Der Heiligen Leben
1400 German collection of Saints' biographies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Der Heiligen Leben ('The Lives of Saints'), also known as Passional, was a German legendary, compiled by a Dominican friar from Nürnberg around 1400.[1] Today, 197 manuscripts are known, along with 33 High German and 8 Low German imprints; the oldest imprint is that of Günther Zainer (Augsburg, 1471/72) and the latest is from Strassburg (1521). The 1502 edition had a print run of 1000 copies, an exceptional figure for the time.[2] The collection originally contained 251 legends and became 'the most influential model for most of the vernacular legendaries of the fifteenth century',[3] and was 'unparalleled in its overall popularity in the whole of Europe ... Hardly a work of German literature was read by such a wide audience'.[4]
