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Of the more than 200 manuscripts of the Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert), approximately two-thirds present it as an anonymous work. However, since at least 1281, and probably earlier, the author was believed to be a certain Gerard of Liège. The name was retained by manuscript colophons and catalogues, but the Naples editions of 1605 and 1607 reinstate the attribution to brother Gerardus Leodiensis OP. In 1931, André Wilmart suggested that the author of De doctrina cordis was most likely to be a Cistercian. Guido Hendrix went with the Gerardus Leodiensis OCist hypothesis in his first publications, but later referred to the Paris master, Dominican provincial and later cardinal Hugh of St Cher in a series of articles and monographs beginning in 1980. This chapter examines the literary and historical context in which De doctrina cordis should be read, and suggests that the significant question is one about audience as much as authorship.

This chapter examines the Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) in its Latin manuscript contexts, focusing on the most prevalent modes of perception of the text and patterns of use. It also looks at how the text is associated with preaching and sermon, perceived as a guide for novices and as a catechetical format, and for its meditative and contemplative potential. In addition, the chapter analyses the protean character of De doctrina cordis and its ability to reissue itself in formats suitable to both catechesis and contemplation, the formation of the novitiate, or the requirements of a homilist. Finally, it considers the ways in which the text was reformulated, used, and circulated in the French, German, Dutch, English, and Spanish vernacular translations of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

De doctrina cordis, a thirteenth-century Latin treatise addressed to members of religious orders, offers a glimpse into the history and literature of spirituality and the devotional life of religious women. Translated in English as The Doctrine of the Hert in the fifteenth century, it is divided into seven books that each treat a different action of the heart – praeparatio, custodia, apertio, stabilitas, datio, elevatio, and scissio – in association with one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. De doctrina cordis circulated in more than 200 manuscripts in different formats and constructs its pastoral theology via a series of linked images deploying the imaginary space of the household. This book consists of ten essays that explore the Middle English De doctrina cordis alongside its Latin and other European vernacular translations. It discusses the text's significance and its place in the context of European vernacular theology, and also considers the authorship of De doctrina cordis, its manuscript context, and its relation to the Bible.

The thirteenth-century Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert), probably written by either Gerard of Liège or Hugh of St Cher, had an impact on Germany, particularly following the Councils of Constance and Basel that supported monastic reform. Many of the Latin manuscripts were composed in Germany and Austria during the mid- or late fifteenth century. In addition, most manuscripts with an abbreviated version of the Latin text and all six vernacular translations into Middle High German date back to the post-Constance period. This chapter explores how De doctrina cordis supported the dissemination of devotional theology in fifteenth-century Germany, with reference to the six extant Middle High German versions.

The thirteenth-century Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) emphasises spiritually efficacious language, explicitly equating words that comfort with words that feed. The Middle English version of De doctrina is known for its similar emphasis on words that both comfort and sustain. Both translations also liken God's Word to the sweet sound emitted by chiming silver. Like the vast majority of Christian devotional writing of the Middle Ages, De doctrina is organised around biblical quotation and supporting patristic allusion, and displays overt reliance on the Vulgate text of the Bible. It appears to be more reliant on Old Testament sapiential literature than other contemporary Middle English devotional texts.

The Middle Dutch translation of the long (IP) version of the thirteenth-century Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) has been variously attributed to Hugh of St Cher or Gerard of Liège. The IP translation survives in two manuscripts: Vienna, ÖNB, MS 15231; and Vienna, ÖNB, MS Ser. nov. 12805. The most important manuscript of the Middle Dutch IP translation is Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, MS 15231, which was used and copied in a community of Augustinian canonesses within the sphere of influence of the Windesheim Chapter. The Latin De doctrina cordis was translated into the vernacular of Western Flanders for the sisters of St Trudo Abbey. Guido Hendrix believes that the Middle Dutch translation of De doctrina in Vienna, ÖNB, MS 15231, was translated from Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS BPL 2579. The attitude of De bouc van der leeringhe van der herten with regard to contemplation and mystical experience is the same as the Windesheim attitude toward mysticism in the second half of the fifteenth century.

The thirteenth-century Latin treatise De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) was translated into Spanish as Del enseñamiento del coraçon. Published in Salamanca in 1498, the Spanish version survives in three manuscripts, all in the Iberian peninsula: El Escorial, 31-V–49 (2o); and Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, Res. Inc. 502 and 503. A revised edition with modernised text, Doctrina cordis de sant buena ventura en romance: nueuamente corregido y enmendado (Toledo, 1510), has been attributed to St Bonaventure by Juan Varela de Salamanca, and survives in three copies: London, British Library, C 63 c 16; Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, R–31600; Zaragoza, Biblioteca Universitaria, A.30.251; and New York, Hispanic Society. There is also a printed edition from the southern town of Baeza in 1551, Doctrina cordis del serafico dotor sant buena ventura en romance: muy util y provechoso para todos los fieles christianos: nuevamente corregido y emendado). This chapter examines the nature and purpose of the Spanish translation of De doctrina cordis, its printing history and actual readership, and the translator's linguistic and cultural preferences.

Four manuscripts of De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) are available in French: Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 1384; Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 514; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Holkham Misc. 42; and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 13272. In contrast to the Middle English version, which has its own prologue instead of translating the Latin prologue, three of the French manuscripts – MS Douai, MS Holkham, and MS Troyes – do not provide a new prologue or any insight from the translator. MS Holkham and MS Douai appear to be two different versions of the same translation, suggesting that there must have been other manuscripts of the French translation of De doctrina cordis which have not survived. All three French translations have many separate sections marked by larger initials.

The author of the Middle English translation of De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) remains anonymous, but he declared his intentions in a different Prologue to the text. This declaration of intent indicates that the text is not acknowledged as a translation from the Latin and that the translator's purpose is moral and spiritual. According to Sister Candon, the Middle English prologue is not a translation of the Latin. The Latin and Middle English prologues differ in tone, which may suggest that less was expected of the vernacular audience. Moreover, the original Latin audience may have shared more of the translator's intellectual sophistication as well as the habit of continual reading and meditation on the Scriptures.

Originally written as a teaching aid for priests charged with the pastoral care of religious women (either nuns or beguines), De doctrina cordis (The Doctrine of the Hert) offers a clear and schematic presentation of moral psychology, and uses allegories and metaphors of household tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and bed-making. The first section of the Middle English version deals with the preparation of the heart to receive God. This chapter examines the themes of food and cooking, with reference to meat and mysticism, in De doctrina cordis. It also discusses Henri Lefebvre's identification of three strands in his thinking about space: spatial practice, representations of space, and representational space.

The Doctrine of the Hert, the fifteenth-century English translation of the thirteenth-century Latin treatise De doctrina cordis, was written as an instructional text for nuns. The Middle English version's place in the broader corpus of vernacular theology in fifteenth-century England remains uncertain, but offers insights into the rise of vernacular theology among female religious readers and the appropriation of devotional works by lay readers. The text survives in four manuscripts dating from the early to the mid-fifteenth century, two of which contain only the Doctrine and the other two of which consist of two additional treatises entitled the Tree and the Twelve Fruits. Whereas the Doctrine prepares the heart for God within the context of the virtuous conventual life, the two other treatises focus on the growth of the heart in devotion. This chapter examines how manuscripts are structured to guide readers through a programme of spiritual development, as well as how lay devotional reading and practice was influenced by professional religious women's devotional instruction.