Creating the Memory of God in a Medieval Miscellany: Melk MS 1 075, Jean de Hesdin (fl. 1350-1370), and Late Medieval Monastic Reform

Creating the M emory of God in a Medieval Miscellany:
Melk MS 1 075, Jean de Hesdin (fl. 1350-1370),
and Late Medieval Monastic Reform
Kimberly Rivers
Accustomed as we modern readers are to the notion of an ‚author‘ as the
originator of an entire work, it can be difficult to remernher how fluid the
idea of authorship was in the Middle Ages. This fluidity is especially apparent
in the work of the medieval compiler, who could create both a
new treatise or an entire miscellany from other works. Sometimes new
works were created from extracts of old ones and by trains of mental associations.
These ideas can be explored through a small tract entitled Ex
lohanne de hysdinio de memoria in Melk, Stiftsbibliothek, 1 0 7 5 . Though
the contents of the tract were written by the author named in the titlethe
French Hospitaller and biblical scholar jean de Hesdin (fl. 1 3 5 0-
1 3 70)-the tract itself was compiled by soroeone eise, likely a Benedictine
roonk living at the monastery of Melk in the fifteenth century. The
piece, a collection of ideas about roeroory extracted froro Jean de Hesdin’s
Commentary an ]ob, is contained in a roanuscript roiscellany coroposed
of short works on religious and pedagogical topics chosen to
appeal to a Benedictine monk. The roanuscript contains a nurober of
comroentaries o n the Rule of St. Benedict, two ars memorativa treatises,
several sermons by the Benedictine reforroer Johannes Schlitpacher (d.
1482), and a nurober of pedagogical treatises.1
This paper explores two questions: first, what guided the selection of
extracts on memory froro Jean de Hesdin’s Commentary an ]ob? How was
The manuscript came from a Benedictine house, and several ofthe treatises have
a Benedictine theme, including five works that treat the Rule of St. Benedict. See
the Appendix for a complete Iist of the manuscript’s contents. Manuscript
information may be viewed through the Electronic Access to Medieval Manuscripts
at the Hili Museum and Manuscript Library (EAMMS at HMML) :
http:/ jwww.hmml.org.
CREA Tl:-.G THE MEMORY OF GOD 113
the work compiled and what purposes did it serve? Because the Melk
library catalogue from the fifteenth century lists jean de Hesdin’s Commentary
on ]ob among its contents, we can trace the origin of thc compilation
with some accuracy. H owever, ascertaining what purpose the
compilation served requires more interpretation. Second, what relationship,
if any, exists between the Ex lohanne de hysdinio de memoria and
the rest of the contexts of Melk 1075? In particular, is there a connection
between the obvious interests in memory and religious meditation exhibited
in the manuscript’s contents and the Benedictine reform movement
sponsored by the monastery at Melk in the fifteenth century? Same
sections of the manuscript appear to show connections of association in
the placement of one text next to another, though one cannot make such
an argument for the whole manuscript. It is the working hypothesis of
this author that there is a connection between memory, meditation, and
the Benedictine religious reform movements of the fifteenth century. The
connection between memory and religious reform also extends to pedagogical
concerns.
It is best to begin with some background about jean de Hesdin, as he
is not particularly weil known to modern scholars. jean de Hesdin is a
figure remernbered today chiefly because of an epistolary duel he fought
against Petrarch over the validity of the Avignon papacy in the later fourteenth
century. Well-known for his disdain of the papacy’s residence i n
Avignon (which h e called the „Babylonian captivity“), Petrarch wrote to
Pope Urban V both before and after the pope’s return of the papal court
to Rome in 1367.2 In his letters he made several uncomplimentary
observations about France, Avignon and its climate, and the quality of
Grover Furr, „France vs. ltaly: French Literary Nationalism in „Petrarch’s Last
Controversy and a Humanist Dispute of ca. 1395,“ Proceedings of the Patristic,
Medieval and Renaissance Conference, Villanova University 4 (1979): 115-25. For
more on Hesdin’s involvement in the dispute, see also Beryl Smalley, „jean de
Hesdin 0. Hosp. S. loh.,“ Recherehes de theologie ancienne et medil!vale 28 (1961):
283-89; Pierre de Nolhac, Petrarque et l’humanisme, 2 vols. (Paris: H. Champion,
1907), vol. II, 307-11; Kimberly A. Rivers, Preaching the Memory of Virtue and
Vice: Memory, Images, and Preaching in the Later Middle Ages, Sermo 4 (Turnheut:
Brepols, 2010), chapter 7; and Philip Edward Burnham, „Cultural life at Papal
Avignon, 1309-1376“ (Ph.D. diss., Tufts University, 1972). For Urban V’s return
of the papacy to Rome, see G. Mollat, The Popes at Avignon, 1305-1378,
trans. janet Love (London: Nelson, 1963), 154-60, and Yves Renouard, The Avignon
Papacy: The Popes in Exile, 1305-1403, trans. Denis Sethell (New York:
Barnes and Noble, 1970), 53-61.
114 K.!MBERL Y RIVERS
French scholarship. Naturally enough, the French resented Petrarch’s
insinuations and put up Ancel Choquart, a professor of canon law, to defend
the honor of Avignon and the advantages of the protection of the
French king just before Urban left for Rome.
After Choquart died in 1368/69, jean de Hesdin joined the fray,
becoming known as the Ga/lus calumpniator (the Gallic challenger). Because
of his solid career at the University of Paris, Hesdin would have
seemed a natural choice for the French side. Hesdin was a member of the
Order of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and likely held the position
of regent master of theology at the Order’s hause in Paris for over 25
years.3 By the late 1 3 6 0s, he had written a number of biblical commentaries
and sermons, most of them studded with references to classical
culture. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Paris by 1364, a
respected position at the university rarely held by a member of a religious
order.4 In addition, he had spent at least a few months in Avignon
itself, on his way back from a mission to Hungary with his patron, Guy de
Boulogne, Iater Bishop of Porto. Wishing to defend the reputation of
France, he wrote to Petrarch, probably in 1369 or 1370. Among the disputed
points was a differing idea of classical culture and the uses to
which it should be put. While Petrarch valued the eloquence of the ancient
writers and the sense of Italian history that he drew from Rome’s
past, Hesdin and the French defenders subordinated verbal eloquence to
Smalley, „jean de Hesdin,“ 284, and Anthony Luttrell, „jean and Sirnon de Hesdin:
Hospitallers, Theologians, Classicists,“ Recherehes de theologie ancienne et
medil}vale 31 (1964): 137-40. See also Rolf Sprandel, Altersschicksal und
Altersmoral: Die Geschichte der Einstellungen zum Altern nach der Pariser
Bibelexegese des 12.-16. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart: Anten Hiersemann, 1981), and
Andrew jotischy, The Carmelites and Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002). 171-72, 185, 225.
Smalley, „jean de Hesdin,“ 284. A roll of petitioners for papal provisions sent in
june 1365 lists him as dean of theology: Prima fratri Johanni de Hesdinio, Ord. S.
Johannis Jherusolimit decano ad presens theologice facultatis Parisius, qui per xxv
annos fuit quasi continue actu regens, excepto tempore qua in Avinione cum
domino cardinale Boloniensi peregit /ecturam supra Job, quam Parisius inceperat,
et postea Parisius fecit lecturam supra epistolam Pau/i ad Titum, cum pluribus
sermonibus et a/iis operibus, que per coptarn habentur Parisius, H . Denifle and E.
