Medieval Authorship

This article presents a manuscript that significantly enriches the textual corpus of ›Helfta Mysticism‹ with a series of hitherto unknown writings. Aside from this, it contains what is by some distance the oldest copy of the ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹, in the form of a ›special edition‹ that consists of excerpts from the known text as well as new material. This is preceded by a prologue and a florilegium which is marked in an epilogue as Gertrude’s own work. We argue that the epilogue of the florilegium, the prologue and the ›special edition‹ itself were probably composed by ›Sister N‹ of Helfta herself. The article provides a full description of the manuscript (Ms 827), a breakdown of the new ›special edition‹ of the ›Legatus‹-text, and an edition, translation, and close reading of the prologue.

Im Folgenden soll eine Handschrift vorgestellt werden, die die Textbasis der Helftaer Mystik mit einer Reihe von bislang unbekannten Schriften bereichert. Außerdem enthält sie die mit Abstand älteste Abschrift des ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹ in Form einer ›Sonderausgabe‹, die aus Exzerpten aus dem bekannten Textcorpus und aus weiterem bislang nicht bekanntem Material besteht. Dieser geht eine Vorrede und ein im Epilog als Gertruds Werk ausgewiesenes Florilegium voraus, Texte, die wie die ›Sonderausgabe‹ selbst von Schwester N von Helfta stammen dürften. Die vorliegende Studie bietet eine Beschreibung von Ms 827, die Aufschlüsselung der ›Sonderausgabe‹ des ›Legatus‹ sowie Abdruck, Übersetzung und inhaltliche Analyse der Vorrede.

"This article discusses the authorial drafts in Rudolf von Ems’s “World Chronicle”.The frequently problematised blending of creative action and text production is reconstructed as an effect of rhetorical allusion. The article develops the theory that
the tense rhetorical system of the prologue as a whole is underpinned by a secular understanding of authorship which allows the reader to choose between a number of different readings.

Der Beitrag diskutiert die Autorentwürfe in Rudolfs von Ems „Weltchronik“. Die häufig problematisierte Überblendung von Schöpfungshandeln und Textproduktion wird als ein anspielungsrhetorischer Effekt rekonstruiert. Es wird die These entwickelt, dass der spannungsreichen rhetorischen Anlage des Prologs insgesamt ein profanes Verständnis von Autorschaft unterlegt ist, das unterschiedliche Lektüre-Angebote
zur Wahl stellt."

A textual journey through Dante s Comedy must begin from its beginnings. For this reason I chose the utmost classical approach of the lectura to examine the first three cantos as a textual whole in three movements, as they develop the exposition of the Third Way in Thomas demonstration of the existence of God (Summa Theologiae I, II, 3). Dante s Comedy is a unitary text distinguished by a strong hysteron proteron narrative pattern, where the Author embeds in his main character a manifold profile: pilgrim, reporter and narrator. The narrator has grown in experience through the journey from a complete loss of orientation to a gradual regain of the natural order of things, i.e. from a complete mental submission to contingency or disorder misleading to suicide to a natural order of things wanted by God. The Third Way of Thomas demonstration leads from a crypto-atheism, i.e. God does not exist, to the demonstration that a necessary being has to be. I analyzed Thomas Third Way and then applied this perspective to the first three cantos of Dante s Comedy. At the end I noticed that the Comedy as a whole is necessarily contingent, so that a further analysis of the threefold feature of Dante was crucial for the comprehension of the whole. His experience as a man and above all as a man of culture required also awareness of his contemporary culture and of the main influences he may have perceived and left a print in his conscience. Therefore I chose to investigate contingency as a state of the mind, as the medieval philo-theologicians did too: they understood contingency not only as the interaction of matter and form, but as a condition of the soul between earthly disorder and celestial natural order.

This article presents an event probability versus event frequency notation for the linguistic power law, lifting several imperfections of the commonly used Zipf-Mandelbrot expression. The improved notation fulfills the conditions to normalize a power law by data transformation, allowing i.a. authorship attribution problems to be solved by Gaussian statistics.

