The literary culture of Dominican women in late medieval Germany
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Stephen Mossman
Abstract
This article aims to advance the lively debate over the significance of southern German female convents, primarily those of the Dominican Order, in the transmission of German-language religious literature in the later Middle Ages. A hitherto relatively little-known collection of manuscripts and early printed books from the former Dominican female convent of Reutin near Wildberg on the Nagold, extending from the second half of the fourteenth into the mid-sixteenth century, is offered as a case-study. On its basis four hypotheses are substantiated and presented for further discussion. First, that female convents should not necessarily be seen as the central loci of German- language book production in the fourteenth century (and indeed beyond, in the entire period before the Observant reform, which only penetrated into the Württemberg region - as in many other territories - towards the end of the fifteenth century). The extent of book ownership and book production exclusively in a lay context has for methodological reasons very probably been massively underestimated. Second, that the introduction of the Observant reform certainly did have major consequences for the collection, now within centralized structures, of books in female convents, and for the transmission of new works by Observant authors (in Württemberg primarily Felix Fabri, Heinrich Vigilis von Weißenburg and Thomas Finck). Yet the significance of a regionally determined pattern of literary and aesthetic interests must be taken into account alongside in evaluating the literary culture of reformed female convents in the later Middle Ages. Third, parallel changes in the 1470s in two different areas, in the university education of clerics and in typographic printing, are principally responsible for the shape of book acquisition by southern German female convents in the last quarter of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth centuries. Fourth, the cultivation of Latin in female convents did not just serve liturgical ends, as the most recent scholarship has quite rightly emphasised, but also enabled access to a much more extensive culture of later medieval Latin prayer, manifest in small-format manuscript miscellanies that have hitherto attracted little attention.
Abstract
This article aims to advance the lively debate over the significance of southern German female convents, primarily those of the Dominican Order, in the transmission of German-language religious literature in the later Middle Ages. A hitherto relatively little-known collection of manuscripts and early printed books from the former Dominican female convent of Reutin near Wildberg on the Nagold, extending from the second half of the fourteenth into the mid-sixteenth century, is offered as a case-study. On its basis four hypotheses are substantiated and presented for further discussion. First, that female convents should not necessarily be seen as the central loci of German- language book production in the fourteenth century (and indeed beyond, in the entire period before the Observant reform, which only penetrated into the Württemberg region - as in many other territories - towards the end of the fifteenth century). The extent of book ownership and book production exclusively in a lay context has for methodological reasons very probably been massively underestimated. Second, that the introduction of the Observant reform certainly did have major consequences for the collection, now within centralized structures, of books in female convents, and for the transmission of new works by Observant authors (in Württemberg primarily Felix Fabri, Heinrich Vigilis von Weißenburg and Thomas Finck). Yet the significance of a regionally determined pattern of literary and aesthetic interests must be taken into account alongside in evaluating the literary culture of reformed female convents in the later Middle Ages. Third, parallel changes in the 1470s in two different areas, in the university education of clerics and in typographic printing, are principally responsible for the shape of book acquisition by southern German female convents in the last quarter of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth centuries. Fourth, the cultivation of Latin in female convents did not just serve liturgical ends, as the most recent scholarship has quite rightly emphasised, but also enabled access to a much more extensive culture of later medieval Latin prayer, manifest in small-format manuscript miscellanies that have hitherto attracted little attention.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt VII
- Vorwort IX
- Zur Einleitung 1
- Württemberg als Kulturlandschaft im späteren Mittelalter 11
- Wissen für den Hof 37
- The Orient in Württemberg 47
- Zur Buchkultur am spätmittelalterlichen württembergischen Hof 67
- Der Schwanenritter in Württemberg 111
- The literary culture of Dominican women in late medieval Germany 157
- Liturgical manuals – liturgical norms 283
- Die Edelsteine der schwäbischen Krone 313
- Gräfin Katharina von Württemberg und die oberschwäbischen Doppelklöster der Prämonstratenser im Mittelalter 345
- Konstruktionen monastischer Identitäten 385
- The ›Alexiuslegende‹ in Esslingen 457
- Württembergisches in Donaueschinger Handschriften? 487
-
Anhang
- Stammtafel 524
- Abkürzungsverzeichnis 526
- Abbildungsnachweis 527
- Handschriftenregister 528
- Register der Personen, Werke und Orte 539
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt VII
- Vorwort IX
- Zur Einleitung 1
- Württemberg als Kulturlandschaft im späteren Mittelalter 11
- Wissen für den Hof 37
- The Orient in Württemberg 47
- Zur Buchkultur am spätmittelalterlichen württembergischen Hof 67
- Der Schwanenritter in Württemberg 111
- The literary culture of Dominican women in late medieval Germany 157
- Liturgical manuals – liturgical norms 283
- Die Edelsteine der schwäbischen Krone 313
- Gräfin Katharina von Württemberg und die oberschwäbischen Doppelklöster der Prämonstratenser im Mittelalter 345
- Konstruktionen monastischer Identitäten 385
- The ›Alexiuslegende‹ in Esslingen 457
- Württembergisches in Donaueschinger Handschriften? 487
-
Anhang
- Stammtafel 524
- Abkürzungsverzeichnis 526
- Abbildungsnachweis 527
- Handschriftenregister 528
- Register der Personen, Werke und Orte 539