Chatelain, eds., Chartularitlm Universitatis Parisiensis, rpt ed., vol. 3 (Bruxelles:
Culture et Civilisation, 1964), 127, no. 1305. See also no. 1299, 1336, and 1429.
CREATI􀁗G THE MEMORY OF GOD 115
Christian wisdom: to them the riches ofthe past should be put to a Christian
use.5
The careful appropriation of classical culture was, in fact, the
approach that Hesdin had taken in his own scholarship. During his career,
he composed three or four biblical commentaries which are still
extant: a commentary on Job, a commentary on Paul’s epistle to Titus,
another on the gospel of Mark, and possibly one on the Song of Solomon,
which has not been studied.6 B eryl Smalley describes all of them as /ecturae,
products of his years in the classroom in Paris. l n the commentaries
on Job, Mark, and Titus, Hesdin makes liberal use of secular
authorities, as weil as the standard biblical and theological ones, but he
incorporates the most classical sources into his work on Titus.7
There is also one other work attributed to Hesdin which has not been
noted by previous scholars. This is the small treatise entitled Ex lohanne
de hysdinio de memoria (From jean de Hesdin, On Memory), which I found
in Melk 1075, written in the fifteenth century at the Benedictine monastery
of Melk.S Hesdin’s De memoria is not an independent treatise so
much as a compilation of extracts from his commentary on )ob. The preponderance
of quotations from the book of ]ob, as weil as a long one
from Gregory the Great’s Moralia in lob, which, according to Smalley,
Hesdin made much use of i n his own commentary, would Iead any reader
to suspect a connection with Hesdin’s commentary. In addition, the title
Ex Iohanne de hysdinio de memoria suggests that the work may consist o f
extracts from some of Hesdin’s writings. I n t h e same manuscript there i s
a copy o f the library catalogue a t Melk (called a n Ordinatio librorum
Furr, „France vs. ltaly,“ 120.
As in so many areas related to medieva1 biblical commentaries, Beryl Smalley has
already laid the ground work for a study of Hesdin’s writings. See Smalley, „jean
de Hesdin,“ 289-91, and Friedrich Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi
(Madrid: 1949-80), vol. 111, nos. 4551-56, VII, no. 10707, and IX, nos. 4551-56.
R. A. ß. Mynors, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Balliol College, Oxford (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1963), 184. For an examination of Hesdin’s treatment of the
virtues, vices, and mnemonic images in Titus, see Rivers, Preaching the Memory,
chapter 7.
Melk, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex Mellicensis 1075 (421. H 38) (henceforth Melk
1075). I have consulted the microfilm copy held by the Hili Museum and Manuscript
Library (HMML 1833) in Collegeville, Minnesota.
116 K.lMBERLY RtVERS
bibliothecae Mellicensis) made in 1483 that notes that the library possessed
a copy of Hesdin’s Pasti/la super librum Iab.9
An examination of Hesdin’s ]ob commentary reveals that it is indeed
the source of the De memoria, as nearly every section of the small treatise
can be found in the !arger work.10 I have used the copy of the )ob
commentary contained in Paris, Bibliotheque Mazarine, 200, fol. 1 7ra-
357rb (= P2). One can ascertain the connection between the two works
from the incipit of the De memaria and the Tabu/a of Hesdin’s work on
]ob. The incipit ofthe De memaria is:
Nota quatuor. Prima memoria investiganda est vario modo; secundo quomodo
memorari Deum facere debemus in oracione p/ura; tercio memoria molorum consistit
in quatuor; quarto memoria sanetarum consistit in quatuor.u
l f one Iooks for the word memaria in the Tabu Ia, one finds the following
topics: Memorio banorum habet quadrup/ex banum; Memaria malorum
quadruplex mal um habet; Memoriam dei debemus memorare ut sit memar
nostri et aliqua astendere deprecando; memoria antiquarum laudanda
multiplicter.t2 When the topics are followed up in ]ob, most of them turn
out to be exactly the same as the items listed in De memoria. One can find
almost the entire contents of De memaria in the ]ob commentary. To take
one example, we can compare what each work says about the memory of
one’s elders or „ancients.“
De memoria, Melk 107S (fol. 863r)
Generacio eapitur duplieiter. Vno modo
prout est via in ens, et sie aeeipitur 4
Methaphysiee et Philosophus, S Physicorum
et seeundo Methaphysiee, vbi dieit
generacio est media inter non ens sirnpHeiter
et esse simpliciter. Alio modo dieitur
generacio suecessio plurimi ex vno
homine, et sie dicitur Genesis 4: hee sunt
generaciones Ade.
Commentary on )ob, P2 (fol. 97rb)
Generaeio sicut seitis dicitur duplieiter.
Vno modo prout est via in ens, et sie
aecipit quattuor 40 Methaphysiee et
Philosophus so Phisicorum et 20
:vlethaphysiee, vbi dicit quod generacio
est medium inter non ens simpliciter et
esse simpliciter. Alio modo dicitur generacio
suecessio prolium ex vno homine,
et sie dieitur Genesis 4: hee sunt
generaciones Ade et cetera.
See Melk 1075, p. 25. An extant copy of Hesdin’s )ob Commentary can be found in
Melk, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex Mellicensis 520 (592. L.ll), saee. XV, Commentarius
in librum lob. to I have used Paris, Bibliotheque Mazarine 200, fol. 17ra-357rb (henceforth P2).
See Smalley, „)ean de Hesdin.“ 290, and Stegmüller, RB lll, no. 4SS1.
11 Melk 1075, p. 863. 12 pz, fol. Sv.
CREATI􀁘G THE ME:>.10RY OF GOD 117
Dicitur ergo interoga enim generacionem,IJ
id est, inquire de antiquis quid senserunt.
Nam ab antiquis debemus inquire de
quatuor:
de mirabilibus ad addiscendum,
de agibilibus ad nos conformandum,
de moralibus ad nos instruendum,
de credibilibus ad nos confirmadum.
De memoria, Melk 1075 (fol. 863r)
„Generation“ is taken in two ways. ln one
way. just as a way into being, and so it is
understood in Book 4 of the Metaphysics,
and the Philosopher, Book 5 ofthe Physics,
and in the secoml book of the Metaphysics,
where he says that generation is
the midpoint between non-being simply
and being simply. ln the other way „generation“
is called a succeesion of many
from one man. And so it is said in Genesis 4: „these are the generationes of Adam.“
Therefore it is said, “For inquire of the …
generation,“ that is, ask your forefathers
(antiquis) what they feit. For from our
forefathers we ought to ask about four
things:
About the wonderful things that ought to
be learned;
About the practiceable things for forming
us;
About the moral things for instructing us;
About the things worthy of belief for
strengthening us.
Et sic accipitur hic cum dicit interroga
etcetera, id est, inquire de antiquis quid
senserunt de hoc, et merito nam ab
antiquis debemus inquirere:
de admirabilibus ad addiscendum,
de agibilibus ad nos conf01tandum.
de moralibus ad nos instruendum,
de credibilibus ad nos confirmandum.
Commentary on Job, pz (fol. 97rb)
„Generation,“ just as you know, is said
in two ways. ln one way, just as a way
into being, and so it is understood in
Book 4 of the Metaphysics, and the
Philosopher, Book 5 ofthe Physics, and
in the second book ofthe Metaphysics,
where he says that generation is the
midpoint between non-being simply
and being simply. ln the other way
„generation“ is called a succeesion of
offs pring from one man. And so it is
said in Genesis 4: „these are the generationes
of Adam, etc.“
And so it is accepted here, when he
says „lnquire etc,“ that is, ask your
forefathers (antiquis) what they feit
about this, and rightly, for from our
forefathers we ought to ask about four
things:
About the wonderful things that ought
to be learned;
About the practiceable things for
forming us;
About the moral things for instructing
us;
About the things worthy of belief for
strengthening us.
