8 - Looking Outside: The Preface and the First Pair of Wings

Summary

The goal of the previous chapter was to show how Bonaventure made creative use of the methods of sermo modernus-style preaching when he composed the Itinerarium. The goal of that analysis was to help the reader understand the Itinerarium more fully. What can seem like a confusing jumble upon a first reading will often be revealed upon reflection to be part of an intricately beautiful structure.

In order to reveal how Bonaventure employed these various methods in different places in the Itinerarium, it was necessary to skip around in Bonaventure’s text, showing one method in one chapter and another method in another one. This approach to the text did not permit me to provide a coherent view of the whole. So, in this second section, I endeavor to provide an overview of the Itinerarium, chapter by chapter, from beginning to end.

In Chapter 8, I discuss the Preface and the first two chapters of the Itinerarium that correspond to the first pair of wings of the Seraph, those around his feet, representing the vision of God we get from looking at his vestiges “outside” in the visible realm.