From a literary point of view, the Early Middle Ages can be defined as an age of compilation. However, the nature of medieval compilation has often been misunderstood. This is because scholars have limited themselves to identifying the source-texts, ignoring deeper aspects such as the nature of tradition and authority, the scope of the compilation and the modes of reception, as well as the recontextualization process that compilation implies. When Hrabanus Maurus composed his "De institutione clericorum" in 818, he borrowed between sixty and seventy per cent of the matter from previous authors, and in fact far from pretending being original, what Hrabanus claims is not originality, but authority, although by the interweaving of his materials and with his relatively few adds he managed to create a different resulting product with a new personality. Using as a case study the "De institutione clericorum", this article addresses the problems posed by the compilation process in relation to the educational methods –mainly mnemonic training – and the spiritual practices of the Carolingian renaissance, specifically the lectio divina and the ruminatio.

Schlagwörter: Literaturtopographie und topographical turn, historische Bibliotheken, Meister Eckhart, Devotio moderna, Augustinerchorherren, Rebdorf

This study aims to establish paths towards a historically-mediated approach to Eckhart, using the example of a specific convent. Those texts that we now associate with Eckhart can be taken as a starting-point. It is of vital methodological importance in this enterprise to define a framework of reference that enables us to isolate readings of Eckhart that were historically possible. This framework of reference can be constituted by the works transmitted alongside the Eckhart texts within a codex, as well as by those beyond it, namely in the library; for both functioned as spaces of reflection and interpretation. The commentary with which the anonymously-transmitted Eckhart sermon No. 52 (the ›Armutspredigt‹) was equipped in Rebdorf serves as the basis to sketch out just what an interpretative approach of this kind would look like, when undertaken at the level of the texts transmitted beyond the central codex in question. The primary focus of this study is not the kind of Eckhart reception that the commentary represents, but the explicit attribution of texts to Eckhart. The presence, frequency of use, and valency of the name ‘Eckhart’ in the Rebdorf library is investigated in order to reveal the contemporary perception – and/or perceptibility – of Eckhart in Rebdorf, without ignoring those cases that appear at first sight to signal a refusal to appropriate Eckhart.

Das Augustinerchorherrenkloster Rebdorf ist kein unbekannter Flecken auf der Landkarte der spätmittelalterlichen Mystik. Seine Erhebungen, zu denen etwa die signifikante Tauler-Überlieferung oder die hochdeutschen Übertragungen von Werken der niederländischen Mystik gehören, haben ‚Mystographen‘ vermessen; die Niederungen, für die die sonstigen Inhalte des weitestgehend erhaltenen Bibliotheksbestandes stehen, findet man in modernen Beschreibungskatalogen oder auch in Spezialuntersuchungen dokumentiert. Freilich gibt es auch weiße Flecken. Zu diesen weißen Flecken gehört etwa die Eckhart-Überlieferung. Die Präsenz eckhartischen Schrifttums in Rebdorf ist keineswegs selbstverständlich, wenn man sich vergegenwärtigt, dass Rebdorf zur Windesheimer Observanz gehörte, deren Frömmigkeitsprofil stark von der Devotio moderna geprägt war. Angesichts des selektiven, ja sogar (auch und gerade im Hinblick auf Eckhart) restriktiven Literaturprogramms der Gründungsväter der Devotio moderna verwundert es, auf Eckhartiana (ob echt oder unecht, spielt keine Rolle) in Rebdorf zu stoßen. Freilich stellt sich dabei die Frage, ob die in Rebdorf anzutreffende Eckhart-Überlieferung solcher Art ist, dass man sie auch Eckhart-Rezeption nennen darf. Es gibt zwei Möglichkeiten, wie man sich dieser Frage nähern kann. Zu Einen kann man nach Präsenz, Frequenz und Valenz des Namens Eckhart in Rebdorf fragen. Damit rückt die zeitgenössische Wahrnehmung bzw. Wahrnehmbarkeit von Eckhart in Rebdorf in den Mittelpunkt der Betrachtungen. Zum Anderen besteht die Möglichkeit, von jenen Texten auszugehen, die wir mit Eckhart in Verbindung bringen. Methodisch unerlässlich ist dabei, einen Bezugsrahmen zu definieren, der uns in die Lage versetzt, historisch mögliche Eckhart-Lektüren zu eruieren, Trampelpfade historischer Textdeutungen aufzudecken. Dieser Bezugsrahmen kann sowohl die kodexinterne, als auch die kodexübergreifende Mitüberlieferung, die Bibliothek – verstanden als eine „begehbare Sammelhandschrift“ (Johannes G. Mayer) – sein, bildet sie doch hier wie dort den Deutungs- und Resonanzraum eines bestimmten Textes. Wie man die kodexübergreifende Mitüberlieferung als Deutungs- und Resonanzraum vorzustellen hat, soll am Beispiel der in Rebdorf anonym überlieferten Armutspredigt (Nr. 52 in der kritischen Eckhart-Ausgabe), genauer: anhand des ihr beigegebenen Kommentars, skizziert werden. Mein Hauptaugenmerk gilt jedoch nicht dieser Art von Eckhart-Rezeption, sondern den expliziten Zuweisungen von Texten an Eckhart, ohne dabei jene Fälle zu unterschlagen, die eine verweigerte Eckhart-Rezeption nahe legen. Wie die kulturwissenschaftlich orientierte Raumforschung setzt die vorliegende Studie einen Topographie-Begriff voraus, der die in der handschriftlichen Überlieferung beobachtbaren epistemologischen Ordnungs- und Verortungsverfahren von geographisch definierbaren Orten und konkreten Institutionen zwar nicht entbindet, doch dabei (ganz im Sinne des "topographical turn") vor allem die Praktiken der Verortung, d. h. das Graphische am Topographischen, akzentuiert.

