Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism in Honor of Professor Valerie M. Lagorio ed. by Anne Clark Bartlett, Thomas Bestul, Janet Goebel, and William F. Pollard (review)

REVIEWS A complete list oftextual variants is followed by 105 pages ofexplana­ tory notes, in which the editor displays both a broad erudition and spe­ cific mastery ofthese poems and the commentary they have engendered. A full and painstakingly organized glossary and a list of proper names conclude the volume. This work is generously and attractively produced and printed, durably bound, and inexpensive for a text ofits quality and (relatively) limited audience. Not surprisingly, it bears the Committee on Scholarly Editions seal of approval. Professor Am's edition of these understudied poems by Charles d'Orleans provides a great service to students of late medieval literature and culture, and also sets a standard of quality for editors and publishing houses, one of which the MARTS series ought to be proud. MICHAEL G. HANLY Washington State University ANNE CLARK BARTLETT with THOMAS BESTUL, JANET GOEBEL, and WILLIAM F. POLLARD, eds. Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism in Honor of Professor Valerie M. Lagorio, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995. Pp. xiv, 235. $71.00. It is understandable that the editors wanted to honor Valerie Lagorio with a festschrift devoted to medieval mysticism. Her phenomenal en­ ergy and tenacity ofpurpose gave that subject a new, high academic pro­ file. But it is perhaps a pity to have called this volume Vox Mystica, since the essays received, while they relate to medieval devotion, do not by any means all deal directly with mysticism; and the editorial framework ofheadings-method, practice, communities, and texts-under which the papers are arranged does nothing to illuminate them either. It might have been better to allow the offerings by scholars in the field of medieval religious writing to speak for themselves, and pay more at­ tention to mundane editorial duties: ensuring that references are con­ sistently given, sentences syntactically coherent, and words clearly spelled. But would "imagistic and religious patters [sic} associated with mystical encounter" (p. 25) then have been relinquished? Some ofthe essays are indeed concerned with contemplative matters. Two give accounts of aspects of Augustinian thought transmitted and 213 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER modified in the medieval period that enrich understanding of mystical texts. Frank Tobin's elegant account of Augustine's investigations of vi­ sions in "Medieval Thought on Visions and Its Resonance in Mechtild von Magdeburg's Flowing Light of the Godhead" illuminates more than the particular text on which he concentrates. In the context of a com­ plex Augustinian tradition of response to music, Robert Boenig throws new light on Rolle's use of the theme of Canor. He suggests a subtle in­ terplay in Rolle's writing between philosophical ideas, metaphor, and a literal musical context in which the delights of ars nova were challeng­ ing the austerities of plain song. Music's role in structuring spiritual ex­ perience at many levels is further demonstrated by GertrudJaron Lewis in her investigation of the role of music and dancing in the spiritual lives of fourteenth-century, German-speaking, Dominican women liv­ ing in community. Contemporary accounts reveal not only the demands of singing the office in choir, but the way in which music penetrated contemplative experience: the nuns heard angels singing (Margery Kempe would have understood that) or themselves danced and sang for joy, even whirling round the altar like spinning tops. Mary Giles ex­ amines, thought-provokingly, a related phenomenon, the enacted rap­ tures of Sor Maria of Santo Domingo (her use of the term "dramatic con­ templation" begs many questions), by relating it to modern "holy theatre" techniques. Rosemary Drage Hale sets out promisingly to ex­ amine the relationship between the outward physical senses and beliefs about the mystical sensorium of the soul but, sidestepping into fash­ ionable questions about culturally constructed gender differences, loses direction in an awareness of a "hermeneutic quicksand of ethnocentric methodologies and a tangle and ahistorical interpretations [sic}" (p. 11). Two papers deal directly with texts. Ritamary Bradley, with customary lucidity, shows how the Latin Vita of Beatrice of Nazareth imposes an antifeminist stereotype on the emphasis of her contemplative spiritual­ ity, thus distorting her own personal vernacular account, The Seven Experiences ofLoving. Stephen Hayes edits a delightful Middle English meditation on the Annunciation...