One of the major theologians within the medieval Franciscan tradition is Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (d. 1274), who studied and taught at the University of Paris and was the Minister General of the Franciscan Order from 1257 to 1274. In recent times, there has been a tremendous effort to translate and understand his many writings, especially his major theological/spiritual works such as the Itinerarium mentis in Deum, the Breviloquium, the Hexameron, the Major and Minor Life of Saint Francis, and his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. We have numerous other texts that are linked to Bonaventure - including his commentaries on the Gospels of Luke and John - as ten volumes of material constitute his Opera Omnia.

Many Italian and other scholars are now focusing their attention on the works that are not frequently read and studied. A critical edition of a number of these texts has recently been published in Lo Pseduo Bonaventura. Studi, Edizioni e Repertorio dei Testi e dei Manoscritti, ed. Francesco Santi (Opere Perdute e Anonime [secoli III-XV], 8), Firenze 2024. The present volume, Bonaventura Autore Spirituale, correlates with the work of this recently published collection of these Pseudo-Bonaventure's spiritual works. Many of the authors were involved in the production of the Lo Pseudo Bonaventura volume. Bonaventura Autore Spirituale contains papers that were presented at an international conference with Bonaventure's writings at the Pontificia Università Antonianum in Rome (March 3-4, 2023) in celebration of the eight-hundred-year anniversary of the death of Bonaventure in 1274.

This book is composed of fifteen articles, twelve of which are written in Italian and three in English. At the conclusion of each article there is a short abstract in English that summarizes the subject matter of the essays. There are two indexes: one that displays the printed sources and manuscripts of these works of Bonaventure, and the other provides the names of authors mentioned in the essays.

As the short preface to the volume states, the focus of this collection has been not only on the content of these Pseudo-Bonaventure writings, but also on their pedagogical purposes. In other words, the volume shows how Bonaventure - or each of the texts, in light of a tradition of spiritual masters stretching at least from Augustine to Bernard - guides and instructs different categories of recipients. It is also important to note that the studies presented, beyond the considerable advancement to previous knowledge, have also offered a sampling of different disciplinary approaches - from philology to literary and cultural history, and from the performing arts to iconography. These essays are useful for understanding the devotional texts as a complex project that engages the individual and/or the community on multiple levels - sensorial, intellectual, and spiritual.

The central focus of this volume is to show how these devotional/spiritual works were associated with Bonaventure, who had been formally known in the thirteenth century as a theologian. Several articles present general surveys on Bonaventure and the Pseudo-Bonaventure literary tradition, as well as the importance of this legacy (Bert Roest and Daniel Solvi). Other essays focus exclusively on specific pseudo-Bonaventurian texts, which are found in an earlier critical edition in the eighth volume of the Opera Omnia of Bonaventure's works: the Lignum vitae (Holy Flora), De quinque festivitatibus pueri Iesu (Juri Leoni), Soliloquium (Adelaide Ricci), Officium sancte Crucis (M. Cecilia Gaposchkin), Vitis mystica (Andrea Alessandri), De praeparatione ad missam (Fortunato Iozzelli), De sex alis seraphim (Pietro Maranesi), and De doctrina religiosorum (Fabio Mantegazza). Federico De Dominicis focuses his essay on certain texts of the Middle Ages - especially the De mysterio sancte crucis, once attributed to Bonaventure - on the Virgin Mary's presence at the cross in relation to two specific terms: spasmata (spasmatic) and palmata (with palms of her hands open) that are used in these devotional texts. Carla Bino uses several medieval texts to illustrate how Bonaventure presented the passion narrative according to a precise dramaturgical scheme - a "memorial representation of the Passion as an 'immersive theatre' of mimetic identification" (59).

Whether these texts are authentically written by Bonaventure, or whether they are considered "pseudo" or "apocrypha", they nonetheless testify to the themes very familiar to Bonaventure's authentic theological/spiritual works. These themes include the Franciscan approach to poverty and humility - a significant focus on the Infancy and Passion, Death, and Crucifixion of Christ - and devotion to the Virgin Mary (especially in her suffering and her role as the Mother of Mercy). These essays tell us much about how Bonaventure was viewed as a spiritual writer in the later Middle Ages and therefore a must-read for those interested in late medieval Franciscan spirituality and for the spiritual legacy of Bonaventure.

Steven J. McMichael