Victoria Smirnova - Böcker

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.

The first critical edition of Caesarius’ Omelie morales de infantia Saluatoris—Homilies on Jesus’ Childhood.Primarily known as the author of the Dialogus miraculorum—a collection of exemplary stories that secured his reputation as the master of Cistercian storytelling—Caesarius of Heisterbach was also the author of several sermons and homilies. Although they are not as well known today, his Homilies on Jesus’ Childhood are exceptional in many ways. Readers will immediately notice Caesarius’s versatility as he employs an impressive array of persuasive techniques: quoting scholarly works, interpreting Hebrew names and letters, delving into etymology and numerology, and including numerous examples to instruct both the learned and the common person.

Focusing on the theory and practice of Cistercian persuasion, the articles gathered in this volume offer historical, literary critical and anthropological perspectives on Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum (thirteenth century), the context of its production and other texts directly or indirectly inspired by it. The exempla inserted by Caesarius into a didactic dialogue between a monk and a novice survived for many centuries and travelled across the seas thanks to rewritings and translations into vernacular languages. An accomplished example of the art of persuasion —medieval and early modern— the Dialogus Miraculorum establishes a link not only between the monasteries, the mendicant circles and other religious congregations but also between the Middle Ages and Modernity, the Old and the New World.Contributors are: Jacques Berlioz, Elisa Brilli, Danièle Dehouve, Pierre-Antoine Fabre, Marie Formarier, Jasmin Margarete Hlatky, Elena Koroleva, Nathalie Luca, Brian Patrick McGuire, Stefano Mula, Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, Victoria Smirnova, and Anne-Marie Turcan-Verkerk.