The same kind of similarity exists in the rest of the two texts, the main
difference being that the De memoria supplies much Ionger biblical quo-
IJ Job 8,8.
1 18 KlMBERL V RIVERS
tations than the Job commentary. Given that the reader of Job would presumably
expect frequent references to the biblical text and that the
reader of the De memoria might not, the difference is not surprising.
What can we say about the authorship of this work, then? lt seems
most useful to follow the distinction made in the late Middle Ages between
an auctor and a compilator, regarding Hesdin as the auctor of the
extracts from the original text of the Job Commentary, and the unknown
writer of this manuscript as a compilator for taking the quotations from
the Job commentary and putting them tagether into a new work.14
Though most compilations were drawn from many sources and authorities,
compilations of quotations from only one auctor certainly existed.
For example, the florilegium entitled liber qui vocatur Flores Bernardi
collected excerpts from a single author (Bernard of Clairvaux) rearranged
according to subject matter.1s Our compilator has chosen from
Hesdin’s work the original headings given to each section under consideration,
some original commentary by him, and the initial references to
authorities (biblical, patristic, and philosophical), which are taken from
parts of the Job commentary. The headings serve to organize the collection
of quotations, especially biblical ones, which are extensive, sometimes
two to three paragraphs long. Though the identity of the
compilator remains unknown, one has to assume that a monk at Melk
took the initiative in creating a new work o n memory. The various ex-
14 Given that Hesdin was actually a commentator on the Book of Job, the question of
authorship could get quite complicated. See Alastair j. Minnis, „Late-Medieval
Discussions of Compilatio and the RoJe of the Compilator,“ Beiträge zur Geschichte
der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 101, no. 3 (1979): 415-16, where he
discusses St. Bonaventura’s discussion of four kinds of writers: scribe, compiler,
commentator, and author.
ts Maleolm Beckwith Parkes, „The lnfluence of the Concepts of Ordinatio and
Compi/atio on the Development of the Book,“ in Medieval Learning and Literaeure:
Essays Presented to Richard William Hunt, ed. 1. J. G. Alexander and M. T.
Gibson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 130. For the Iiterature on compilatio and the
debate over its origin and influence on book production, see also Minnis, „LateMedieval
Discussions“; Alastair ). Minnis, „Nolens auctor sed compilator reputori:
The Late-Medieval Discourse of Compilation,“ in La methode critique au Moyen
A.ge, ed. Mireille Chazan and Gilbert Dahan (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 4 7-63;
Neil Hathaway, „Compilatio: From Plagiarism to Compiling,“ Viator 20 (1989):
1 9-44; and Mary A. Rouse and Richard H. Rouse, „Ordinatio and Compilatio Revisited,“
in Authentie Witnesses: Approaches to Medieval Texts and Manuscripts,
ed. Mark D. Jordan and Kent Emery, Jr. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1991), 1 13-34.
CREATI!\G THE MEMORY OF GOO 119
tracts were scattered throughout the original biblical commentary, so
the compiler has made a conscious dectsion to bring them tagether into
one work. Because some of the extracts did not arise in the context of a
discussion of memory in the Job commentary, the compiler has done
more than simply excise a single block of text. Rather, he has adapted the
original material for a new purpose. This text demonstrates that one can
create new works on a topic by creatively extracting from something
eise. Texts are endlessly recyclable.
What purpose did this new work serve? Since its title says it is about
memoria, what view of memoria does it give us? If we go back to the
opening remarks about Hesdin’s career, we should remernher that Hesdin’s
view of the past served as an example of the medieval style of classical
culture that was about to be overthrown by the new humanism
pioneered by Hesdin’s antagonist, Petrarch. To Hesdin and other medieval
writers, classical culture could be pulled into Christian service by
providing a rich pool of exemp/a of virtuous and vicious men. Such exemp/
a from the past should be reduced to memory, so that present generations
can learn from their behavior. This is the clear message of De
memoria, which organizes biblical quotations araund the things worthy
of remembrance, tauehing on what we should remember about the antiqui,
how we should remember God, what is remernbered about evil
men, and what to remernher about the saints. By far the most attention is
given to the memoria antiquorum, which one could probably interpret as
the memory of either „the ancients“ or “forefathers.“ The biblical quotation
from Job 8-„Inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what
their ancestors have found“ -implies the idea of forefathers but does not
rule out the possibility of the classical writers. Hesdin says that one
should ask what the ancients or forefathers thought, what miracles we
should Jearn, the deeds and the beliefs to which we should conform ourselves,
and the morals we should learn.16
What is noteworthy here is that the compiler found Hesdin’s headings
about memory in Job to be worth extracting. Though the philosophy
of education at Melk in the fifteenth century certainly embraced humanism,
scholasticism, as we shall see, was hardly dead there. In fact, Hesdin’s
views about the past were evidently not incompatible with those of
the monks at Melk. In addition, Hesdin’s claim that one should remernher
God in prayer had long been a monastic ideal.
16 Melk 1075, p. 863.
120 KIMBERJ. Y RIVERS
The implications of the arrangement of the treatise and ideas about
memory at Melk are interesting and bring us to the second major question
ofthe paper: what relationship, if any, exists between the Ex lohanne
de hysdinio de memoria and the rest of the contents of Melk 1075? The
manuscript is from the Benedictine monastery at Melk and must date
from the very end of the fifteenth century or beginning of the sixteenth
century, as several of the materials contained in it are dated and come
from the late 1460s to the end of the centuryY The library ordinatio
mentioned before dates from 1483, while a nurober of pieces are dated
from the very end of the century: one sermon by Johannes Schlitpacher
is dated 1494, another sennon, by an anonymaus author, 1497.18 There
are signs of at least two hands in this very long manuscript (926 pages),
and the pagination of the manuscript is by a modern hand, though there
are signs of medieval foliation in the pages devoted to Johannes Schlitpacher’s
Expositio Regulae S. Benedicti.19 It is safe to conclude that some
parts of this manuscript were assembled from previously separate components.
The pieces in the manuscript have a clear Benedictine context. In
addition to the library ordinatio and Hesdin’s work, there are seven sermons
by Johannes Schlitpacher, five commentaries, extracts, or tables on
the Rule ofSt. Benedict (one o f them by Schlitpacher), a nurober of works
on meditation (about which more later), two ars memorativa treatises,
some school texts on the ars dictaminis and astronomy, and a few miscellaneous
sermons. (See the Appendix for a complete Iist of the manuscript’s
contents.)
I would like to suggest that some parts of the manuscript reflect an
interest in memory on the part of the compiler and perhaps of the monastery
as a whole in the fifteenth century and that this interest in
memory stemmed from the monastery’s roJe i n monastic reform and a
concomitant enthusiasm for methodical meditation. In addition, memory
techniques served to support the pedagogical aims of the monastery,
aims that are also reflected in Melk 1075 through the school texts men-
17 There are a number of sermons by johannes Schlitpacher that date from the
1460s and 1470s; see Melk 1075, pp. 301, 308, 337, 345. 18 For the sermons, see Melk 1075, pp. 287, 914. Some excerpts from johannes de
Turrecremata (Juan de Torquenada, O.P., 1388-1468) are dated to 1499 (p. 850),
while the explicit t o Conrad Celtis’s ars memorativa reports a date of 1497, p.
