Ludolph of Saxony - The Life of Jesus Christ: Part One, Volume 1, Chapters 1–40 (Cistercian Studies)

This translationthe first into Englishof The Life of Jesus Christ by Ludolph of Saxony will be welcomed both by scholars in various fields and by practicing Christians. It is at the same time an encyclopedia of biblical, patristic, and medieval learning and a compendium of late medieval spirituality, stressing the importance of meditation in the life of individual believers. It draws on an astonishing number of sources and sheds light on many aspects of the doctrinal and institutional history of the Church down to the fourteenth century.

Giles Constable
Professor Emeritus
Princeton University

Milton T. Walsh has taken on a Herculean task of translating The Life of Christ by the fourteenth-century Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony. He has more than risen to the challenge! Ludolphs text was one of the most widely spread and influential treatments of the theme in the later Middle Ages and has, until now, been available only in an insufficient late nineteenth-century edition (Rigollot). The manuscript tradition of The Life of Christ (Vita Christi) is extremely complex, and Walsh, while basing his translation on the edition, has gone beyond in providing critical apparatus that will be of significant use to scholars, as well as making the text available for students and all interested in the theology, spirituality, and religious life of the later Middle Ages. His introduction expertly places Ludolphs work in the textual tradition and is itself a contribution to scholarship. Simply put, this is an amazing achievement!

Eric Leland Saak
Professor of History
Indiana University

Walsh has done pioneering work unearthing the huge range of patristic, scholastic, and contemporary sources that Ludolph drew upon, enabling us to re-evaluate the Vita as an encyclopedic compilation, skillfully collating a range of interpretations of the gospel scenes to meditational ends.

This translation will hopefully stimulate further work on the late medieval manuscript tradition of the text, its circulation, use and readership. It will prove an invaluable tool for scholars researching the late medieval engagement with the humanity of Christ, while simultaneously catering for general readers and religious practitioners interested in learning more about a traditional and influential imaginative meditational practice.

Christiania Whitehead
Professor of Middle English Literature
University of Warwick

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Cover image: The Annunciation, miniature attributed to Jacques de Besanon (Paris: 1490s) in a French translation of the Vita Christi by Guillaume le Mnard, in the Special Collections of the University of Glasgow. Used by permission of the University of Glasgow.

Biblical citations are based on the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

2018 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ludolf, von Sachsen, approximately 13001377 or 1378, author. | Walsh, Milton T., translator, writer of introduction.

Title: The life of Jesus Christ / Ludolph of Saxony, Carthusian ; translated and introduced by Milton T. Walsh.

Other titles: Vita Christi. English

Description: Collegeville, Minnesota : Cistercian Publications, 2018. | Series: Cistercian studies series ; 267 | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017048107 (print) | LCCN 2018006386 (ebook) | ISBN 9780879070083 (ebook) | ISBN 9780879072674 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus ChristBiographyEarly works to 1800. | BISAC: RELIGION / Christianity / Saints & Sainthood. | RELIGION / Monasticism. | RELIGION / Spirituality.

Classification: LCC BT300.L83 (ebook) | LCC BT300.L83 M337 2018 (print) | DDC 232.9/01 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048107

Dedicated to the Memory of

ARCHBISHOP JOHN R. QUINN

19292017

Never have I known a truer friend, a more trustworthy brother, a more genuine father. In him there was no arrogance, no haughtiness, no putting on airs; but justice, humility, and prudence claimed the whole man for themselves.

Peter the Venerable, Letter 192

Contents

A cumulative index to the four volumes of Ludolph of Saxonys The Life of Jesus Christ will appear in the fourth volume, The Life of Jesus Christ: Part Two; Volume 4, Chapters 5859, Cistercian Studies Series 284.

Abbreviations for Works Cited

Unless further identification is needed, Sermo or Hom refers to a sermon or homily by an author, followed by its number. When the citation is from a biblical commentary, Com is followed by the biblical reference, e.g., Com Matt 28:4. Bracketed references in this list refer to modern critical editions of the works.

Citations given in italics in the text are from sources Ludolph uses without attribution. Biblical texts that may come from a Latin Diatessaron are given in bold print. The bold letter R , etc., refers to section headings from L. M. Rigollot, Vita Iesu Christi (Paris: Palm, 1865, 1870, 1878).