Rituals of Repentance and Testimonies at Rabbinical Courts in the 15th Century

Rituals of Repentance and Testimonies
at Rabbinical Courts in the 15th Century
Martha Keil
Because the Jewish legal system is a system of precedents based on the laws
of the Halakha, the laws of Torah and Talmud, we are in the lucky situation that
the legal decisions of famous rabbinical authorities in the Middle Ages have been
transmitted from generation to generation by their students as a source for further
judgements which consider Halakha, tradition, local customs and the actual demands
of the presence. These so-called teshuvot, answers, Hebrew Responsa, are
written decisions about legal questions posed to rabbis, mostly by their rabbinical
colleagues. The greatest part of them deals with concrete cases, but some are also
theoretical questions. The institution derives from Roman law and is still alive
today, comparable to the littera written by the canonists of the papal curia.1
Thousands of Responsa from the high and late Middle Ages have been preserved
and are still used by rabbis as precedences for their own legal decisions?
Three main different types of oral Statements appear in these sources:
Firstly, ceremonies like rituals of repentance (meflila) and oaths (shevua), partly
with traditionally fixedformulae, either in vernacular or Hebrew or, in most cases,
both. Secondly, vernacular testimonies at rabbinical courts, where the witnesses
spcke freely, but still in a formal atmosphere. In most of the cases the author of the
Responsum translated them into Hebrew, often shortened the reports or made
conclusions, but cited the most important statements at full length. The third kind
of oral Statements are vows (neder) and spontaneaus statements in a situation of
anger, outrage or distress. They only come before a court when they contain insults
of a fellow Jew or when somebody has taken a rash vow that he regrets afterwards
and needs a rabbinical dissolution.
This paper does not deal with the wide field of formula statements of and at
Jewish courts such as judgements, the different types of ban (flerem) and especially
the oath. Taking an oath was not an extraordinary and rare event in Jewish life and
the living together of Christians and Jews. It was a necessary, everyday part of the
1 See Peler Herde, Audientia litterarum contradictarum. Untersuchungen über die päpstlichen
Justizbriefe und die päpstliche Delegationsgerichtsbarkeit vom 13. bis zum Beginn des / 6.
Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Rom: Deutsches Historisches Institut, 1 970).
2 See Salomon Freehof, The Responsa Literature (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society,
1959), and Bernhard Weinryb, „Responsa as a Source of History,“ in Essays Presented to
Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie on the Occasion of his 70’h Birthday, ed. Bernhard Zimmels (London:
Soncino, 1967).
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 165
administrative, juridical, and commercial contacts between Jews and Christians
and of course ofthe inner Jewish community life as weil.
It is no coincidence that the two Jewish .oath formulas preserved from the
1 5th century deal with the declaration of taxable possessments. The existence of
Jewish communities under Christian mle was dependent on their financial capacities,
therefore tax administration was the main task of the medieval community
organisation. The oath to declare possessments, income, redeemed and outstanding
loans was indespensable for this procedure.3 The Hebrew oath of Rabbi Yacov bar
Shimon of Mestre (died ca. 1480) is cited in the book of R. Isserlein’s Responsa
and minhagim, written by his student and servant Yoseph bar Moshe of Höchstadt.
Compared to the oaths Jews were – at least theoretically – supposed to take at
Christian courts, the curse formula is quite hrumless:
And so we stand before the Place (makom = God), blessed be He, and you
take upon yourself the heavy oath, the oath of the Torah who shattered the
entire universe in the hour when the Lord, blessed be He, said: ‚Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ! ‚ (Lev. 1 9, 12) And it is
written (Ex. 20, 7) that the Lord does not Jeave unpunished the one who
takes His Name in vain. And if you tell us the truth, you will be blessed by
the Lord, blessed and praised be He, but if, God forbid, you don’t say the
tmth, then the shame will come upon your head and we (the community) and
the entirety of lsrael will confirm it. And the man says ‚amen. ‚ 4
The minutes of a rabbis‘ conference in September, 1415, in Austria, probably
Wiener Neustadt transmit another oath, this time in German. It is appended to
ordinances of Austrian community Ieaders and rabbis concerning an onerous tax
imposed by Duke Ernest the Strong of Inner Austria to pay the „third penny“ to
Emperor Sigismund. It contains the curse that the perjured person will not be
assisted by God any more, that he has to give his soul to the devil and his Iife and
possessions to his prince without mercy:
Vnd swer das auf die zehen gepott Moysy, die mir derselbe Moyses gepotten
und auf geseczt hat von des lebendigen gots wegen, also sol mir derselbe got
nymmer anders zuhiljf körnen, hie vnd dortt, und ob ich darueber anders tue
oder elfunden würde, so gib ich dem tewfel mein See!, meinem herren Ieib
vnd guet an alle gnad. 5
3 See Eric Zimmer, Harmony and Discord An Analysis of the Decline of Jewish Self
Government in 15’h Century Centrat Europe (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1970), pp.
30-66.
4 Joseph bar Moshe, Leket Yosher, ed. Jakob Freimann (Berlin: ltzkowski, 1903, repr. Jerusalem:
Wagshal, 1 964), part 2, pp. 36 f.
5 Arthur Zuckerman, „Unpublished Materials on the Relationship of Ear1y Fifteenth Century
Jewry to the Central Government,“ in Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee volume: on the Occasion
ofhis 80. Birthday, ed. Sau] Lieberman (Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research,
1974) pp. 1059-1095, p. 1090. The original docurnent is preserved in the Haus-, Hof- und
Staatsarchiv Vienna, HS blau 5, fol. 77a-78b.
166 MARTHA KEIL
The oath has to be taken in the yard of the synagogue or in the synagogue
itself by holding or at least touching the Pentateuch or the Torah scroll. The
ceremony takes place in the presence of a congregation of ten men (minyan), the
boni homines of the community (tove ha-kahal) or the tax administrators. The
space, the sacred objects, the witnessing community, the solemn atmosphere, and
the significance of the formula make the ceremony to a public performance of
highest importance.
