Editiones 4

Alexander Andrée (edited, translated and introduced), Christopherus Laurentii de Holmis. Sermones, Disputatio in vesperiis et Recommendatio in aula. Academic Sermons and Exercises from the Univerity of Leipzig, 1435–1438 (2012). 200 SEK.

This volume presents seven samples of academic preaching and exercises written and delivered by Christopherus Laurentii of Stockholm in the years 1435 to 1438. Christopherus left Sweden and studied at the Universities of Erfurt and Rostock, where he was made magister artium, before matriculating in the spring of 1426 as student of theology at the University of Leipzig, from which he graduated in 1438 as Master of Theology. Part of the requirements for earning a degree in theology, the five sermons were preached at various religious occations and feasts – Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, for example – and the exercises, the so-called disputation in vesperiis and the recommendation in aula, were delivered in connection with Christopherus’s promotion to the mastership in theology.

These Latin sermons, written by a university professor in the first half of the fifteenth century, exemplify the highly stylized scholastic sermon of the later Middle Ages and reveal important details of the priorities of contemporary academic culture. They are here published for the first time, with English translations, introduction and indices.