Weckerlin Legendary

Dates

Phase I 2012-2015

Phase II 2020-

Project Abstract

This study of an illuminated nineteenth-century manuscript focuses on the production and reception of legendary (collection of saints' lives) crafted as a deluxe devotional book in the medieval style. The Weckerlin Legendary, which contains saints' lives in French accompanied by a series of full-page miniatures and manuscript borders, was made by artist (and former theologian) Victor Martin Weckerlin for his niece, Caroline Weckerlin, when she became a Benedictine nun in 1887. We intend to recover the story of this devotional book, its medieval sources, and the multiple influences that led to its production. We will provide details about its ownership, both by the Weckerlins of Alsace and by a Midwestern community of Benedictine nuns. The book history and source study, moreover, offer a methodology for the study of medieval manuscripts and of manuscripts in the medieval style that are housed in North and South American monastic libraries. Many treasures, such as the Weckerlin Legendary, provide a means to study a religious house's history, its benefactors, and its textual gifts. More than a few such books offer an untapped opportunity for medievalists and religious studies scholars to share knowledge about the transmission of texts form the Old World to the New.

Digital Book

Page images online in the University of Missouri digital library.

Results

Virginia Blanton and Melissa Morris, "The Weckerlin Family's Commitment to a Monastic Vow: Medieval Bookmaking in Nineteenth-Century Alsace," Magistra 22.2 (2016): 3-36. URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/59133

Presentations

Virginia Blanton and Melissa Morris, "The Manuscript of Marie Jeanne Weckerlin, OSB: A Nineteenth-Century Hand-lettered and Illustrated Collection of Saints' Lives," 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2016 (invited); Mid-America Medieval Association 30, Emporia State University, September 2016

Virginia Blanton, "The Manuscript of Marie Jeanne Weckerlin, OSB: A Nineteenth-Century Hand-lettered and Illustrated Collection of Saints' Lives," Mount St Scholastica, Atchison, Kansas, June 2016

Project Team

Virginia Blanton
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences
University of Missouri-Kansas City

Nathan Oyler
Department of Chemistry
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
University of Missouri-Kansas City

Jeff Rydberg-Cox
Classics Program
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences
School of Computing and Engineering
University of Missouri-Kansas City

Judith Sutera, OSB
Mount St Scholastica
Atchison, Kansas

Research Assistants

Rebecca Adams (2020-
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Melissa Morris (2012-2015)
Departments of History & English
College of Arts & Sciences

Chainy Folsom (2012-2015)
Departments of History & English
College of Arts & Sciences