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Mark1124
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In True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort mentioned a book by Jean Gerson on the Magnificat. Does anyone know if that book has been translated into English, and if so where I can find it?
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Mintaka
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Some of Gerson’s works are available in a volume of the “Classics of Western Spirituality” series. He was an influential writer on mystical theology. I like what it says his definition was of mystical theology: “cognitio experimentalis Dei” – experiential knowledge of God.
He also defended Joan of Arc’s visions during her lifetime, in a work called “On the Maid of Orleans”. (So did Christine de Pizan, the famous poet.)
But I don’t know what his book on the Magnificat is called. There’s a footnote referring to a work by him called “Collectorium super Magnificat”, though that isn’t in the collection above. It’s actually famous in the early music world as containing the first known printed music (as opposed to written out). (Gerson’s name was “Jean Charlier de Gerson”, and the music people seem to refer to him as “Charlier de Gerson” instead of “Jean Gerson” or “Jean de Gerson”.)
It’s online in Latin, from pictures of the manuscript at this library in Darmstadt.
There’s a biography of the guy by James Connolly; it’s called John Gerson: Reformer and Mystic.
He also defended Joan of Arc’s visions during her lifetime, in a work called “On the Maid of Orleans”. (So did Christine de Pizan, the famous poet.)
But I don’t know what his book on the Magnificat is called. There’s a footnote referring to a work by him called “Collectorium super Magnificat”, though that isn’t in the collection above. It’s actually famous in the early music world as containing the first known printed music (as opposed to written out). (Gerson’s name was “Jean Charlier de Gerson”, and the music people seem to refer to him as “Charlier de Gerson” instead of “Jean Gerson” or “Jean de Gerson”.)
It’s online in Latin, from pictures of the manuscript at this library in Darmstadt.
There’s a biography of the guy by James Connolly; it’s called John Gerson: Reformer and Mystic.
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Mintaka
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Okay, it seems that Collectorium super Magnificat is exactly the book that was meant. And it is a book – the longest work that Gerson wrote. He started it in January 1427 and finished April 4, 1428.
It seems to have been translated into French as part of volume 8 of his Oeuvres Completes (Complete Works), edited by somebody named Glorieux. So you might get some joy out of that.
Okay… it seems that the Magnificat book (like The Imitation of Christ, which a lot of medieval people thought had been written by Gerson) includes dialogues between the Master and the Disciple which teach the info. These apparently contain a fairly gripping storyline, such that some scholars seem to think it’s halfway to being a medieval play or novel. He also adds in “books within a book”, inserting treatises on “The Song of the Heart”, “The Name of God”, and “The Mind of the Heart, or, On the Dining Room of the Heart”. Pretty interesting stuff – obviously he wanted to make students and other readers get very interested in his Marian book by using all these literary devices.
Interesting bit – Gerson is one of the few writers who calls Mary “Mother of the Eucharist”. So obviously he’s a friend of those Ann Arbor Dominicans…
It seems to have been translated into French as part of volume 8 of his Oeuvres Completes (Complete Works), edited by somebody named Glorieux. So you might get some joy out of that.
Okay… it seems that the Magnificat book (like The Imitation of Christ, which a lot of medieval people thought had been written by Gerson) includes dialogues between the Master and the Disciple which teach the info. These apparently contain a fairly gripping storyline, such that some scholars seem to think it’s halfway to being a medieval play or novel. He also adds in “books within a book”, inserting treatises on “The Song of the Heart”, “The Name of God”, and “The Mind of the Heart, or, On the Dining Room of the Heart”. Pretty interesting stuff – obviously he wanted to make students and other readers get very interested in his Marian book by using all these literary devices.
Interesting bit – Gerson is one of the few writers who calls Mary “Mother of the Eucharist”. So obviously he’s a friend of those Ann Arbor Dominicans…
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