Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1996, Síða 162
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some of the daunting mass of medieval speculum literature without
turning up a text of similar title which provides analogues for Spec.
Pen?5 It is disappointing that a work of the same name, the Speculum
Penitentis written by the English writer William de Montibus during the
first decade of the thirteenth century, provides no close verbal par-
allels.36 Nor is a source available in the Pseudo-Augustinian Speculum
Peccatoris?1 Three German penitential ‘mirrors’ which are known to
incorporate material from C7Y, Martin von Amberg’s Gewissenspie-
gel,38 the anonymous Spiegel des Siinders?9 and the Low German peni-
tential manual entitled Joseps Siindenspiegel,40 provide no verbal corre-
spondences with Spec. Pen., and show some general agreement with
the subject matter of the Icelandic treatise only where they also draw on
material from C7Y. In any case, the Icelandic author’s frequent repeti-
tion of snatches of Latin in his text would indicate that he worked from
a Latin rather than a vernacular source.
Whatever the source for this passage may be, the author now pro-
ceeds to expound upon the metaphor of the ‘penitent’s mirror’, explain-
ing that just as one sees with physical eyes the complexion and appear-
ance of one’s face in a mirror, so in this penitential mirror one can view
one’s soul with the eyes of the mind, and discern whether it has been
rendered fair with good deeds or blackened and stained with evil ones
{Spec. Pen. 357-361). The author points out that there is no sin, small or
great, which does not require mercy and forgiveness, for that is the rule
of justice that each sin must be accompanied by confession and punish-
ment, and thus no one can be freed from punishment for sin unless he
35 Ibid., p. 200, n. 2.
36 See William de Montibus, Speculum Penitentis, edited in J. Goering, William de Mon-
tibus, pp. 179-210.
37 PL 40 (2nd ed., Paris, 1887), col. 983-992.
38 See St. N. Werbow, ed., Martin von Amberg, Gewissenspiegel, Texte des Spaten Mit-
telalters 7 (Berlin, 1958). On Martin von Amberg’s use of C7Y see Steer, Hugo Ripelin,
pp. 441-442, and Steer, ‘Der “Gewissenspiegel” Martins von Amberg und das “Compen-
dium theologicae veritatis” Hugos von Strassburg’, Beitråge zur Geschichte der deut-
schen Sprache und Literatur (Tiibingen) 90 (1968), pp. 285-302.
39 See M.A. Van Den Broek, Der Spiegel des Siinders. Ein katechetischer Traktat des
fiinfzehnten Jahrhunderts, Quellen und Forschungen zur Erbauungsliteratur des spaten
Mittelalters und der fruhen Neuzeit 11 (Amsterdam, 1976). On CTV as a source for this
text see Steer, Hugo Ripelin, p. 443.
40 See Eva Schtitz, Joseps Siindenspiegel: Eine niederdeutsche Lehrdichtung des 15.
Jahrhunderts (Cologne/Vienna, 1973).