879.
19 Melk 1075, pp. 662-94.
CREATil\G THE ME:<.10RY OF GOD 121
tioned above. In addition to Hesdin’s extracts on memory, the manuscript
contains two tracts on the ars memorativa, a genre of short
treatises that provided rules for improving one’s memory, and that
became wildly popular in the fifteenth century. The work by Hesdin is
not an art of memory, though the presence in the manuscript of one of
the artes memorativae immediately after his piece implies that the manuscript’s
compiler associated Hesdin’s tract with mnemonic concerns or
simply with memory in general. The same kind of associations can be
seen in the meditational texts in the manuscript, which are grouped
together.
The two memory treatises contained in Melk 1075 are representative
examples o f the genre and contain mnemonic principles that link them to
some of the meditative materials in the same manuscript. The first
memory treatise in the codex has the incipit Quidam magister studii
lipcensis tradens artem memorandi eandem commendat auctoritatibus
Aristotelis Senece Tulii et sancti Thome de Aquino .. . According to Sabine
Heimann-Seelbach, there are five extent manuscripts of this ars, four of
them held at MeJk.20 The text is short-only two manuscript pagcs-and
represents an abbreviation of a Ionger mnemenie treatise, the
Attendentes nonnulli, a treatise that Heimann-Seelbach sees as a school
text.Zl The Quidam magister employs the usual places and images system
of fifteenth-century artes memorativae and claims that its method can be
learned in three or four hours. lt also says that greater effort in memorizing
is required for the seven liberal arts than for the other three faculties
of the university. lts Iist of things that would require images for
remembering certainly implies a treatise aimed at people with a scholarly
or religious connection. Examples include substances, accidents
(iustitia represented by a gladius, a/bedo represented by a lilia), propositions,
arguments, unknown words (dictiones ignotae), the beginnings of
verses, negocia, sermons and collations. In the section on remembering
sermons and histories, the tract also mentions the use of „Fingers and
joints“ (digitos et articulos) to remernher authorities with many chapters,
2o Sabine Heimann-Seelbach, Ars und scientia: Genese, Überlieferung und Funktionen
der mnemotechnischen Traktatliteratur im 15. Jahrhundert; mit Edition und Untersuchung
dreier deutscher Traktate und ihrer lateinischen Vorlagen, Frühe Neuzeit
58 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000), 56-57.
21 lbid.
122 K:!MBERL Y RIVERS
presumably as a modification of the usual place system.zz We will return
to the significance of the hand as a repository of mnemonic places.
The second memory treatise has the incipit Memoriam in naturalem
et artificialem scindunt, illam autem nostris animis insitam et ingenitam,
a/teram que preceptione quadam confirmetur. This text is Conrad Celtis’s
Epitoma in utramque Ciceronis rhetoricam cum arte memorativa nova et
modo episolandi utilissimo.23 It was published around 1492; the copy in
Melk 1075 is one of only two known manuscript copies. Farkas Gabor
Kiss has worked on this text and notes that it uses the place and image
system of the fifteenth century, but adds the use of the alphabet as a way
to create the places.24
I would argue that the interest in memory in this manuscript stems at
least in part from the support that memory techniques could offer certain
kinds of religious devotion, especially the methodical meditation ( or
mental prayer) becoming increasingly popular in the fifteenth century.zs
8oth memory treatises and meditational tracts emphasized the necessity
of vivid descriptions based 011 individual experience, the construction of
scenes, the relia11ce 011 the pictorial imagination, and an emotional
connection to the subject.26 One reason among many that art of memory
treatises, relatively rare texts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
suddenly took off in the fifteenth century may have been the need for the
22 Melk 1075, p. 45: ltem commemoracio auctoritatum quantum ad quot tam
capitrtlorum habetur per digitos et articu/os.
23 Heimann-Seelbach, Ars und scientia, 133-35.
24 Farkas Gabor Kiss, „Valentinus de M onteviridi (Grünberg) and the Art of Memory
of Conrad Celtis,“ in Culture of Memory in East Centrat Europe in the Late Middle
Ages and the Early Modern Period, ed. Rafal W6jcik, Prace Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej
30 (Poznan: Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, 2008), 109-10.
2 5 )ean Leclercq, „Prayer and Contemplation: !1. Western,“ in Christian Spirituality 1:
Origins to the Twelfth Centwy, ed. Bernard McGinn and john Meyendorf, World
Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest 1 6 (New York:
Crossroad, 1985), 423-24; Mathias Goossens, „Meditation au Moyen Age. II. Les
methodes dans Ia spiritualite chretienne. 1 La ‚Devotio moderna‘,“ in Dictionnaire
de spiritualite ascetique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, ed. Marcel Viller, Ferdinand
Cavallera, and ). de Guibert (Paris: G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1980), 10: 914-
19. 26 David Freedberg, The Power of Images. Studies in the History and Theory of Response
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 169.
CREATI!\G THE MEMORY OF GOD 123
strong visual memory demanded by late medieval meditation
practices. 27
The crucial role of memory in meditation turns up as a theme in
some fifteenth-century ars memorativa treatises (though certainly not all
of them). The most interesting of these treatises has the incipit Memorio
fecunda Deus Pater eternus („With fruitful memory, God the eternal father“)
and was edited in 1979.28 From the very beginning of his treatise,
the author exhibits a particular interest in applying memory techniques
to religious themes. Perhaps in response to contemporary criticism of
artificial memory, he concedes that his art, like any other, can be used for
good or ill, and thus its use depends on the will of the user. According to
him, artificial memory enables people of good will to remernher things
that delight them, like sermons, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the
Psalms.29 They should also meditate on the memory of gifts or benefits
(beneficia) given to humans by God, and our mnemonic author Stresses
the importance of this memory:
27 Farkas Kiss has also seen a constellation of memorial practices in the late Middle
Ages involving memory, preaching, and meditation: Kiss, „Valentinus de Monteviridi,“
58.
za Roger A. Pack, „An Ars memorativa from the Late Middle Ages,“ Archives
d’histoire doctrinale et /itteraire du moyen age 46 (1979): 221-75. Pack based his
edition on the text contained in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex
Vindoboncnsis Palatinus 4444, which he thought was the only copy of the
manuscript. However, the publication of new manuscript catalogues since 1979
and the work of Heimann-Seelbach have revealed that in fact this was a relatively
popular mcmory treatise, with at least fiftecn manuscripts extant:
Heimann·Seelbach, Ars und scientia, 28-34. This manuscript has also been
discussed a nurober of tim es by scholars interested in various aspects of the ars
memorativa. See ]acques Berlioz, „La memoire du predicateur. Recherehes sur Ia
memorisation des recits exemplaires (XIIIe-XVe siecles),“ in Temps, memoire,
tradition au Moyen Age. Actes du Xl/le Congres de Ia societe des historiens
medievistes de l’enseignement superieur p􀋷tblic, Aix·en·Provence, 4-5 juin 1 982
(Aix-en-Provence: Publ. Univ. de Provence, 1983), 157-83; Helga Hadju, Das
Mnemotechnische Schrifttum des Mittelalters (Vienna: Verlag Franz Leo & Comp.,
1936), 101-03; Lina Bolzoni, The Gal/ery of Memory: Literary and lconographic
Models in the Age ofthe Printing Press, trans. jeremy Parzen (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 2001), 150, 213; Giuseppa Saccardo del Buffa, „Dalla
narrazione alla scena pittorica mediante Ia tecniche della memoria (Wien, Ö.N.B.