Modern readers encounter a book assuming that the author has played a vital role in its creation. They anticipate (rightly or wrongly) that the name prominently displayed on the cover has played an active role in the making of the book: i.e., drafting the text; dividing the work into sections; and arranging the contents. In some cases, they might imagine that this author selected the pictures, decided on the captions, and have chosen such material features such as the typeface and paper. While readers know that editors and publishers often shape the final form of modern books in important ways, few would hesitate to affirm that the role of the author is central to the production of the modern book.
There were authors in the medieval Arabic world who were also involved in many aspects of the production of their own books. For instance, the author may have selected the individual poems, letters, stories, or speeches. He may have considered their arrangement. He may have even made an autograph copy on particular paper and using particular ink. Alternatively, the author may have dictated the work aloud to multiple scribes, and authorized them to teach the work through the granting of an ijāza. The particular features of authorial control in an age prior to mechanical reproduction are certainly of vital concern to the student of classical Arabic literature in general and deserve greater awareness on the part of their modern students.
In this article, we address these problems of authorship and authorial control through a particular example: the collection of the maqāmāt of Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī. One of the central works of Classical Arabic literature, the Maqāmāt of al-Hamadhānī has long been known mainly through Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s standard edition first print 1889.

http://www.bebeverlag.at/analecta-cisterciensia/

The focus of my paper centers on those narratives recorded in the Prologues of the Standard as well as in the Special Edition of the “Legatus” (Leipzig, University Library, Ms 827) pertaining to the circumstances surrounding the text’s genesis, the levels of its redaction, and the respective shares of the individual contributors. My main objective is to demonstrate that it is entirely irresponsible from a literature-historical perspective to disqualify this narrative, composed by an unknown sister of Gertrude’s community, the compilatrix Sister N, as uncertain or even false solely on the grounds that not all details are empirically-factually verifiable. Rather, it is necessary to gauge them according to their own stated claim to veracity and to inquire as to their function within the context of the respective text version. Consequently, the statements contained in the Standard and in the Special Edition of the “Legatus” regarding the text’s genesis will not be viewed primarily as cultural-historical exploitable facts concerning the factual literary production at Helfta. Nevertheless, it is imperative that we not lose sight of the actual circumstances of the genesis of the mystical literature produced in Helfta, and must now reassess them in view of the newly discovered “Legatus” manuscript in Leipzig.

