Isabel de Villena: Prayer and Franciscan Spirituality

Lesley K TWOMEY

Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)

Keywords: Franciscan prayer techniques, Franciscanism, Middle Ages, Orality, Passion.

This essay examines traces of the oral in the prayers written by Isabel de Villena (1430-1490), abbess of the Santa Trinitat convent in Valencia. The essay compares the prayers of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane in the Vita Christi with St Francis’s Office of the Passion. It finds that whilst there are some similarities between St Francis’s Office and Villena’s Vita Christi, this is because of technique in using phrases from the Psalms rather than direct influence.

The Evolution of the Main Topics in Ausias March According to the Three-Fold Love Process

Tània ARAGÓ MELIÀ

Original title: L’evolució dels principals tòpics ausiasmarquians en relació amb l’evolució de les tres fases amoroses

Published in

Keywords: 15th century, Ausiàs March, Disappointmentm poetry, Loving failure, Passion.

This article analyzes the writings of Ausiàs March as derived from the concept of ‘failure’ in love. Ausiàs was not interested in the abstract analysis of the different types of love but in the study of his very own nature, as he felt devastated by his dissapointment with love. His verses reveal a personality full of contradictions showing his changing and volatile mood as he focused on three different concepts of love: spiritual love, human love, passionate love. Through the analysis of these three concepts, we try to answer the following question: through his analysis of the secrets of love, was Ausiàs March able to ever find virtue?

The medieval feminine writing: mystic, passion and transgression

Maria Simone Marinho NOGUEIRA

Original title: A escrita feminina medieval: mística, paixão e transgressão

Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Feminine, Mystic, Passion, Transgression., Writing.

In this paper, we try to present some of the medieval feminine mystic, concentrating mainly on the thought of Marguerite Porete. Among other things, our intention is to show that the studied women had a strong literary culture, and also that their works oscilate between transgression and passion.