4444),“ Arte lombarda 105-07, no. 2-4 (1993): 79-84. 29 Pack, Ars memorativa, 230.
124 KIMBERLY RIVERS
By meditation on the benefits of God with a firm memory, the intellect is consequently
illuminated by knowledge (agnicia) and the will is inflamed by the
Iove of God and the virtues. But if memory is not strengthened, consequently
neither the intellect nor the will will be able to grasp the ends of their perfection,
namely the True and the Good. For a great number of God’s servants
Jament their slippery memories, and among many few meditative [servants]
are found, because they do not have a means of strengthening their memories.
Therefore, with the mediation of God’s grace, an art of memory is a manifold
aid to devout and good meditation.JO
For this author, then, meditation on the gifts or benefits of God to humans
directs the intellect and the will toward their proper ends. Unfortunately,
this task depends on holding the awareness of these gifts in
memory. Like many other ancient and medieval writers, the author assumes
the essential fragility of memory and sees its weakness as a n
obstacle to meditation.31 Artificial memory can stabilize o r strengthen
memory and thus contribute to devout meditation.
The author of Memoria fecunda was not the only mnemonic expert to
justify artificial memory by praising its usefulness in meditation. The art
of memory contained in Colmar 277 (incipit A ttendentes nonnulli philosophye)
expresses nearly the same sentiment. Borrowing from the same
prologue used by the first author, he claims that the art can be used by
men who have a good will to remernher sermons, the gospels, proofs,
and judicial matters. Though he does not mention the memory of the
benefits of God, he does agree that many willing servants of God lament
their bad memories and are thus prevented from meditating.32 Since
there are at least 32 manuscripts extant with this incipit, and another 1 5
30 Jbidem (my translation).
31 lbidem, 2 1 . The treatise cites Seneca on the weaknesses of memory: Memorio est
res ex omnibus animi partibus maxime delicata et fragilis, in quam primam senectus
incurrit (Seneca pater, Controversiae I, 2, in Adolf Kiessling. Annaei Senecae
Oratorvm et rhetorvm sencenliae divisiones colores (Leipzig: Teubner, 1872). For
the significance of the trope memoria beneficiorum, see Rivers, Preaching the
Memory, chapter 3.
32 Colmar, 8ibliotheque du Consistoire, 277, fol. 69r: Applicabile vero ad bonum per
eos qui habent bonam voluntatem; mediante enim uero ta/i memoria artificiali
melius habent modum se passe recolligere et in se subsistere et ea quarum delectacionem
habent recordari, puta predicaciones, Ewangelia, capitula, allegaciones,
causas iuridicas, et alia si qua memorie commendari vo/uerint. Magna eciam pars
seruorum Dei de labilitate ipsius memorie /amentatur; inter muttos enim pauci apprime
meditanti loqui reperiuntur, quia non habent modum stabiliendi memoriam,
quemadmodum per artificialem memoriam a philosophis dictatarn haberi potest.
CREATI!\G THE MEMORY OF GOD 125
of the Memorio fecunda, this was a sentiment with which many would-be
mnemonic experts could have become familiar.33 Thus, these ars
memorativa treatises base their claims of utility in part on the support
their methods can offer for religious purposes like meditation, as weil as
for remembering texts useful to religious and scholars, such as sermons,
the Bible, and legal matters. This same tie between memory and meditation
can be seen in Melk 1075.
There are a nurober of examples of meditational treatises in Melk
1075 that are clearly expected to involve memorization, and they are
mostly grouped together.34 A particularly good example is the text with
the incipit Nota homo duas vitas esse rationales, que ut sequitur in duobus
eheruh descripte reperiuntur actiua sciilcet et contemplatiua.3s The text
says it describes two cherubs representing the active and the contemplative
life. The cherub for the active life has six wings covering its body,
with each wing representing one of six concepts: contemp/acio supernorum,
spes premiorum, tenor discipline, vigor fortitudinis, virtus rectitudinis,
and modus temperancie (contemplation of celestial things, hope of
rewards, continuity of discipline, vigor of fortitude, strength of rectitude,
method of temperance). Each of these wings then has five feathers (pennas)
with writings on them as weil. There is a similar arrangement for
what the text calls the cherub of the contemplative life, with its six wings
representing di/ectio Dei, dilectio proximi, confessio, satisfactio, puritas
mentis, mundicia carni (Iove o f God, Iove of neighbor, confession, satisfaction,
purity of mind, cleanliness of the flesh), that is the degrees of penance.
36
Two points can be made about the cherubs. First, the text and content
of the cherubs are not original to this manuscript. To take only one
example, there are drawings of two cherubs with nearly identical mottos
on their wings in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 1 2 465, a
fifteenth-century manuscript with a number of similar drawings meant
for meditation and religious edification (Figures 1 1 and 1 2).37
33 See Heirnann-Seelbach, Ars und scientia, 28, 46-47. 34 The tracts for meditation occupy pp. 351-92, as weil as pp. 882-86.
Js Melk 1075, pp. 351-53. 36 Michael Evans, „The Geometry of the Mind,“ The Architectura/ Assaciation Quarterly
12, no. 4 (1980): 38; the article includes a late fourteenth-century drawing
of a eheruh with similar wording. 37 See fol. 75v and 76v. I have used the rnicrofilrn version available through the Hili
Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), Collegeville, MN, Project No. 19968.
126 KIMBERL Y RIVERS
Figure 1 1 : Drawing of a cherub. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex
Vindobone nsis 12465, fol. 75v. By permission of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
See also the colour plate at the end of this volume.
CREATI!\G THE MEMORY OF GOD 127
􀇔yc:n􀇕’uPJt•1,,<:r““,,z.,.,..,
Figure 1 2 : Drawing of a seraph. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex
Vindobonensis 12465, fol. 76v. By permission of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.
See also the colour plate at the end of this volume.
128 KJMBERL Y RIVERS
I have made no systematic search as yet for cherubs, but I suspect that
these examples were common subjects of contemplation in the fifteenth
century.3s Second, our scribe made no attempt to draw in the cherubs,
but rather left the visualizing of them to the imagination of the reader.
However, the scribejcompiler notes that „with respect to the active life
the writings of the feather with their wings may be adjusted to the
fingers of the hands or the joints of the fingers.“39 He seems to think that
some meditators might find the hand easier to use as a repository of
mnemonic places for the phrases corresponding to the active and
contemplative Jives than the cherub. Neither the cherub nor the hand
represented an unusual subject of meditation by the end of the fifteenth
century. A lang tradition within the Franciscan order linked the cherub
(or seraph) to meditation,40 while texts like Jean Mombaer’s Chirapsalterium
and the Alphabeturn divini amoris (discussed below) made the
hand the site of mnemonic places for recalling the Psalms.41 8oth
required the aid of the imagination and both would be strengthened by
the precepts of the ars memorativa circulating so widely in the fifteenth
century, including the first one contained in Melk 1 075.
lt cet·tainly appears that the hand served as a useful mnemonic device
to the readers of Melk 1075. A few folio pages after the end of the De
duplici vita is another text for meditation:
3a The inscriptions for the eheruh of the contcmplative life match those found in the
treatise On the Six Wings of the Seraph, attributed to Alan of Lilie. See Bridget
Balint, trans., „[Aian of Lilie), On the Six Wings of the Seraph,“ in The Medieval
Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, ed. Mary Carruthers and )an
M. Ziolkowski (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 82-102.
39 Melk 1075, p. 3 5 1 : Quantum ad vitam actiuam scripte penne cum suis a/is ad
digitos manuum siue articulos digitorum aptentur. 40 See, for instance, Lina Bolzoni, „St Bernardino da Siena,“ in The Web of Images:
Vernacular Preaching from its Origins to St Bernardino da Siena (Aidershot, England;
Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 2004), 117-95; Mary j. Carruthers, „Ars oblivionis,
ars inveniendi: The Cherub Figure and the Arts of Memory,“ Gesta 48, no. 2
(2009): 1-19. 41 Albert Deblaere, „Mombaer (Jean; Mauburnus, de Bruxelles),“ in Dictionnaire de
spiritualite ascetique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, ed. Marcel Viller, Ferdinand
Cavallera, and ). de Guibert (Paris: G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1980), 10: 1520.