ERROR CORRECTION: The new discovered manuscript Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, ms. 827 doesn't contain any information about Gertrude's family name. Although the manuscript enriches the textual corpus of ›Helfta Mysticism‹ with a series of hitherto unknown writings. Aside from this, it contains what is by some distance the oldest copy of the ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹, in the form of a ›special edition‹ that consists of excerpts from the known text as well as new material (revelationes extravagantes!). This is preceded by a prologue and a florilegium which is marked in an epilogue as Gertrude’s own work. There is an article that argues that the epilogue of the florilegium, the prologue and the ›special edition‹ itself were probably composed by ›Sister N‹ of Helfta herself. The article provides a full description of the manuscript (Ms 827), a breakdown of the new ›special edition‹ of the ›Legatus‹-text, and an edition, translation, and close reading of the prologue, see Almuth Märker/Balázs J. Nemes: "hunc tercium conscripsi cum maximo labore occultandi" Schwester N von Helfta und ihre 'Sonderausgabe' des "Legatus diviniae pietatis" Gertruds von Helfta in der Leipziger Handschrift Ms 827, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 137.2 (2015), S. 248-296.

The corpus of works produced by the visionary nuns at Helfta illustrates the complexity of both textual transmission and authorial identity in the high and late Middle Ages. By tracing the transmission of texts – either in their entirety or in extracts – and by documenting hitherto unknown manuscript witnesses to that transmission, this contribution demonstrates the extent of interconnected monastic networks and the impact of visionary texts from Helfta. The choice of extracts, their adaptation and their integration into new contexts are particularly crucial for understanding the processes of transmission and nature of authorship. Topics: collective and cooperative authorship, divine authorisation, the process of codifying revelations against the background of monastic "memoria".

Title: On the edition (and for the edition) of pilgrimage accounts and descriptions of the Holy Land: preliminary remarks on the works of Paul Walther von Guglingen.
Published in: "Ad stellam". Il Libro d´Oltramare di Niccolò da Poggibonsi e altri resoconti di pellegrinaggio in Terra Santa fra Medioevo ed Età moderna, ed. by Edoardo Barbieri, Milan 2019

Full text open access (UGent site) >> https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8634997/file/8634998

This interdisciplinary PhD thesis, abridging the computational analysis of texts with medieval cultural history and literary studies, treats the collaborative aspect of twelfth-century Latin literature by applying computional stylistics, a methodology which allows to make a statistically founded assessment of disputed texts’ authorship(s) through the automatic detection of textual writing patterns. Five case studies of twelfth-century writing partnerships in Latin are investigated, in which sensitive questions surrounding authority, synergy and gender take a prominent place. These case studies involve Bernard of Clairvaux and his secretary Nicholas of Montiéramey († 1176/8), Elisabeth of Schönau (1129–1164/5) and her brother Ekbert († 1184), Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) and her biographers, Suger of Saint-Denis (1080/1–1151) and his entourage, and the renowned twelfth-century lovers and correspondents Heloise of Argenteuil († 1164) and Peter Abelard (1079–1142).

The aim is to contribute to and challenge the predominant historical and literary paradigms by which medieval authorship are studied, and allow to formulate new cultural-historical questions. Thereby the usual application of stylometric methods is extended beyond mere authorship attribution, and the practical and theoretical usefulness of computational stylistics  as a new model for the analysis of medieval Latin authorship is assessed. This thesis’s  most important hypothesis is that computational stylistics provides a more accurate and objective means for capturing the ‘distributionality’ of twelfth-century authorship.

Despite the fact that all Icelandic family sagas are anonymous and, in most cases, preserved in more than one version, the idea of tracing each saga to a specific author is still strong in contemporary scholarship. The author is thought to be necessary as a reference point for the interpretation of a text within a certain historical context, as well as the creative agency behind the text as a literary artwork. The sagas' anonymity is thus considered to be a deficit of the corpus, since from our modern perspective it is difficult to regard a text without an identified author as a truly literary artwork. Tracing texts back to a specific historical person could remove the blemish of anonymity and allow us to use extratextual information for interpretation, but this process works against the qualities of mouvance and variance that are characteristic of the sagas' long process of transmission and dissemination. This chapter will first present various approaches to medieval authorship, before discussing the related concepts of 'weak' and 'heteronomous authorship' and the rhizomatic character of medi eval literature. Sneglu-Halla þáttr will serve as a representative product of heteronomous authorship; it will be shown that the application of these concepts to that text neither results in a neglection of its aesthetics nor in the disintegration of its 'identity' as a literary work. It is the objective of this chapter to demonstrate that anonymity and an idea of heteronomous authorship are generic features of the Icelandic sagas.

