Prison Meditations on Psalms 51 and 31

by Girolamo Savonarola, John Patrick Donnelly (Translator)

Savonarola s exposition or meditation on Psalm 51 (the Miserere) and Psalm 31 (In te, Domini, speravi) have not been printed in English during the twentieth century. This book makes that text available in modern English. The translator found the Loeb series, which printed the text and translation of classical Roman authors on facing pages, which is the best single help to acquire facility in reading Latin. Few such volumes exist to help students of post-classical Latin. And made even more attainable by listing this book under $20.00.

Genres: Catholic

Paperback

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

Girolamo Savonarola (Italian: [savonaˈrɔːla]; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) was an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor. He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, and threatened Florence, such prophesies seemed on the verge of fulfillment. While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici and, at the friar's urging, established a "popular" republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world center of Christianity and "richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever",[1] he instituted an extreme puritanical campaign, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth.

In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI’s Holy League against the French, the Vatican summoned Savonarola to Rome. He disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him in May 1497, and threatened to place Florence under an interdict. A trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarola's divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. Under torture, Savonarola confessed that he had invented his visions and prophecies. On May 23, 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence.

Savonarola's devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom and religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement.

Reviews

[Catholicus Magus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work is best treated as a supplemental devotional to one’s own weekly prayer routine, rather than as an academic or otherwise cerebral commentary on two of the seven penitential Psalms. I had the great pleasure of acquiring this text at a point in my spiritual life where I was structuring particular themes for each day, rather than trying to “fit it into” a pre-existing lectionary cycle; this work features on Saturday for me, and stands in the tradition of the devotional commentary à la Kempis or Nicholas Love. One of the many saintly figures of Medieval Catholicism who, likely due to his political inconvenience, will never be made a saint but is without a doubt one already.

[Jesse Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was good the first time just reading the English. It's excellent if you can read it fluently in Latin. Very catholic in the more basic sense of the word, affirming salvation as a sovereign work of God through faith apart from works, etc. Unfortunately it is also fairly overtly Roman at points, making reference to unbiblical but historical practices like penance and praying to saints; but these are infrequent and the book remains excellent notwithstanding. It is profoundly emotional, and I gave it an extra star since my last rating because this time around I realized how many places he very ably uses classical theism for devotional purposes.