Genevieve Hasenhor, „Meditations methodique et mnemonique: un temoinage
figure ancien (Xllle-XIVe s.),“ in Melanges d’histoire, d’histoire de /’art et d’archeo/
ogie offerts a jacques Stiennon, ed. Rita Lejeune and joseph Deckers (Liege:
Pierre Mardaga, 1982), 376-77.
CREATI;:.;G THE MEMORY OF GOD 1 2 9
lncipit a/ia ftgura crucifixi sub specie monachi habentis os c/ausum sera, in dextra
serpentem appensum sub lampade. Ec fune cinctus, nudus, pedibus cruci
affixus.
Another figure of the crucified begins under the image of a monk having his
mouth sealed with wax, having in his right hand a serpent hanging from a
lamp. And he is bound with a rope, nude, affixed to a cross by his feet.42
It is dated to 1495.43 This text, which calls itself a Ciromancia spiritua/is,
claims that it teaches about past things, present things, and the future
concerning eternal life and the misery of damnation.44 The text then
gives mottos for meditation to be placed on both the right and the left
hands according to each finger and its joints. For instance, the meditation
for the index finger of the right hand includes three teachings, one for
each joint ofthe finger.
Attende ad indicem
Prim um Quam angusta porta penitencie ue/ caritatis, quam arta via iusticie, et quam
pauci sunt qui inueniunt eam. 45
Secund um Pauci omni sunt qui querunt, pauciores inveniunt, paucissimi qui perueniunt.
Jtem pauci qui veniunt, pauciores per ea intrare contendunt.
Tercium Nemo in trat sine Iabore et sine animi puritate. Ex premissis ergo multitudo
reproborum electorumque paucitas conprobatur.
Consider the index finger
First
Second
Third
How narrow the gate ofpenitence or charity, how restricted the way
of justice, and how few are those who find it.
There are few who seek, fewer who find, the fewest who arrive.
Again there are few who come, fewer who strive to enter through it.
No one enters without Iabor and without purity of spirit. From those
sent ahead, therefore, a multitude of the reprobate and a paucity of
the elect are sanctioned.
The meditations appear to be designed for monks, as there are frequent
references to their proper mindset and behavior. Toward the end of the
42 Melk 1075, pp. 357-62.
4J Melk 1075, p. 362.
H Melk 1075, p. 357: Hec est Ciromancia spiricualis, vera, infallibilis atque certa, que
docet de preteritis, presentibus et futuris, de vita eterna atque miseria damnatorum
indicibili.
45 Mt 7,14.
130 K.JMBERL Y R.JVERS
meditations for the right hand, the author declares Crux ista in specie
monachi notatur. Verus religiosus gerit ymaginem crucifixi, vt videlicet sie
mundo carni et dyabolo crucifixus.46 [„This cross is marked by the form of
a monk. The true religious bears the image of the crucifix, and namely i s
s o crucified by the world o f the flesh and b y the devil.“] There are also a
number of lengthy quotations from St. Bernard on the comportment of a
monk. I would argue that the monk who compiled this manuscript employed
the rules of the ars memorativa to aid in religious meditation and
religious life in the monastery.
Figure 1 3 : Conrad Celtis’s mnemonic alphabet, Melk, Stifstbibliothek, 1075, pp. 878-
79. Image provided by the Hili Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, MN.
This conclusion is strengthened by the positioning of the texts after
the second ars memorativa. The positioning shows a chain of mnemonic
associations. The ars by Conrad Celtis ends with an alphabet for creating
places and images in one’s memory house (Figure 13). It is immediately
followed by two short texts with lists with a connection to the alphabet.
The first one is entitled Nota Signationes capitulorum Regulae S. Benedicti
46 Melk 1075, p. 358.
CREATI:\G THE MEMORY OF GOD 1 3 1
secund11m alphabetum.47 [Note the designations o f the chapters o f the
Rufe of St. Benedict according to the alphabet.“) The manuscript pages
are laid out to reflect the divisions of the text in alphabetical order, not
unlike the way the places are marked out at the end of Celtis‘ ars (Figure
14). The implication is that one should memorize the chapters of the
Benedictine Rule using a mnemonic alphabet like Celtis‘.
-�—- – ‚ ‚
Figure 14: Alphabetic table to the Rule of St. Benedict: Signationes capitulorum
Regulae S. Benedicti secundum a/phabetum. Melk, Stifstbibliothek, 1075, pp. 881-82.
Image provided by the Hili Museum and Manuscript Library, Collcgeville, MN.
The second short text is entitled Nota vias novem, ex alphabeto diuini
amoris.48 [„Note the nine ways from the Alphabet of Divine Love.“] These
pages comprise a compilation much like the one from Jean de Hesdin’s
]ob Commentary. This time the text is a series of extracts from the Al·
phabetum divini amoris, an anonymaus devotional work written in the
early fifteenth century and stemming from Austrian-Bavarian circles.49
47 Melk 1075, pp. 880-82.
48 Melk 1075, p. 882-86.
49 Dennis D. Martin, ed., Carth usian Spirituality: The Writings of Hugh of Balma and
Guigo de Ponte (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), 56.
1 3 2 KIMBERL Y RIVERS
The work, itself a compilation of extracts from religious authorities, divides
its quotations first according to fifteen different vias, and then
under each via according to the letters of the alphabet.so (in essence we
have a compilation of extracts from a compilation of extracts!) The orientation
of this text is clearly toward meditation, with a strong implication
that the extracts should be memorized. Certainly, the section on the Via
orativa (Way of Prayer) contains mnemonic advice for „attending to the
Psalmody“ (De modis attendendi in psalmodia).51 The author provides a
table with 28 clauses that he recommends the reader locate on 28 places
on the fingers of one hand (with the thumb being excepted). (One gets 2 8
places by counting four places for each o f the four fingers on the palm
side of the hand and three places per finger on the back side). The thumb
is used to count out each place on the finger as one recites the clauses;
the whole exercise is meant to concentrate the mind on arousing emotions
and preventing distraction.sz As in the case of the Hesdin compilation,
the compiler must have had a copy of the Alphabeturn divini amoris
available to him at Melk: the library ordinatio of 1483 lists at least two
copies of the text53 The link betwecn the three texts is the use of the
alphabet to organize and remernher religious material.
Why should a monk or monks at Melk be interested in this kind of
religious meditation? In fact, it was one ofthe Features ofthe Benedictine
reform movement in the fifteenth century that began in Italy and then
spread to Germany and Austria, with Melk itself becoming one of the
main centers of reform. Melk came under the influence of the monastery
at Subiaco, near Rome, which had been reformed in the 1 3 5 0s and
1360s; the ltalian community was filled with monks from Germany and
Austria.s4 In 1403, a group of scholars from the University of Vienna
so See the brief mention of the text in Horst Wenzel, Hören und Sehen, Schrift und
Bild: Kultur und Gedächtnis im Mittelalter (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1995), 439. The
text has received little scholarly treatment.
st Alphabeturn divini amoris (Argentatorum 1510), p. 69 (Munich, Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek).
