Engelthaler sister book

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The Engelthaler sister book ( Von der genaden uberlast - Von der Gnaden überlast ) is a sister book that was created in the Dominican convent Engelthal near Nuremberg and is attributed to Christine Ebner . It contains (mostly short) reports about nuns , which are interpreted mystically in the field of tension between merit and grace . The focus is on dying as a transition into existence with God, whereby the right earthly lifestyle finds its proof.

Dating and tradition

The Engelthaler sister book was probably made between 1328 and 1346. The text has been handed down in three manuscripts N, W and Wo and some fragments. According to the testimony of the Inzigkofener manuscript W (from 1451) the author is Christine Ebner: Instead of the wording in N 42,13f. at the stund ich can be read in W f.118 r : by der stůnd ich cristin ebnerin .

Handwriting Explanation
Schröder Critical edition of overload of grace due to the ms. N (quoted: N)
N Tradition of overload of grace in Hs. N (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum , cod. 1338)
W. Tradition of overload of grace in Hs. W (Vienna, Schottenkloster , cod. 308, catalog no. 234, formerly Inzigkofen), f. 84 r -119 BC
Where Tradition of overload of grace in Hs. Wo (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek , Cod. Guelf. 22 Aug. 4 °)
FS Gnaden-Leben des Friedrich Sunder (edited by Ringler 1980, pp. 391-444): the section FS 1859-70 (Hs. W f. 225 v -226 r ) corresponds to N 41.10-23
H Kirchberger sister book , version KiH: the section KiH 13.3-27 corresponds to N 8.1-9.3
Codex N The Codex N XXXV according to the catalog of the former St. Catherine's Monastery in Nuremberg cannot be found today.

(Overview according to Ringler 1980, p. 82, with more recent additions)

Content and intention

The sisters' book begins with a relatively detailed founding story, which provides informative information about the development of a monastery from an original collection of beginnings . The main part consists of more or less detailed reports from the lives of 45 monastery sisters, as well as about some people close to the monastery.

As in other sister books of this time, these short vitae of gifted members of the monastery in the Engelthaler sister book should not only serve to increase the fame of the convent. Rather, it is important to use these vitae in the pictorial language of visions to represent questions of right living and aspects of theology, as they were discussed in the course of mystical spirituality. Topics of the Engelthaler sister book are z. For example: the Trinity, veneration of saints, asceticism, enduring suffering, exercising monastic offices, preparing for death, giving meaning to death. The strong emphasis on the virtue of justice and the problematization of monastic obedience is striking . - two topics that are particularly important in Christine Ebner's revelations , while Adelheid Langmann does not focus on them.

In contrast, mystical experiences in the narrower sense are rare. The somewhat didactic orientation of the subject also explains that the sister books received new attention in the monastery reforms of the 15th century; An example is the handwriting W of the reform monastery Inzigkofen , which also contains copies of the sister books of Kirchberg and Gotteszell .

According to the descriptions, all but one of the nuns in Engelthal Monastery experienced states of ecstasy. The baby Jesus appeared to several sisters, often shortly before their death, and comforted them. Self-flagellation was one of the daily ascetic exercises. Sister Anne Vorhtlin was one of the nuns who practiced severe mortification: "She performed her great services with great diligence and was also a beloved martyr: she wore a hair dress and often shed her blood through the love of our Lord." At Christmas she had a vision of the baby Jesus on hay, who had stung his body. He later appeared to her as an older, playing child. She said to the child: "And if I had you, I would eat you with real love." Often there were visions of the Child Jesus in the form of the host .

Text sample

As an example for the Engelthaler sister book the vita of Mehthilt von Neitstein , a rather shorter vita:

“A sister hiez Mehthilt von Neitstein and come from
the hof dez graven von Hirzberch, and waited a hearty diner gotes
and waint an irm prayers every day for umb daz ir got a good
end born. Dec he judged them and gave ir even a pending kill.
Do you come back after death and said:
I have got un- mezzigen lon to give it to the covent as getrev who was
, and sunderlich that you suffered at the priolamt het von
trewen. "

- From the e-text of Thomas Gloning after the issuance of Schröder 1871

See also

literature

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • Susanne Bürkle: Literature in the monastery. Historical function and rhetorical legitimation of women-mystical texts from the 14th century (= Bibliotheca Germanica, 38). Tübingen, Basel 1999.
  • Gertrud Jaron Lewis: By women, for women, about women. The Sister-Books of Fourteenth-Century Germany (= Studies and texts. 125). Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 1996.
  • Sandra Linden: From the earthly to the heavenly convent. The tree vision as an interpretation access to the portrayal of death in the Engelthaler sister book. In: Oxford German Studies 29 (2000), pp. 31-76.
  • Siegfried Ringler : Christine Ebner. In: VL² , 2, 297-302 (1980).
  • Siegfried Ringler: Life and revelation literature in women's monasteries in the Middle Ages. Sources and Studies . Artemis, Munich 1980, pp. 82-91 u. ö. (see register)

Web links

Wikisource: Engelthaler sister book  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Terminus post quem is 1328 as the year of death of the monastery chaplain Friedrich Sunder, whose death is reported in the sister book: Schröder p. 40, 24ff .; see. Ringler, Viten- und Revelationsliteratur p. 364. Susanne Bürkle assumes the year 1346 as terminus ante quem ; see. Bürkle 1999, p. 123 ff.
  2. ^ N: Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum , cod. 1338. W: Vienna, Schottenkloster (formerly Inzigkofen), cod. 308 (Catalog No. 234). Where: Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 22 Aug. 4 °. N is the oldest of the three manuscripts and is dated to the middle of the 14th century.
  3. ↑ See Ringler 1980, pp. 88f.
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. N 9,7: because it minted justice as sere ; too obedient cf. z. B. N, 5.22-29; 24.17
  5. ↑ See Ebner, Christine (1871), p. 2 and 22nd
  6. ↑ See Ebner, Christine (1871), pp. 24, 25 and 32.
  7. ↑ See, inter alia, Ebner, Christine (1871), pp. 9, 10 and 17th
  8. ↑ Christine Ebner (1871), p. 36, also Thoma Gloning, http://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/1350engt.htm : “She ts the biggest ampt with big meat and waz dar a mocked martyr: she wore a shirt and often forgot her blood through the love of our lords. "
  9. ↑ Christine Ebner (1871), p. 36; Der Nun von Engelthal Booklet of the straight overload (before 1350), http://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/1350engt.htm : “After a crist seam after the metin, there was one in front of you old man and saw daz minneclich kint leagues on a herten hev, daz het sin zartez leiblin pierced through, daz ez red rennelin het. "
  10. ↑ See Ebner, Christine (1871), p. 36.
  11. ↑ See Ebner, Christine (1871), p. 25 and 26th