A letter from John of Mantua ()

Translated letter:

The zeal of your charity has often admonished me and having admonished impelled me to enter where otherwise I should greatly fear to go. For it is not the regulation of my life that would have persuaded my spirit so much if I were not helped by your merit. But, satisfying your love, with it admonishing me so greatly, I dared to begin, I am called to boldness from what I fear than that I fear; but your pure intention and the charity which I love in you and your holy request compells me to hope. I confess, I say, that I am amazed by my wondrous temerity, who presume to relieve your desire, which is holy, and explicate what is written in the gospels about blessed Mary. Whom I, impure, would fear to name even in help, she is so pure and ineffably most holy and enemy of all impurity, if I knew myself and were not ignorant of that. I presume the more boldy the more I am ignorant of myself. You, indeed, lady, do well, who collect a fig among thistles and do not leave grapes behind among thorns. But I, how do I dare, who presume not just to speak but even to write at length about the virgin of virgins. And so, let that mother of piety who sustained many injuries that she might stop, not punish this until she, the most benign, inclined to every one who asks, give whatever I now lack in my temerity; let her assist your intention acquiring from her what accords with truth, and assist me to feel the love of wisdom in those things that the mercy of God will give me to say. And first, I hasten to reveal to your charity what Luke perceived about her.

Original letter:

Tuae caritatis studium saepe me monuit et admonitum impulit quaedam ingredi, quae aliter maximae deberent esse formidini. Non enim meae vitae moderatio tanta meo persuasisset animo, nisi tuo iuvarer merito. Sed, qui tuae satisfaciens dilectioni eadem admonente maxima ausus fui incipere, ad temeritatem vocor, de qua timeo, quam vereor; sed cogit me sperare tua munda intentio et caritas, quam in te diligo, et tua sancta petitio. Fateor, inquam, me mirabilem et meam admiror temeritatem, qui praesumo desiderio tuo, quod sanctum est, subvenire et de beata Maria, quae apud evangelia scripta sunt, explicare. Quam mundissimam et ineffabiliter sanctissimam et omnis immunditiae inimicam immundus ego, si me cognoscerem et ipsam non ignorarem, etiam in auxilium nominare timerem. Tanto itaque audacius praesumo, quanto me magis ignoro. Tu quidem, domina, bene facis, quae et de tribulis ficus colligis et inter spinas uvas non relinquis. Sed ego unde hoc audeo, qui de virgine virginum ita in longinquo positus non solum loqui sed etiam scribere praesumo? Ipsa itaque mater pietatis, quae multas sustinuit iniurias, ut delerre posset, hanc non ulciscatur, donec ipsa benignissima, omni petenti prona, condonet, quicquid nunc delinquo temeritate mea; subveniatque tuae intentioni acquirens, quod de se concordat veritati, subveniatque ut sentiam amorem sapientiae in his, quae michi Dei misericordia dabit dicere. Et primum, quid de ea Lucas senserit, caritati tuae pandere festino.

Historical context:

John addresses his commentary on the first chapter of Luke about the Virgin Mary to Matilda who had requested it, with a direct address to her at the beginning of the work.

Printed source:

"Iohannis Mantuani In Cantica Canticorum et De Sancta Maria Tractatus ad Comitissam Matildam," ed. Bernhard Bischoff, Burkhard Taeger (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1973) Spicilegium Friburgense 19, "Liber Iohannis Mantuani grammatici de sancta Maria ad comitissam Matildam," p.156