The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden, Volume I DENIS SEARBY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden Volume I figure 1. FrontispiecetoBookVIIIintheNeapolitanMSfromc.1380,MS498, fol.343v,PierpontMorganLibrary,NewYork. The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden Volume I Liber Caelestis, Books I–III translated by denis searby with introductions and notes by bridget morris 1 2006 1 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright(cid:1)2006byOxfordUniversityPress PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Bridget,ofSweden,Saint,ca.1303–1373. [Revelationes.English] TherevelationsofSt.BirgittaofSweden/translatedbyDenisSearby;introductions andnotesbyBridgetMorris. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13978-0-19-516644-6 ISBN0-19-516644-2(v.1) 1. Privaterevelations. 2. Visions. I. Searby,DenisMichael. II. Title. BX4700.B62E52005 248.2'9—dc22 2005047277 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper Preface Thisisthefirstpartofafour-volumetranslationoftheRevelationes ofSt.BirgittaofSwedenintomodernEnglish,indeed,thefirst translationofthecompletecorpusintoEnglishsincetheMiddle Ages.ItfollowsthecriticaleditionoftheLatintext,whichwascom- missionedinthe1950sbyKungl.VitterhetsHistorieochAntikvitets Akademien(TheRoyalAcademyofLetters,History,andAntiqui- ties),Stockholm,andcopublishedwithSvenskaFornskriftsa¨llskapet (TheMedievalSwedishTextsSociety),Uppsala;thefinalvolumein thisserieswaspublishedin2002. TheBirgittinecorpuscomprisestwelve“books”:sevenbooksof Revelationes,BooksI–VII(theLibercaelestis),followedbyBookVIII (theLibercaelestisImperatorisadreges)andfoursupplementary booksknownastheRegulaSalvatoris,Sermoangelicus,Quattuorora- tiones,andRevelationesextravagantes.Intheorderingofthebooks, wehavefollowedthelayoutoftheeditioprinceps,issuedbyBartholo- maeusGhotaninLu¨beckin1492.BooksI–IIIarecontainedinthe presentvolume,andareprecededbyageneralintroduction,which outlinesthevariousstagesinthetextualhistoryoftheRevelationes. ThesubsequentvolumesintheserieswillcontainBooksIVandV (volume2),BooksVI,VII,andVIII(volume3),andtheRegulaSal- vatoris,Sermoangelicus,Quattuororationes,andRevelationesextrava- gantes(volume4).Volume4willalsocontaintranslationsofafew relatedbutnoncanonicalBirgittinetexts,aswellasindexescover- ingsubjects,names,places,andbiblicalquotationsfortheentire corpus. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments VerymanyofourBirgittinefriendsandcolleagueshaveshownan enthusiasticinterestinthisenterprise,andencouragedusalongour way.Aboveall,wewouldliketoextendourverywarmthankstoSte- phanBorgehammar,whoseideaitoriginallywastoproduceanEn- glishtranslationinadvanceoftheJubileecelebrationsoftheseven hundredthanniversaryofBirgitta’sbirthin2003,andwhosetabout seekingfundingandlaunchingtheprojectin1999.Hiseditingand translatingskills,aswellashisknowledgeofmedievalSwedishhag- iographyandBirgittinesermons,havebeenanenormousassetto ourproject.AlthoughhemovedtoworkattheCenterforTheology andReligiousStudiesattheUniversityofLundin2003,hehas maintainedakeeninterestinourwork,andhasmadeinvaluable commentsonissuesrelatingtothetranslationaswellastheological matters.ItisapleasurealsotothankToreNyberg,whohasalways beenonhandtoofferawordofsupportorhelpresolveathorny problem.BirgittaFritzhasbeenanastutereaderwhohaskindly readthroughdraftsofhistoricalmaterialsandcorrectedusonde- tailswhereourknowledgewaslacking;weextendourmostgrateful thankstoher.Manyothershaveofferedsupportinavarietyofways, givingadviceonspecificproblemswehaveencounteredaswepro- ceeded,andhelpingtoresolvepracticaldifficulties.Inparticularwe wouldliketoacknowledgeJonAdams,HansAili,MiaA˚kestam,Bir- gerBergh,LarsBergquist,StenEklund,RogerEllis,OlleFerm,Wil- liamFlynn,AlfHa¨rdelin,MonicaHedlund,ArneJo¨nsson,Veronica O’Mara,ClaireSahlin,UllaSanderOlsen,andThomasShepherd. WewouldalsoliketothanktheeditorsoftheLatincriticaledition fortheinteresttheyhaveshowninthisproject,andindeed,forpav- ingthewaytomakeanEnglishtranslationatallpossible. viii acknowledgments ThanksarealsoduetothestaffatOxfordUniversityPressfortheirexperthelp andguidance. This project would not have been launched without the sponsorship of RiksbankensJubileumsfond(TheBankofSwedenTercentenaryFoundation), which has generously provided financial support since 1999 and enabled us to bring the present volume to completion. In particular we would like to acknowledge the help and support we have received from the Foundation’s representative, Kjell Blu¨ckert, and from the Department of Theology at the University of Uppsala, and Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akade- mien,fortheiraccommodatingadministrativesupport. Wegratefullyacknowledgethefollowingwhohavegrantedpermissionfor the reproduction of illustrations. Professor Jan Svanberg, Department of the History of Art, University of Stockholm; The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Kungl. Biblioteket (The Royal Library), Stockholm; Biblioteca centrale dellaRegionesiciliana,Palermo;Riksantikvariea¨mbetet(TheNationalHeritage Board)withtheAntiquarian-TopographicalArchives(ATA),Stockholm.Weare also grateful to Claes Gejrot, Riksarkivet (Swedish National Archives, Stock- holm) for allowing us to make available the Latin text on Riksarkivet’s Web site (see www.ra.se), and to Sara Risberg for preparing the electronic version oftheLatintext. InprovidinganEnglishtranslationoftheRevelationesthatisbasedonand can be linked closely with the Latin archetype, we are creating a bridge that extendsfromSwedenandScandinaviatowardsaninternationalreadership.It is our hope that with this translation we will help widen access to one of the majorfemalesaintsofthelaterMiddleAgesandmakeherworksmorereadily availableoutsidetheSwedish-speakingorLatin-readingworld. Contents Abbreviations,xv ChronologicalTable:St.Birgitta’sLifeandOrder,xvii TheEntireBirgittineCorpus,xxv GeneralIntroduction,3 I. SwedishProphetandVisionary,3 HistoricalBackground,3 ThePropheticTradition,5 VisionaryStates,6 SwedishWriter,9 II. TextualHistory,11 TheFourConfessors,11 TheRevelationsduringBirgitta’sLife,15 TheEarlyEditions,17 MedievalManuscripts,19 ThePrintedEditions,21 Swedish“Retranslation,”22 LaterReceptions,24 III. Style,25 StructureandOralStyle,26 LatinStyle,27 Imagery,27 IV. NoteontheTranslationandtheAnnotation,29