SER LAPO MAZZEI WRITES TO MESSER
FRANCESCO DATINI ABOUT BEATA BRIGIDA
he Merchant of Prato, Messer Francesco Datini,
kept every scrap of paper. Today they are Prato's Archives,
still kept in his merchant palace in the city's centre.
Among them are letters written by his great friend, Ser Lapo Mazzei,
the lawyer for the hospital, Santa Maria Nuova, in Florence,
a hospital founded by Beatrice Portinari's father. Dante
Alighieri had allegorized his love for the rich
banker's daughter, into that for the celestial Beatrice of
the Commedia.
In one of these letters, Ser Lapo Mazzei, discusses St Birgitta of Sweden at great length and with the greatest enthusiasm.
He explains that he writes this letter at hand, which I have seen, in the third hour of the night, in his study in Florence, 13 November 1395, to tell his colleague about the Paradiso monastery, for which Antonio Alberti has given all his property as its endowment, and about other such monasteries being founded throughout the length and breadth of Europe. He calls the saint, 'Santa Brisida', especially stressing her prophecies and her other writings in the Revelationes, speaking of her as 'quello ambassadore che Christo ci manda'.
He adds that she can particularly comfort Datini's wife as she also had been married and even had had a large family.
He continues in great detail about her writings concerning her Order and her stipulations concerning its monks and nuns, as a New Vine for Christ, all of which statements were dictated to her by an Angel or Christ or the Virgin, then edited by a bishop.
That bishop, whom Lapo Mazzei says he
has met, would be Alfonso of
Jaén, Birgitta's confessor, who was likewise confessor to
St Catherine
of Siena, following Birgitta's death. The letter mentions,
too, the Pisan nun, Clara
Gambacorta, from a family with far-flung Mediterranean
connections, to whom Alfonso de Jaén had given the vita
of St Birgitta.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archivio di Stato.
Palazzo Datini, via ser Lapo Mazzei, 41, Prato, 1096. Letters
from Lapo Mazzei to Francesco Datini, Letter XCII.
Cesare
Guasti. Lettere di un Notaro e un Mercante del Secolo XIV.
Florence: Le Monnier, 1880. I. 118-193.
Iris Origo.
The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1957. P. 217. Republished by Penguin
Paperbacks.
Indices to Umiltà
Website's Essays on Julian:
Preface
Influences
on Julian
Her Self
Her
Contemporaries
Her Manuscript
Texts ♫ with recorded readings of them
About Her
Manuscript Texts
After
Julian, Her Editors
Julian in our
Day
Publications related to Julian:
Saint Bride and Her Book: Birgitta of Sweden's Revelations Translated from Latin and Middle English with Introduction, Notes and Interpretative Essay. Focus Library of Medieval Women. Series Editor, Jane Chance. xv + 164 pp. Revised, republished, Boydell and Brewer, 1997. Republished, Boydell and Brewer, 2000. ISBN 0-941051-18-8
To see an example of a
page inside with parallel text in Middle English and Modern
English, variants and explanatory notes, click here. Index to this book at http://www.umilta.net/julsismelindex.html
Julian of
Norwich. Showing of Love: Extant Texts and Translation. Edited.
Sister Anna Maria Reynolds, C.P. and Julia Bolton Holloway.
Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo (Click
on British flag, enter 'Julian of Norwich' in search
box), 2001. Biblioteche e Archivi
8. XIV + 848 pp. ISBN 88-8450-095-8.
To see inside this book, where God's words are
in red, Julian's in black, her
editor's in grey, click here.
Julian of
Norwich. Showing of Love. Translated, Julia Bolton
Holloway. Collegeville:
Liturgical Press;
London; Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003. Amazon
ISBN 0-8146-5169-0/ ISBN 023252503X. xxxiv + 133 pp. Index.
To view sample copies, actual
size, click here.
'Colections'
by an English Nun in Exile: Bibliothèque Mazarine 1202.
Ed. Julia Bolton Holloway, Hermit of the Holy Family. Analecta
Cartusiana 119:26. Eds. James Hogg, Alain Girard, Daniel Le
Blévec. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Salzburg, 2006.
Anchoress and Cardinal: Julian of
Norwich and Adam Easton OSB. Analecta Cartusiana 35:20 Spiritualität
Heute und Gestern. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und
Amerikanistik Universität Salzburg, 2008. ISBN
978-3-902649-01-0. ix + 399 pp. Index. Plates.
Teresa Morris. Julian of Norwich: A
Comprehensive Bibliography and Handbook. Preface,
Julia Bolton Holloway. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010.
x + 310 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-3678-7; ISBN-10:
0-7734-3678-2. Maps. Index.
Fr Brendan
Pelphrey. Lo, How I Love Thee: Divine Love in Julian
of Norwich. Ed. Julia Bolton Holloway. Amazon,
2013. ISBN 978-1470198299
Julian among
the Books: Julian of Norwich's Theological Library.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2016. xxi + 328 pp. VII Plates, 59
Figures. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8894-X, ISBN (13)
978-1-4438-8894-3.
Mary's Dowry; An Anthology of
Pilgrim and Contemplative Writings/ La Dote di
Maria:Antologie di
Testi di Pellegrine e Contemplativi.
Traduzione di Gabriella Del Lungo
Camiciotto. Testo a fronte, inglese/italiano. Analecta
Cartusiana 35:21 Spiritualität Heute und Gestern.
Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Salzburg, 2017. ISBN 978-3-903185-07-4. ix
+ 484 pp.
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JULIAN OF NORWICH, HER SHOWING OF LOVE
AND ITS CONTEXTS ©1997-2024 JULIA
BOLTON HOLLOWAY || JULIAN OF NORWICH || SHOWING OF
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