This article explores by aid of stylometric methods the collaborative authorship of the Vita Hildegardis, Hildegard of Bingen’s (auto-?)biography. Both Hildegard and her biographers gradually contributed to the text in the course of the last years of Hildegard’s life, and it was posthumously completed in the mid-1180s by end redactor Theoderic of Echternach. In between these termini a quo and ante quem the work was allegedly taken up but left unfinished by secretaries Godfrey of Disibodenberg and Guibert of Gembloux. In light of the fact that the Vita is an indispensable source in gaining historical knowledge on Hildegard’s life, the question has often been raised whether the Life of Hildegard is – by dint of contributions by multiple stakeholders – a larger-than-life depiction of the visionary’s life course. Specifically the ‘autobiographical’ passages included in the Vita, in which Hildegard is allegedly cited directly and is taken to recount biographical information in the first-person singular, have been approached with suspicion. By applying state-of-the-art computational methods for the automatic detection of writing style (stylometry), the delicate questions of authenticity and collaborative authorship of this (auto?)hagiographical text are addressed.

Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University, 10.-13. Mai 2018, Vortrag im Rahmen des 53. internationalen mediävistischen Kongresses, Panel „Questions about The Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness raised by the discovery of Leipzig manuscript, Ms 827“ (Sponsoren/Veranstalter: The Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies, Western Michigan University und The Committee for the Nomination of St. Gertrude as a Doctor of the Church) ----- The focus of my presentation will center on those narratives recorded in the Prologues of the Standard as well as in the Special Edition of the “Legatus” (Leipzig, Ms 827) pertaining to the circumstances surrounding the text’s genesis, the levels of its redaction, and the respective shares of the individual contributors. My main objective is to demonstrate that it is entirely irresponsible from a literature-historical perspective to disqualify this narrative, composed by an unknown sister of Gertrude’s community, the compilatrix Sister N, as uncertain or even false solely on the grounds that not all details are empirically-factually verifiable. Rather, it is necessary to gauge them according to their own stated claim to veracity and to inquire as to their function within the context of the respective text version. Consequently, the statements contained in the Standard and in the Special Edition of the “Legatus” regarding the text’s genesis will not be viewed primarily as cultural-historical exploitable facts concerning the factual literary production at Helfta. Nevertheless, it is imperative that we not lose sight of the actual circumstances of the genesis of the mystical literature produced in Helfta, and must now reassess them in view of the newly discovered “Legatus” manuscript in Leipzig.

Birgitta of Sweden (Birgitta Birgersdotter, 1302/03–1373) and her younger contemporary Catherine of Siena (Caterina Benincasa, 1347–1380) form the most powerful and influential female duo in European history. Both enjoyed saintly reputations in life while acting as the charismatic leaders of a considerable group of followers consisting of clergy as well as mighty secular men and women. They are also among the very few women of the Trecento to leave a substantial body of written work, which was widely disseminated in their original languages and in translations. Copies of Birgitta’s Liber celestis revelacionum (The Heavenly Book of Revelations) and compilations of Catherine’s letters (Le lettere) and prayers (Le orazi- oni) and her theological work Il Dialogo della divina Provvidenza (The Dialogue) found their way into monastic, royal, and humanist libraries all over Europe. After their deaths, Birgitta’s and Catherine’s respective groups of supporters sought to have them formally canonized. In both cases, however, their political and theological outspokenness, orally and in text, and their public authority represented obstacles.
In this comparative study, leading scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds offer, for the very first time, a comprehensive exploration of the lives and activities of Birgitta and Catherine in tandem. Particular attention is given to their literary works and the complex process of ne- gotiating their sanctity and authorial roles. Above all, what the chapters reveal is the many points of connections between two of the most influ- ential women of the Trecento and how they were related to one another by their peers and successors.

Contributors: Roger Andersson, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Unn Falkeid, Gábor Klaniczay, F. Thomas Luongo, Silvia Nocentini, Maria H. Oen, Camille Rouxpetel, Jane Tylus, and André Vauchez

Using the narratological tool of focalisation, this book examines the narrator’s voice to show how three men - Makarios (late c. C13th–C14th), a monk; Constantine Akropolites (d.c. 1324), a statesman; and an Anonymous educated wordsmith (c. C9th) - knowingly tailored their compositions to influence an audience and to foster their individual interests. Each opted to rewrite the martyrdom of a female virgin saint who suffered and died centuries earlier. Their adaptations, respectively, were of St Ia of Persia, St Horaiozele of Constantinople, and St Tatiana of Rome.