52 Alphabeturn divini amoris, p. 76: Et sie in primo digito habebis septem affectus:
quos excitare poteris in te: adaptando Cttilibet affectui vnum psalmum vel plures:
vnum versum vel plures [sie). Et cum pollice punge articulum illius digiti: vt illa
punctio vel impressio digiti impediat distractione.
53 Theodor Gottlieb, ed., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, I. Niederösterreich
(Vienna: A. Holzhausen, 1915), 156, 183.
54 Peter King, Western Monasticism: A History ofthe Monastic Movement in the Latin
Church, Cistercian Studies Series, 185 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications,
CREATI:-.G THE MEMORY OF GOD 1 􀂮 􀂯
.).)
entered the monastery. Prominent among the group were Nikolaus Seyringer,
who became abbot in 1412, and Petrus von Rosenheim. Unfortunately
for them, they were pushed out of the monastery and moved on to
another community (Rocca di Mondragone), where Seyringer was made
prior by Gregory X!J.SS Seyringer’s reputation reached the ears of the
Ieaders of the Council of Constance, who planned to promote the reform
of the Benedictine order. Seyringer was invited to the Council and was
asked by the Duke of Austria to take on the task of reforming the monasteries
in his Iands. Seyringer accepted the challenge and, along with a
nurober of religious who had accompanied him from ltaly, tackled Melk
first.56 Seyringer became ab bot there and began the process of reforming
religious life in that monastery. The movement then spread to other convents
in the area.
Among the many aspects of the Benedictine reform movement was a
renewed emphasis on religious meditation. There were a nurober of
sources of the movement toward meditation, including the writers of the
devotio moderna, the writings of Louis Barbo and the reform movement
of Saint Giustina of Padua, and the traditions of the Franciscans and Carthusians,
all of which were popularized and disseminated throughout
Europe in the fifteenth centuryY Writers and teachers from all of these
1999), 252, and james G. Clark, The Benedictines in the Middle Ages, Monastic orders
(Woodbridge: Boydeli & Brewer, 2011), 295-304. See also james 0. Mixson,
Poverty’s Proprietors: Ownership and Mortal Sin at the Origins of the Observant
Movement (Leiden: Brill. 2009); 0. M. Lunn, „Benedictine Reform Movements in
the Later Middle Ages,“ Downside Review 9 1 (1973): 275-97; ). Angerer, Die liturgisch-
musikalische Erneuerung der Melker Reform, Österreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften: Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Sitzungsberichte, 287 (Vienna:
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1974), esp. 29-75; Karl Suso
Frank, OFM, With Greater Liberty: A Short History of Christion Monasticism and
Religious Orders, trans. joseph T. Lienhard, S). Cistercian Studies Series 144 (Kalamazoo,
MI: Cistercian Publications, 1993), 1.31-46; Philibert Schmitz, Histoire
de /’Ordre de Saint-Benoit, 2nd ed., 7 vols. (Maredsous: Editions de Maredsous,
1948), 111, 175-201; Dennis 0. Martin, Fifteenth-Century Carthusian Reform: The
World of Nicholas Kempf. Studies in the History of Christian Thought 49 (Leiden:
Brill, 1992), 58-66, and Ursmer Berliere, „La reforme de Melk,“ Revue benedictine
12 (1895): 204-13, 289-309.
ss Meta Niederkorn-Bruck, Die Melker Reforrn im Spiegel der Visitationen, Mitteilungen
des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Ergänzungsband
30 (Munich: R. Oldenbourg. 1994), 17-27; Berliere, 206.
56 Berliere, 206-07.
57 H. Outram Evennett, „Counter-Reformation Spirituality,“ in The Counter-Refor!
34 KJMBERL Y RIVERS
religious groups helped to create a systematic method of private, meditative
prayer, which is also sometimes called „mental prayer“ as opposed
to vocal prayer.ss In particular, Spain, Germany, and ltaly were all influenced
by the writings of the devotio moderna. The monastery at Melk
was no exception. Christine Glassner, who has studied the contents ofthe
library at Melk extensively, has commented on the great number of manuscripts
of Carthusian writings and works from the Devotio moderna dating
from the fifteenth century at Melk. 59
Monks at Melk needed a good memory for more than just meditation;
they also needed it to enhance their grasp of the Bible as weil as academic
texts. During the whole ofthe fifteenth century, there was a streng
relationship between the University of Vienna and the convent. Not only
were clerics sent from Melk to the studium at Vienna, but the cloister itself
exercised such an attraction for the graduates of the university that
in the first fifty years after the beginning of the reform in 1418, some
twenty-five graduates, from bachelors to doctors, entered the Benedictine
order at Melk.60 Melk also housed a studium for the order that
helped to increase ties between Melk and the university. The well-known
theologian, Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl, lectured on the fourth book of the
Sentences at Melk from 1 4 2 1 -24,61 Monks at Melk, then, were not just
religious, but also students and teachers, and had mnemenie needs for
their studies as weil as for religious devotion.
ln fact, Petrus von Rosenheim, author of the Roseum memoriale, one
of the most farnaus mnemonic works of the late Middle Ages, was one of
the original group of monks who accompanied Seyringer from Subiaco to
mation: The Essential Readings, ed. David M. Luebke, Blackwell Essential Readings
in History (Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1999), 55-56, who emphasizes the
importance of the devotio moderna and the Franciscans and Carthusians; Francis
Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press, 1979), 236.
58 Evennett, „Counter-Reformation Spirituality,“ 57.
59 Christine Glassner, „Schreiben ist lesen und studiern, der sei speis und des herczen
jubiliern: Zu den mittelalterlichen Handschriften des Benediktinerstiftes
Melk,“ Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens und
seiner Zweige 108 (1997): 297. She also says that the most intluential fifteenthcentury
author at Melk was )ean Gerson, who after the Council of Constance
stayed at Melkfor a short time. Roughly 80 works at Melk are ascribed to him. 60 lbidem, 293. 61 lbidem, 293-94.
CREATll‘:G THE MEMORY OF GOD 1 3 5
Melk.62 Rosenheim was prior from 1418-24, and from 1423-26 he was
cursor biblicus and magister studentium. His best known work was the
Roseum memoria/e divinorum eloquiorum, which he composed between
1423 and 1426, and which he designed to aid in the memorization of the
whole Bible except the Psalms. lt has been called the „most beautiful Jiterary
fruit of Melk’s reform movement.“63 Rosenheim may also have
composed a mnemonic work for memorizing the Sentences of Peter
Lombard.64 lt was probably no accident that Rosenheim wrote his biblical
work while he was cursor biblicus and master of the students.6s The
instant success of the work shows how eminently useful it was to students,
preachers, members of religious orders and the like.66 johannes
Schlitpacher, who also served as the monastery’s magister studentium in
mid-century, composed an abbreviation of Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl’s
Lectura Me/licensis on the fourth book of the Sentences, which was apparently
one of his most successful works.67 Jt is also worth noting that
62 F. X Thoma, „Petrus von Rosenheim OSB,“ Studien und Mitteilungen zur
Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 45 (1927): 94-222. For
background on Rosenheim, see also Franz Thoma, „Die Beziehungen des Petrus
von Rosenheim zu den Xylographia der Ars memorandi und zu den Frühdrucken
des Rationarium evangelistarum,“ Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 46 (1929):
53 3-46; C. Märtl, „Petrus Wiechs (Vix) v. Rosenheim,“ in Lexikon des Mittelalters,
10 vols (Stuttgart: Metzler, [1977] 1999), 6: 1988-89 (Brepolis Medieval
Encyclopaedias – Lexikon des Mittelalters Online).
