abstract: In 1999, Geneviève Hasenohr announced the discovery of a fragment of Marguerite Porete's Mirouer des Simples Ames, a work condemned by the Church at the University of Paris in 1310, hidden in a manuscript at the Bibliothèque municipale in Valenciennes. The fragment corresponds with roughly two chapters in the only extant French version of the manuscript (Chantilly, Musée Condé MS F XIV 26), and when compared with other editions of the Mirouer, it appears to be composed in what might have been Marguerite Porete's native dialect. The discovery changed scholars' perceptions of the weight of the various versions and translations - the Chantilly manuscript had been used previously to settle any questions of discrepancy, but now it appears that the Continental Latin and Middle English translations should be the arbiters. This discovery has elevated the Middle English editions, and has made the question of the translator's identity - he is known only by his initials M.N. - and background more imperative to an understanding of why a work with such a dubious history would be translated and harbored by English Carthusians in the century that followed its condemnation. The only candidate suggested for translator of the Mirouer has been Michael Northburgh (d. 1361), the Bishop of London and co-founder of the London Charterhouse, where two of the three remaining copies of the translation were once owned, but the language of the text and Northburgh's own position and interests do not fit this suggestion. My argument is that the content of the book, the method of its translation, its selection as a work for a Latin-illiterate audience, all fit within the interests of a circle of writers based in Yorkshire at the end of the fourteenth century. By beginning among the Yorkshire circle, and widening the search to include writers with a non-traditional contemplative audience, one that exists outside of the cloister - writers like Walter Hilton, the anonymous authors of the Cloud of Unknowing and the Chastising of God's Children, and Nicholas Love - we may have a better chance of locating and understanding the motives of the Middle English translator of the Mirouer. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2011

<p>This dissertation argues that the 'realist' ontology implicit in Renaissance allegory is both Aristotelian and neoplatonic, stemming from the need to talk about transcendence in material terms in order to make it comprehensible to fallen human intelligence. At the same time dramatists at the turn of the seventeenth century undermine 'realism' altogether, contributing to the emergence of a new meaning of 'realism' as mimesis, and with it a materialism without immanent forms. My theoretical framework is provided by Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics and Categories rather than his Poetics, because these provide a better way of translating the concerns of postmodern critics back into premodern terms. I thus avoid reducing the religious culture of premodernity to 'ideology' or 'power' and show how premodern religion can be taken seriously as a critique of secular modernity. My conclusion from readings of Aristotle, Augustine, Hooker, Perkins, Spenser, Shakespeare, Nashe, Jonson and Tourneur is that Hell is conflated with History during the transition to modernity, that sin is revalorized as individualism, and that the translatability of terms argues for the continuing need for a concept of 'substance' in this post-Aristotelian age. I end with a reading of The Cloud of Unknowing, an anonymous contemplative work from the fourteenth century that was still being read in the sixteenth century, which offers an alternative model of the sovereign individual, and helps me to argue against the view that philosophical idealism is inherently totalitarian.</p> / Dissertation

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Paulo Coelho Faradji Chadan.pdf: 375540 bytes, checksum: ab7fc5b38b7db201759793336d7aa00a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-09-27 / The dissertation wich the reader has in its hands concerns my master dissertation about the contemplation in the Cloud of Unknowing. The Cloud of Unknowing belongs to the late medieval period (XIV century), and was probably written by a cartusian monk, as a method of teaching a young man, probably around twenty-four years old, about the contemplative life. In his writing, the author compares the contemplative life to two important biblical figures. First he compares it to Mary, that having received Jesus in her house, listens to him patiently, unlike Martha, her sister, that goes about preparing his supper. Next the author compares contemplative life, to Moses, wich with a lot of effort, climbs to the top of the mountain and sees a great cloud. Mary´s passage reports to the gospel according to Luque chapter 10, verse 38-42. Moses passage belongs to the book of Exodus, chapter 24. Mary is compared to her sister Martha. The first one represents the contemplative life, while the second one represents an active life. Moses is compared to Aaron, the last one representing a person wich with little effort and by divine grace contemplates the lord, while the first one is only capable of the same with a lot of effort. We approach the degrees of ascension to the contemplative life: the purgative path; the progressive and the contemplative one. The first degree refers to the active life while the second one refers to the active and contemplative lifes. In its turn the third level relates only to the contemplative life. The active life, being the path lived according the works of mercy and charity, as well as contemplation. Is the search of the spirit becoming closer to God through silence, solitude and loving desire / O trabalho que o leitor tem em mãos, trata da minha dissertação de mestrado acerca do tema da contemplação na Nuvem do Não-Saber. A Nuvem do Não-Saber é uma obra que data do medievo tardio (séc. XIV), tendo sido escrita provavelmente por um monge cartuxo, como modo de ensinar a um jovem em torno de vinte e quatro anos, acerca da vida contemplativa. Na obra, o autor compara a vida contemplativa a duas importantes personagens bíblicas: em primeiro lugar, compara-a a Maria, que tendo recebido Jesus em sua casa, senta-se a fim de, paciente e atenciosamente, ouvi-lo, diferentemente de Marta (sua irmã), que se apressa em preparar-lhe a refeição. Em segundo lugar, mas tão importante quanto, compara a vida contemplativa a Moisés que, com muito esforço, sobe ao cume do monte e vê ali, uma grande nuvem. A passagem de Maria reporta-se ao Evangelho de S. Lucas, no capitulo 10, versos 38- 42, já a passagem de Moisés reporta-se ao livro do Êxodo, no capítulo 24. Maria é contraposta a sua irmã Marta. Esta, representando a vida ativa, e aquela, a vida contemplativa. Já Moisés é contraposto a Aarão. Este, representando a pessoa que, sem muitos esforços e por divina graça, chega à perfeita contemplação assim que o quer, e aquele, só o consegue depois de muitos esforços. Abordamos então, os três graus de ascensão à vida contemplativa: a via purgativa, a via progressiva e a via contemplativa ou apofática. O primeiro grau, respectivo à vida ativa, e o terceiro grau, respectivo à vida contemplativa, sendo o segundo grau, intermediário (partícipe) tanto da vida ativa quanto da vida contemplativa. A vida ativa, sendo a vida vivida segundo as obras corporais de misericórdia e caridade e a vida contemplativa, sendo a busca do espírito em unir-se a Deus, por meio do silêncio, da solidão e do desejo amoroso