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Bo o k Re vie w s 281 As for the Collectio Oliviana, we await Olivi’s writings on the papacy, edited and presented by M. Bartoli. Then will come F. Iozzelli’s edition of Olivi’s commentary on the gospel of Luke. All of this is good news. Both volumes presented here witness to Olivi’s merits and importance. The Franciscan Institute DAVID FLOOD, O.F.M. Joan Mueller. Clare’s Letters to Agnes: Texts and Sources. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 2001. ix +269 pages. Readers of Franciscan Studies will recognize the name of Joan Mueller and recall her meticulously documented work on Clare of Assisi and Agnes of Prague in “Agnes of Prague and the Juridical Implications of the Privilege of Poverty” (Franciscan Studies, 58 [2000]: 261-287). In the article, Mueller pursued the relationship of Agnes and Clare around their mutually-held conviction to live without property and their consequent dialogue with papal officials. Mueller focused her research on “the logjam that developed between Agnes of Prague’s desire to live ‘without possessions’ according to the form of life given to Clare and her sisters by Francis himself, and the papacy’s desire to organize various groups of penitential women under a generic form of life appropriate for all groups of penitential women” (263). Mueller’s study of the juridical documents of the Premysl family in connection with the thirteenth-century papacy also served to unearth new evidence in the Clare of Assisi story. Mueller pointed out that The Legend o f Agnes o f Prague claims that Clare sent a copy of her Form o f Life, confirmed by Pope Innocent IV, to Agnes. According to the Legend, Agnes had Clare’s Rule confirmed for her monastery by Pope Alexander IV (284). Students of Clare of Assisi and Agnes of Prague respect Mueller’s reliance on sources until this time generally inaccessible to Englishspeaking world, for the critical edition of the Legend of Saint Agnes and essential research on Agnes appears in the Czech language. The hope that Mueller would extend the range of her studies is realized in her new book, Clare’s Letters to Agnes: Texts and Sources. One of the major contributions of Mueller’s book is its expansion and review of the latest scholarship on Agnes of Prague. No such comprehensive summary of recent studies on Agnes can be found in the English-speaking world. 282 Bo o k Review s Once again, Mueller’s sources include both recent Czech and European sources. Clare’s Letters to Agnes: Texts and Sources is simultaneously about Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, and Agnes of Rome and how their lives and stories are intertwined. These are the major players in the scholarship confronting contemporary readers who study Clare of Assisi’s Letters as a source of early Franciscan spirituality, Agnes of Prague as a medieval women of influence who was caught by the vision of Francis and his friars minor, or the ancient Christian legend of Agnes of Rome, popularly known for choosing martyrdom as the way to preserve her dedication to virginity. In the Introduction to Clare’s Letters to Agnes, Joan Mueller presents the manuscript tradition of Clare’s four letters, brief biographies to illustrate the inter-relatedness of Clare and Agnes of Prague, and her method of study which seeks to examine the letters in Clare’s historical and cultural context. Part One of Mueller’s book provides the Latin texts of Clare’s four letters, a new English translation, and historical and philological information as a guide for reading and interpretation. The extensive footnotes serve as an extremely helpful commentary to establish the historical background of Agnes of Prague, her royal family, and her place in the history of Bohemia. Such an approach gives insight to read the letters accurately on their own terms and in their own context. Such a study led Mueller to identify “three substantial sources” for Clare’s letters; she treats each of these sources in separate essays in the next part of the book. Part Two begins with an essay elucidating “The Legend of Saint Agnes of Rome as Source.” Mueller argues that...

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