63 „Man darf ruhig das ‚Roseum memoriale‘ des Petrus von Rosenheim also die
schoenste der literarischen Fruechte der Melker Reformbewegung bezeichnen,“
Thoma, „Petrus von Rosenheim osb,“ 206. See also Susanne Rischpler, „Biblia Sacra
figuris expressa“: Mnemotechnische Bilderbibeln des 15. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden:
Reichert, 2001).
64 Susanne Rischpler, „Le coeur voyant. Memoriser les Sentences de Pierre Lombard,“
in Medieval Memory: Image and Text, ed. Frank Willaert et al., Federation
Internationale des Instituts d’Etudes Medit§vales: textes et Etudes du Moyen Age
27 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 3-40. 65 Of course, Rosenheim was hardiy the only scholar to compose aids for memorizing
the Bible. For an overview of some other late medieval Biblical versifications,
see Greti Dinkova-Bruun, „Biblical Versification and Memory in the Later Middle
Ages,“ in Culture ofMemory in East Central Europe in the Lote Middle Ages and the
Early Modern Period, ed. Rafal W6jcik, Prace Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej 30 (Poznail:
Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, 2008), 53-64. 66 Thoma, „Die Beziehungen des Pet:rus von Rosenheim,“ 205. 67 Glassner, „Schreiben,“ 294. For background on Schlitpacher, see St. Freund,
„Schlitpacher, johannes v. Weilheim,“ in Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 7, col. 1490-
91, and G. Michiels, „jean Schlitpacher,“ in Dictionnaire de spiritua/ite ascetique et
1 3 6 KlMBERL Y RIVERS
Conrad Celtis taught at the University of Vienna in the 1490s, which
could explain how Melk came to have one of the manuscript copies of his
ars memorativa.68 The composition of such farnaus mnemonic pieces as
these demonstrates an interest in memory for pedagogical purposes at
Melk from the beginning ofthe fifteenth century.
In the end, the way to view Melk 1075 is as a miscellany of Benedictine
texts with sections organized araund memory and meditation, what
Derek Pearsall calls „Unorganized manuscripts with an element of local
anthologizing.“69 The more organized sections seem to follow a chain of
association that could perhaps be pursued because of the sheer volume
of texts at the monks‘ disposal. Copying manuscripts was an important
component of the reform movement: there was an almost explosive
growth in the number of manuscripts dating from the fifteenth century
compared to the previous centuries at Melk.70
The contents of Melk 1075 also suggest that memory was an important
component of education. The excerpts from Jean de Hesdin show
that the monks at Melk found ways to recycle useful texts from the past
in a way to make them relevant for their program in the fifteenth century.
The manuscript as a whole suggests that the reformed monks at
Melk participated in one of the most important revitalizing aspects of religious
life in the fifteenth century-the enormaus popularity of
methodical meditation, a component that required special training
through the ars memorativa.
mystique, doctrine et histoire, ed. M. Viller, F. Cavallera and j.d. Guibert (Paris: G.
Beauchesne et ses fils, 1980), 8: 723-24.
68 Heimann-Seelbach, Ars und scientia, 132-33; G. Campbell, „Celtis, Konrad,“ i n The
Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003),
accessible online at http://www.oxfordreference.com. 69 Derek A. Pearsall. „The Whole Book: Late Medieval English Manuscript Miscellanies
and Their Modern Interpreters,“ in lmagining the Book, ed. Kelly Stephen
and john j. Thompson (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), 25. 70 Glassner, „Schreiben,“ 292; S. H. Steinberg, “ lnstructions in Writing by Members
ofthe Congregation of Melk,“ Speculum 16, no. 2 (1941): 210-15.
CREA TISG THE MEMORY OF GOD 137
Appendix
Melk, Stiftsbibliothek Codex Mellicensis 1075 (421. H 38), duodecimo, 928, 15th
century.
Pages
pp. 2-93
pp. 95-282
pp. 282-286
pp. 287-299
pp. 299-300
pp. 301-308
pp. 308-313
pp. 314-328
pp. 328-331
pp. 335-336
pp. 337-344
pp. 345-350
pp. 350-351
pp. 351-353
pp. 353-356
pp.357-362
pp. 363-391
pp. 391-392
pp. 393-394
pp. 395-416
pp. 417-526
pp. 527-542
pp. 543-635
pp. 636-646
pp. 647-661
pp. 662-694
pp. 695-850
pp. 850-862
pp. 863-873
pp. 873-879
pp. 880-882
Text
Ordinatio librorum bibliothecae Mellicensis anno 1483 facta.
johannes Bondi de Aquilegia, Theorica, seu Ars dictaminis.
Ex libro qui dicitur Area biblia [?)
johannes Schlitpacher, Col/atio in die Corporis Christi 1494.
De arte memorandi.
)ohannes Schlitpacher, Col/atio in festo Purificationis b. Mariae virginis
anno 1474.
)ohannes Schlitpacher, Collatio in Coena Dominianno 1 4 73.
johannes Schlitpacher, Sermo ad populum factus. lnc. Ego sum ostium.
johannes Schlitpacher, Sermo dictus 1466. lnc. Vocabis nomen eius
/esum.
Quomodo vocabulum ecclesia accipitur.
johannes Schlitpacher, Col/atio in Jesto Pentecostes anno 1470.
johannes Schlitpacher, Col/atio Jacta Gotwici 1468.
Quaedam ascetica circa celebrationem Missae.
De duplici vita, rationali et contemplativa.
Duodecim rami arboris enteis Christi, cum suisfructibus, attestantibus
prophetis.
Figura crucifixi sub specie monachi habentis os clausum sera, in dextera
serpentem appensum sub lampade.
Figurae depictae ex Apocalypsi cum sua scriptura secundum fitteras
a/phabeti.
Figura, qua depicta est generatio Mariae et Christi.
Congeries mundi imaginaria, secundum omnia creata.
Astronomica; inc. Nota etiam in orbicularia figura duodecim signa
Guido Bonati de Forlivio, Ex introductorio adjudicia stellarum et
judiciorum.
Schola divini servitii.
Excerpta superordinem et regulam S. Benedicti.
Hortus sanitatis.
De regula S. Benedicti eiusque divisione.
)ohannes Schlitpacher, Expositio Regulae S. Benedicti.
johannes de Turrecremata, Excerptum ex capite 1 6, quod est 4. Regulae
S. Benedicti: instrumenta bonorum operum.
johannes de Turrecremata, Sermones de tempore et sanctis.
Ex loanne de Hysdino de memoria.
De artificiafi memoria; inc. Memoriam in naturalem et artificialem
scindunt.
Signationes capitulorum Regulae S. Benedicti secundum a/phabetum.
138 KJMBERLYRIVERS
pp. 882-886 Vitae novem, ex alphabeto divini amoris; inc. Via inchoativa.
pp. 887-888 Sermon, De S. Georgio (in German), fragment.
pp. 888-906 Varia excerpta.
pp. 907-913 Tabula de Biridano elegantissima.
pp. 914-920 Sermo in die Pentecostes 1497.
pp. 920-926 Sermon, De S. Trinitate.