Oaths that Jews had to take before Christian courts usually consisted of
similar formulas and ceremonies because Christian authorities were interested in
the credibility of this legal act. That is why many municipial ordinances ask the
oathtaker to put bis arm between the corresponding pages of the book Exodus or
Leviticus, as in the following Jewry law ofCologne:
Primo intret Judeus synagogam cum judice et actore et exutus calciis nudis
pedibus stet et imponat dextram manum totam usque ad membrum brachii in
librum Levitici, et claudatur liber.6
The curses in case of a false oath are threatening with punishments out of the
Torah, like the exteimination of Korah (Num. 16) or, in the oath of the Jews in
Vienna, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19).7 The increasing
mistrust towards Jews led to humiliating self-curses like the cruel example in a
Viennese manuscript of 1466: “ . . . if I swear a false oath and step back from my
place, I will fly into such a rage that I have to tear my wife and children into pieces
and devour them instead of bread“ (und ob ich unrecht swer, wenn ich von meiner
stelle trete, das ich also wueten muess werden, das ich mein weyb und chind
zureiyssen musse und fressen foer das prott ). 8 We do not know i f and where this
fonnula was used, but at this time certainly not in Vienna, because after the
Viennese gesera, the extennination of the Jewish community in 142 1 , no Jews
lived there any more. Beside that, another Jewry oath of Vienna is preserved
„which is characterized by shortness and dignity.“9
Formulas like that and humiliating ceremonies like standing on the bleeding
skin of a sow („Sauhaut“), the main symbol of impurity, as ordered in the Sachsenspiegel
and other legal books, were probably never or only rarely applied. Remarkably
enough, in Nurenberg the „Sauhaut“ was inserted into tbe oath in the
year 1 364 as a consequence of the persecutions of the Black Death in 1349, wben
6 Cited in Guido Kisch, „Studien zur Geschichte des Judeneides im Mittelalter“ in idem,
Forschungen zur Rechts- und Sozialgeschichte der Juden in Deutschland während des
Mittelalters, 2nd ed. (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1978 ), vol. 1 , pp. 137-165, p. 1 5 1 .
7 See Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, „Eid und Gelöbnis, Formel und Formula im mittelalterlichen
Recht,“ in Recht u11d Schrift im Mittelalter, cd. Peter Classen (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke,
1977) pp. 55-90, p. 84, and Hans von Voltelini, „Der Wiener und der Kremser Judeneid,“
Mitteilungen des Verei11sjur Geschichte der Stadt Wien, XII ( 1 932), pp. 64-70, p. 70.
8 Cited in Voltelini, „Judcneid,“ p. 67. The curse also has a base in the Torah, in Leviticus 26,
27-29, where God announces terrible punishments in casc the people of Israel do not obey His
commandments.
9 Voltelini, „Judeneid,“ p. 69.
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 167
562 Jews were murdered. Before that catastrophe, a short oath without any self-
• 10 curse was m use.
It is hard to decide which legal proscriptions were applied in the legal
practice and which of them stayed theoretical. Many historians and even contemporaries
had their doubts that ceremonies like that were ever applied or, like
Jacob Marcus, they at least stated other, „milder and more dignified“ versions. 11
Michael Toch gives examples of a nurober of cities where, beside the „Sauhaut“
ceremony and extensive self-curses, a second ceremony without any contemptuous
attributes existed. He concludes that these ceremonies do not describe a real oath
situation but express a „radical anti-Jewish discourse [ . . . ]. His task is innerChristian
and refers to Jews only in their function of objects for the projection of
aggression, feelings of guilt and fears.“12
I. Rituals of Repentance
Insults and injuries
During a longlasting quarre! in Ulm, which started 1435 and ended with a
heavy gunishrnent in 1440, the flawer (title of a scholar, but not a rabbi) Simlin
Walch 3 went to the Christian mayor to complain about his fellow Jews. This act
alone was a heavy sin against the rules of a Jewish community in the Middle Ages
because a denunciation to the Christian authorities endangered the whole community.
A traitor like that was called mosser, deliverer, or malshin, traitor, and he
was usually punished by the flerem, the Jewish ban, which meant religious and
social excommunication and, in consequence, loss of property and protection. 14
The quarre! started with Simlin’s refusal to pay his part of the collective tax
Emperor Frederick III imposed on his Jews. Simlin refused to accept the
j udgement of the community’s rabbinical court and charged several individual
members in the municipal courts. During the conflict, the community split into two
10 See Waller Röll, „Zu den Judeneiden an der Schwelle der Neuzeit,“ in Zur Geschichte der
Juden in Deutschland des späten Mittelalter und der frühen Neuzeit, ed. Alfred Haverkamp
(Stuttgart: Anion Hiersemann, 198 1) pp. 163 -204, p. 1 9 1 .
1 1 See Jacob R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World. A Source Book: 315-1791 (New York:
Athenetun, 1938), pp. 5 8 and 59, where he gives the Iranslaiion of the Jewry oath in Frankfurt!Main
at about 1392.
12 Michael Toch, „Mit der Hand auf der Tara: Disziplinierung als internes und externes Problem
in den jüdischen Gemeinden des Spälmittelalters,“ in Disziplinierung und Sachkultur in Mittelalter
undfrüher Neuzeit, ed. Gerhard Jarilz (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1 998), pp. 155-168, p. 166.
13 His Hebrew name was Sirnon or Samuel bar Mena.hem, son of Menly of Mellingen. He
represented the Jewish community of Ulm in tax negotiations with Konrad von Weinsberg in
1438 and 1439. See Gerrnania Judaica, eds. Arye Maimon, Mordechai Breuer and Yacov
Guggenheim (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1963-1995), vol. IIJ/2 ( 1 995), p. 1507, n.
26.
14 See Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter 1970 f.), vol. Ylll, cols. 344-355.
168 MARTHA KEIL
parties; the majority was held by Rabbi Seligman, rabbi of the community and
wealthy moneylender.15 His party also asked the municipal authorities for support
to force Simlin to accept the rabbinical judgement. The municipal courts got
deeply involved in the case; more than 170 documents dealing with this process
are preserved. Simlin was even imprisoned until he swore „Urfehde“ on 1440 VIII
27. Then he swore to accept the severe punishments the two famous rabbis Yakov
Weil 16 and Salman Katz of Nuremberg had imposed on him: the deprivation ofhis
t!aver-title, forty lashes of the whip or, instead of that, the paying of 40 florins to
the zedaka, the charity fund of the community, and one year of severe repentance.
