Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1961, Qupperneq 112

A Preliminary Note on an Anecdote
in the Mariu Saga
By Ole Widding
In his edition of the Mariu saga C. R. Unger prints as no. CXCIV
of the miracles (from MarE) an anecdote about a Cardinal in Rome,
Manfredus, who in a vision saw the Blessed Virgin. Our Lady com-
manded him to introduce a new devotion in connection with the
Annunciation, by fasting on the very weekday throughout the year
on which the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated.
Unger mentioned that because of the language this anecdote must
be younger than the preceding one, ‘planctus sive lamentacio beate
Marie’. However, Unger did not know the source of the Manfredus
anecdote.
While compiling a list of sources of the anecdotes and miracles
in the Mariu saga, I noticed that Dom Winfried Kåmpfer in his
book Studien zu den gedruckten mittelniederdeutschen Plenarien (Nie-
derdeutsche Studien herausg. von William Foerste, 2, Munster 1954)
records the Manfredus anecdote from a Low German print (Lubeck
1492, Borchling and Claussen no. 205). Through the courtesy of
Dom Kampfer and professor Foerste I was permitted to use a micro -
film of this unique book (now in the Pierpont-Morgan Library,
New York). By comparing the Icelandic and the Low German texts,
I have made sure that the two versions are very closely related.
Since the anecdote is not recorded in the other five prints used by
Dom Kåmpfer (from between 1475 and 1493), and since a philologi-
cal examination speaks in favour of it, it must be safe to conclude
that the Icelandic anecdote is a direct translation from the Lubeck
print of 1492.
This is but one example of the considerable influence upon Ice-
landic ecclesiastical writings from early Low German prints before
the Lutheran Reformation.