Robert of Olomouc; Peter of Zittau; Henry of Varnsdorf; preaching aids; Jacobus de Voragine; textual transmission

The present chapter examines three extant sermon collections composed by preachers active in Bohemia and Moravia before the mid-fourteenth century: the collection of Bishop Robert of Olomouc, a member of the Cistercian Order, the Sermones de principalibus festis by Peter of Zittau, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Zbraslav near Prague, and the sermonsof Henry of Varnsdorf, the commander of the Knights Hospitaller in Zittau. Although these preachers usually did not explicitly reference their sources, a close textual analysis reveals substantial reliance of their texts on earlier and widely circulated preaching aids. While thecollection of Robert of Olomouc shows a dependence on the sermons and other writings of twelfth-century French scholars and Cistercians, the sermons of Peter of Zittau and Henry of Varnsdorf were strongly influenced by the sermon collections of Jacobus de Voragine. The paper identifies these sources, assesses preachers’ methods of their compilation and adaptation, and evaluates the originality of the sermons. It argues that the approach of all three preachers was characterized by selective appropriation of acknowledged Western European preaching models, as well as their structural reworking according to the preachers’ authorial persona and pastoral priorities.

The present chapter examines three extant sermon collections composed by preachers active in Bohemia and Moravia before the mid-fourteenth century: the collection of Bishop Robert of Olomouc, a member of the Cistercian Order, the Sermones de principalibus festis by Peter of Zittau, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Zbraslav near Prague, and the sermonsof Henry of Varnsdorf, the commander of the Knights Hospitaller in Zittau. Although these preachers usually did not explicitly reference their sources, a close textual analysis reveals substantial reliance of their texts on earlier and widely circulated preaching aids. While thecollection of Robert of Olomouc shows a dependence on the sermons and other writings of twelfth-century French scholars and Cistercians, the sermons of Peter of Zittau and Henry of Varnsdorf were strongly influenced by the sermon collections of Jacobus de Voragine. The paper identifies these sources, assesses preachers’ methods of their compilation and adaptation, and evaluates the originality of the sermons. It argues that the approach of all three preachers was characterized by selective appropriation of acknowledged Western European preaching models, as well as their structural reworking according to the preachers’ authorial persona and pastoral priorities.