Der Heiligen Leben

Der Heiligen Leben ('The Lives of Saints'), also known as Passional, was a German legendary, compiled by a Dominican friar from Nürnberg around 1400. Today, 197 manuscripts are known, along with 33 High German and 8 Low German imprints; the oldest imprint is that of Günther Zainer (Augsburg, 1471/72) and the latest is from Strassburg (1521). The 1502 edition, moreover, was a print run of 1000 copies, an exceptional figure for the time.[1] The collection originally contained 251 legends and became 'the most influential model for most of the vernacular legendaries of the fifteenth century',[2] 'unparalleled in its overall popularity in the whole of Europe ... Hardly a work of German literature was read by such a wide audience'.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Marianne E. Kalinke, The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last of the Great Medieval Legendaries (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 249.
  2. ↑ Werner Williams-Krapp, 'German and Dutch Legendaries of the Middle Ages: A Survey', in Hagiograph and Medieval Literature: A Symposium (Odense: Odense University Press, 1981), p. 73, cited by Marianne E. Kalinke, The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last of the Great Medieval Legendaries (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 4.
  3. ↑ Werner Williams-Krapp, 'German and Dutch Translations of the Legenda Aurea,' in Legenda aurea: Sept siècles de diffusion. Actes du colloque international sur la 'Legenda aurea': texte latin et branches vernaculaires à l'Université du Québec à Montréal 11-12 mai 1983 (Montréal: Éditions Bellarmin, 1986), p. 229, cited by Marianne E. Kalinke, The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last of the Great Medieval Legendaries (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 4.