Baumgarte, Susanne, ed. Summa bonorum: Eine deutsche Exempelsammlung aus dem 15. Jahrhundert nach Stephan von Bourbon. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1999. Pp. 335.

This edition presents one of the most complete collections of exempla translated with commentary and available in two anonymous German manuscripts. In many didactic episodes the collection, meant as a help for preachers, highlights the basic themes of late-medieval religiosity and gives insight into the moral needs of fifteenth-c. Christians. A partial translation of Stephen de Bourbon's Tractatus de diversis materiis praedicabilibus (thirteenth century), the German Summa features 250 exempla presented in the form of short tales from daily life, legends, visions, as well as biblical and fairy stories, and ancient fables. Baumgarte's introduction (106 pages) examines the differences of the German MSS from their Latin source and furnishes keys to the mentality of late-medieval people on both sides of the Rhine river.

Themes of the Dominican Tractatus (written in Lyon) are the fear of God, of hell, purgatory, and Last Judgement, and the respect for God's word. The basic manuscripts of the German version are Munich cgm 619 and Vienna ÖNB cod. 2846 (both fifteenth century); translator and commissioner are unknown. In addition to the exempla the collection contains raciones (arguments), quotations from authorities, Christian legends, and even observations on phenomena in nature. Seven books had been projected, but Stephan died during his work on the fifth volume; the collections were devoted to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: de dono timoris, pietatis, scientiae, fortitudinis, consilii, intellectus, sapientiae—each book to consist of seven chapters.