The Virgin Mary as Alchemical and Lullian Reference in Donne - Apple-Zimmerman Series in Early Modern Culture | Scholarly Book for Renaissance Literature Studies & Historical Theology Research

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This study demonstrates the profound influence of Ramon Lull (ca. 1232-1316?) upon Donne's mind and art, if not his life. Scholars have long known that Donne's library contained a copy of Lull's Duodecim Principia Philosophiae. Never before has anyone studied the many Lullian references in the sermons and poems.Albrecht traces Donne's ecumenical vision back to Lull, back to Pico della Mirandola, Lull's disciple, and back to the Jewish cabala, source for both. She shows how Donne's Essays in Divinity bear the marks of these models.Albrecht shows how Donne incorporated the corporeal images of medieval iconography into Lull's mnemotechnics in order to construct his own texts as another version of ars combinatoria, God's attributes being perceived as a series of ever-changing combinations. She argues that this Donnean phenomenon anticipates modern film practice, particularly montage. This thesis is illustrated by her reading of the sonnet beginning, "Show me deare Christ, thy spouse, so bright and cleare." This difficult poem can now finally be understood, but only when readers take into consideration how Lullian abstractions combine with corporeal images to solve the riddle, its answer revealing Donne's ecumenical frame of mind, far more advanced than supposed.This study will also appeal to New Historicists and those interested in alchemy, emblems, or theology.