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really distinguish his works is his rhetorical simplicity, that is, a
rhetoric adapted to the people’s taste, without complex scholastic
reasonings and tiring disquisitions.28
the existence of the sermon in aM 696 VIII and IX 4to shows that,
mutatis mutandis, such a style could be as attractive to Icelanders as to
Valencians or Castilians.
the recording and textual transmission of the sermons of Vincent
ferrer were complex processes. While there is no universal agreement
among scholars as to the language(s) ferrer used while addressing audi-
ences in various locations across Europe, it seems likely that he always
preached in his native Valencian dialect of Catalan. In most cases, notes of
his sermons were written down in shorthand, either as he preached them
or shortly thereafter, by one or more reportatores who were assigned to this
task.29 These reportationes were then expanded, rewritten, abbreviated,
and rearranged in various ways by the reportatores themselves as well as by
other editors and scribes. as a result, some manuscripts preserve only short
outlines or sketches, while others contain fully fleshed-out sermons. a fur-
ther complication stems from the fact that the sermons were sometimes
preserved in the language in which they were delivered, i.e. Valencian/
Catalan, and sometimes translated into Latin or Castilian.30
28 Manuel ambrosio Sánchez Sánchez, “Vernacular Preaching in Spanish, Portuguese and
Catalan,” The Sermon, ed. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, typologie des sources du Moyen Âge
occidental, vols. 81–83 (turnhout: Brepols, 2000), 804–5.
29 notable exceptions include the Lenten sermons preached in Valencia in 1413, which “ferrer
likely dictated … as a preparatory exercise for the following day’s sermons” (Katherine
Lindeman, “fighting Words: Vengeance, Jews, and Saint Vicent ferrer in Late-Medieval
Valencia,” Speculum 91 (2016): 694–95; see Josep Sanchis Sivera, Quaresma de sant Vicent
Ferrer, predicada a València l’any 1413 (Barcelona, 1927), xxvi n. 2).
30 See Daileader, Saint Vincent Ferrer, 191–92, 197–99; Sánchez, “Vernacular Preaching,”
831–834. for sermons by ferrer preserved in Castilian, see Pedro M. Cátedra García,
Sermón, sociedad y literatura en la Edad Media: San Vicente Ferrer en Castilla (1411–1412)
— estudio bibliográfico, literario y edición de los textos inéditos (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y
Léon, Consejería de Cultura y turismo, 1994). a thorough report of manuscripts contain-
ing notes of ferrer’s sermons and an account of the surviving sermon corpus can be found,
respectively, in Josep Perarnau i Espelt, “Els Manuscrits d’esquemes i de notes de sermons
de sant Vicent ferrer,” Arxiu dels textos catalans antics 18 (1999): 157–398; and in Perarnau,
“aportació a un inventari de sermons de sant Vicenç ferrer: temes bíblics, títols i divisions
esquemàtiques,” Arxiu dels textos catalans antics 18 (1999): 479–811.
FRAGMENTS OF AN ICELANDIC CHRISTMAS SERMON