Die Vita der Christina von Hane

Racha Kirakosian, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

"Kirakosian's meticulous edition includes a paleographic and codicological description of the manuscript, a discussion of its date, and a philological account. In addition to the Vita she edits a short legend of Mary Magdalene that follows it. What she does, she does very well, proving that this apparently naive text has its own kind of sophistication, narrative strategies, and genre conventions, well understood by its audience. All further research on this disturbing, fascinating text must begin with her monograph."

Barbara Newman in: Speculum 94/1 (January 2019)



"This exemplary investigation examines the presentation of the (intense) bride-mysticism and the union of the soul with God expressed in the life of Christina from a variety of angles, stressing the material textuality of the work and its performativity - in simplest terms, not just what it is, nor on Christina as a mystic, but how the book we have is intended to function as a text. [...] The approach is necessarily a complex one, but it is carefully handled and stimulating. The second part of the study presents the (challenging) Moselle-Franconian text of the Strasbourg Vita (pp283-346), plus a brief legend of the Magdalene (pp. 347-9). The balance between a diplomatic and a working text is well managed."

Brian Murdoch in: Medium Aevum LXXXVII (2018)



"Besonders verdienstreich ist sicherlich die der Studie beigegebene Edition der Christina-Vita und Maria-Magdalenen-Legende, die nicht nur durch die transparente Darlegung der Handschriftenuntersuchung und Editionsprinzipien, sondern auch durch die wenigen korrigierenden Eingriffe in den Wortlaut beeindruckt, und so den lesenswerten Textverbund nun leichter rezipierbar macht. Dabei mag der/dem Lesenden die Entscheidung der Herausgeberin, gegen das Manuskript eine Kapitelzählung einzuführen und auf die Wiedergabe der - sonst im Lauf der Untersuchung immer wieder argumentativ ausgewerteten -