Press release: Identification of oldest extant fragment of a Meister Eckhart sermon

Nr. 52/2010 - 08.03.2010

This rare discovery was possible due to the fact that the researcher was able to access the digitalised text via the internet. “The double-sided Göttingen manuscript fragment dates from the first quarter of the 14th century”, explains Karin Schneider, specialist for German mediaeval manuscripts from Herrsching. Not only is it the oldest extant fragment of this sermon, but it is also among the earliest material bearing witness to Eckhart’s work as a whole. The text is from the hand of an unknown scribe working during the lifetime of the Dominican monk and Christian mystic, and in this respect it is unique.

The fragment contains the first two thirds of the German-language sermon based on the first Epistle of John (1 John 4,9). According to Meister Eckhart, mankind as a whole is refined by God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. Such refinement must be reflected in a pure heart and in the equal status of those close to God and those who stand apart from Him. The preacher calls on his flock to give up their will and to have no fear. They should accomplish deeds ‘without why’ – ‘sunder warumme’, as is to be read in the Göttingen text.

The University of Göttingen’s research and teaching collection known as the Diplomatischer Apparat, compiled in1802, contains more than a thousand documents, manuscripts, fragments and seals. Precisely why, or when, this fragment of Meister Eckhart’s sermon came to be in Göttingen has not yet been established with certainty, though since Eckhart was Vikar of the Dominican Order in Thuringia from 1296, the Göttingen monastery was among the institutions assigned to his charge.

Meister Eckhart scholars are celebrating the 750th anniversary of the theologian’s birth in 2010. At a conference entitled ‘Meister Eckhart im Original – Fakten, Bilder, Legenden nach 750 Jahren in Munich’, organised by the Meister Eckhart-Gesellschaft and the Katholische Bayrische Akademie, newly discovered manuscripts of the influential preacher, among them the Göttingen Fragment, are being presented.