Medieval Exempla in Transition: Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus Miraculorum and Its Readers

by Victoria Smirnova

Overview

This study follows the transmission and reception of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum (1219–1223), one of the most compelling and successful Cistercian collections of miracles and memorable events, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It ranges across different media and within different interpretive communities and includes brief summaries of a number of the exempla.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879071325
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	01/07/2023
Series:	Cistercian Studies Series , #296
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

 FILLIN "" Victoria Smirnova holds a doctoral degree in medieval Latin literature from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2006) and is currently a research fellow in the Bavarian State Library (Munich). She specializes in medieval sermons and exempla with particular emphasis on Caesarius of Heisterbach, to whose works she has dedicated numerous articles. She is also the principal editor of the collection of essays in The Art of Cistercian Persuasion in the Middle Ages and Beyond (2015).  

Table of Contents

Abbreviations ix

List of Images xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Part 1 The White Monks and Their Stories

1 Cistercian Storytelling in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 3

2 Cistercian Exemplum Production in the Late Thirteenth through Fifteenth Centuries 21

3 Cistercian Manuscripts of the Dialogus miraculorum 35

4 Version B of the Dialogus miraculorum 55

5 Version C of the Dialogus miraculorum 71

6 Versions D and E of the Dialogus miraculorum 85

7 Cistercian Readers interacting with the Dialogus miraculorum 91

8 The Dialogus miraculorum and Other Exempla Collections in Cistercian Libraries 101

Part 2 Outside Cistercian Walls

9 Regular Canons as Readers of the Dialogus miraculorum 133

10 Benedictines, Carthusians, and Mendicant Friars 159

Part 3 The Way into Modernity

11 Incunabulum Editions 193

12 Jacob Fischer's Edition (1591) and the Controversy over Miracles 211

13 Bertrand Tissier's Edition (1662) 229

14 The Dialogus miraculorum and Its Modern Reception: From Derision to Fascination 239

15 From the Twentieth Century to the Present Day: Academia and Popular Culture 255

Appendix I Cited Manuscripts of Caesarius's Dialogus miraculorum 275

Appendix II Summaries of Nine Exempla added to Version B of the Dialogus miraculorum 279

Appendix III Other Cited Manuscripts 285

Bibliography 289

General Index 325

Editorial Reviews

"Victoria Smirnova has written the story of the pivotal exempla collection of the Middle Ages. By contrast to Caesarius' very long book of 300,000 words, her book is concise but comprehensive. She tells the fascinating story of exempla before and after Caesarius Dialogue and traces the book's Cistercian roots and reception by Cistercians and others from Caesarius' time to our own. For anyone interested in exempla, Cistercians, or Caesarius, this book is required reading."
Hugh Feiss, OSB
 


"Victoria Smirnova offers us a thorough, philologically accurate, and enjoyable history of Caesarius of Heisterbach, his stories, and their fortune from the twelfth century to the present day. Both an in-depth study of the Dialogus miraculorum and an introduction to Cistercian exemplary literature, Medieval Exempla in Transition is an outstanding work. Clearly written and meticulously researched, this volume will be a required reading for all scholars and students of the Cistercian world."
Stefano Mula, Middlebury College
 


"Victoria Smirnova’s fascinating and carefully researched study of the reception history of Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogue on Miracles illustrates the myriad ways that Caesarius’s collection of stories captures the imagination of its readers. Smirnova tracks the communities who copied, printed, modified, interpreted, and translated Caesarius’s text, and she guides us through its manuscript and printed history from the thirteenth century to the present day. This is important reading for the study of monasticism and religious life but also for the investigation of medievalisms and the modern reuse of medieval texts."
Martha G Newman, Professor of History and Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
 

"Smirnova's survey is erudite as well as illuminating."
Catholic Books Review

From the Publisher