Ia is described as a victim of the persecutions of the Persian Shahanshah, Shapur II (309–79 CE); Horaiozele was allegedly a disciple of St Andrew and killed anachronistically under the emperor Decius (249–51 CE); and Tatiana, we are told, was a deaconess martyred during the reign of emperor Alexander Severus (222–35 CE).

The book provides the first translations and commentaries of the passions of these virgin martyrs as well as literary and historical backgrounds for each text. The implications of the analysis are far-reaching: the monograph considers the agency of the hagiographer; the instrumental use of the authorial persona and its impact on the audience; and hagiography as a layered discourse.

Full text open access (UGent site) >> https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8634997/file/8634998 This interdisciplinary PhD thesis, abridging the computational analysis of texts with medieval cultural history and literary studies, treats the collaborative aspect of twelfth-century Latin literature by applying computional stylistics, a methodology which allows to make a statistically founded assessment of disputed texts’ authorship(s) through the automatic detection of textual writing patterns. Five case studies of twelfth-century writing partnerships in Latin are investigated, in which sensitive questions surrounding authority, synergy and gender take a prominent place. These case studies involve Bernard of Clairvaux and his secretary Nicholas of Montiéramey († 1176/8), Elisabeth of Schönau (1129–1164/5) and her brother Ekbert († 1184), Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) and her biographers, Suger of Saint-Denis (1080/1–1151) and his entourage, and the renowned twelfth-century lovers and correspondents Heloise of Argenteuil († 1164) and Peter Abelard (1079–1142). The aim is to contribute to and challenge the predominant historical and literary paradigms by which medieval authorship are studied, and allow to formulate new cultural-historical questions. Thereby the usual application of stylometric methods is extended beyond mere authorship attribution, and the practical and theoretical usefulness of computational stylistics as a new model for the analysis of medieval Latin authorship is assessed. This thesis’s most important hypothesis is that computational stylistics provides a more accurate and objective means for capturing the ‘distributionality’ of twelfth-century authorship.

Against the backdrop of the discussion in recent German Medieval Studies concerning the handling of early- and pre-modern textuality and the entities of textual authorization, my dissertation provides a critical analysis of a model of textual history in Mechthild-studies which is based on the supposition that there was a single textual architect and the one original composed by him; a source which has become the origin of the Latin and German tradition of "Fließendes Licht" . This assumption's eligibility has to be verified. It takes place in two steps and aims at demonstrating the process character of the ‚transition of the text becoming a book’ (‚Buchwerdung der Schrift‘) and the ‚I becoming an author’ (‚Autorwerdung des Ich‘), showing its implications for the textual state and the authorship of "Fließendes Licht".

Vor dem Hintergrund der altgermanistischen Diskussion um den Umgang mit früh- und vormoderner Textualität und den Instanzen der Textautorisation findet im vorliegenden Buch eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit dem ‚Ein Werk/ein Autor‘-Modell der Mechthild-Forschung statt. Diese erfolgt in zwei Schritten. Zunächst gilt es, den textgeschichtlichen Status der beiden Überlieferungszweige des ›Fließenden Lichts‹ neu zu verhandeln und die daraus resultierenden Konsequenzen für die Verfasserschaft zu reflektieren. Erwartungsgemäß ist die Herangehensweise an die Frage nach der Autorschaft des ›Fließenden Lichts‹ in diesem Zusammenhang eine primärtextgeschichtliche bzw. produktionstechnische. Diese Sicht wird in einem zweiten Schritt in eine rezeptionsorientierte Perspektive überführt, so dass nach der ‚Buchwerdung der Schrift‘ die Frage nach der ‚Autorwerdung des Ich‘ im Mittelpunkt steht. Die Schlagworte dabei lauten: ‚Autorkonkretisation‘ und ‚Re-Personalisierung der Autorrolle‘.


