IMC 2024: Sessions
Session 339: In Search of Monastic and Mendicant Medievalism?: Texts and Narratives, III
Monday 1 July 2024, 16:30-18:00
| Sponsor: | Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds |
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| Organiser: | Emilia Jamroziak, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds |
| Moderator/Chair: | Beata Możejko, Wydzial Historyczny, Instytut Historii, Uniwersytet Gdański |
| Paper 339-a | Afterlife of Cistercian Nuns in Riga: Memory of a Medieval Convent, Nuns, and Their Books (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Medievalism and Antiquarianism and Monasticism |
| Paper 339-b | The 'Long Life' of Medieval Manuscripts: The Use of Books from the Cistercian Library in Pelplin as the Evidence of Continuity and Memory up to the 18th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Medievalism and Antiquarianism and Monasticism |
| Abstract | Paper 1 Cistercian nuns had been present in Riga since the mid-13th century, but their convent was an institution that represented the 'outsiders' in the urban environment. Most of the nuns were of noble descent, which may have been the reason why their convent survived the Reformation (1524) and continued to exist until the end of the 16th century. The nuns were remembered after the dissolution of the convent in 1583. The Jesuits, who inherited the Cistercian convent and its church of St Mary Magdalene in the early 17th century, attempted to create a hagiography of the late medieval Cistercian nuns who had remained in the convent after the Reformation. The Jesuits copied their documents and printed two books (in German and Latin) describing three nuns who had entered the convent before the Reformation and were more than a hundred years old when the Jesuits met them. The Jesuits also took over the Cistercian prayer books, which were taken to Uppsala along with a Jesuit library as spoils of war when the Swedish army under the command of Gustavus Adolphus conquered Riga in 1621. Representations of the nuns and their legacy have also been present in modern times; in the late 20th century, a novel and a film were made about Anna Notken, one of the three nuns who survived the Reformation. Riga Cistercian 15th-century prayer books are still part of the Uppsala University Library and give an insight into their religious life. Paper 2 The paper will present various aspects of the preservation and religious use of the medieval book collection from the Cistercian monastery in Pelplin (Pomerania) in the early modern period, on the example of selected manuscripts. The post-Cistercian library, still preserved in Pelplin in almost integral condition, contains a large group of manuscripts, either transcribed and decorated at the convent or acquired from outside during the Middle Ages. Many of them bear clear traces of long-term use, dating back to the 18th century; in the case of liturgical/musical books – evidences of updating of the content, sometimes with an attempt to imitate the manner of medieval writing. Moreover, a large part of the book collection was secured and re-bound on the initiative of Abbot Leonard Rembowski in the 17th century, and the memory of their founders and makers was preserved by the Cistercian Chronicle, written in the early modern period. The post-medieval use of individual manuscripts can be seen as evidence of the continuation of medieval religious practice in the convent, and the preservation measures taken with them – as an expression of respect for precious “cymels” and memory of the Order’s past. |