{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "hadewijch-visions", "name": "The Visions of Hadewijch", "stream": "greco-christian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "mystical visions", "tradition": "Christian mysticism (Beguine)", "author": "Hadewijch of Antwerp/Brabant", "year_approx": 1240, "note": "Hadewijch's Visions: Sections I–VI complete; project translation of the entire Visioenen is shipped. See sibling Strofische Gedichten work for the lyric corpus.\n\nHadewijch of Antwerp/Brabant (c. 1200-1270), the Beguine leader and mystical poet whose corpus (Visioenen, Brieven, Strofische Gedichten, Mengeldichten) is foundational to Middle Dutch mystical literature. Hadewijch wrote at least a generation before Marguerite Porete, who took up her terms (minne, orewoet, the verre nighe / Far-Near) and a generation before Mechthild of Magdeburg. Her Visions are fourteen apocalyptic-allegorical mystical experiences preserved in three medieval manuscripts (Ghent UB 941, Brussels KBR 2877-78, Brussels KBR 2879-80). Sections I–VI cover the COMPLETE Visioenen (Visions 1–14 plus the Lijst der volmaakten): Vision 1 (the *Garden of Virtues* allegory on the octave of Pentecost), Visions 2–4 (Pentecost / Easter / the Two Kingdoms), Visions 5–7 (Assumption / Epiphany / the bridegroom-communion vision on Pentecost), Visions 8–10 (the *Mountain and Five Ways* / *Reason and her Three Maidens* on Mary's Nativity / the *City of the Bride* on Saint John the Evangelist's day), and Visions 11–12 (the *Phoenix and Two Eagles* on Christmas Night, with the famous *I am a free human being and also a part pure* free-will passage / the *Wheel of the Beloved and the Bride with Twelve Virtues* on Three Kings' Day, closing with Job 4:12 *porro dictum est*), and Visions 13–14 plus the *Lijst der volmaakten* (Vision 13 on the Sunday before Pentecost: the *Six-Winged Face and the Three Voices of Love* — *denial-of-love-from-humility* (highest voice), *works of the highest trust of Reason* (clearest voice), *rumor of the highest infidelity* (sweetest voice) — with the numerology of the 107 perfected souls and Mary's closing address; Vision 14 the *Explanation of the Throne* with the Tabor-transfiguration echo and the threefold rapture-state; and the named *List of the Perfected* including the strongly-dated reference to *master Robert* — Robert le Bougre, the Dominican inquisitor active 1233–1244, who killed a beguine for her *rightful love*). Source: Jozef Van Mierlo critical edition of the Middle Dutch (Leuven 1924-25); modern English translations (Hart 1980, Davies 1990) remain in copyright. **The project translation of the *Visioenen* is now COMPLETE.**", "books_slug": null, "books_slugs": [ "hadewijch--visions--project-en", "hadewijch--visions-section-2--project-en", "hadewijch--visions-section-3--project-en", "hadewijch--visions-section-4--project-en", "hadewijch--visions-section-5--project-en", "hadewijch--visions-section-6--project-en" ], "has_project_translation": true, "steiner_loci": [] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "beguine-mystics", "name": "Beguine Mystics", "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/" } ], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "vol-1-01-vision-1", "title": "Section I", "words": 4376, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-1-01-vision-1/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-1-01-vision-1.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Vision 1 — the Garden of Virtues allegory", "blurb": "The first of Hadewijch's fourteen *Visioenen*. The *Garden of Virtues* allegory, in which the soul is led through a garden of personified virtues — translated from Jozef Van Mierlo's 1924-25 critical edition of the Middle Dutch. The opening of the visionary corpus that establishes Hadewijch's allegorical-mystical idiom." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "vol-2-01-visions-2-3-4", "title": "Section II", "words": 2495, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-2-01-visions-2-3-4/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-2-01-visions-2-3-4.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Visions 2-4 — Pentecost, Easter, the two kingdoms", "blurb": "**Vision 2** (Whitsunday): the Holy Ghost given completely, the *gift of tongues* in seventy-two languages. **Vision 3** (Easter): the *face of the Holy Ghost* and the commission — Hadewijch shall live *what* Love is until she dies and *is* Love. **Vision 4** (Saint James's Mass): the great apocalyptic *two kingdoms* vision, with the burning angel sounding seven thunder-strokes; the two kingdoms are Hadewijch's manhood and Christ's." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "vol-3-01-visions-5-6-7", "title": "Section III", "words": 3200, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-3-01-visions-5-6-7/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-3-01-visions-5-6-7.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Visions 5-7 — three heavens; the supreme throne; the bridegroom-communion", "blurb": "**Vision 5** (Assumption): the three uppermost heavens, which John the Evangelist saw only in likenesses, revealed as the three Persons of the Trinity. **Vision 6** (Epiphany, at age nineteen): the supreme throne, all faces in his face, the *fruition-breast of his nature*. **Vision 7** (Pentecost): Hadewijch's most famous — the *bridegroom-communion* vision in which Christ gives her his body from the ciborium and his blood from the chalice." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "vol-4-01-visions-8-9-10", "title": "Section IV", "words": 3489, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-4-01-visions-8-9-10/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-4-01-visions-8-9-10.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Visions 8-10 — the five-way mountain; Reason as Queen", "blurb": "**Vision 8**: the high broad mountain with five ascending ways; the *kimpe* (spiritual champion) who could not climb the fifth because he loved Love too much with the intellect. **Vision 9** (Nativity of Mary): the Queen in a robe of one thousand eyes, with Holy Fear, Discretion, Wisdom as her maidens — revealed as the Reason of Hadewijch's soul, who becomes subject to her. **Vision 10**: the Bridegroom-meeting at the final feast." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "vol-5-01-visions-11-12", "title": "Section V", "words": 4864, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-5-01-visions-11-12/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-5-01-visions-11-12.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Visions 11-12 — the over-deep wheel; the free human being", "blurb": "**Vision 11** (Christmas Night): the *over-deep wheel* enclosing all things in its darkness; the phoenix that devours the eagle of Hadewijch and the eagle of Augustine, named as *the oneness in which the Trinity dwells, where we both are lost*. Contains the doctrinal precursor to Porete's *annihilated soul*: 'I am a free human being and also a part pure, and I may with my will freely desire, and as high will as I will.' **Vision 12**: continuation of the doctrinal apex." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "vol-6-01-visions-13-14-list-of-the-perfected", "title": "Section VI", "words": 8611, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-6-01-visions-13-14-list-of-the-perfected/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-6-01-visions-13-14-list-of-the-perfected.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Visions 13-14 + the Lijst der volmaakten", "blurb": "The closing visions and the *Lijst der volmaakten* — Hadewijch's list of the one hundred and seven *perfected* souls 'adorned like Love,' whom she saw each with her own seraph. The list is one of the most remarkable documents in medieval mystical literature: a Beguine's own census of the saints she counted as kin in the *Minne*-tradition." } ] }