Birgitta and Bernard : Two Saints and Five Old Swedish Fragments in the Danish National Archives

• The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta’s Revelations (Liber Caelestis and Revelationes Extravagantes) and of St Bernard’s A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem). The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and may predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library, A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint’s writings in Sweden.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Literatures (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Old Swedish

St Birgitta

St Bernard

manuscript fragments

Scandinavian Languages

Nordiska språk

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)