17
Simlin, however, not only violated the collective balance by breaking the
rules of the community, he also attacked the honour of Rabbi Seligman as a Jew
and as a scholar. He insulted him as a „Mamser“, a bastard, which means an illegal
– not necessarily illegitimate – descent and compared his erudition with that of a
child of three years. Further, he expressed his doubts about the honesty of the
witnesses and judges of the rabbinical court. For these insults he had to ask openly
for forgiveness in the synagogues of Ulm, Constance, and Nuremberg. Ceremonies
of this kind usually took place in the synagogue during the Shabbat service, after
the reading ofthe Torah – a public perfonnance par excellence! 18
By doubting his legal descent, Simlin had not only offended Rabbi Seligman
himself, but also his parents Abraham and Mina. Therefore, he had to ask for their
forgiveness as weil. They were already deceased, so he had to go to their graves at
the Jewish graveyard ofU!m.’9 Rabbi Yakov Weil ofErfurt (died 1453) deals with
this case in a long response, six pages in two columns, citing several letters and
15 See Germania Judaica. 111/2, pp. 1506 f. n. 25. He was also active in Treviso and Constance,
where he was imprisoned with the other Jews of Constance because of a blood libel. After
having paid a quarter of thc enormous ransom of 20.000 florins he was released and moved to
Ulm. His admission to the town took place in 1431 VI 22.
16 Yakov Weil, one of the most famous scholars of bis time, was born around 1 390, studied in
Mainz, was rabbi in Nurernberg from around 1422 till 1429, then in Augsburg till 1438, then
probably in Bamberg and finally, at the tatest in 1443, he moved to Erfurt where he died in
1453. See Germanie Judaica, lll/1, p. 46, n. 12.
1 7 Germania Judaica, lll/2, p. 1 503. See the details in F. Strassburger, „Zur Geschichte der Juden
von Ulm nach Resp. 147 des Jacob Weil,“ in Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Theodor
Kroner (Breslau: Fleischrnann, 1 9 1 7), pp. 224-236. ·
18 See Martha Keil, „Bet haKnesset, JudenschuL Die Synagoge als Gotteshaus, Amtsraum und
Brennpunkt sozialen Lebens,“ Wiener Jahrbuchfür jüdische Geschichte, Kultur und Museumswesen,.
4 ( 1 99912000), pp. 7 1 -90, esp. pp. 83f., and Toch, ‚·Mit der Hand,“ p. 1 6 1 , where he
calls the synagogue the „public spacc par excellence“.
19 Seligman’s father Abraham was the riebest Jew in Coburg in 1 4 1 8 . See Germania Judaica, p.
1 5 1 9 , n. 240. Mina died in 1435 XII 27. Her gravestone is published in Markus Brann, „Zur
jüdischen Geschichte – Jüdische Grabsteine in Ulm,“ in Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von
Theodor Kroner, p. 182. Brann wrongly considered her the wife of R. Seligman. See Israel Y.
Yuval, Schofars in their Time (Hebr.) (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1 988), p. 223, n. 2.
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 169
minutes of both sides.2° Finally he wrote his judgement over Simlin, and there he
cited the formula of repentance in full length in, as he calls it, „ashkenasic“ language
(Hebrew words in italics and h for the Ietter het):
Ich hon moreinu ha-rov Selikman ein mamser geheissn, damit hon ich pouge
ve-nouge gewesen an ha-nikhbad rov Avraham s ‚I koved und seins weip
marat Mina s ‚l. Hatosi, ovisi, poshosi. Ich bitt den boure yis ‚(borekh) , das er
mirs mo!J.el sei un‘ daer noch ha-nikhbad rov Avraham s ‚I un
‚ fur Mina s ‚!.
(I have called Rabbi Seligman a Mamser, that‘ s why I was beating and
tauehing the honour of the honoured Abraham of blessed memory and his
wife Mina of blessed memory.)
The fo rmula itself is in Hebrew: chatati, aviti, pashati, taken from the vidui, the
confession of sins at the Yom Kipp ur service: „I have sinned, commited an outrage
and fa iled. I ask the Creator that He will fo rgive me and also Avraham and Mina of
blessed memory.“
In case the reader does not understand German, or Western Yiddish, „Judendeutsch“
or simply German with Hebrew loanwords (here is not the place to
discuss this topic), Yakov Weil translates the whole Statement into Hebrew. On the
bima, the Torah desk in the synagogue, Simlin also has to speak his public
confession and repentance in German (this statement is also cited in Hebrew):
Hort zu rabbousai, ich hon mesires geton, ich hon gebrochen di haskomes di
rabbonim hon gemacht da ich of gef:J.asem (e) t bin, ich hon oich pouge venouge
gewesen an koved mishpof:J.e shel moreinu ha-rov Selikman. Ich hon
oich mourenu ha-rov Selikman an sein koved geret das ich geshprochen, er
sei nit ein rov, ein kind kon me wen er, da mit hon ich oich den rabbonim
ubel geret, di (MhaR) moureinu ha-rov rebbi Selikman gesamkhet hot (sie!)
zu Rov. Ich hon oich (MhaR) maureimt ha-rov rebbi Selikman me ubel geret
un‘ oich kahl. Ich hon oich den dayyonim un‘ ein teil eidim ubel geret.
fiatosi, ovisi, poshosi. Ich bitt den boure yis ‚ (borekh) , das er mirs mof:J.el sei
un‘ di rabbonim, die (MhaR) Mo ureinu ha-Rov Rebbi Selikman gesamkhet
hot (sie!) un
‚ oich (MhaR)_moureinu ha-rov rebbi Selikman un‘ oich kohl
un‘ oich di eidim un‘ oich di dayyonim, ich bitt si al mef:J.ile.21
(Listen, gentlemen, I have committed delivery, I have broken the decisions
the Rabbis have made and that I myself have signed as well, I have also
insulted and touched the honour of the fam ily of Rabbi Selikman. I also
insulted the honour of Rabbi Selikman as a Rabbi and said that he does not
know more than a child, and by that I also insulted the Rabbis who have
ordained him to a Rabbi. I also insulted the community and the judges and
some of the witnesses. I have sinned, comrnited an outrage and fa iled. I ask
20 Yakov Weil, She ‚elot u-Teshuvot, ed. lzhak Sela (Venice,l549, repr. Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 94-
100, nr. 147.
21 Many thanks to Yacov Guggenheim, Hebrew University Jerusalem, who helped me with the
ashkenasic pronounciation of the Hebrew words and the transcription into English! See also
Wemer Weinberg, Lexikon zum religiösen Wortschatz und Brauchtum der deutschen Juden
(Stungart-Bad Cannstan: Frommann-H olzboog, 1994).
