Ava's New Testament Narratives: 'When the Old Law Passed Away'

Medium Aevum, Fall, 2003

introd., trans., and notes by James A. Rushing, Jr., Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions 2 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2003). 235 pp. ISBN 1-58044-037-1. $12.00. This is the second volume in a new series of bilingual editions of Medieval German texts, published for TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages).

It contains the four New Testament poems by Frau Ava, composed before 1127 by an Austrian laywoman, probably Ava inclusa, the anchorite of Melk, devoted to John the Baptist, the life of Christ, the Antichrist, and the Last Judgement. The text is closely based on the diplomatic edition by F. Maurer, but set out as fines of couplet verse and marking the position of the interesting cycle of illustrations known from a manuscript now lost and formerly kept in Gorlitz. The reproduction of the pictures, which have survived only through their publication by P. Piper in 1887, is most welcome.