Medieval Exempla in Transition

FILLIN "" Victoria Smirnova holds a doctoral degree in medieval Latin literature from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2006) and is currently a research fellow in the Bavarian State Library (Munich). She specializes in medieval sermons and exempla with particular emphasis on Caesarius of Heisterbach, to whose works she has dedicated numerous articles. She is also the principal editor of the collection of essays in The Art of Cistercian Persuasion in the Middle Ages and Beyond (2015).

• ContentsAbbreviations   ixList of Images   xiAcknowledgments   xiiiIntroduction   xvPART ONE: The White Monks and Their Stories1. Cistercian Storytelling in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries   32. Cistercian Exemplum Production in the Late Thirteenth through Fifteenth Centuries   213. Cistercian Manuscripts of the Dialogus miraculorum   354. Version B of the Dialogus miraculorum   555. Version C of the Dialogus miraculorum   716. Versions D and E of the Dialogus miraculorum    857. Cistercian Readers Interacting with the Dialogus miraculorum   918. The Dialogus miraculorum and Other Exempla Collections in Cistercian Libraries   101PART TWO: Outside Cistercian Walls9. Regular Canons as Readers of the Dialogus miraculorum   13310. Benedictines, Carthusians, and Mendicant Friars   159 PART THREE: The Way into Modernity11. Incunabulum Editions   19312. Jacob Fischer’s Edition (1591) and the Controversy over Miracles   21113. Bertrand Tissier’s Edition (1662)   22914. The Dialogus miraculorum and Its Modern Reception: From Derision to Fascination   23915. From the Twentieth Century to the Present Day: Academia and Popular Culture   255Appendix I:Cited Manuscripts of Caesarius’s Dialogus miraculorum   275Appendix II:Summaries of Nine Exempla added to Version B of the Dialogus miraculorum   279Appendix III:Other Cited Manuscripts   285Bibliography   289General Index   325

"Victoria Smirnova has written the story of the pivotal exempla collection of the Middle Ages. By contrast to Caesarius' very long book of 300,000 words, her book is concise but comprehensive. She tells the fascinating story of exempla before and after Caesarius Dialogue and traces the book's Cistercian roots and reception by Cistercians and others from Caesarius' time to our own. For anyone interested in exempla, Cistercians, or Caesarius, this book is required reading."Hugh Feiss, OSB