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Exempla in the Decline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

Frederic C. Tubach
Frederic C. Tubach*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Extract

Upon entering a cathedral, our eyes are drawn to the soaring pillars, the sweep of the ceiling, and the richly adorned windows. Yet we overlook many details which play an essential part in determining the finished product, for instance, the composition of the stone and the structure of the foundation. Likewise, as we turn to the era from which grew Augustine's Contessiones, Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, and Wolfram's Parzival, we may easily overlook a humble type of illustrative story, which was a vital expression of the Christian faith, namely, the medieval exemplum. Accordingly, this paper proposes to indicate in briefest outline the fortunes of the exemplum, which, bound up as they are with the history of their time, clearly reflect significant developments in medieval religion.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 18 , 1962 , pp. 407 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © 1962 New York, Fordham University Press 

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References

1 This is an expanded version of a paper read at the congress of the Internationaler Verein der Germanisten on August 24, 1960 in Copenhagen.Google Scholar

2 Main emphasis will be placed upon the result of close textual examination of representative exempla. My handbook of medieval exempla (Index exemplorum), nearing completion, has aided me in writing this paper.Google Scholar

3 Dornseiff, F., ‘Literarische Verwendung des Beispiels,’ Vorträge der Bibliothek Warburg 4 (1924–25).Google Scholar

4 Kuttner, G., ‘Wesen und Formen der deutschen Schwankliteratur des 16. Jahrhunderts,’ Germanistische Studien 152 (Berlin 1934). This monograph is a valuable contribution to the study of the exemplum as a narrative genre. Kornhardt, H., Exemplum : Eine bedeutungsgeschichtliche Studie (diss. Göttingen 1936), a lexicographical study, complements the historical treatment of the exemplum in classical antiquity presented by Alewell, K., Über das rhetorische Paradigma in der römischen Kaiserzeit (diss. Kiel 1913). Neither study, however, contributes to an understanding of the medieval exemplum as a narrative genre within a Christian context.Google Scholar

5 Welter, J. Th., L'Exemplum dans la littérature religieuse et didactique du moyen âge (Paris 1927), treats the word exemplum as a term for ‘tout le fond narratif et descriptif du passé et du présent’ (p. 2).Google Scholar

6 The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry, edited by T. F. Crane (Publications of the Folk-Lore Society 26 [London 1890]; = Ciane) xviii. (While not cited in the present study, we have also from Jacques de Vitry his Sermones feriales et communes as edited by Joseph Greven, ‘Die Exempla aus den Sermones feriales et communes des Jacob von Vitry,’ Sammlung mittellateinischer Texte 9 [Heidelberg 1914], and Goswin Frenken, ‘Die Exempla des Jacob von Vitry,’ Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters 5.1 [München 1914]). Even in the restricted sense of exemplum (= illustrative story), confusion as to its nature and function within the vast range of medieval literature has hampered a clearly definable approach to one of the most vital traditions of medieval religious thought. The scope of this paper does not permit inclusion of the controversy about the nature and function of the medieval exemplum.Google Scholar

7 Attributed, in some manuscripts to St. Isidore of Seville (PL 83.1319-1332); for the date, see Myra L. Uhlfelder's Introduction to her admirable edition of this set of Differentiae (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 15; Rome 1954) 25.Google Scholar

8 No. 193 (ed. Uhlfelder p. 73); PL 83.1329.191, where the reading, ‘similitudo approbate,’ is incorrect.Google Scholar

9 Speculum ecclesiac (PL 172.866-7). The importance of Honorius for the development of an exemplum-tradition in Germany has not been sufficiently appreciated. R. Cruel, Geschichte der deutschen Predigt im Mittelalter (Detmold 1879) was the first to recognize his importance: ‘… ein Heranziehen noch unbenutzter Elemente in den Kreis der deutschen Predigt bleibt immer sein Verdienst’ (p. 144). Crane ignores Honorius altogether in his comprehensive introduction (as also earlier in a paper, ‘Medieval Sermon-Books and Stories,’ read before the American Philosophical Society, March 16, 1883 and published in its Proceedings 21 [1883–1884] 49-78). In a later paper, ‘Medieval Sermon-Books and Stories and their Study since 1883,’ published in the Proceedings of the same Society (56 [1917] 369-402), Crane gave partial recognition to Honorius and his importance for the exemplum tradition. Cf. also A. Linsenmeyer, Die Geschichte der deutschen Predigt (München 1886) 197 and Crane 137.Google Scholar

10 It is a recurring theme in exempla that the burial of a sinner is accompanied by beautiful weather, whereas the burial of a good Christian takes place in a thunderstrom. (Could there be a connection here with the earthquake and the eclipse which took place at the time of Christ's death?) Cf. also Sir J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris (Ν. Y. 1952) 233: ‘the Torad- jas of Central Celebes imagine that showers of rain are the tears shed by the compassionate gods in weeping for somebody who is about to die; a shower in the morning is to them an infallible omen of death.’”Google Scholar

11 Vitae patrum, the ninth Life in Book One of Rosweyd's edition (Antverpiae 1628) 168; PL 73.327f.; Crane 108. Helpful orientation concerning the Vitae patrum will be found in C. L. Rosenthal, The Vitae patrum in Old and Middle English Literature (Philadelphia 1936) 9-52.Google Scholar