170 MARTHA KEIL
the Creator, He shall be praised, that He will forgive me and also the Rabbis
who have ordained Rabbi Selikman to a Rabbi and also the community and
also the witnesses and also the judges, I ask them all for forgiveness.22)
As Yakov Weil stated, during the three days after this judgement arrived in Ulm,
the Rabbis there would Iet Simlin know about it, and he had to do the ritual of
repentance at the graves of Seligman’s parents, as stated above. In the next three
days he had to fulfill the other ritual in the synagogue, and within 30 days he had
to repeat it in the synagogues of Constance and Nuremberg. Beside that, he had to
pay all the costs of the process.
As we are talking about a judgement, it is obvious that these sentences are
supposed to be spoken by the repentant, but it is not known if he really did so. At
the end ofhis responsum R. Yakov Weil threatens to ban Simlin ifhe does not fulfill
the judgement – so he hirnself is not sure if bis words will become „oral history“
in the proper sense ofwords.
The formula chatati, aviti, pashati (here given in their ashkenasic pronounciation
f1atosi, ovisi, poshosi) – „I have sinned, commited an outrage and
failed“ – also appears in other ceremonies of repentance of 15th -century responsa
material, at least when a man is the defendant. All the other elements of the ritual
follow a certain order, but the words are added according to the situation.
Yakov Weil also judges a case where a certain Shimon hurt bis fellow Jew
Ruben (both common pseudonyms in teshuvot) with a stick of wood, „until the
blood ran down from the forehead to the chin.“ Shimon bad to ask for repentance
in the synagogue during the moming prayer with these words, spoken or at least
cited in Hebrew:
I have sinned before the laws of Israel and before Ruben, and I have
increased the shame because I have beaten him with a wooden stick until the
blood ran down from the forehead to the chin. I have sinned, commited an
outrage and failed, and I ask the Lord, He shall be praised, that he will
forgive me, and I also ask Ruben to forgive me. 23
Like the other defraudant, Simlin, Shimon has to suffer lashes in the public space
of the synagogue and he has to pay a certain sum to Ruben and bear the costs of
the doctor.
The case of an adulteraus woman
Because the marriage bond (kiddushin, which means „holy“) is divinely
sanctioned and the prohibition of adulte!‘)‘ is of biblical – in the eyes of religious
22 Yakov Weil, She ‚elot u-Teshuvot , p. 99, col. 2, nr. 147.
23 Yakov Weil, She ‚elot u-Teshuvot, nr. 28. ln a similar case of physical attack during the
hoshana rabba procession in the synagogue of Graz at the feast of tabernacles, the formula of
the repentant is a little bit simpler. He just says: „I have sinned before the Lord and before you
because I have insulted the Holiness of the synagogue ( . . . ] and therefore I ask the Lord of
Israel for pardon and repentance and then you for forgiveness.“ lsserlein bar Petahya, Pesakum
u-Khetuvim (see note 29), nr. 2 1 0 (cited in Hebrew).
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 1 7 1
Jews, divine – origin, not only the busband is offended by adultery, but also God
(see Gen. 20, 6; 39, 8-9). The gravity of this transgression is underscored by its
punishment by death for both the man and the woman (see Lev. 20, 1 0; Deut. 22,
22). It is probable that even in biblical tim es the adulterer could buy hirnself off by
paying the busband a certain sum of money as compensation. In talmudic and posttalmudic
times, the adulteress could be punished by Strangulation or burning, in the
case of a Cohen’s daughter, imprisonment and, commonly, public flogging.24
Medieval Jewish courts had to judge in tension between the strength of Jewish law
and the restrictions Christian authorities imposed on Jewish jurisdiction. They also
had to be concemed about their good reputation. We can assume that these punishments
were sentenced and executed under exclusion of the Christian neighbourhood.
25
A very cruel ritual of repentance is transmitted to us by Rabbi Israel Bruna
of Bmo and Regensburg, who died in the 1480s, and by Rabbi Yakov Weil of
Mainz ( died I 453 ):26 A woman, probably living in Regensburg or its surroundings,
who committed adultery and wanted to make teshuva (repentance) had to appear
before Rabbi Salman Kizingen of Regensburg. He ordered her to take off her
bannet (kpi a), to cover herself with a veil and to disarrange her hair like the sota
(adulterous woman) in the bible whose hair was „loosened“ (Num. 5, 1 8). Then,
her busband should order her to enter the winter house in the presence of the men,
and he should say to her „in this language“ (German): „Kumst du pruze, du soine,
du eshet ish soine, wos willstu?“ („Do you come, whore, prostitute, wife of a
busband who betrayed him, what do you want?“). And she had to answer: „Ich
beken mein suend, ich bin ein pruze, ein soine, ich will teshuve tun oif mein
suend.“ („I confess my sin, I am a whore, a prostitute, I ask for repentance!“)
Then she had to sit in cold water in wintertime until she fainted, before they
should take her out and warm her up. A glossa explains that the judges must act
according to her state of health, and they can make it easier for her. Afterwards she
has to fast for a year, which means neither meat nor wine.
The second judge Rabbi Yakov Wei I, who in the introduction of his decision
complains that „the violation of this adulteraus woman is great like the sea, who
will heal her?“ ordered some other details ofthe ritual which followed the rules of
R. Yehuda he-Hassid of Regensburg (beginning ofthe 1 3th century): now, she must
confess in the Frauenshul what she had clone: „I sinned before the Lord, my God, I
brought shame on myself and I feel ashamed, and so I retum and make teshuva.“
This, she must also repeat in German (leshon Ashkenas), unfortunately not
cited in the original. The asked repetition in German seems to prove that this
24 Encyclopaedia Judaica, 11, cols. 3 1 3-3 16, article „Adultery.“
25 On corporal punislunents at rabbinical courts see Eric Zimmer, Harmony and Discord (see
note 3), pp. 90-93. He points out rwo different ways of flogging: The hard beating to cause
severe pain to the transgressor was only imposed on murderers. The common flogging, imposed
on informers, offenders and slanderers, in the synagogue in front of the public was
meant to subject the guilty to humilation an.d disgracc.
26 1srael Bruna, Sefer She ‚e/ot u-Teshuvot (Stetlin, 1860), nr. 225 and Yakov Weil, nr. 12.
172 MARTHA K.EIL
woman was able to speak at least a little Hebrew. Yakov Weil adds that she had to
do this repentance in the synagogues of Ulm, Augsburg, and Pappenheim as weiL
Yehuda of Regensburg gives cruel details for punishment, like sitting naked
in the snow and in summer in the middle of bees and mosquitos. After one year of
total fasting and two years of partly fasting and separation from society, dressed in
black like a mourner, the defendant woman is stigmatized for her whole life – this
lifelong consequence replaces the capital punishment ordered in the Torah for
adultery.
lt must be added that the Jewish Law makes it very difficult to find a woman
guilty of adultery. Two male adult Jews must see the adultery with their own eyes.
