Birgitta of Sweden in Northern Germany: Translation, Transmission and Reception

Andersen, E

doi:10.1163/9789004258457_010

Birgitta of Sweden in Northern Germany: Translation, Transmission and Reception

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Elizabeth Andersen

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Abstract

Birgitta of Sweden (1303-1373) was a commanding and charismatic visionary whose contemplative mysticism, interwoven with social engagement and a commitment to the salvation of the world, is recorded in the Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae. The Revelationes became a seminal text throughout Europe and was translated, either in full or in extracts, into most of the European vernaculars. There has been a thorough study of the dissemination of Birgitta’s revelations in High German in Southern Germany (Montag, 1968) but little on the significant influence she exerted on the late medieval spiritual landscape of Northern Germany, despite recent renewed interest in her (Searby/Morris, 2006, 2008, 2012). No other text other than the Bible was drawn on by so many of the Lübeck printers. The chapter focuses on the anonymous adaptation of the Revelationes, the Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe, published as an incunable in 1496 in Lübeck by the Mohnkopf Press. This work is a highly independent rendering of the Revelationes, while at the same time a more precise translation of the Latin than other Low German texts. The chapter demonstrates how this carefully crafted book transforms an authoritative text of visionary mysticism and prophetic revelation into a work intended for private devotion. As the adaptor is transparent about his method of abridgement, he provides a unique insight into how a text shaped for the Latinate world of the cloister could be re-framed a century later for a lay audience. The chapter will be included in the Companion to Northern German Mysticism, edited by Henrike Lähnemann and myself (Leiden: Brill, 2012). This volume, with a team of contributors drawn from Germany, the UK and the States to reflect different methodological and epistemological approaches, provides for the first time a comprehensive study of mystical thought in Northern Germany and its influence on late medieval devotional practice.