Beatrice as a Theologian of Deification in the "Vita Beatricis"

The literary and spiritual-theological strategy of the anonymous author of the Vita Beatricis has attracted the attention of a number of researchers in the past, especially since the author of the Vita integrated an adaptation of the Seven Manners of Love into his text. The Latin author employs a complex, varied strategy. In this contribution, the theological dimension in the text is discussed, in the perspective of mainstream thirteenth-century theology. The anonymous author consistently presents Beatrice as a theological author, and especially as a theologian whose life and work bring to the fore a theological theme that was highly contested in the thirteenth century, namely that of deification.