If the husband is suspicious, he must warn her, and only if she is found in an
obvious situation with this specific man is she taken to court. In most of the cases
divorce was the necessary consequence, but the woman was not forced to undergo
such a humiliating and painful procedure. The point in the cited case is that the
woman herself was eager to make teshuva, repentance, to „heal the violation“ she
committed between herself and her husband, her society and her God.
We do not know why the sources on adultery cases from the Middle Ages
are so rare: Either the Ievel of morality was quite high, or husbands simply
divorced their unfaithful wives or – also probable – such information was
suppressed by inner-jewish censorship.27 So, the cited ritual with its deterrent parts
certainly was not executed very often in the Middle Ages, and to call a woman
soine or pruze gave her the right to appeal to a Jewish court?8
II. Eyewitness reports
Many responsa contain eyewitness reports. The oral testimonies are marked
by the expression „se /eshono“, „This is his statement“, at the beginning and „ad
kan leshono“ „Up to here his statement“ at the end, although often the author does
not cite the original vemacular statement, but only a Hebrew translation which
apparently shortens the report of the questioned person. Sometimes the author cites
the German testimony, marked by the explanation „bi/eshon Aschkenas“, „in
Ashkenasic Janguage“, and he translates the whole statement into Hebrew. We can
27 The author of the standard work to medieval Jewish matrimonial law does not mention any
rituals of repentance for adultery. Ze’ev W. Falk, Jewish Matrimonial Law in the Middle Ages
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966). The most actual publication which appeared in June
200 I in Hcbrew, is not yet in my hands: A vraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious. Jewish
Warnen in Europa in the Middle Ages (Hebr.) (Jerusalem: Tbe Magnes Press, 2001). On
censorship in Responsa see Mordechai Breuer, „Die Responsenliteratur als Geschichtsquelle,“
in Geschichte und Kultur der Juden in Bayern. Aufsätze, ed. Manfred Treml et aL (Munich and
New York: K. G. Saur, 1988), pp. 29-38, see especially p. 32 and n. 22.
28 Israel Bruna, nr. 76. He makes a distinction between an intentional offense and an expression
of outrage. Zimmer, Harmony and Discord, p. 93, cites a case of Rabbi Menahem of Merseburg
(141h century) where someone, who had called a woman „imrnoral,“ was punished by 40
Jashes.
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 173
assume that later copists of some Responsa also shortened the original testimonies
and transmitted only the important information.
The following case again happened in Regensburg and is mentioned in a
teshuva of Rabbi Isserlein of Wiener Neustadt (who died in 1460) on a question
that Rabbi Israel Bruna (of Bmo and Regensburg) posed to him and R. Yakov
Weil, at this time in Erfurt:29 The wife of a Cohen was the maid of an hounorable
widower and raised his small children. These children and another young girl were
sleeping in the same room with her. This girl (na ‚ara, 12 years old) told the head
of the hausehold that she saw an unmarried servant come into the room at night.
So, in the middle of the night, the housefather went to the room of the servant
tagether with another young man, because according to the Halakha you need two
male eyewitnesses to find a woman guilty of adultery. He called for the servant,
but he did not answer. After a while the married maid left her room and said to the
young man: „Who is shouting, he is here in my room“ – she probably spoke in
German, but Israel Bruna cited the sentence in Hebrew. After being questioned by
his employer, the servant admitted that he had whored with the married maid and
that he wanted to make teshuwe, repentance. The maid first derued everything but
then, confronted with the confession of the servant, she a“dmitted that he had been
with her, but „Er hot nit recht bei mir gelegen “ – „He did not really lie with me,“
„without making her words more concrete“, as Isserlein writes.
At the beginning, the whole affair remained in the privacy of the house, but
then the rumour spread and when the husband, the Cohen, returned, he said openly
in the presence of many people and some rabbis that he did not believe a word of
this slander and that he was convinced of his wife’s honesty. As mentioned above,
a Jew, and particularly a cohen, is forced to give his unfaithfull wife the divorce
Ietter, even ifhe has forgiven her.
The wife herself and her father asked the rabbis to question the witnesses
under the threat of ban, and the young girl, who legally could not be a witness for
adultery, stated that she once lay in a bed in the room and that the maid was lying
in another bed, a candle was buming, the servant came in and fel l fully dressed on
the feet of the maid’s bed. The maid got up and left the room, that was all that she
had seen. After this evidence all the present parties started to quarre!, and nobody
was questioned further. Rabbi Isserlein decided that the suspicious wife did not
admit at all that she had committed adultery. „Er hot nit recht bei mir gelegen“
could mean, in his opinion, that the servant put his arms around her, or that he got
totally crazy and was lying upon her and breathed deeply, but that they did not do
the core of the thing (guf ha-ma ‚ase). For this reason it was clear to him that she
was allowed to her husband, which means that he was not forced to give her the
Ietter of divorce.
29 1sserlein bar PetahYa, Sefer Terumat ha-Deshen, ed. Shemuel Abitan (Jerusalem, 1991), part 2:
Pesakim u-Khetuvim (further: Pes.), nr. 222: Israel Bruna, Sefer She ‚elot uTeshuvot, nr. 4-8
and 56.
