In Praise of the Virgin Mary, the God-Bearer

Translated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan of Lille’s Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum provides a measure for the originality of his Mariology.

Fifty years after the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, Alan of Lille died in 1202 or 1203 among the Cistercians at Cîteaux. Celebrated in his own time as doctor universalis, Alan made pioneering contributions in a variety of genres. Best known today for his influential epic poems, the Anticlaudianus and the Complaint of Nature, Alan also composed a theological dictionary, a handbook for preachers, a defense of the catholic faith against the Cathars, and one of the first Marian commentaries on the Song of Songs. Translated here in its entirety for the first time, Alan’s Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum illumines his other writings and provides a measure for the originality of his Mariology.

Ann W. Astell is the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. The author of seven books and the editor or co-editor of seven volumes, she has recently published essays on Honorius Augustodunensis, Bernard of Clairvaux, Eadmer of Canterbury, and Aelred of Rievaulx.