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The Catholic Historical Review 88.1 (2002) 122-123



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Book Review

The Mystics of Engelthal:
Writings from a Medieval Monastery


The Mystics of Engelthal: Writings from a Medieval Monastery. By Leonard P. Hindsley. (New York: St. Martin's Press. 1998. Pp. xxii, 234. $45.00.)

Medieval mystics and their texts continue to hold our attention. Leonard Hindsley's exploration of texts written by cloistered women in the fourteenth century is a welcome and valuable contribution to a growing body of scholarship. The book focuses on one locus mysticus, that of Engelthal, a Dominican monastery near Nuremburg, Germany, that produced a particularly rich array of texts. Individually and collectively this corpus of texts is now studied for literary merit as well as significance in the history of spirituality and the history of women's religious experience. Hindsley's book is well-designed. The organization will be especially helpful to scholars as well as general readership interested in medieval women's religious experience. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is concerned with the texts themselves, with each chapter devoted to a particular manuscript emanating from Engelthal--The Sister-Book of Engelthal, The Vita of Sister Gertrude of Engelthal, the Revelations and Prayer of Adelheid Langmann, and the Gnaden-Vita of Friedrich Sunder, Chaplain at Engelthal. Each of these chapters identifies the manuscript history of the text under discussion, deals with attendant authorship questions, provides a discussion of genre and an analysis of the structure, along with a short examination of the spiritual content of the text. Part II focuses on the literary and spiritual context for the texts, noting the influence of biblical sources as well as that of sermons, the Dominican Constitutions, liturgical texts, and theological treatises. Hindsley does not simply provide an overview of the literary and biblical influences [End Page 122] for the Engelthal nuns writing the texts; he also examines the influence of the texts themselves. Along with a brief introduction and an epilogue, the two main sections of the book serve to frame the texts and the mystical phenomena they narrate with an appropriate context. Hindsley's interpretation of the texts provides him with an extensive template of themes which when taken together characterize the spirituality of Engelthal. The topoi include, but are not limited to, the Trinity; images of Christ as a child, lover, and Lord; the motif of being chosen; and communion and images of union. Hindsley's own translations of the Middle High German texts are interwoven throughout the analysis, offering rare glimpses into the spiritual mindset of fourteenth-century women. The bibliography is good, but highly selective and therefore lacking some critical pieces, the most notable being a little-known dissertation by Hester Reed Gehring, The Language of Mysticism in South German Dominican Convent Chronicles of the Fourteenth Century. Hindsley identifies fourteenth-century Engelthal as "the foremost center of mystical life among nuns of Germany, if not all of Europe" (p. xxi). Adelheid Langmann, Christina Ebner, and Friedrich Sunder, not household names for most medievalists, may now begin to receive some of the historical and literary attention they so well deserve. Happily, Anglo-scholarship on medieval Dominican monasteries is increasing, and Hindsley's careful examination of the Engelthal texts provides us with an especially critical contribution. Carefully researched and well written, this study is worthy of a wide readership and will prove useful for the non-specialist as well as the scholar.

 



Rosemary Hale
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec

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