174 MARTHA’KEIL
This legal decision is a good illustration of the cramped living space of a
Jewish household in the Middle Ages and of the tensions that could arise between
its members. Michael Toch showed, based on lists of debts at the end of the l 51h
century, that the size of Jewish households in Nurernberg depended on their
economic status: In the year 1 489, seven of 1 5 households had two to three male
persons of 1 2 years and older, six had five to six and the two top families eight and
eleven. Including women and children, the households consisted of four to 44
members. One quarter of the households accommodated servants and most of them
illegal fellow occupants.30 We can imagine the atmosphere of attraction, jealousy,
hate or perhaps just the fun of gossip, even if it could seriously harm someone. The
role gossip played in a world without much diversion and entertainment is not to
be underestimated: „Shabbat is the wo und of the week, where all the servants and
everyone is free,“ sighed Rabbi Yakov Molin when he was confronted with the
case of a kidushe /azon, a joke betrothal of a young, high-spirited talmud student
and an elderly widow who was greedy for money. In spite of the triviality of the
case, the rumours had spread out on Shabbat, when the whole kehile met in the
synagogue or in the yard of the synagogue, in such a fast and intensive way that he
immediately had to consult his rabbinical teachers in Austria to restore the good
reputation ofhis community members.31
It is not surprising that in his testament, written around 13 5 7, Rabbi Eleasar
of Mainz seriously admonished his children: „Let me repeat my warning against
gossip and scandal. And as ye speak no scandal, so Iisten to none; for if there were
no receivers there would be no bearers of slanderous tales; therefore the reception
and credit of slander is as serious an offense as the originating of it. The less you
say, the less cause you give for animosity, while (Prov. 1 0, 1 9), ‚in the multitude of
words there wanteth not transgression‘ .“ 32
Corresponding to the task of the rabbi who watches over the moral decency
of his community, the head of the house plays the roJe of an internal judge, as long
as no law is seriously violated. In the case of the maiden’s affair the father of the
wo man and she herself are concerned about the honour of the family and ask for a
clear proof. The words of the young girl, who is perhaps full of fantasies at her age
of eleven or twelve, are believed, although she is female and not an adult, and she
is able to first get the maid into trouble and then to clear her of her charge. Further,
we can ask why the servant first admitted that he had „whored“, although he did
not „really lie with her,“ probably the sense of morality was very strong. Finally, it
is remarkable that all the men present believed the women, including the husband
30 See Michael Toch, „Die soziale und demographische Struktur der jüdischen Gemeinde
Nümberg im Jahre 1489,“ in Wirtschaftskräfte und Wirtschaftswege. Festschrift für Hermann
Kellenbenz, ed. Jürgen Schneider (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1978), pp. 79-9 1 .
3 1 R . Yacov Molin (Maharil) of Mainz, died 1427, relies on at statement i n the Talmud,
Kiddushin 8la: „The wotmd of the year is the feast“. Yacov Molin, She ‚elot u-teshuvot, ed.
Yzhak Saz (Jcrusalem, 1980), nr. 96 (101). Also in this decision we find a few Statements in
Gerrnan.
32 See Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, p. 3 1 5.
RITUALS OF REPENTANCE 175
who openly confessed his trust in his wife, and the rabbis. She could defend herself
and was not forced into humilating interrogations. But Rabbi Isserlein did not
decide carelessly. For his justification, he cited several authorities of the Talmud
and the 12th and 1 3th century, among them the great Maimonides and Rabbi Meir
bar Baruh of Rothenburg. Although his arguments had a solid base on the dec
isions of his forerunners, he asked Israel Bruna for a third rabbinical decision
beside his own and that of Yakov Weil.
Iß. Vows and spontaneaus statements in times of anger, grief or distress
These cases can only arise halakhic problems i f a person is taking a rash
vow that he cannot keep afterwards and/or, as in the following case, if he denies
his Jewish religion, which means apostasy. In a response to Abraham
Katzenellenbogen of Ofen, Isserlein of Wien er Neustadt has to judge someone who
said in rage: „Er so! sich toifen oif sein Schwieger in sein Hois sol gen.“33 „He will
get baptised if his ‚Schwieger‘ should enter his hause.“ „Schwieger“ can mean
every relative by marriage. We later get to know that the mother-in-law is meant.
Abraham Katzenellenbogen cites Mordehai ben Hillel of the 1 3th century that
someone who is denying his Jewishness is to be punished, but many other rahbis
share the opinion that vows like that, spoken in anger or grief, should not be taken
seriously. The Talmud (Shevuot 36a) forbids vows that bring harm with them and
vows of joke, but, says Isserlein, many old people make jokes and no court will
take notice of them.
In another case of Rabbi Israel Bruna, a woman says on the way to a
marriage party: „As ich ein Juedin bin, ich will nit tanzen zu der f1assene!“ – „I
won’t dance at the marriage party or I am not a Jewess anymore!“34 This is also not
to be taken seriously, „It’s the way of the women to say things like that, this
sentence is not considered a vow“, Israel Bruna states. If a person takes a vow in
an hour of distress, however, like in illness or captivity, the rahbis do not cancel it;
it is seen as a sort of duty towards God, who heard the prayers. Moshe Minz cites a
decision of Rabbi Yehuda he-Hassid of Regensburg where a sick man promised to
study a whole year if he should recover. Although this promise was not made in
the way of an official vow or oath, it was valid.3s Many people promised to pay a
certain sum to the zedaka, the welfare organisation of the community. When the
person gives a promise that is impossible to keep, it is cancelled at Yom Kippur
during the ko/ nidre ritual. Rabbi Yosman Katz of Wiener Neustadt cancelled the
vow of a woman who promised to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but on the way
she was attacked and raped and could not continue her journey. With permission of
33 Isserlein bar Petahya, Pes. 192. The same teshuva in the Leket Yosher, part 2, p . 27 gives the
variation: „So so/ ich sich toifen“ – „I shall get baptised“.
34 Israel Bmna, She ‚e/ot u-teshuvot, nr. 24.
Js Moshe Minz, She ‚elot u-teshuvot, ed. Yonathan Shraga Domav (Jemsalem, 1991), p. 374, nr.
79.
176 MARTiiA KEIL
his teacher Rabbi Isserlein, he freed her without further discussion.36 The general
opinion was not to be too strict about vows taken in an emotional situation; here
the Rabbis ofthe Middle Ages acted more leniently than the Talmudic scholars.
I tried to take my task seriously and to Iook for real spoken works, oral
history in the true meaning of the word. What interested me was not only the use
of the languages in the different settings, but also the private and public space
where the Statements were made, the characteristics of both speakers and listeners
and the relationships between them. The rabbinical teshuvot, citing forrnalized and
spontaneaus oral statements in Hebrew and Gerrnan, are a unique source for our
purpose to trace oral history in the Middle Ages.
36 Leket Yosher, part 2, p. 24.
ORAL HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
THE SPOKEN WORD IN CONTEXT
Edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XII
=
CEU MEDIEV ALIA
VOLU1vfE 3
Oral History of the Middle Ages
The Spoken W ord in Context
Edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter
Krems and Budapest 200 1
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER ABTEILUNG
KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES
DER NIEDERÖSTERREICIDSCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
niederästerreich kultur
copy editor: Judith Rasson
Cover illustration: The wife of Potiphar covets Joseph: “ … erat autem Joseph pulchra facie et
decorus apectu: post multos itaque dies iecit domina oculos suis in Ioseph et ait donni mecum.“
(“ … And Joseph was (a] goodly fperson], and weil favoured. And it came to pass after these
things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. „), Gen. 39:
6-7 (KJV). Concordantiae Caritatis, c. 1350. Cistercian abbey of Lilienfeld (Lower Austria), ms
151, fol. 244v (detail). Photo: Institut fiir Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit
(Krems an der Donau).
