Alexander - BSB Cgm 288

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Description

The "Secretum Secretorum", a 10th century pseudo-Aristotelian compendium, compiled in Syrian (Persian-influenced) circles of hermetic thought, is a kind of mirror for princes in the form of a letter to Alexander the Great, with many pieces of advice interspersed with all sorts of miracle stories. It deals with the virtues of rulers, the art of war and physiognomy but also contains extensive teachings on health. It was completely translated into German for the first time in 1282 by Hiltgart von Hürnheim, a Cistercian nun in Zimmern (c. 1255 - after 1299) who came from a noble family in Franconia's Ries. Hiltgart's rather literal translation followed the Latin model of her cousin Rudolf, a Cistercian monk in Kaisheim. This manuscript from the middle of the 15th century comes from the Cistercian Seligenthal convent in Landshut, which was subordinate to the Abbot of Kaisheim, like Zimmern. Hiltgart's translation still lived on in the 16th century in prints by Johann Bämler (1531) and Heinrich Stainer in Augsburg (1530 and 1532). Datum: 2016

Author

Peter Czoik

Rights Statement Description

CC0