Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg
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Björn Klaus Buschbeck
Abstract
This chapter investigates the sixteenth-century manuscripts from the female Dominican convent of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg. For the time between the Protestant Reformation reaching Strasbourg in the 1520s and the convent’s closure in 1592, six manuscript books as well as several fragments and archival documents can be attributed to this religious house. They show that the convent’s scriptorium used an archaizing script and fashioned its books after late medieval models. Analyzing the design and content of the extant manuscripts, which include sermons, prayerbooks and devotional texts, this chapter argues that the sisters drew on medieval book culture to emphasize and affirm the continuity of their form of religious life. They copied texts that allowed them to practice a distinctly Catholic piety, created visual ties to their convent’s past, and used miniatures and books as gifts to network with other remaining Catholic communities. Thus, their anachronistic books helped the sisters to both persist and resist within the increasingly hostile environment of the Protestant city.
Abstract
This chapter investigates the sixteenth-century manuscripts from the female Dominican convent of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg. For the time between the Protestant Reformation reaching Strasbourg in the 1520s and the convent’s closure in 1592, six manuscript books as well as several fragments and archival documents can be attributed to this religious house. They show that the convent’s scriptorium used an archaizing script and fashioned its books after late medieval models. Analyzing the design and content of the extant manuscripts, which include sermons, prayerbooks and devotional texts, this chapter argues that the sisters drew on medieval book culture to emphasize and affirm the continuity of their form of religious life. They copied texts that allowed them to practice a distinctly Catholic piety, created visual ties to their convent’s past, and used miniatures and books as gifts to network with other remaining Catholic communities. Thus, their anachronistic books helped the sisters to both persist and resist within the increasingly hostile environment of the Protestant city.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
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I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
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II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
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III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
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IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
-
I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
-
II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
-
III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
-
IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