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
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Published by:
and
– ISBN 963 9241 64 4 (Budapest)
-ISSN 1587-6470 CEU MEDIEVALIA
Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung
der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A-
3500 Krems. Austria,
Department ofMedieval Studies, Centrat European University,
Nador utca 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary.
Printed by Printself, Budapest.
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……………………….. 7
Michael RICHTER, Beyond Goody and Grundmann ………. . . . . . . ………. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I
Tom PETTIIT, Textual to Oral: the Impact ofTransmission
on Narrative Word-Art …………………………………………………………………….. 1 9
Elöd NEMER!<.ENYI, Fictive Audience. The Second Person Singular in the Deliberatio ofBishop Gerard of Csanäd …………………………………………….. 3 9 Katalin SZENDE, Testaments and Testimonies. Orality and Literacy in Composing Last Wills in Late Medieval Hungary ……………………………. 49 Anna ADAMSKA, The Kingdom of Po land versus the Teutonic Knights: Oral Traditions and Literale Behaviour in the Later Middle Ages …………… 67 Giedre MICKÜNAITE, Ruler, Protector, and a Fairy Prince: the Everlasting Deeds of Grand Duke Vytautas as Related by the Lithuanian Tatars and Karaites ………………………………… 79 Yurij Zazuliak, Oral Tradition, Land Disputes, and the Noble Community in Galician Rus‘ from the 1440s to the 1 460s ……………………………………… 88 Nada ZECEVIC, Ai􀃭tc; yA.uKeia. The Importance ofthe Spoken Word in the Public Affairs ofCarlo Tocco (from the Anonymous Chronaca dei Tocco di Cefalonia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 108 lohn A. NICHOLS, A Heated Conversation: Who was Isabel de Aubigny, Countess of Arundel? …………………………… 1 1 7 Tracey L. BILADO, Rhetorical Strategies and Legal Arguments: ‚Evil Customs‘ and Saint-Florent de Saumur, 979- 1 0 1 1 …………………….. 1 28 Detlev KRAACK, Traces of Orality in Written Contexts. Legal Proceedings and Consultations at the Royal Court as Reflected in Documentary Sources from l21h-century Germany ……… 1 42 6 Maria DOBOZY, From Oral Custom to Written Law: The German Sachsenspiegel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Martha KEIL, Rituals of Repentance and Testimonies at Rabbinical Courts in the 151h Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 64 Michael GOODICH, The Use of Direct Quotation from Canonization Hearing to Hagiographical Vita et Miracula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 77 Sylvia ScHEIN, Bemard of Clairvaux ’s Preaching of the Third Crusade and Orality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Michael BRAUER, Obstades to Oral Communication in tbe Mission offriar William ofRubruck among the Mongois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Elena LEMENEVA, From Oral to Written and Back: A Sermon Case Study . . . . . . . . 203 Albrecht CLASSEN, Travel, Orality, and the Literary Discourse: Travels in the Past and Literary Travels at the Crossroad of the Oral and the Literary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 217 Ulrich MÜLLER and Margarete SPRJNGETH, “Do not Shut Your Eyes ifYou Will See Musical Notes:“ German Heroie Poetry („Nibelungenlied“), Music, and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Jolanta SZPILEWSKA, Evoking Auditory Imagination: On the Poetics of Voice Production in The Story ofThe Glorious Resurrection ofOur Lord (c. 1580) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Jens T. WOLLESEN, SpokenWords and Images in Late Medieval Italian Painting . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 257 Gerhard JARTTZ, Images and the Power of the Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Preface Oral culture played an instrumental role in medieval society.1 Due to the Iack of any direct source evidence, however, research into the functions and importance of oral communication in the Middle Ages must confront a number of significant problems. Only indrect traces offer the opportunity to analyze phenomena that were based on or connected with the spoken word. The ‚oral history‘ of the Middle Ages requires the application of different approaches than dealing with the 201h or 2 151 century. For some decades Medieval Studies have been interested in questions of orality and literacy, their relationship and the substitution of the spoken by the written word2 Oral and literate culture were not exclusive and certainly not opposed to each other.3 The ‚art of writing‘ was part of the ‚ars rhetorica‘ and writing makes no sense without speech.4 Any existing written Statement should also be seen as a spoken one, although, clearly, not every oral Statement as a written one. Authors regularly wrote with oral delivery in mind. ‚Speaking‘ and ‚writing‘ are not antonyms. It is also obvious that „the use of oral conununication in medieval society should not be evaluated … as a function of culture populaire vis-a-vis culture savante but, rather, of thc communication habits and the tendency of medieval man 1 For the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, cf. Willern Frijhoff, „Communication et vie quotidienne i1 Ia fin du moyen äge et a l’epoque moderne: reflexions de theorie et de methode,“ in Kommunialion und Alltag in Spätmillefalter und fniher Neuzeit, ed. Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992), p. 24: „La plupart de gens vivait encore pour l’essentiel dans une culture orale et !es procedes d’appropriation des idCes passaient de prefcrence par Ia parolc dite et ecoutee, quand bien memc on ctait capable d’une Ieelure visuelle plus ou moins rudimentaire.“ 2 See Marco Mostert, „New Approaches to Medieval Communication?“ in New Approaches to Medieval Communication. ed. Marco Mostert (Tumhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 15-37; Michael Richter, “Die Entdeckung der ‚Oralität‘ der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft durch die neuere Mediävistik,“ in Die Aktualität des Miue/alters, ed. Hans-Werner Goetz (Bochum: D. Winkler, 2000), pp. 273-287. 3 Peter Burke calls the constrnct of „oral versus literate“ useful but at the same time dangerous: idem, „Mündliche Kultur und >Druckkultur< im spätmittelalterlichen Italien,“ in Volkskultur des europäischen Spätmittelalters, eds. Peter Dinzelbacher and Hans-Dieter Mück (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1987), p. 60. 4 Michael Clanchy, „lntroduction,“ in New Approaches to Medieval Communication. ed. Marco Mostert (Tumhout: Brepols, 1999), p. 6. 8 to share his intellectual experiences in the corporate framework.“5 Oral delivery was not „the sole prerogative of any socioeconomic class. „6 For all these reasons, it is important to analyze the extent of and context, in which ’speech acts,‘ auditive effects, and oral tradition occur in medieval sources .7 Research into the use of the spoken word or references to it in texts and images provides new insight into various, mainly social, rules and pattems of the communication system. 