast, this book contends that these writers arrived at their distinctive conceptions of meditation by drawing from the Ciceronian rhetorical tradition. They did so by deepening earlier rhetorical treatments of inventio while adapting them to the Christian life. The examination of this topic is divided into three principal and related aspects. First, meditation is studied as a rhetorical notion for a specific kind of mnemonic, rational, and affective exercise. Second, that notion is used to shed light on meditation as a compositional textual practice whose outcomes bear striking analogy to what Umberto Eco called the ‘open works’ of the Western avant-garde. Finally, meditation emerges as a form of literary reception required for approaching and construing certain works. In exploring each of these aspects, the study shows that rhetoric radically informs, not only Hugh’s, Guigo’s, and Bonaventure’s engagement with meditation, but also their views on salvation history, monastic life, divine revelation, scientific learning, and biblical hermeneutics. Thus, despite the omission or relative insignificance of the ars bene dicendi in most modern investigations, it is argued that rhetoric lies at the core of these authors’ entire religious outlook. In this way, the present volume aims to contribute to a better understanding of these medieval figures by filling an important gap in the scholarly literature.
- By (author) Rafael Simian
Other Titles in this Series
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Its Manuscripts, Texts, and Tables
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My God, my God why have you abandoned me
The experience of God's withdrawal in late antique exegesis, Christology and ascetic literature
Volume 43
Analogical Identities
The Creation of the Christian Self: Volume 2: Self-catholicization, Meta-narcissism, and Christian Theology
Volume 57
Seeking the Face of God
The Reception of Augustine in the Mystical Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St Thierry
Volume 11
‘Universal Prayer’ in the Ancient Latin Liturgies. Patristic Evidence and Liturgical Texts
Volume 56
Friendship as Ecclesial Binding
A Reading of St. Augustine's Theology of Friendship from his In Iohannis Euangelium Tractatus
Volume 48
Analogical Identities
The Creation of the Christian Self: Beyond Spirituality and Mysticism in the Patristic Era
Volume 28
‘The Letter Killeth’
Redeeming Time in Augustine's Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
Volume 51
Christian Topography of Early Islamic Jerusalem
The Evidence of Willibald of Eichstatt (700-787 CE)
Volume 2
Through the Bone and Marrow
Re-examining Theological Encounters with Dance in Medieval Europe
Volume 45
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