Sister book

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Handwriting of the Tösser sister book

Sister book (plur. Also Nonnenviten , in English-language specialist literature Sister Books or Convent Chronicles ) is the term for a genre of monastic life literature within the German-speaking area . The individual works were created in the first half of the 14th century in the Dominican - monasteries in southern Germany and Switzerland . In short reports or vitae they describe the grace experiences of monastery members.

Works

According to current sources, the inventory of sister books is clearly defined, with a total of nine works known:

For some works, the name of the author is mentioned or can be made available.

It goes without saying that the current author term is not to be used as a starting point. Most of the works (with the exception of Engelthal and Unterlinden) have an open form so that the basic collection could be expanded; Incidentally, an editorial team could also be involved behind the author.

Otherwise, the sister books have been handed down anonymously. In some cases there are several versions of a sister's book in which the basic inventory of individual vitae has been expanded or shortened. Several previously independent revelation records or grace vites of individual nuns are abbreviated incorporated several times . Most of the surviving manuscripts date from the 15th century, when the texts were copied, partly modified and passed on, especially in the course of the monastery reform in reform monasteries such as Pillenreuth , Inzigkofen and the Katharinenkloster Nürnberg . Particularly noteworthy is the Dominican monastery reformer Johannes Meyer (1422–1482), who promoted the copying of sister books (sometimes with a different intention).

content

Some of the nurses' books begin with a brief, mostly exaggerated legend, of the founding history of the monastery, whereby less the historical facts than the attitude and heroic actions of the founders are taken into account. The central content of the books is then the following reports about a more or less large number of deceased monastery members, whereby not only convent sisters, but also lay sisters and sometimes also male people associated with the monastery come into view. The presentation concentrates on those events in which the respective person acted in a particularly exemplary manner or in which they participated in special experiences of grace. Sometimes a counter-image is shown when the failure of a person or the loss of gifts of grace is reported. All in all, essential aspects of monastic as well as individual religious life are discussed, often also current theological problems: from questions of monastic obedience, forms of asceticism and the vita activa and contemplativa to the doctrine of grace and the dogma of the Trinity .

Literary form

The predominant form of representation is the sequence of short vitae, each of which is not about a representation of the entire life of a person, but solely about their relationship to God and their behavior in the monastery community. The Vitas fratrum / Vitae fratrum of the Dominican order of men may have served as a model for this , which in turn refer to the model of the Vitas patrum / Vitae patrum . Stylistically, as in the lives of grace, the forms and structures of legendary narration are particularly characteristic; The language of mysticism is present in the choice of words and motifs, on the other hand, with regard to the images of the Cistercian love of God as well as to the concepts of Dominican speculative theology. Basically, this means, especially for today's readers, that they have to take the visual language of the texts seriously. If, for example, Jesus is seen as a child in the host in a scene, it is not a fantasy product of a miraculous nun, but a pictorial authentication of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, i.e. the dogma of transubstantiation . There are parallels to the miracle stories of the time, although the miracle is mystically internalized in the sister books : as an attitude of virtue or a gift of grace.

Intentions

The sister books are by no means aimed at highlighting individual people and their “extraordinary”, supernatural experiences such as raptures or visions. Rather, they have their “ seat in life ” in the monastic community, in that they also serve the self-assurance of the monastic community and the “memoria” of their deceased members as well as the monastic instruction. After the “heroic” times of the founding of the monastery, it was important to convey the religious intentions and experiences of the founders to the next generation. The main focus is the new form of spirituality, as it had developed since the 12th century in the form of women's mysticism , in which a deepened personal relationship with God is sought, both spiritually and emotionally, which is what the term “mystical” now often stands for . In short, one can understand the sister books as “a doctrine of practical mysticism ”.

meaning

While in the past the sister books were often devalued as products of naive nuns and as an expression of a shallow mysticism, today they are receiving new attention as authentic evidence of a female monastic writing culture. Since theological tracts were only allowed for men, highly educated women use narrative forms here, especially in the form of vision reports , to present or discuss concepts of religious thought and action.

At the same time, these books are important documents for the history of German mysticism . They show that the mysticism in the women's monasteries was not just a consequence of the Dominican sermon; rather, it preceded this in some monasteries. In the discourse with the religious experiences of women, Meister Eckhart , Johannes Tauler , Heinrich Seuse and others then developed their mystical theology and pastoral care.

literature

  • Béatrice W. Acklin-Zimmermann: Touching God in Thought. The theological implications of the nuns' lives (= Dokimion 14). Friborg (Switzerland) 1993.
  • Walter Blank: The nuns of the 14th century. A study of the hagiographic literature of the Middle Ages with a special focus on visions and light phenomena. Dissertation Freiburg i. Br. 1962
  • Hester McNeal Reed Gehring: The Language of Mysticism in South German Dominican Convent Chronicles of the XIVth Century. Phil. Diss. Michigan 1957
  • Georg Kunze: Studies on the nuns' lives of the German Middle Ages. A contribution to religious literature in the Middle Ages. Diss. (Mach.) Hamburg 1953
  • Otto Langer: Mystical Experience and Spiritual Theology. On Master Eckhart's examination of the piety of women of his time (= Munich texts and studies on German literature of the Middle Ages 91). Artemis, Munich / Zurich 1987 ( table of contents ).
  • Gertrud Jaron Lewis: Bibliography on German women's mysticism in the Middle Ages. With an appendix to Beatrijs van Nazareth and Hadewijch by Frank Willaert and Marie-Jose Govers (= Bibliographies on German Medieval Literature, No. 10). E. Schmidt, Berlin 1989.
  • Gertrud Jaron Lewis: By Women, for Women, about Women. The Sister-Books of Fourteenth-Century Germany (= Studies and Texts 125). Toronto 1996.
  • Ruth Meyer: The St. Katharinentaler sister book. Investigation, edition, commentary (= Munich texts on German literature of the Middle Ages, volume 104). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1995, ISBN 3-484-89104-1 , also dissertation University of Munich, 1994 (edition of the manuscript Kantonsbibliothek Thurgau , Y 74).
  • Walter Muschg (Ed.): Mystical texts from the Middle Ages. Klosterberg Collection, Swiss Series. Benno Schwabe publishing house, Basel 1943; again Diogenes, Basel 1986, ISBN 3-257-21444-8 (UT: Selected samples of Swiss mysticism).
  • Ursula Peters: Religious Experience as a Literary Fact. On the prehistory and genesis of women-mystical texts from the 13th and 14th centuries (= Hermaea NF 56). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1988.
  • Siegfried Ringler: Life and revelation literature in women's monasteries in the Middle Ages. Sources and studies (= Munich texts and studies on German literature of the Middle Ages 72). Artemis, Munich 1980, pp. 7-15; 257-259; 358f. u. ö. (see register: Nonnenviten ) review online
  • Hans-Jochen Schiewer: Possibilities and limits of writing religious women in the late Middle Ages . - In: Mendicant Orders, Brotherhoods and Beguines in Zurich: Urban Culture and Salvation in the Middle Ages , ed. by Barbara Helbling u. a. - Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2002, pp. 179–187. - ISBN 3-85823-970-4 (especially about Elsbeth Stagel, around 1300-1360, Dominican in Töss Abbey)
  • Wolfram Schneider-Lastin: Literature production and library in Oetenbach . - In: Mendicant Orders, Brotherhoods and Beguines in Zurich: Urban Culture and Salvation in the Middle Ages , ed. by Barbara Helbling u. a. - Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2002, pp. 188–197. - ISBN 3-85823-970-4 (especially about the Oetenbacher sister book)

Web links

Commons : Sister's Books  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Sister Books  - Sources and Full Texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Martina Wehrli-Johns: History of the Adelhausen Monastery .
  2. ↑ Wolfram Schneider Lastin: Meyer, John [Suppl.] . In: ²VL Vol. 11 (2004) Col. 1003-1004; Peter Ochsenbein:  MEYER, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1427-1429.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  3. ↑ See Gerard de Fracheto: Vitae fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum necnon Cronica ordinis from anno MCCIII usque ad MCCLIV. Edited by Benedictus Maria Reichert. Lions 1896 (Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum Historica I).
  4. ↑ See Gehring (see below: literature), p. 18f.
  5. ↑ See Ringler (see below: literature), pp. 187–189 as well as register p. 479: Kindgestalt.
  6. ↑ Ringler (see below: literature), p. 14.
  7. ↑ See especially Langer (see below: literature), passim.
  8. ↑ In it: Bernhard von Clairvaux : Sermon on the Upper Rhine. From the Latin protocol of his journey in the winter of 1146. * Adelheid von Rheinfelden: From the Latin chronicle of the Unterlinden monastery in Kolmar, written by the prioress Katharina von Gebweiler. * Sophia von Rheinfelden: From the chronicle of the Unterlinden monastery in Kolmar. * Elsbeth von Beckenhofen: From the chronicle of the Ötenbach monastery in Zurich. * Heinrich Seuse : Two letters. * Elsbeth Stagel : Sophia von Klingnau. From the book about the life of the Töss sisters. * Arnold the Red: From the Birth of the Lord. Sermon fragment. (14th century) online about him . * Barthlome Fridöwer: Sermon on the Ten Seasons of Divine Love. * Brother Klaus : Three visions. * Unknown: From a pagan. From a Zurich manuscript from 1393.