1t opens up additional approaches to the organization and complexity of different, but indispensably related, media in medieval society, and their comparative analysis.8 The spoken word is connected with the physical presence of its ’sender.‘ Speech may represent the authenticity of the given message in a more obvious way than written texts or images. Therefore, the use of ’speech acts‘ in written or visual evidence also has to be seen in context with the attempt to create, construct, or prove authenticity. Moreover, spoken messages contribute to and increase the lifelikeness of their contents, which may influence their perception by the receiver, their efficacy and success. Being aware of such a situation will have led to the explicit and intended use and application of the spoken word in written texts and images- to increase their authenticity and importance, too. lf one operates with a model of ‚closeness‘ and ‚distance‘ of communication with regard to the Ievel of relation of ’senders‘ and ‚receivers,‘ then the ’speech acts‘ or their representation have to be seen as contributors to a ‚closer‘ connection among the participants of the communication process.9 At the same time, however, Speech might be evaluated as less official. One regularly comes across ‚oral space‘ 5 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei. Commwzication in the Middle Ages (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 19. 6 Ibidem, p. 21. Cf. also Jan-Dirk Müller, „Zwischen mündlicher Anweisung und schrifilicher Sicherung von Tradition. Zur Kommunikationsstruktur spätmittelalterlicher Fechtbücher,“ in Kommunikation und Alltag in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit, ed. Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992), p. 400: „Offensichtlich sind schriftliche und nichtschriftliche Tradierung von Wissen weiterhin relativ unabhängig voneinander, nachdem die Schrift längst dazu angesetzt hat, lnseln der Mündlichkeil oder praktisch-enaktiver Wissensvermittlung zu erobem. Die Gedächtnisstütze kann die Erfahrung nicht ersetzen, sendem allenfalls reaktivieren. Sie ist sogar nur verständlich, wo sie auf anderweitig vermittelte Vorkenntnisse stößt.“ 7 􀆿f. W.F.H. Nicolaisen, ed., Oral Tradition in the Middle Ages (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1995). 8 See, esp., Horst Wenzel, Hören und Sehen, Schrift und Bild. K ultur und Gedächtnis im Mittelalter (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1995), passim. 9 See also Siefan Sonderegger, „>Gesprochen oder nur geschrieben?< Mündlichkeil in mittelalterlichen
Texten als direkter Zugang zum Menschen,“ in Homo Medietas. Aufsätze zu Religiosität,
Literatur und Denkformen des Menschen vom Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit. Festschrift
for Alois Maria Haas zum 65. Geburtstag, eds. Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde and
Niklaus Largier (Bem e\ al.: Peter Lang, 1999), p. 665: „Jedenfalls darf man sich bewußt bleiben,
daß auch in den Texten des deutschen Mittelalters die Reflexe gesprochener Sprache eine
bedeutende Schicht ausmachen, die besonders dann immer wieder hervortritt, wenn es um
einen direkten Zugang zum Menschen geht, um einVerstehen aus unmittelbarer Partnerschaft
heraus … “
9
that has become institutionalized or more official by the application of ‚written
space.‘ 10 Simultanous employment of such different Ievels and qualities of
messages must often have had considerable influence on their efficacy.11
The papers in this volume are the outcome of an international workshop that
was held in February, 2001, at the Department ofMedieval Studies, Central European
University, Budapest. Participants concentrated on problems of the occurrence,
usage, and pattems of the spoken word in written and visual sources of the
Middle Ages. They dealt with the roJe and contents of direct and indirect speech in
textual evidence or in relation to it, such as chronicles, travel descriptions, court
and canonization protocols, sermons, testaments, law-books, literary sources,
drama, etc. They also tried to analyze the function of oral expression in connection
with late medieval images.
The audiovisuality of medieval communication processes12 has proved to be
evident and, thus, important for any kind of further comparative analysis of the
various Ievels of the ‚oral-visual-literate,‘ i.e. multimedia culture of the Middle
Ages. Particular emphasis has to be put on methodological problems, such as the
necessity of interdisciplinary approaches,13 or the question of the extent to which
we are, generally, able to comprehend and to decode the communication systems
of the past.14 Moreover, the medievalist does not come across any types of sources
in which oral communication represents the main concem.15 lnstead, she or he is
confronted, at first glance, with a great variety of ‚casual‘ and ‚marginal‘ evidence.
We would like to thank all the contributors to the workshop and to this
volume. Their cooperation made it possible to publish the results of the meeting in
the same year in which it took place. This can be seen as a rare exception, at least
in the world of the historical disciplines. The head, faculty, staff, and students of
the Department of Medieval Studies of CentTal European University offered
various help and support. Special thanks go to Judith Rasson, the copy editor of
10 This, e.g., could be weil shown in a case study on thc pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela:
Friederike Hassauer, „Schriftlichkeit und Mündlichkeil im Alltag des Pilgers am Beispiel der
Wallfahrt nach Santiago de Compostela,“ in Wallfahrt und Alltag in Mittelalter und früher
Neuzeit, eds. Gerhard Jaritz and Barbara Schuh (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1992), pp. 277-316.
11 Cf. Bob Scribner, „Mündliche Kommunikation und Strategien der Macht in Deutschland im
16. Jahrhundert,“ in Kommunikation und Alltag in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit, ed.
Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1992), pp. 183-197.
12 Wenzel, Hören rmd Sehen, p. 292.
13 Cf. Ursula Schaefer, „Zum Problem der Mündlichkeit,“ in Modernes Miuelalter. Neue Bilder
einer populären Epoche, ed. Joachim Heinzle (Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig: Insel Verlag,
1994), pp. 374 f.
14 Frijhoff, „Communication et vie quotidienne,“ p. 25: „Sommes-nous encore en mesure de
communiquer avec Ja communication de jadis?“
1􀅄 Michael Richter, Sprache und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter. Untersuchungen zur mündlichen
Kommunikation in England von der Mit te des elften bis zu Beginn des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts
(Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1979), p. 22.
10
this volume, who took particluar care with the texts of the many non-native
speakers fighting with the pitfalls of the English language.
Budapest, Krems, and Constance
December 200 I
Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter