Die Consolatio optima in temptationibus

Zu einer Gruppe von Texten gegen Kleinmut und Gewissensskrupel, mit Edition

Abstract

Mirko Breitenstein: Consolatio optima in temptationibus: a group of texts against pusillanimity and scruples of conscience

This article presents a text from the field of parenetic literature, having at its centre many concepts characteristic of devotional literature in the period from the 13th to the 15th century: pusillanimity, weakness of will, scruples of conscience, contestation, remedy, consolation. This text, called here Consolatio optima in temptationibus, is interesting not only for its content, but also for its complex genesis as a combination of other texts that had been previously transmitted on their own. The main aim of this contribution is to make the Consolatio optima in temptationibus accessible to historical research through edition and translation while at the same time describing its complex transmission as an example for the fluidity of this type of compilatory literature. Due to the high level of variance, we give the text in a hybrid form: the printed edition reproduces the individual constituent parts of the complete work based on a single manuscript in each case, while the complete textual transmission with its separate strings is presented online in a synoptic view.

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