Charterhouse Readings: Dialogue Between the Soul and the Body

The libraries of two Slovenian Charterhouses – Žiče / Seiz and Jurklošter /Gairach – contained some interesting literary works. The ascetic Charterhouse order dedicated a lot of attention to the motifs of penitence, “good death”, salvation, grace etc., they embraced the death as one of the constants, death is exactly defined by apocalyptic and mystic points of departure and by concepts, deriving from the Greek and Roman philosophical teachings. This paper concentrates to the text of a dialogue between the soul and the body, Carmen de disceptatione anime et corporis, now Budapest, cod.lat.242, most probably from the Žiče library. The spoiled and sinful young aristocrat is reminded during a sleep by his soul that he has to repent, if he wishes not to condemn his soul to the eternal tortures. In the morning, he hurries to the Charterhouse monastery, where he receives the cassock. – This text was possibly written by Walter Map, who lived at the court of King Henry II of England at the end of the 12^th c., while in the mid 13^th c. a similar text, based on experiences of his own life, Commendatio celle, was written by Syferidus Swevus in Jurklošter, now Ljubljana, National and university library, Ms 40: but he recites about his sinful life and consequent penitence without the literary form of a vision, brought to him by soul during the night. Syferidus writes as awaked person and as such, this is a documentary text of a high value.