Die ,Vierzig Myrrhenbüschel vom Leiden Christi'

The Middle High German treatise ›Forty Bundles of Myrrh of Christ's Passion‹ combines traditional exegesis of the Song of Songs with detailed instructions for the correct contemplation of the Passion of Christ by means of fictive dialogues. The treatise, which was probably written for beguines in the first half of the 15th century in the Hospitaller commandery zum Grünen Wörth in Strasbourg, is analyzed and edited for the first time, in three parts divided into two volumes. The first part traces the function of the biblical passage Ct 1,12 within the exegetical tradition and examines the form and content of the ›Forty Bundles of Myrrh of Christ's Passion‹. In the second part, the surviving textual witnesses (eleven manuscripts and two copies of an incunable edition) are catalogued as accurately as possible and located within the context of the manuscript transmission. Finally, the third part offers the first edition of this extensive Passion treatise in an easily readable form and makes the most important variants as well as the different textual levels accessible through a critical apparatus.