Commemorating the Dead in Late Medieval Strasbourg: The Cathedral's Book of Donors and Its Use (1320-1521) (Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)

Charlotte A. Stanford. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The Book of Donors for Strasbourg cathedral is an extraordinary medieval document dating from ca. 1320-1520, with 6,954 entries from artisan, merchant and aristocratic classes. These individuals listed gifts to the cathedral construction fund given in exchange for prayers for the donors' souls. The construction administrators (the Oeuvre Notre-Dame) also built a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the nave that housed the book and showcased prayers and masses for the building benefactors. Chapel, book and west front project formed a three part commemorative strategy that appealed to the faithful of the city and successfully competed against other religious establishments also offering memorial services. Charlotte A. Stanford's study is the first to comprehensively analyze the unpublished Book of Donors manuscript and show the types and patterns of gifts made to the cathedral. It also compares these gift entries with those in earlier obituary records kept by the cathedral canons, as well as other medieval obituary notices kept by parish churches and convents in Strasbourg. Analysis of the Book of Donors notes the increase of personal details and requests in fifteenth-century entries and discusses the different memorial opportunities available to the devout. This study draws a vivid picture of life in late medieval Strasbourg as seen through the lens of devotional and memorial practices, and will be of particular interest to scholars of art history, memory, and medieval urban life. Stanford (humanities, classics, and comparative literature; Brigham Young U.) introduces Strasbourg's Archives Municipaux Oeuvre Notre-Dame 1, to a wider scholarly audience and contextualizes it within the setting of its creation. She demonstrates how the donors of the Book cooperated with religious and civic authority to perpetuate memory, redeem souls, and build the city's beloved cathedral. The manuscript has never been edited or published, she says, so more detailed study must wait. She covers the book's construction and history, the architectural and liturgical context, the social and political setting, the obituary history of Strasbourg Cathedral, and commemoration in Strasbourg's other churches. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) The 'Book of Donors' for Strasbourg cathedral is an extraordinary medieval document dating from ca. 1320-1520, with 6954 entries from artisan, merchant and aristocratic classes. This study comprehensively analyzes this unpublished manuscript and shows the types and patterns of gifts made to the cathedral "The Book of Donors for Strasbourg Cathedral" is an extraordinary medieval document dating from ca 1320-1520, with 6,954 entries from artisan, merchant and aristocratic classes. This title analyzes the "Book of Donors" manuscript and shows the types and patterns of gifts made to the cathedral.