Works of St. Bonaventure Works of St. Bonaventure - Franciscan ...

INTRODUCTIONIXPREFACEThe origins of this book go back almost a decade. Ihad recently completed an earlier volume in this series, 1when Brother Edward Coughlin, then Director of theFranciscan Institute, asked me if I would consider translatingthe Breviloquium. I accepted his invitation, workingat it over the past years, amidst countless interruptionsdue to more immediate tasks and other responsibilities.When I first mentioned this project to my formerprofessor, Bernard McGinn, he remarked: “Great! Wereally need a good annotated translation of theBreviloquium.” I soon discovered what he meant. Aftercompleting a few of the chapters in Part 1, I found myselfsaying, “I’m translating Bonaventure’s Latin intoEnglish, and it’s still all Greek!” I had encountered formyself the remarkable “concentration of word andphrase” that Jacques G. Bougerol felt characterized thiswork. 2 In it Bonaventure’s style is “simultaneously compactand highly complex; his sentences are long andstately, with rhythmically balanced phrases,” 3 makingit very difficult to render into contemporary English.1Writings Concerning the Franciscan Order, The Works of SaintBonaventure V (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1994).2Jacques Guy Bougerol, Introduction to the Works of Bonaventure,trans. José de Vinck (Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963).3Paula Jean Miller, “Marriage: The Sacrament of Divine-HumanCommunion: Vol. I: A Commentary on St. Bonaventure’s Breviloquium,”(Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1995), 6.