“About which we want to speak now”: Beatrice of Nazareth’s Reason for Writing Uan seuen manieren van heileger minnen

The fact that the medieval Cistercian nun Beatrice of Nazareth is known today as a well-established Middle Dutch female writer is mainly the result of the identification of an anonymous mystical treatise, Uan seuen manieren van heileger minnen (On seven manners of holy love), as a work of Beatrice. The aim of this article is to make a fresh start with this short text. After discussing a number of problematic views that have been put forward by previous scholars, it examines the main features in Uan seuen manieren van heileger minnen that reveal its rationale as a text. This analysis underpins the view of Beatrice as a self-conscious mystical author and a teacher.