Scheps, Walter, and J. Anna Looney. Middle Scots Poets: A
Reference Guide. Boston: Hall, 1986, pp. 53–117.
Spearing, A.C. “The Testament of Cresseid and the ‘High Concise
Style.’” Speculum 37 (1962): 208–25. Repr. in Criticism and
Medieval Poetry,. 2d ed. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1972,
pp. 157–92.
Yeager, R.F., ed. Fifteenth-Century Studies: Recent Essays. Ham-
den: Archon, 1984, pp. 65–92, 215–35, 275–81 [bibliographic
and interpretive essays on Henryson].
C. David Benson
HERMANN VON FRITZLAR
(ca. 1275–ca. 1350)
Hermann von Fritzlar is known as a hagiologist (chroni-
cler of saints), who wrote the fi rst prose legendary in
German, the Heiligenleben (Lives of the Saints), in
1443/1449. He is also the author of mystical sermons,
tractates, and similar pieces, which he composed be-
fore the Heiligenleben and partially integrated into the
legendary.
The Heiligenleben also includes the Bartholomäus
sermon by Eckhart Rube from the anonymous Domini-
can collection of sermons Paradisus anime intelligentis
(in two manuscripts from Erfurt) with the saint’s life
added at the end. From the Postille of the Dominican
Heinrich von Erfurt (in six manuscripts) the legendary
incorporated ten sermons from the Christmas cycle. Two
other sermons were borrowed: from Gerhard von Stern-
gassen, a Dominican, Antonius; and from Hermann von
Schildesche, an Augustinian, the Heiligkreuzauffi ndung
(Finding the Holy Cross). Besides these thirteen ser-
mons by master preachers, which all fi t into the church
calendar of the Heiligenleben, starting with Advent, the
remaining seventy-fi ve feast days are devoted to saints’
legends, which Hermann von Fritzlar composed using
collections such as the Legenda aurea, the Passional,
the Väterbuch, and the Märtyrerbuch as sources.
In the prologue to the Heiligenleben, Hermann von
Fritzlar writes an exemplum about a secret “friend of
God” (Gottesfreund), achieving a Unto mystica (mysti-
cal union). At the center of his philosophy (and religion)
is the belief that “God is born in the soul.” He expands
on this theme in the Annunciation of Mary, noting that
he purposely started the legendary in the last week of
March, when the Annunciation of Mary, was celebrated,
as if to be in the right spirit to write this mystical work. In
the sermon on the Annunciation (Maria Verkündigung),
he mentions his other work, the tractate Die Blume der
Schauung (The Blossom of the Vision), which he had
published anonymously, and in which he had written
more about this topic than on all other central Christian
teachings. Three later manuscripts exist of Die Blume
der Schauung, in Nürnberg, Köln and Gent.
Another treatise on the same topic of Geburt des
Wortes (Gottes) in der Seele (The Birth of the Word [of
God] in the Soul), as a Programmschrift (treatise) of
Meister Eckhart and mysticism, exists in two Swabian
manuscripts in Augsburg and is integrated into the
Heiligenleben, in three parts after Barbara, Lucia, and
Thomas.
Of the ten manuscripts of the Heiligenleben, only the
Heidelberg codex is complete. The illustrated Salem
codex is in fragments, the Darmstädter Legendar is a
reworking, and the others are selections of one of three
legendary, either very early (manuscripts in Trier and
Halberstadt) or later (Berlin, Göttingen, and Dessau). In
the Darmstädter Legendar of 1420, seventy-one legends
are the same as in the Heiligenleben, but only thirteen
are exact copies. Of the learned sermons, only Antonius
was retained. The saints’ legends were sorted into four
thematic groups: male, female (mostly martyrs), and the
rest following the church calendar in two groups. The
Heiligenleben of Hermann von Fritzlar also served as
a partial source for new verse legends of the fi fteenth
century: Katharina (manuscript in Bielefeld), Dorothea
(Brussels, originally from Braunschweig), and the so-
called Alexius K.Further Reading
Jefferis, Sibylle. “Die Überlieferung und Rezeption des Hei-
ligenlebens Hermanns von Fritzlar, einschließlich des
niederdeutschen Alexius.” In Mittelalterliche Literatur im
niederdeutschen Raum (Tagung Braunschweig 1996 ), ed.
Hans-Joachim Behr. Jahrbuch der Oswald-von-Wolkenstein-
Gesellschaft 10 (1998): 191–209.
Morvay, Karin and Dagmar Grube. Bibliographie der deutschen
Predigt des Mittelalters: Veröffentlichte Predigten, ed.
Kurt Ruh. Munich: Beck, 1974, pp. 102–110, 119–123,
123–125.
Steer, Georg. “Geistliche Prosa.” In Die deutsche Literatur im
späten Mittelalter 1250–1370, ed. Ingeborg Glier. Munich:
Beck, 1987, pt. 2, pp. 306–307.
Wagner, Bettina. “Die Darmstädter Handschrift 1886: Ein
deutsches Prosalegendar des späten Mittelalters.” Bibliothek
und Wissenschaft 21. (1987): 1–37.
Werner, Wilfried and Kurt Ruh. “Hermann von Fritzlar.” In Die
deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. Kurt
Ruh, et al., vol. 3, coll. 1055–1059. Berlin and New York: de
Gruyter, 1981.
Sibylle JefferisHERRAD VON HOHENBURG
(fl. late 12th c.)
The abbess Herrad of the Augustinian convent Hohen-
burg (Landsberg), today, Sainte-Odile, near Strasbourg,
whose name appears in documents between 1178 and
1196, is famous for her monumental compilation Hortus
deliciarum (Garden of Delights). This encyclopedic
work of 324 folio pages contains some sixty poems
by various medieval Latin poets, such as Hildebert of
Lavardin, Petrus Pictor, and Walther of Châtillon, aHERRAND VON HOHENBURG