The Shorter Writings of Ulrich Putsch

A companion to the 2007 volume The Light of the Soul, which features Ulrich Putsch’s massive German translation of the Lumen anime C, this book presents the texts of three shorter Latin works that are commonly attributed to Ulrich, a Swabian whose long and distinguished career in the Tyrol culminated in his appointment as Bishop of Brixen (Bressanone) in 1427. His Diarium is a lively, highly subjective and often lapidary account of his ten-year episcopate, and as such a fascinating example of late medieval autobiography. Ulrich’s Oraciones super missam, meanwhile, are a set of prayers designed for devotional use by congregants attending Mass, which will be of considerable interest to students of lay religious culture. Finally, his Manuale simplicium sacerdotum, a handbook for secular priests that is based on Durandus’s Racionale divinorum officiorum, constitutes a valuable potential resource for historians of the late medieval church. The volume also contains a German translation of the Oraciones that may very well have been completed by Ulrich himself, and an introduction that charts his varied career and discusses the contents, themes, manuscripts, and textual history of the works edited.