Geographies of Orthodoxy: mapping the English-Pseudo-Bonaventuran Lives of Christ, c. 1350-1550

《正统地理学》提供了一种英国虔诚现象和情感文学传统的新描述，通常被现代评论家描述为“伪博纳文图尔”。与这个词相关的文本呈现了一个引人注目的英语模式，这是宗教改革前对基督的描述，最终源于拉丁语，《基督的沉思》。英语文本和手稿共同构成了一个作品的语料库，英国观众（也许是被发现一种实用的救赎方法的可能性所吸引）被邀请想象自己在描述福音事件时的情感呈现。众所周知，在宗教改革前，人们对这种方言圣经版本的贪婪胃口也出现在与视觉和表演艺术相关的材料中。例如，当代对戏剧表演的描述，记录了骚乱和歇斯底里的场景，至少提供了一种对类似的圣经和基督论表现的回应。因此，人们可能会合理地问，伪博纳文图尔文本的早期读者和听众对基督被折磨和被钉十字架的书面描述有何反应。这是对现存的非凡的英国虔诚传统的文本和手稿的第一次全面研究，现在可以检索和绘制“伪博纳文图尔”的宗教兴趣和阅读实践，否则将完全丢失。1350-1550年期间，宗教争议和不确定性的例子层出不穷，尤其是与罗拉迪派和宗教改革有关的例子。伪博纳文图尔的作品可以被视为提供了一个具有历史意义的语料库，有时是因为它们在关于威克里夫翻译计划的辩论中所起的作用，或者是通过审查和其他形式对宗教异端的反应，真实的或想象的。这样的考虑清楚地告知了现代对尼古拉斯·洛夫的《耶稣基督的幸福生活之镜》的批判性讨论，这是一部伪波纳文图尔文本，除了威克里夫圣经版本之外，它可能有理由作为现在已知的最常被复制的中世纪英语散文宗教文本而受到关注。《爱之镜》作为“主流”宗教正统文本的成功归功于它的机构赞助，作为一种安全实用的手段来挫败罗拉德派的异端邪说，这种方法意味着在《爱之镜》的制作、传播和阅读中，对待和目的都是相当一致的。这种批判性的判断有时会延伸到其他伪博纳文图尔的作品，但通常是基于对语料库作为一个整体的真实程度和法典证据的无知，这些证据表明了一个更复杂的传播和接受模式。《正教地理》建议通过最新的电子手段，对以英语为母语的伪博纳文图尔传统的全部残余材料进行检查，并使其公开可及。属于这一传统的手工书在这一时期被复制、拥有和阅读，以前从未被系统地分析过，然而，这些手工书为理解人们的愿望和动机提供了一个关键的手段，这些人创造并满足了对阅读材料的明显需求，这些材料包含了对基督生活的情感和政治表现。相关的现存手稿杂记和选集也反映了不止一代图书生产者、读者和所有者的兴趣和身份。对这些书作为人工制品的复杂而细致的认识，无疑会使我们对宗教改革前所谓同质的宗教和文学传统的理解复杂化。通过捕捉其动态和千变万化的本质，《东正教地理》为英国宗教改革前的宗教实践和文本提供了一个新的描述机会。

Geographies of Orthodoxy offers a new account of an English devotional phenomenon and affective literary tradition usually characterised as 'pseudo-Bonaventuran' by modern commentators. Texts associated with the term present a striking English model for pre-Reformation representations of Christ, ultimately derived from a Latin source, the Meditationes Vitae Christi The anglophone texts and manuscripts together comprise a corpus of writings where English audiences (attracted, perhaps, by the possibility of discovering a practical means of salvation) are invited to imagine themselves emotionally present at the Gospel events described. It is well known that the voracious pre-Reformation appetite for such vernacular biblical versions is also found in material associated with the visual and performing arts. Contemporary accounts of dramatic performances, for example, record scenes of riot and hysteria that offer at least one response to similar such biblical and Christological representations. One might therefore legitimately ask how early readers and hearers of pseudo-Bonaventuran texts responded to written depictions of Christ's torture and crucifixion. This first comprehensive study of the surviving texts and manuscripts of an extraordinary English devotional tradition will now enable the retrieval and mapping of 'pseudo-Bonaventuran' religious interests and reading practices that would otherwise be completely lost. The 1350-1550 period is marked by many different examples of religious controversy and uncertainty, especially those associated with 'Lollardy' and 'the Reformation'. Pseudo-Bonaventuran writings can be seen as offering an historically significant corpus, sometimes because of their role in the debates over Wycliffite translation programmes, or through forms of censorship and other responses to religious heterodoxy, real or imagined. Such considerations have clearly informed modern critical discussion of Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, a pseudo-Bonaventuran text that might justifiably claim attention as the most commonly-copied Middle English prose religious text now known, apart from the Wycliffite bible versions themselves. The success of Love's Mirror as a 'mainstream' religiously orthodox text has been attributed to its institutional sponsorship as a safe and practical means to frustrate the Lollard heresy, an approach that implies a considerable homogeneity of treatment and purpose in the Mirror's production, dissemination and reading. That critical judgement is sometimes extended to other pseudo-Bonaventuran writings, but is usually based on ignorance of both the real extent of the corpus as a whole and the codicological evidence suggesting a much more complex transmission and reception pattern. Geographies of Orthodoxy proposes to examine and make openly accessible through the latest electronic means the entire material remains of the anglophone pseudo-Bonaventuran tradition. The handmade books belonging to this tradition that were copied, owned and read in the period have never before been systematically analysed, yet these provide a key means for understanding the aspirations and motives of the people who created and fulfilled the obvious demand for reading material containing such emotional and politicised representations of Christ's life. The relevant extant manuscript miscellanies and anthologies also reflect the interests and identities of more than one generation of book producers, readers and owners. A sophisticated and detailed awareness of such books as artefacts will undoubtedly complicate our understanding of a supposedly homogenous pre-Reformation devotional and literary tradition. By capturing its dynamic and protean nature, Geographies of Orthodoxy offers the opportunity for a new account of English pre-Reformation religious practices and textuality.