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Document Details : Title: 'Ich glaube vestiglich, das dise predigen entweder Meister Eckhards oder Taulers sind, dan sich durch auss ire worte gleich lautet' Subtitle: Zur Problematik der Rezeption und Authentizität der Predigten Johannes Taulers und Meister Eckharts Author(s): SCHIEWER, Regina Dorothea , WEIGAND, Rudolf Kilian Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 84 Issue: 1 Date: Maart 2013 Pages: 7-19 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.84.1.2975520 Abstract : The research project ‘Predigt im Kontext’, which is being undertaken at the Catholic University of Eichstätt, explores the functions of medieval sermons and the way in which these functions change over time by analysing the transmission of sermons attributed to Master Eckhart and John Tauler in over 460 manuscripts. The present article represents the preliminary results of this new reception-orientated research into mystical sermons. It focuses on two main questions: Firstly, how is authorship treated in the transmission of German sermons from the twelfth to the early sixteenth century? Secondly, does the transmission of sermons by Eckhart and Tauler differ from the transmission of sermons by other authors? In the case of the transmission of medieval sermons as a whole in the German-spoken area, the article shows that most of the sermons and sermon collections are transmitted anonymously. Names of preachers are mostly found in those manuscripts that originate in the vicinity – both spatially and temporally speaking – of the preacher’s sphere of activity. Eckhart’s name serves as an authority in quotations and tracts, but he is actually only rarely named as the preacher of a sermon. This shows that the omission of his name in the sermon transmission cannot be linked to the heresy trial against him, but has to be seen within the context of sermon transmission as a whole. Tauler, on the other hand, is named very often, not only as the author of his own sermons, but also as the originator of sermons by other mystics and of other mystical texts. This implies that in the course of the fifteenth century, Tauler’s name became a ‘brand name’ for mystical texts of high quality; his name functioned entirely independently of John Tauler the historical figure. Even these initial findings of the project ‘Predigt im Kontext’ demonstrate the importance of analysing the transmission context of sermons, and in particular the sermons of the great mystics Master Eckhart and John Tauler. |
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