From the Material to the Mystical in Late Medieval Piety

The Vernacular Transmission of Gertrude of Helfta's Visions
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-108-84123-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 203 mm x 259 mm, Gewicht: 953 g

The German mystic Gertrude the Great of Helfta (c.1256–1301) is a globally venerated saint who is still central to the Sacred Heart Devotion. Her visions were first recorded in Latin, and they inspired generations of readers in processes of creative rewriting. The vernacular copies of these redactions challenge the long-standing idea that translations do not bear the same literary or historical weight as the originals upon which they are based. In this study, Racha Kirakosian argues that manuscript transmission reveals how redactors serve as cultural agents. Examining the late medieval vernacular copies of Gertrude's visions, she demonstrates how redactors recast textual materials, reflected changes in piety, and generated new forms of devotional practices. She also shows how these texts served as a bridge between material culture, in the form of textiles and book illumination, and mysticism. Kirakosian's multi-faceted study is an important contribution to current debates on medieval manuscript culture, authorship, and translation as objects of study in their own right.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kirakosian, Racha

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Byzantinisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Völkerwanderung und Mittelalter
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The Helfta scriptorium; 2. Redactions within a dynamic textuality; 3. Manuscript transmission history; 4. The book's self-reflectivity; 5. The scriptorial heart; 6. Imaginary textiles; Final remarks; Bibliography; Appendix; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Kirakosian, Racha
Racha Kirakosian is Professor of Medieval German at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. She previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Oxford. A scholar of historical linguistics, medieval spirituality and church history, she is the author of Die Vita der Christina von Hane: Untersuchung und Edition (2017).