Editiones 2

Claes Gejrot and Erika Kihlman (eds.), Bero Magni de Ludosia: Sermones et Collationes. Sermons from the University of Vienna in the Mid-Fifteenth Century (2011, 127 s.). 150 SEK.

This volume presents four sermons and collations written and delivered in Vienna by Bero Magni of Lödöse in 1444 and 1454. Bero Magni left Sweden and matriculated at the University of Vienna in 1429, where he was to remain as a master at the Faculty of Arts until his death in 1465. The first of these sermons was preached in St Stephen’s Cathedral on Christmas Day in 1444, on behalf of the Faculty of Theology, where Bero was a student. Preaching was part of the requirements for earning a degree in Theology, and this was Bero’s second sermon assignment. His 1454 Good Friday Sermon was delivered in the Hall of the Ducal College, and the two final, shorter sermons (collations) were delivered in the same place later the same year. They were intended as the opening and closing addresses for the summer disputation exercises.

These Latin sermons, written by a university teacher in the mid-fifteenth century, exemplify the learned style and contents that were demanded, but as well reveal details of contemporary academic life. They are here published for the first time, with English translations and introductory comments.