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The Mirror of Simple Souls
 Cover of the 1993 Babinsky translation | |
| Author | Marguerite Porete |
|---|---|
| Original title | Le Mirouer des simples âmes anienties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et désir d'amour |
| Translator | Ellen L. Babinsky (1993) |
| Cover artist | Marion Miller |
| Language | Old French |
| Subject | Christianity / Mysticism |
| Publisher | (1993) Paulist Press |
Publication date | c. 1300 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1993 |
| Media type | Book |
| Pages | 249 |
| ISBN | 0-8091-3427-6 |
| OCLC | 28378539 |
| 248.2/2 20 | |
| LC Class | BV5091.C7 P6713 1993 |
| Author | "An unknown French mystic of the thirteenth century", Clare Kirchberger ed. |
|---|---|
| Translator | M. N. |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Christianity, mysticism |
| Publisher | Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd. |
Publication date | 31 October 1927 |
| Media type | hardback |
| Pages | 303 |
| 242.144 |
The Mirror of Simple Souls[1] is an early 14th-century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love.
Love in this book layeth to souls the touches of his divine works privily hid under dark speech, so that they should taste the deeper draughts of his love and drink.
— from 15th-century English translator's prologue
The full title of the work is The Mirror of the Simple Souls Who Are Annihilated and Remain Only in Will and Desire of Love. The meditations were originally written in the Picard dialect of Old French[2] and explore in poetry and prose the seven stages of "annihilation" that the Soul goes through on its path to Oneness with God through love. It was enormously popular when written but fell foul of church authorities, which detected elements of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, an antinomian movement in its vision; denounced it as "full of errors and heresies", burnt existing copies; banned its circulation; and executed Porete herself.
However, the work was translated into Latin, Middle English, Middle French, and Old Italian and circulated in France, Italy, Germany, England and Bohemia[2] albeit not with Porete's name attached. In fact, Porete was not identified as the author until 1946. Since then, it has been seen increasingly as one of the seminal works of medieval spiritual literature, and Porete, alongside Mechthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch, can be seen as an exemple of the love mysticism of the Beguine movement.
- ^ Full title: The Mirror of the Simple Souls Who Are Annihilated and Remain Only in Will and Desire of Love Sells, Michael A. (1994). Mystical Languages of Unsaying. University of Chicago Press. pp. 118. ISBN 0226747867.
- ^ a b Justine L. Trombley, A Diabolical Voice: Heresy and the Reception of the Latin "Mirror of Simple Souls" in Late Medieval Europe (Cornell University Press, 2023), p. 3.
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