REZENSIONEN/REVIEWS: Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 131 (2012), S. 121-126 (Gisela Vollmann-Profe) http://www.zfdphdigital.de/ce/balazs-j-nemes-von-der-schrift-zum-buch-vom-ich-zum-autor-zur-text-und-autorkonstitution-in-ueberlieferung-und-rezeption-des-fliessenden-lichts-der-gottheit-mechthilds-von-magdeburg/detail.html --- Mediaevistik 25 (2012), S. 536-538 (John M. Jeep) http://aclassen.faculty.arizona.edu/sites/aclassen.faculty.arizona.edu/files/Bd.25.Reviews.pdf --- Medium Aevum (Oxford) 82:1 (2013), S. 163-164 (Catherine Squires) http://istina.msu.ru/media/publications/articles/d87/b89/3821977/pp._163-164_Squires.pdf --- Zeitschrift für thüringische Geschichte 67 (2013), S. 424-427 (Jörg Voigt) --- Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur 105 (2013), S. 703-705 (Sara S. Poor) http://mon.uwpress.org/content/105/4/703.full.pdf+html.

The article discusses selected forms of interventions around and into the historical texts assembled in three miscellanies from the 14th century (BAV, Vat. lat. 5001; Paris, BnF, fr. 688, and Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, VIII.C.9). Three aspects of editorial agency of their designers are of particular interest. First, the selection of pre-existing works according to certain thematic threads. Second, presenting the miscellany to a target audience. The destination other than private may be hypothesized from the paratext or near-contemporary evidence of use. Third, the modifications of the original paratextual apparatus and also of the very content of the received texts. It is argued that by virtue of the variety and scale of those interventions, the three miscellanies verge on historical writings.

María de Francia es la primera escritora que, tras las trobairitz, inicia la escritura femenina en la Edad Media en una lengua que no era el latín. Su obra recoge tipologías muy diversas y novedosas pertenecientes a la narrativa breve. En nuestro estudio abordaremos su importancia como "autora" de un texto enmarcado en la literatura de visiones, L’Espurgatoire Seint Patriz, cuyos antecedentes se encuentran en el Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii, escrito a finales del siglo XII por el monje H. de Saltrey. Como ella misma aclara, su intención excede la traslación a vulgar, siendo además la iniciadora femenina de esta modalidad en lengua romance, y por eso esta conciencia en su tarea de escritura constituye una nota relevante para valorar su “autoría” en el seno de una tradición que comienza a desquebrajarse.

This article discusses the presence of the Historia de preliis J2, one of the most influential narratives of the deeds of Alexander the Great, in the compilation of historical and geographical texts by Guido da Pisa, with particular attention to the representation of the wonders of the East . The author argues that Guido da Pisa may have been the compiler of the Historia de preliis J2. This hypotheses is supported by the characteristics of the use of Orosius’ Histories in the Historia de preliis J2 and in Guido’s oeuvre.

This chapter focuses on the question of Birgitta of Sweden’s and Catherine of Siena’s status as authors with emphasis on the visual representations of the two women in the manuscripts containing their texts. Images found in the earliest extant codices portray Birgitta in the act of writing—an extremely uncommon visual rendering of a female author in the medieval period—whereas Catherine is never depicted with a pen in her hand. This difference emerges as a paradox when contrasted with representations of the two women in their respective texts, where Birgitta is often put forward as a passive medium while Catherine explicitly is delineated as a writer with agency. The tension between texts and images serves as the point of departure for scrutinizing the role of the visual in shaping the authority of their works as well as notions of Birgitta and Catherine as authors in a time when female literary authority was still controversial.

La scrittura negli ultimi secoli del Medioevo era un’attività molto diversa da quella di oggi. Differenze tecnologiche e varietà delle tecniche e pratiche scrittorie sono da analizzarsi nella loro reciproca interazione, così come le diverse concezioni di autore e opera. L’intervento affronterà queste tematiche rifacendosi al caso specifico del convento francescano del Monte Sion a Gerusalemme, che fu un centro di un’intensa rielaborazione di testi sulla Terra Santa, caratterizzata dal continuo riutilizzo delle fonti in nuove compilazioni e manoscritti miscellanei. Risulta difficoltoso definire l’identità di queste opere e comprendere le scelte terminologiche effettuate dai francescani nel classificare i loro lavori come descriptio, chronica o tractatus. Solo una riflessione fondata anche su dati paleografici e codicologici può aiutarci a risolvere questi complessi problemi di categorizzazione.
Parte del seminario:
https://www.academia.edu/35181940/Il_testo_incarnato_._Prospettive_di_materialit%C3%A0_testuale_Zurigo_4-5_dicembre_2017

