Mary Magdalene and Her Sister Martha
Mary Magdalene and Her Sister Martha: An Edition and Translation of the Medieval Welsh Lives
JANE CARTWRIGHT
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hgzdg
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Book Info
Mary Magdalene and Her Sister Martha
Book Description:

Mary Magdalene and Her Sister Martha: An Edition and Translation of the Medieval Welsh Lives provides scholarly editions and English translations of the medieval Welsh versions of the legends of Mary Magdalene and Martha. Described by Victor Saxer as medieval best sellers, these hagiographical tales, which described how Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha survived a perilous sea voyage from the holy land and evangelized Provence, were available in many different Latin and vernacular versions and circulated widely in the medieval West. The texts were translated or adapted into Middle Welsh some time before the mid-fourteenth century: the Middle Welsh Life of Mary Magdalene is extant in thirteen manuscripts and the Middle Welsh Life of Martha is preserved in eight of the same manuscripts. Jane Cartwright makes the Middle Welsh versions available to an international audience for the first time and provides a detailed study of the Welsh manuscripts that contain the texts, a comparison between the different manuscripts versions and a discussion of the wider hagiographical context of the texts in Wales. The volume includes transcriptions, editions and translations of the two Lives based on the oldest most complete extant versions found in the Red Book of Talgarth c. 1400, as well as an additional section of text describing Mary Magdalene’s life before Christ’s crucifixion from the fifteenth-century Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 27ii. The edition is accompanied by a comprehensive glossary which provides translations of all medieval Welsh words that occur in the texts, an analysis of the development and transmission of the legends, as well as a discussion of the relevance and popularity of these two female saints in late medieval Wales: medieval Welsh poetry, church dedications, and holy wells are also considered.

eISBN: 978-0-8132-2189-2
Subjects: History
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Table of Contents
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.1
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.2
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. ix-xii)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.3
  4. 1 INTRODUCTION
    1 INTRODUCTION (pp. 1-76)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.4

    The recusant author of the first book to be published in Wales,Y Drych Kristnogawl, was keen to emphasize the large number of saints that were once venerated in Wales. Given that it is claimed that part of the volume was published in secrecy in a cave in 1583 during the Catholic persecutions, it is not surprising that elevating the status of Wales and its saints in the sanctity rankings of Christendom as a whole and glorifying Wales’s past was high on the anonymous author’s political and personal religious agenda.² Throughout the sixteenth century Welsh versions of saints’ lives continued...

  5. 2 TRANSCRIPTION
    2 TRANSCRIPTION (pp. 77-89)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.5

    Buchedd mair vadlen

    Mair vadlen a oyδ mor vvcheddol ac i karoδ krist hi yn vwyaf or merched yn nesa at vair ivam ac oherwyδ hyny pob kristion a ddyly anrrydeddv duw a mair vadlen y hi gynta yn amser gras a gymerth ⁺ ydiveirwch ac a wnayth benyd am i chamwedde Ar arglwyδ iesu grist a gynhiadoδ iddi ras a thrvgareδ a meddevain² oi ffechode yr hon a wnaythbwyd yn ysbekdal ir holl bechadvr iaid i ddangos vddynt o chymerant adiveirwch a gwneuthvr pen ydiav am i pychodav i kant ras a thrvgareδ Mair vadlen iroyδ dad yr hwn...

  6. 3 EDITION
    3 EDITION (pp. 90-100)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.6

    Mair Vadlen a oydd mor vvcheddol ac i karodd Krist hi yn vwyaf o’r merched, yn nesa at Vair i vam, ac oherwydd hynny pob Kristion a ddyly anrrydeddv Duw a Mair Vadlen. Y hi gynta yn amser gras a gymerth ydiveirwch ac a wnayth benyd am i chamwedde. A’r Arglwydd Iesu Grist a gynhiadodd iddi ras, a thrvgaredd, a meddevain[t] o’i ffechode, yr honn a wnaythbwyd yn ysbekdal i’r holl bechadvriaid i ddangos vddynt o chymerant adiveirwch a gwneuthvr penydiav am i pychodav, i kant ras a thrvgared Mair Vadlen.

    [I Vair Vadlen] ir oydd dad yr hwnn a...

  7. 4 TRANSLATION
    4 TRANSLATION (pp. 101-112)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.7

    Mary Magdalene was so devout that Christ loved her most of all the women, next to Mary his mother, and for this reason all Christians should honor God and Mary Magdalene. She was the first in the age of grace to repent and undertake penance for her transgressions. And the Lord Jesus Christ granted her pardon, mercy, and forgiveness of her sins, [for] she became an example to all sinners in order to show them that if they repented and performed penance for their sins, they [too] would receive Mary Magdalene’s forgiveness and mercy.

    Mary Magdalene had a father called...

  8. GLOSSARY
    GLOSSARY (pp. 113-134)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.8
  9. BIBLIOGRAPHY
    BIBLIOGRAPHY (pp. 135-140)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.9
  10. INDEX
    INDEX (pp. 141-146)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.10
  11. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 147-147)
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hgzdg.11
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