2 - Recognizing the Divisions as the Framework of the Text

Summary

In sermo modernus-style sermons, the structure was based on what was usually a threefold or fourfold divisio of an opening thema verse. This primary division was usually subject to further sub-divisions. In the Itinerarium, Bonaventure associates the basic threefold structure of the work — seeing “outside,” seeing “inside,” and seeing “above” — with the divisions of the verse from Job 85:11: “Lead me, O Lord, in your way / so that I might enter into your truth. / Let my heart rejoice that it may be in awe of your name.” To be led in the way of the Lord, says Bonaventure, is to “move through the vestiges which are bodily and temporal outside us.” To enter into the truth of God is to “enter into our mind which is the image of God.” And to rejoice in the knowledge of God and stand in awe of His name is to “pass beyond to that which is … above us by raising our eyes to the First Principle.” In Chapter 2, “Recognizing Divisions as the Framework of the Text,” I show how identifying the divisiones within each chapter helps to make the structure, content, and arguments of the Itinerarium clearer.