Marguerite de Porete

Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.01: French Writing and Culture: Old French to the Middle Ages , 500-1400.
Vol. editors: Marianne Ailes (University of Bristol), Matthew Siôn Lampitt (University of Bristol), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born c. 1215
Died 1 Jun 1310
Activity c. 1290-1310

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Mystic
Religious writer

Resources

Porete's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Whether we can grasp today the religious essence of the medieval mystical discourse or not, this would not be the critical question. What matters, instead, would be the quality of the literary works left behind by many medieval and also early modern mystical authors. They commonly formulated amazing statements about their mystical visions, often resorting to the language of courtly love poetry to come to terms with their experiences. Many more women were involved in this spiritual discourse than men, but Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso, John Tauler, Richard Rolle, and others also left major contributions to the phenomenon of mysticism. Mystics attempted the virtually impossible, to cast into words the ineffable experiences they had lived, and this was most impressively demonstrated by the…

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1474 words

Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Marguerite de Porete". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 July 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15247, accessed 23 November 2024.]