The Cloud of Unknowing

Titre:	The clowde of unknowyng; The cloud of unknowing
Date:	Seconde moitié du XIV^e siècle
Langue:	Anglais
Genre:
Forme:	Prose
Contenu:
Incipit:	Here bygynnith a book of contemplacyon, the whiche is clepyd the Clowde of unknowyng, in the whiche a soule is onyd with god. Here biginneth the preyer on the prologe. God, unto Whom alle hertes ben open, and unto Whom alle wille spekith, and unto Whom no privé thing is hid: I beseche Thee so for to clense the entent of myn hert with the unspekable gift of Thi grace that I may parfiteliche love Thee, and wor- thilich preise Thee. Amen. Here biginneth the prolog. In the name of the Fader and of the Sone and of the Holy Goost. I charge thee and I beseche thee, with as moche power and vertewe as the bonde of charité is sufficient to suffre…
Explicit:	… nevertheles holy desires weren thei never. Of this holy desire spekith Seint Austyne and seith that "al the liif of a good Cristen man is not elles bot holy desire. » Farewel, goostly freende, in Goddes blessing and myne! And I beseche Almighti God that trewe pees, hole counseil, and goostly coumforte in God with habundaunce of grace, evirmore be with thee and alle Goddes lovers in eerthe. Amen. Here eendith the Clowde of unknowing.
Traductions:	Divina caligo ignorancie, par Richard Methley (latin) Nubes ignorandi (latin)

Manuscrits

Cambridge, University Library, Kk.vi.26
London, British Library, Harley MS 674
London, British Library, Harley MS 959
London, British Library, Harley MS 2373
London, British Library, Royal MS 17. C. XXVI
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 262

Éditions anciennes

Éditions modernes

A Book of Contemplation the which is Called "The Cloud of Unknowing", in the which the Soul is Oned with God, edited from the British Museum MS. Harl. 674 with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill. Second edition, London, Watkins, 1922, 315 p. [GB] [IA]
Édition antérieure:
- A Book of Contemplation the which is Called "The Cloud of Unknowing", in the which the Soul is Oned with God, edited from the British Museum MS. Harl. 674 with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill, London, Watkins, 1912, 315 p. [GB] [IA]
The Cloud of Unknowing and other treatises by an English mystic of the fourteenth century, with a commentary on the Cloud by Father Augustine Baker, edited by Dom Justin McCann, London, 1924.
Hodgson, Phyllis, An Edition, from the Manuscripts, of "The Cloud of Unknowing", with an Introduction, Notes and Glossary
The Cloud of Unknowing, ed. Phyllis Hodgson, London, ?? (Early English Text Society. Original Series, 213), 1944.

The Cloud of Unknowing, Random House, 1996, 224 p.

The Cloud of Unknowing, éd. Patrick J. Gallacher, Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications (Teams Middle English Texts), 1997, 143 p.

Traductions modernes

en anglais:

The Cloud of Unknowing. A version in modern English of a fourteenth century classic, New York et London, Harper and Brothers, 1948, xxvii + 146 p. [IA]

The Cloud of Unknowing, edited and translated by James Walsh, Mahwah, Paulist Press, 1981.

The Cloud of Unknowing. Translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Boulder, Shambhala (Shambhala Pocket Library), 2009, xxxiii + 247 p. — Réimpr.: 2018.

The Cloud of Unknowing: A Book of Contemplation the which is Called the Cloud of Unknowing, in which a Soul is oned with God. Introduction, translation, and edited by Evelyn Underhill, Woodland (California), Ancient Wisdom Publications, 2017, 178 p.

The Cloud of Unknowing. Translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Boulder, Shambhala (Shambhala Pocket Library), 2009, xxxiii + 247 p. — Réimpr.: 2018.

The Cloud of Unknowing: A Book of Contemplation the which is Called the Cloud of Unknowing, in which a Soul is oned with God. Introduction, translation, and edited by Evelyn Underhill, Woodland (California), Ancient Wisdom Publications, 2017, 178 p.

en suédois:

Molnet: icke-vetandets moln i vilket själen möter Gud, översättning och inledning av Tryggve Lundén, Skellefteå, Artos, 1996, 153 p.

Études

Bendon Davis, Carmel, Mysticism and Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, "The Cloud of Unknowing" Author, and Julian of Norwich, Washington, Catholic University of America Press, 2008, 271 p.
Compte rendu: Christopher Roman, dans The Medieval Review, 08.11.06. * [TMR]

Burrow, J. A., « Fantasy and language in The Cloud of Unknowing », Essays in Criticism, 27, 1977, p. 283-298.

Clark, John P. H., The Cloud of Unknowing: An Introduction, Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg (Analecta Cartusiana, 119:4), 1995.

Clark, John P. H., Notes on "The Cloud of Unknowing", Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg (Analecta Cartusiana, 119:5), 1996.

Clark, John P. H., Notes on "The Book of Privy Counselling". Bibliography. References, Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg (Analecta Cartusiana, 119:6), 1995.

Davis, Carmel Bendon, Mysticism and Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, "The Cloud of Unknowing" Author, and Julian of Norwich, Washington, Catholic University of America Press, 2008, xiii + 271 p. ISBN: 9780813215228

Gardner, Helene L., « Walter Hilton and the authorship of the Cloud of Unknowing », The Review of English Studies, 9:34, 1933, p. 129-147. DOI: 10.1093/res/os-IX.34.129

Hodgson, Phyllis, « Walter Hilton and The Cloud of Unknowing: a problem of authorship reconsidered », The Modern Language Review, 50:4, 1955, p. 395-406. DOI: 10.2307/3719273

Holley, Linda Tarte, Reason and Imagination in Chaucer, the Perle-Poet, and the Cloud-Author: Seeing from the Center, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan (The New Middle Ages), 2011, xvi + 184 p. ISBN: 9780230105102

Johnston, William, Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing, Trabuco Canyon, California Source Books, 1992, xviii + 285 p. — Réimpr.: 2000.

Kempers, Bram, « The fame of fake, Dionysius the Areopagite: fabrication, falsification, and the Cloud of Unknowing », How the West Was Won: Essays on the Literary Imagination, the Canon, and the Christian Middle Ages for Burcht Pranger, éd. Willemien Otten, Arjo Vanderjagt et Hent de Vries, Leiden et Boston, Brill (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 188), 2010, p. 301-311.

Kirk, Jordan, Medieval Nonsense: Signifying Nothing in Fourteenth-Century England, New York, Fordham University Press (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies), 2021, xi + 189 p. ISBN: 9780823294466
Compte rendu:
Mark Amsler, dans The Medieval Review, 21.10.22, 2021. [www]

Lock, Charles, « The Cloud of Unknowing: apophatic discourse and vernacular anxieties », Text and Voice: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Middle Ages, éd. Marianne Borch, Odense, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004, p. 207-233.

Mackinnon, Effie, Studies in Fourteenth Century English Mysticism: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Juliana of Norwich, The Cloud of Unknowing, Urbana, s. n., 1934, 15 p.

Riehle, Wolfgang, Englische Mystik des Mittelalters, 2011. — Trad. ang.: The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England, translated by Charity Scott-Stokes, Ithaca et London, Cornell University Press, 2014, xviii + 427 p.

Bibliographie