This article compares a vision from the ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹ – attributed to Gertrude the Great (c. 1256–1301/1302) – with Alain de Lille’s twelfth-century allegory ›De planctu Naturae‹ (1160/1165). It shows how imaginary textiles, such as allegorical dresses in visions, function as a means of visualizing conceptions of time, temporality, and salvation. The late fourteenth-century German text ›ein botte der götlichen miltekeit‹ (based on the earlier Latin ›Legatus‹) is particularly strong in highlighting textile craftsmanship by employing technical terms that illustrate the allegorical dress in performative ways. Recently discovered manuscript evidence further showcases profound textile knowledge in vernacular texts.
The German mystic Gertrude the Great of Helfta (c.1256–1301) is a globally venerated saint who is still central to the Sacred Heart Devotion. Her visions were first recorded in Latin, and they inspired generations of readers in processes of creative rewriting. The vernacular copies of these redactions challenge the long-standing idea that translations do not bear the same literary or historical weight as the originals upon which they are based. In this study, Racha Kirakosian argues that manuscript transmission reveals how redactors serve as cultural agents. Examining the late medieval vernacular copies of Gertrude's visions, she demonstrates how redactors recast textual materials, reflected changes in piety, and generated new forms of devotional practices. She also shows how these texts served as a bridge between material culture, in the form of textiles and book illumination, and mysticism. Kirakosian's multi-faceted study is an important contribution to current debates on medieval manuscript culture, authorship, and translation as objects of study in their own right.
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