The Writings of Clare of Assisi: Letters, Form of Life, Testament and Blessing

Clare of Assisi’s Lette rs to Agnes of Prague:Testaments of Fidelity

ClArE Of ASSISI’S lETTErS TO AgNES Of PrAguE: TESTAMENTS Of fIdElITy INgrId PETErSON I. ESTAblIShINg ThE TExT Manuscripts In 1982 the name of Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) emerged onto the front pages of Franciscan scholarship in the English-speaking world with the publication of Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, edited and translated by Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius Brady in the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality series.1 I. Omaechevarria’s 1970 Escritos de Santa Clara y Documentos Complentarios collected together and published the Latin texts, as well as a Spanish translation of Clare’s four Letters to Agnes of Prague, a Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges, the Form of Life, Testament, and Blessing.2 In 1976 Giovanni Boccali prepared a critical edition of the Latin texts which included the writings of both Francis and Clare, Textus opusculorum S. Francisci et S. Clarae Assisiensium.3 In 1953 at the time of the seventh centenary of Clare’s death, Damien Vorreux’s French translation of Clare’s writings 1 Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, ed. and trans. Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius Brady (New York: Paulist Press, 1982). 2 I. Omaechevarria, Escritos de Santa Clara y documentos contemporáneos (Madrid, 1970). 3 Giovanni Boccali,Textus opusculorum S. Francisci et S. Clarae Assisiensium (Assisi: S. Maria de Angeli, 1976). The Writings of Clare of Assisi 20 were published as Sainte Claire d’Assise; Sa Vie par Thomas de Celano; Ses Écrits.4 In 1985, Marie-France Becker, Jean François Godet, and Thaddée Matura edited Claire d’Assise: Écrits which interfaced the Latin texts with the French translations as well as providing an extensive introduction , a full complement of scholarly apparatus, and an index to assist in studying Clare’s writings.5 This volume followed the format of the series, Sources Chrétiennes, a collection of Greek and Latin Christian texts from the patristic and medieval periods. Volume 325 contains Clare’s Four Letters to Agnes of Prague, “Form of Life,” “Testament” and “Blessing.” Soon other language groups produced similar editions of translations of Clare’s writings and essential related texts complete with a variety of appended material. To date, no critical edition of the Latin texts of the body of Clare’s writings has been produced. While the source texts for Claire d’Assise: Écrits are not from critical editions, the original Latin texts were critically established in that they were based on the most recent manuscript research. The writings of Francis translated from Kajetan Esser’s text had previously been published in 1981 in this same series as volume 285.6 Today Clare of Assisi continues to remain in the foreground of the Franciscan world stage. Editions and Translations Until the beginning of the twentieth century, only the Bohemian version of the letters by J. Plachy, printed in 1566 and the Latin text published in 1668 of the Acta Sanctorum were known.7 In addition, in 1491 Nicholas Glassberger made a copy of the Latin text of the First Letter which appears in the manuscript, Cronica XXIV Generalium Or4 Écrits 15, n. 15, cites Damien Vorreux, in Sainte Claire d’Assise; Sa Vie par Thomas de Celano; Ses Écrits (Paris: Editiones Franciscaines, 1953). Later he published Sainte Claired’Assise:documents,biographie,écrits,proces,etbulledecanonisation,textesdechroniquers , textes legislatifs et tables (Paris: Éditions Franciscaines, 1983). 5 Marie-France Becker, Jean François Godet, and Thaddée Matura eds., Claire d’Assise: Écrits, Sources Crétiennes (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1985). 6 Écrits 10, n. 1, cites Écrits Francois d’Assise, Sources Crétiennes 285, (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1985). 7 Écrits 16, n. 17, cites these sources: J. Plachy, Žiwot bl. Anyžky (W. Praze v Vurbana Goliásse, 1666) and Acta Sanctorum, (Antwerpen: Martii I, 1688), 506-08. The Writings of Clare of Assisi 21 dinis Fratrum Minorum.8 In more than four centuries since the publication of the Latin edition of the letters, translations have appeared by language groups in both the Eastern and Western worlds. In 1915 Walter Seton published a Middle German version of the four letters following a fourteenth-century manuscript found at Bamberg.9 His work led him to conclude that the German text was not a translation of the Latin text of Clare’s first letter, but a re-translation of a German text. This conclusion led him to search for the base text in...