El presente trabajo, presentado en el congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Medievales de 2012, reflexiona sobre la concepción de autoría en la textualidad  medieval. Luego de una pequeña introducción en que se recapitula la controversia de las últimas décadas acerca de la noción de autor en la Edad Media, se procede al análisis de un poema de Konrad von Würzburg (Ton 32) compuesto en el último tercio del siglo XIII y de uno de Alfonso X (Pero da Pont á feito) de mediados de ese siglo. El poema de Konrad tematiza en forma explícita la relación de "propiedad" entre autor y obra. Konrad acusa a algunos poetas contemporáneos de "robar arte" y engañar al público con una creación que no les pertenece. El poema de Alfonso, por su parte, acusa a Pero da Pont de plagiar a otro poeta. El análisis intentará ubicar estas composiciones en sus respectivos contextos culturales y literarios y entender desde una perspectiva histórica el posible significado de lo expresado en ellas. En ambos casos es posible establecer una relación entre rédito económico y propiedad sobre las creaciones poéticas en el marco del sistema de mecenazgo. Esta relación es lo que posibilita el incipiente desarrollo de una figura de autor en la Edad Media.

Review of Edoardo D'Angelo and Jan Ziolkowski, eds. Auctor et Auctoritas in Latinis Medii Aevi Litteris / Author and Authorship in Medieval Latin Literature: Proceedings of the VIth Congress of the International Medieval Latin Committee (Benevento-Naples, November 9–13, 2010). Firenze: Sismel-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2014.

This article explores by aid of stylometric methods the collaborative authorship of the Vita Hildegardis, Hildegard of Bingen's (auto-?)biography. Both Hildegard and her biographers gradually contributed to the text in the course of the last years of Hildegard's life, and it was posthumously completed in the mid-1180s by end redactor Theoderic of Echternach. In between these termini a quo and ante quem the work was allegedly taken up but left unfinished by secretaries Godfrey of Disibodenberg and Guibert of Gembloux. In light of the fact that the Vita is an indispensable source in gaining historical knowledge on Hildegard's life, the question has often been raised whether the Life of Hildegard is – by dint of contributions by multiple stakeholders – a larger-than-life depiction of the visionary's life course. Specifically the 'autobiographical' passages included in the Vita, in which Hildegard is allegedly cited directly and is taken to recount biographical i...

Résumé de l'intervention au colloque „Zitatkulturen“, Tagung des Mediävistischen Arbeitskreises Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel
8-9 novembre 2018 :
Experts de la citation comme compilateurs de sources, comment les encyclopédistes médiévaux citaient-ils leurs sources ? Sous quelle forme et avec quel degré d’exactitude ? Avaient-ils la volonté de les « marquer », de les référencer systématiquement ? à quel moment de la compilation de leur documentation ? Selon quels critères ? Avaient-ils des modèles pour la méthode de citation ? Appliquaient-ils une hiérarchie entre les auctoritates ? Peut-on en dresser une typologie selon l’origine et la nature des sources utilisées ? Le type de référence varie-t-il selon la valeur accordée à la source ? Quelle était la conscience et le statut de la pseudépigraphie ? Y avait-il des marqueurs de sources génériques pour un type de citations ? Y avait-il parfois auto-citation ? Le fait de citer verbatim était-il considéré comme plus souhaitable que de le faire ad sensum ? Le type de citation, littéral ou non, influençait-il la référence aux sources ? Une simple réminiscence était-elle considérée comme une source ? Dans quels cas une citation sans référence était-elle reconnaissable ? Peut-on repérer des cas de passage de citations d’une langue à l’autre ?
En bref, quelles étaient l’origine, la fonction et les modalités de la citation dans les encyclopédies ?
Ce sont les questions auxquelles tente de répondre cette communication, en centrant le propos sur une époque d’assimilation intense de nouvelles auctoritates, 1180-1260 et en comparant la culture et la pratique de la citation à cette période avec d’autres moments de l’histoire intellectuelle médiévale. Le Libellus apologeticus de Vincent de Beauvais, véritable manuel du rédacteur d’encyclopédies, fournit des exemples, qui sont mis à l’épreuve d’autres cas de compilations encyclopédiques.