12 In their approach to Wolfram's Parzival, a synthesis between the divine order and the social order, symbolized by Parzival as Gralsritter, scholars have not emphasized sufficiently that the synthesis takes place within the secular context of a courtly epic. This context excludes one significant and articulate part of medieval Christianity: the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Can we postulate a highly individualized ‘Religiosität’ for Wolfram in an age which saw in the Church a fundamental and necessary link between God and man?Google Scholar

13 A thirteenth-century writer who attempted to combine courtly literature with popular and didactic literature. His satire, particularly sharp in Pfaffe Amis, mirrors effectively the scale of values and the attitudes of a rising bourgeoisie. Of interest for the study of exampla is Ute Schab (ed.), Die bisher unveröffentlichten geistlichen Bîspelreden des Strickers (Güttingen 1959).Google Scholar

14 In the work of Hugo von Trimberg (fl. 1260–1310) social concerns override any interest in belletristic literature. His major work, Der Renner, is representative of late medieval didacticism. It is ‘eine Morallehre auf Grund der bürgerlichen Lebensanschauung’ (G. Ehrismann, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 2, Schlussband [München 1935] 337); cf. Ε. Seemann (ed.), Hugo von Trimbergs lateinische Werke 1 (München 1914): Das Solsequium; Ehrismann, Der Renner, in Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 247-248, 252, 256.Google Scholar

15 This author's work, Schimpf und Ernst, written in 1522, draws upon the medieval exemplum tradition. The total work, however, is a fascinating conglomeration of exempla, jests, facetiae, and Zeitbilder (cf. J. Boite [ed.], Johannes Pauli, Schimpf und Ernst [2 volumes, Berlin 1924]).Google Scholar

16 Abraham a Sancta Clara (Megerle), the most charming — not to say, alluring and winning — preacher of the seventeenth century, was a most prolific writer. He is perhaps best known through Schiller's attractive portrayal of him in Wallenstein's Lager, where he appears as Der Kapuziner. Keenly interested in life and society, he is the last prominent figure to make frequent use of medieval exempla. For an introduction to the works of Abraham a Santa Clara, see Blütenlese aus seinen Werken, ed. Κ. Bertsche (Freiburg im B. 1917–19). An excellent treatment of the use of exempla in the seventeenth century may be found in Elfriede Moser-Rath, ‘ Predigtmärlein der Barockzeit, ‘ Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (1957), and in ‘Münchener Volksprediger der Barockzeit,’ ibid. (1958).Google Scholar

17 A history of the exemplum has still to be written. Once the exemplum is recognized as a well delineated, definable narrative genre, we can proceed beyond Welter's all-inclusive definition to a treatment of its historical evolution and transformation.Google Scholar

18 Crane 107 (exemplum 255).Google Scholar

19 Crane 243.Google Scholar

20 Ibid. Of the Scala coeli de diversis generibus exemplorum, of Joannes Gobii Junior, Crane (lxxxvi n.) gives the following list, based on Hain, of printed editions: Lübeck 1476, Ulm 1480, Strasbourg 1483, Louvain 1485, Seville 1496.Google Scholar

21 Welter, UExemplum 72 n. 13 (2°).Google Scholar

22 Loc. cit. (5°).Google Scholar

23 Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii. 1.24 (1716), fol. 333rb (cited by Welter 77).Google Scholar

24 Welter 75 (quoted, from the ‘Prologus’; see Welter's edition of this Speculum Laicorum [Thesaurus exemplorum 5; Paris 1914] 1).Google Scholar

25 Gf. Crane xix.Google Scholar

26 Leyser, H., (ed.), Deutsche Predigten des XIII. und XIV. Jahrhunderts (Quedlinburg und Leipzig 1883).Google Scholar

27 Birlinger, A. (ed.), ‘Elsässische Predigten,’ Alemannia 1 (1873) 60–87, 186-194, 225-250; 2 (1875) 1-28, 101-119, 197-223. Some of the significant popular sermon collections between the Leyser sermons of the thirteenth century and the Elsässische Predigten of the fourteenth show a progressing disintegration of structure, both in the sermon as well as in the exemplum: cf. Schönbach, Α. (ed.), Altdeutsche Predigten (Graz 1888), partially edited before by Κ. Roth, Deutsche Predigten des XII. und XIII. Jahrhunderts (Quedlinburg und Leipzig 1839).Google Scholar

28 Birlinger, Alemannia 1.63f.Google Scholar

29 Die brösamlin doct. Keiserspergs uffgelesen von Frater Johann Paulin barfüser ordens. Und sagt von der funfftzehen Hymelschen staffeln die Maria uffgestiegen ist, und gantz von den vier Leuwengeschrei (Strassburg, Johann Grüninger, 1517).Google Scholar

30 There are thirty-five in all which Pauli took from this Brösamlin-collection of Geiler von Kaisersberg's sermons: tales no. 52, 79, 86, 98, 105, 106, 143, 167, 209, 211, 218, 224, 237, 250, 263, 271, 286, 320, 322, 323, 335, 393, 438, 448, 450, 466, 473, 484, 525, 528, 604, 649, 659, 671, and 690: numbers according to Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst (note 15 above).Google Scholar

31 Huizinga, J., The Waning of the Middle Ages (Garden City, Ν. Y. 1956) 203.Google Scholar

32 Jolies, A., Einfache Formen (Halle 1930), excludes the exemplum from his discussion. He does not consider the historical significance of the medieval exemplum and he regards the word exemplum merely as a legal terminus technicus.Google Scholar