The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Volume I: Liber Caelestis, Books I-III

370 Pages·2006·2.56 MB·English

by  Bridget Morris

The Revelations of
St. Birgitta of Sweden,
Volume I
DENIS SEARBY
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Revelations of
St. Birgitta of Sweden
Volume I
figure
1. FrontispiecetoBookVIIIintheNeapolitanMSfromc.1380,MS498,
fol.343v,PierpontMorganLibrary,NewYork.
The Revelations
of St. Birgitta
of Sweden
Volume I
Liber Caelestis, Books I–III
translated by denis searby
with introductions and notes by
bridget morris
1
2006
1
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bridget,ofSweden,Saint,ca.1303–1373.
[Revelationes.English]
TherevelationsofSt.BirgittaofSweden/translatedbyDenisSearby;introductions
andnotesbyBridgetMorris.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13978-0-19-516644-6
ISBN0-19-516644-2(v.1)
1. Privaterevelations. 2. Visions. I. Searby,DenisMichael. II. Title.
BX4700.B62E52005
248.2'9—dc22 2005047277
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Preface
Thisisthefirstpartofafour-volumetranslationoftheRevelationes
ofSt.BirgittaofSwedenintomodernEnglish,indeed,thefirst
translationofthecompletecorpusintoEnglishsincetheMiddle
Ages.ItfollowsthecriticaleditionoftheLatintext,whichwascom-
missionedinthe1950sbyKungl.VitterhetsHistorieochAntikvitets
Akademien(TheRoyalAcademyofLetters,History,andAntiqui-
ties),Stockholm,andcopublishedwithSvenskaFornskriftsa¨llskapet
(TheMedievalSwedishTextsSociety),Uppsala;thefinalvolumein
thisserieswaspublishedin2002.
TheBirgittinecorpuscomprisestwelve“books”:sevenbooksof
Revelationes,BooksI–VII(theLibercaelestis),followedbyBookVIII
(theLibercaelestisImperatorisadreges)andfoursupplementary
booksknownastheRegulaSalvatoris,Sermoangelicus,Quattuorora-
tiones,andRevelationesextravagantes.Intheorderingofthebooks,
wehavefollowedthelayoutoftheeditioprinceps,issuedbyBartholo-
maeusGhotaninLu¨beckin1492.BooksI–IIIarecontainedinthe
presentvolume,andareprecededbyageneralintroduction,which
outlinesthevariousstagesinthetextualhistoryoftheRevelationes.
ThesubsequentvolumesintheserieswillcontainBooksIVandV
(volume2),BooksVI,VII,andVIII(volume3),andtheRegulaSal-
vatoris,Sermoangelicus,Quattuororationes,andRevelationesextrava-
gantes(volume4).Volume4willalsocontaintranslationsofafew
relatedbutnoncanonicalBirgittinetexts,aswellasindexescover-
ingsubjects,names,places,andbiblicalquotationsfortheentire
corpus.
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Acknowledgments
VerymanyofourBirgittinefriendsandcolleagueshaveshownan
enthusiasticinterestinthisenterprise,andencouragedusalongour
way.Aboveall,wewouldliketoextendourverywarmthankstoSte-
phanBorgehammar,whoseideaitoriginallywastoproduceanEn-
glishtranslationinadvanceoftheJubileecelebrationsoftheseven
hundredthanniversaryofBirgitta’sbirthin2003,andwhosetabout
seekingfundingandlaunchingtheprojectin1999.Hiseditingand
translatingskills,aswellashisknowledgeofmedievalSwedishhag-
iographyandBirgittinesermons,havebeenanenormousassetto
ourproject.AlthoughhemovedtoworkattheCenterforTheology
andReligiousStudiesattheUniversityofLundin2003,hehas
maintainedakeeninterestinourwork,andhasmadeinvaluable
commentsonissuesrelatingtothetranslationaswellastheological
matters.ItisapleasurealsotothankToreNyberg,whohasalways
beenonhandtoofferawordofsupportorhelpresolveathorny
problem.BirgittaFritzhasbeenanastutereaderwhohaskindly
readthroughdraftsofhistoricalmaterialsandcorrectedusonde-
tailswhereourknowledgewaslacking;weextendourmostgrateful
thankstoher.Manyothershaveofferedsupportinavarietyofways,
givingadviceonspecificproblemswehaveencounteredaswepro-
ceeded,andhelpingtoresolvepracticaldifficulties.Inparticularwe
wouldliketoacknowledgeJonAdams,HansAili,MiaA˚kestam,Bir-
gerBergh,LarsBergquist,StenEklund,RogerEllis,OlleFerm,Wil-
liamFlynn,AlfHa¨rdelin,MonicaHedlund,ArneJo¨nsson,Veronica
O’Mara,ClaireSahlin,UllaSanderOlsen,andThomasShepherd.
WewouldalsoliketothanktheeditorsoftheLatincriticaledition
fortheinteresttheyhaveshowninthisproject,andindeed,forpav-
ingthewaytomakeanEnglishtranslationatallpossible.
viii acknowledgments
ThanksarealsoduetothestaffatOxfordUniversityPressfortheirexperthelp
andguidance.
This project would not have been launched without the sponsorship of
RiksbankensJubileumsfond(TheBankofSwedenTercentenaryFoundation),
which has generously provided financial support since 1999 and enabled us
to bring the present volume to completion. In particular we would like to
acknowledge the help and support we have received from the Foundation’s
representative, Kjell Blu¨ckert, and from the Department of Theology at the
University of Uppsala, and Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akade-
mien,fortheiraccommodatingadministrativesupport.
Wegratefullyacknowledgethefollowingwhohavegrantedpermissionfor
the reproduction of illustrations. Professor Jan Svanberg, Department of the
History of Art, University of Stockholm; The Pierpont Morgan Library, New
York; Kungl. Biblioteket (The Royal Library), Stockholm; Biblioteca centrale
dellaRegionesiciliana,Palermo;Riksantikvariea¨mbetet(TheNationalHeritage
Board)withtheAntiquarian-TopographicalArchives(ATA),Stockholm.Weare
also grateful to Claes Gejrot, Riksarkivet (Swedish National Archives, Stock-
holm) for allowing us to make available the Latin text on Riksarkivet’s Web
site (see www.ra.se), and to Sara Risberg for preparing the electronic version
oftheLatintext.
InprovidinganEnglishtranslationoftheRevelationesthatisbasedonand
can be linked closely with the Latin archetype, we are creating a bridge that
extendsfromSwedenandScandinaviatowardsaninternationalreadership.It
is our hope that with this translation we will help widen access to one of the
majorfemalesaintsofthelaterMiddleAgesandmakeherworksmorereadily
availableoutsidetheSwedish-speakingorLatin-readingworld.
Contents
Abbreviations,xv
ChronologicalTable:St.Birgitta’sLifeandOrder,xvii
TheEntireBirgittineCorpus,xxv
GeneralIntroduction,3
I. SwedishProphetandVisionary,3
HistoricalBackground,3
ThePropheticTradition,5
VisionaryStates,6
SwedishWriter,9
II. TextualHistory,11
TheFourConfessors,11
TheRevelationsduringBirgitta’sLife,15
TheEarlyEditions,17
MedievalManuscripts,19
ThePrintedEditions,21
Swedish“Retranslation,”22
LaterReceptions,24
III. Style,25
StructureandOralStyle,26
LatinStyle,27
Imagery,27
IV. NoteontheTranslationandtheAnnotation,29