Enciclopedia Cattolica Vol. III, 1949 Literature

Cloud of Unknowing ('Nube della Non Conoscenza')

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Also known as: The Cloud, The Cloud of Unknowing

CLOUD OF UNKNOWING ('Nube della non conoscenza'). - Mystical text, anonymous, composed in England in the Midland dialect, around the middle of the 14th century and published for the first time, with a commentary, by the Benedictine Augustine Baker (1575-1641).

The author, who writes under the influence of the works of St. Augustine, of Richard of St. Victor, and above all of Dionysius the Areopagite, sets out to his disciple the idea that it is not knowledge, but the mystical intuition of the divinity, attainable not by discursive reason alone, but by the will and by love, that attains the possession of God. At the end of his travail, the mystic will find himself before a cloud, which only his "little blind love" will have the power to penetrate.

Bibliography

BIBL.: Text modernized under the editorship of I. McCann, 2nd ed., London 1936. Of the original text there exist two editions (ibid. 1871 and 1912).

Augusto Guidi

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By Augusto Guidi

How we know signed in print

Translated from the Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), col. 1880.

More by Augusto Guidi: Baring, Maurice · Annet, Peter · Ancrene Riwle (« Rule of the Anchorites ») · Alcock, John · Aikenhead, Mary, Servant of God

Cite this article

Chicago

Guidi, Augusto. “Cloud Of Unknowing ('Nube della Non Conoscenza').” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, col. 1880. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/cloud-of-unknowing-nube-della-non-conoscenza.

MLA

Guidi, Augusto. “Cloud Of Unknowing ('Nube della Non Conoscenza').” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, col. 1880. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/cloud-of-unknowing-nube-della-non-conoscenza.

BibTeX

@incollection{ec3_cloud_of_unknowing_nube_della,
  author    = {Guidi, Augusto},
  title     = {Cloud Of Unknowing ('Nube della Non Conoscenza')},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {III},
  pages     = {1880},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1949},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cloud-of-unknowing-nube-della-non-conoscenza}
}

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