Parvae collectiones miraculorum, visionum et exemplorum cisterciensium

This volume contributes to the ongoing reassessment of exempla as important sources for the social, cultural and literary history of the Middle Ages by presenting critical editions of several lesser known yet representative collections of Cistercian exempla. Among them is a collection attributed to Geoffrey of Auxerre, a prolific author and compiler who may have played a role in the emergence of Cistercian exemplary literature. John the Hermit’s Vita Sancti Bernardi (Vita Quarta) illustrates the close relationship between exemplary narrative and hagiographical biography, while Alberic of Trois Fontaines’s Chronicon Clarevallense and the Adbreviatio relationum fratris Cesarii demonstrate the use of exempla as repositories of historical memory. The Chronicon Clarevallense also preserves excerpts from the now-lost late twelfth-century libellum of Gossuinus. The volume is completed by four anonymous collections: the Himmerodensis Collectio (first quarter of the thirteenth century),  the Anonyma collectio exemplorum ex codice bibliothecae Londiniensis (thirteenth century), Miracula fratrum ordinis Cisterciensis (late thirteenth century), Miracula ordinis Cisterciensis conscripta et depicta in monasterio Celle Sanctae Mariae (mid-fifteenth century), and two exempla De Humelina virgine of Pseudo-Caesarius Heisterbacensis.

In accordance with the editorial principles of the Exempla Medii Aevi subseries of the Continuatio Mediaevalis of Corpus Christianorum, each edition is accompanied by a discussion of its textual tradition and by extensive analyses of the sources, parallels, and analogues underlying the narratives (fontes exemplorum similitudinumque). Together, these materials offer new perspectives on the development, transmission, and functions of exemplary literature within Cistercian community and medieval culture more broadly.

General Introduction

Bibliography

Gaufridus Autissiodorensis, Collectio exemplorum ex codice bibliothecae Parisiensis – ed. Stefano Mula

Iohannes Heremita, Vita Beati Bernardi – ed. Graziano Fois and Stefano Mula

Himmerodensis Collectio – ed. Stefano Mula

Albericus Trium Fontium, Opera minora – ed. Stefano Mula

Anonyma collectio exemplorvm ex codice bibliothecae Londiniensis – ed. Marie-Anne Polo de Beaulieu, Ilana Klutstein and Gisèle Besson

Miracula fratrum ordinis Cysterciensis – ed. Stefano Mula

Miracula ordinis Cysterciensis conscripta et depicta in monasterio Celle sancte Marie in ambitu ordinis supradicti – ed. Victoria Smirnova

Appendix. Pseudo-Caesarius Heisterbacensis, De Humelina virgine – ed. Stefano Mula

Fontes exemplorum similitudinumque

Indices

Index locorum s. Scripturae

Index fontium

Index personarum, locorum rerumque notabilium exemplorum