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Berthold von Regensburg: Investigations Past and Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Frank G. Banta*
Affiliation:
Indiana University

Extract

When Christian Friedrich Kling published Berthold des Franziskaners deutsche Predigten in 1824, he opened the study of the great thirteenth-century preacher to theologians, historians, and Germanists alike. Although Berthold had never been completely forgotten, was his fame rather than his actual sermons that were recorded by poet and chronicler. The sermons themselves remained, as most of them do still today, in manuscripts accessible to only a few scholars.

Type
Bibliographical Surveys
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 See Pfeiffer-Strobl, , Berthold von Regensburg (Vienna 1862/1880) I xxxxxii, as well as bibliographers and church historians such as Bzovius, Chevalier, Denis, Oudin, Rader, Wadding.Google Scholar

2 Kleinere Schriften (Berlin 1864–1890) IV 296360.Google Scholar

3 By far the most important is the series published by Anton Schönbach in the Sb. Akad. Vienna under the general title ‘Studien zur Geschichte der altdeutschen Predigt.’ Of these eight essays, seven deal directly with Berthold: II ‘Zeugnisse Bertholds von Regensburg zur Volkskunde,’ 142 (1900) VII. III ‘Das Wirken Bertholds von Regensburg gegen die Ketzer,’ 147 (1904) V. IV–VI ‘Die Überlieferung der Werke Bertholds von Regensburg,’ 151 (1905) II, 152 (1906) VII, 153 (1906) IV. VII-VIII ‘Über Leben, Bildung und Persönlichkeit von Regensburg,’ 154 (1907) I, 155 (1908) V. The best single biography is Karl Rieder's Das Leben Bertholds von Regensburg (Freiburg/B 1901). Noteworthy also is Rieder's article, ‘Berthold von Regensburg und dessen Predigtsammlung,’ Görres-Gesellschaft zur Pflege der Wissenschaft im katholischen Deutschland, Dritte Vereinschrift für 1909 (Cologne 1909) 21–31, which is a report on the status of Berthold research up to the first decade of the twentieth century.Google Scholar

4 Schaffhausen. The first edition appeared in two volumes. Subsequent editions were printed in Regensburg under varying titles.Google Scholar

5 Bertholds von Regensburg Deutsche Predigten (Jena 1924).Google Scholar

6 One example will suffice. For purposes of comparison, a passage is cited from Pal. germ. 24 and from Pfeiffer-Strobl as well as from the two translations. Heidelberg Pal. germ. 24 Pfeiffer-Strobl I II. 20–23 Göbel, p. 11 Brandt, p. 1 vnd do er erstarp da lüten sich die glockē selber zu rome. grose heilikeit wa an im. wann er gemach vnd ere lies durch die liebe vnsers h'ren. vnd leit grose vsmacheit vn arbeit durch got vnd auch gebresten. Unde dô er erstarp, dô lûten sich die glocken selber ze Rôme, sô grôziu heilikeit was an im, wan er gemach und êre liez durch die liebe vnsers herren. und leit grôze versmâcheit und arbeit durch got. und auch gebresten. Und als er starb, läuteten sich die Glocken selber in Rom. So grosse Heiligkeit war in ihm, dass er Gemächlichkeit und Ehre verliess aus Liebe zu unserem Herrn, dass er grosse Verschmähung und Mühsal litt und auch Gebresten um des Herrn willen. Und da er starb, da lauteten sich die Glocken selber zu Rome; so grosse Heiligkeit was an ihm, denn er Gemahl und Ehre liess aus Liebe zu unserm Herrn und litt schmahliche Behandlung und Not um Gott und auch Gebresten.Google Scholar

7 There is no general agreement in the MSS or in the secondary literature on the titles of the collections. Rusticanus refers to Berthold in his capacity as a speaker to the common man.Google Scholar

8 Casutt, Laurentius, Die Handschriften mit lateinischen Predigten Bertholds von Regensburg O. Min. (Fribourg 1961).Google Scholar

9 See particularly Schönbach, , op. cit., ‘Studie’ V.Google Scholar

10 See Jakob, also (p. 12) for a list of other Latin writings ascribed to Berthold by older church historians but now lost.Google Scholar

11 Beati fr. Bertholdi a Ratisbona sermones ad religiosos XX. Munich.Google Scholar

11a See n. 3 above.Google Scholar

12 See below p. 477.Google Scholar

13 See n. 8 above. In a letter dated December 28, 1966, Father Casutt wrote that the total of known Latin MSS had now grown to 302, and that a number of the new ones had been identified by Prof. J.-B. Schneyer of the University of Freiburg/B.Google Scholar

14 Ruh lists a total of 84 MSS containing one or more selections attributed to Berthold. To his list of MSS containing the tract ‘Von der Messe,’ whose authorship will probably continue to be disputed, can be added: Munich, Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 5651, 173r–75v; and, as he himself writes me, Edinburgh, University Library, Msc. 78, 109r–114v .Google Scholar

15 At present writing, both (19) and (20) are scheduled to appear in late 1968 or early 1969.Google Scholar

16 It will probably never be possible to determine with complete certainty which German sermons stem exclusively from Berthold. The important fact is that a group of linguistically and textually related writings exist, many of which are explicitly attributed to Berthold in various MSS, and that they are of historical, religious, and linguistic interest to us today. Remarkably few MSS were lost during the past war. The Halberstadt fragments (see Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 12 [1881] 129139) were removed from the library of the Domgymnasium for safekeeping and have not been recovered. The valuable Ohlau fragments, partially published in ZfdPh 6 (1873) 466–470, have disappeared, although it is not possible to say when; most MSS from Silesia are now in Wrozław, where they are well preserved. Würzburg, Franziskaner-Konventualen, Hs. I 106 was burned in the bombing of the town; it contained two Latin sermons from RdD. A few other Latin and German MSS known through catalogues or earlier literature have also disappeared. The famous Strasbourg MS I A 100, apparently first mentioned by Grimm in his review of Kling's edition (see n. 2) and destroyed in the burning of the library in 1870, was in reality a manuscript of the St Georgener Predigten. On the limited Bertholdiana in the latter, see most recently Dieter Richter's review-article on Wolfgang Frühwald's Der St. Georgener Prediger (Berlin 1963) in Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum 78 (1967) 108–109.Google Scholar