'Christ and the soul are like Pyramus and Thisbe': An Ovidian Story in Fifteenth-Century Sermons
The sophisticated ways in which several fifteenth-century preachers used Ovidian stories and their allegorical interpretations prove that late medieval sermons represent a promising but neglected area for classical reception studies. Preachers - whose names are today almost forgotten by scholars but...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2016]
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| In: |
Medieval sermon studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 60, Issue: 1, Pages: 37-61 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KDB Roman Catholic Church RE Homiletics TB Antiquity |
| Further subjects: | B
Allegorical Interpretation
B Incunabula B Model sermons B Reception of Ovid B Passion of Christ |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | The sophisticated ways in which several fifteenth-century preachers used Ovidian stories and their allegorical interpretations prove that late medieval sermons represent a promising but neglected area for classical reception studies. Preachers - whose names are today almost forgotten by scholars but whose sermons circulated at large in early printed books - considered Ovidian allegories as powerful instruments for instructing, entertaining, and moving their audiences. This article begins with a review of the literature on the presence of Ovid in sermons, and discusses the methodology to study the transformation of classical myths in preaching. Then, it focuses on four sermons that incorporated the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which appears in the sermon collections written by Conrad Grütsch, Johann Meder, and Jacobus de Lenda. The repeated use of this Ovidian myth allows us, therefore, to investigate how different preachers appropriated and re-elaborated this story, and the role that it played in diverse contexts. Finally, the analysis of these texts also sheds light on the use of the Ovidius moralizatus in fifteenth-century sermons. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-6276 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Medieval sermon studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13660691.2016.1225386 |