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Le symboles de l'itinéraire dans l'Itinerarium mentis in Deum de Bonaventure

SUMMARY: Bonaventure was one of the medieval authors who constantly made use of the symbolic language in his writings especially those theological and spiritual. The author of this article intends to reveal the most significant symbols of the itinerary in one of his best known works, namely the «Itinerarium mentis in Deum». The symbols used by Bonaventure to express man's journey towards the Transcendent have profound roots in some cultural mo­dels: the itinerary of Francis at La Verna, the crossing of the people of Israel through the desert and the transitus of Christ. The analysis of the text of the Itinerarium manifests two categories of symbols: vertical symbols — those wich indicate the upward movement of the soul towards the Transcendent (mountain, ladder, cross, angels, wings etc.) and symbols of integration — those wich express man's search of the unity and totality of his being (the cen­ter, the «caligo»). Unlike that of Pseudo Dionysius, bonaventurian symbolism is not simply a literary «modus». To the Seraphic Doctor every sensible being, as a creature, is fully intelli­gible only in its relationship with the Transcendent, whose sign and image it is. Moreover, the perception of the meaning of the symbols is rather a personal experience. The itinerary symbolically represented in the opusculum Itinerarium is above all the itinerary of Bonaven­ture himself, homo viator, in search of his God in the state of contemplation.