Description
Book SynopsisThe volume explores the hitherto uncharted late medieval religious landscape of Northern Germany, from 13th-century Helfta to the 15th-century Lüneburg convents. The mystical and devotional writing of Northern Germany is contextualised through chapters on the Netherlands, Scandinavia and East Prussia. The seminal influence of the liturgy on these texts and their transmission is revealed in the creative interplay of Latin and Low German. Through the individual chapters and their appendices, which also contain translations into English, the reader can access a wealth of texts produced by communities of religious and lay women who write learnedly in Latin and fervently in Low German. Together, the chapters and appendices reveal a fascinating regional "mystical culture" which also reverberated across Northern Europe. Contributors include: Jürgen Bärsch, Anne Bollmann, Veerle Fraeters, Ulrike Hascher-Burger, Ernst Hellgardt, Tanja Mattern, Balazs Nemes, Sara S. Poor, Eva Schlotheuber, Almut Suerbaum, and Geert Warnar.
Table of ContentsPreface List of Contributors List of Maps List of Illustrations List of Textual Appendices to the Chapters 1 Introduction: Mysticism and Devotion in Northern Germany Elizabeth Andersen, Henrike Lähnemann and Anne Simon 2 Liturgy and Reform: Northern German Convents in the Late Middle Ages Jürgen Bärsch Part One Beginnings and Formations—Mystical Culture and the Helfta Circle 3 Hadewijch of Brabant and the Beguine Movement Veerle Fraeters 4 Transmission and Impact: Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das fließende Licht der Gottheit Sara S. Poor 5 Text Production and Authorship: Gertrude of Helfta’s Legatus divinae pietatis Balázs J. Nemes 6 Latin and the Vernacular: Mechthild of Magdeburg— Mechthild of Hackeborn—Gertrude of Helfta Ernst Hellgardt Part Two Transmission, Transformation and Exchange—Devotional Culture and the Lüneburg Convents 7 Prelude: Northern Circulation of Fourteenth-Century Mystical Texts Geert Warnar 8 An Urban Housewife as a Saint for Prussia: Dorothea of Montau and Johannes Marienwerder Almut Suerbaum 9 Birgitta of Sweden in Northern Germany: Translation, Transmission and Reception Elizabeth Andersen 10 The Influence of the Devotio Moderna in Northern Germany Anne Bollmann 11 Religious Song and Devotional Culture in Northern Germany Ulrike Hascher-Burger 12 Liturgy and Performance in Northern Germany: Two Easter Plays from Wienhausen Tanja Mattern 13 Bilingual Devotion in Northern Germany: Prayer Books from the Lüneburg Convents Henrike Lähnemann 14 Intellectual Horizons: Letters from a Northern German Convent Eva Schlotheuber Illustrations Bibliography Glossary Index
