Very little is known about the author of the
SHOWINGS or REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, apart from the work itself. She is
known to have lived the enclosed life of an anchoress in a cell attached to a
parish church in Norwich, one of the major ports of England in the late middle
ages. When she was thirty, in May, 1373, she received the revelations which she
recorded soon afterwards in the "Short Text," one copy of which has
survived. She was probably still alive in 1416. For 20 years following the
revelations, she contemplated their meaning, and the result was the "Long
Text" which she completed in 1393.
Neither the short nor the long versions were
published before 1670, and the limited number of manuscripts which survive
indicate that it was not among the most popular mystical works of the late
middle ages. Julian's most recent editors argue that the reason lies in her
profound and difficult spirituality, especially evident in the Long Text, and
nowhere more obvious than in Chapter 51, reproduced here. Modern readers are
not the first to find her hard going.
Walsh and Colledge also argue that her work
demonstrates both deep knowledge of the Latin Vulgate and familiarity with a
wide range of classical contemplative writings, and also a mastery of
rhetorical skills comparable to those of Geoffrey Chaucer (whose translation of
Boethius, CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY, may have been among her readings.) She
was, they are convinced, another pioneer in the rhetorical possibilities of the
English language.
Although the translation here represents the
best critical scholarship now available, inexpensive paperback versions (under
the title REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE) have been published by Penguin (trans. by
James Walsh) and Doubleday (trans. by M.L. del Mastro).