Stress-Free Sermonising or Donkey Dung?
JOHANNES von Werden.
Sermones d[omi]nicales cu[m] expositionib[us] euangelior[um] p[er] annum satis notabiles et utiles omnibus sacerdotib[us] pastorib[us] et capellanis qui alio nomine Dormi secure vel dormi sine cura su[n]t nuncupati … [Cologne, Johann Koelhoff the Elder, c. 1484.]
Folio, ff. [134]; a–q8 r6, with preliminary blank a1; gothic letter, capital spaces, seven-line initial ‘D’ on a2r in blue and red with floral and foliate infill in red and pale green and matching border extension, initials supplied in red, initial strokes and paragraph marks in red, some underlining in red; some marginal losses to first blank leaf (repaired), some staining to inner corners of first two leaves, short marginal tear to a2, larger marginal tears to b8 and o1 (with repair to verso) all without loss, small marginal hole to last leaf, occasional marginal finger marks; overall a very good copy in twentieth-century red morocco, gilt frame and border to covers, spine gilt in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, marbled endpapers; contemporary ownership inscription to blank a1 ‘Hunc librum contulit librarie fratrum praedicatorum in buscoduch venerabilis dominus artium magister dominus Gregorius de Weerdt oriundus de sundert oretur pro eius salute et anima’, contemporary marginal annotations to 12 pp., bibliographical pencil notes in French to a1v and to rear endpaper.
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Sermones d[omi]nicales cu[m] expositionib[us] euangelior[um] p[er] annum satis notabiles et utiles omnibus sacerdotib[us] pastorib[us] et capellanis qui alio nomine Dormi secure vel dormi sine cura su[n]t nuncupati …
A very rare edition of this collection of popular sermons by Johannes von Werden (or Johannes de Verdena, d. 1437), a Franciscan preacher from Cologne, which was printed perhaps forty times in the fifteenth century, from 1477 onwards.
This is the first of his two renowned sermon collections, for the temporal cycle of moveable feasts for the liturgical year. ‘The nickname of the collection, “dormi secure” (“sleep soundly”), may have implied jokingly that its users were too ignorant or lazy to compose new sermons on short deadlines. Although it was a highly successful book … Martin Luther dismissed it as “donkey dung, introduced by the devil”’ (Bridwell Library Special Collections).
‘The secret of its success may have been that it took note of the needs of all priests and preachers (omnibus sacerdotibus, pastoribus et capellanis), providing this diversified audience of pastoral workers not only with practical advice on matters of presentation and content, but also with two complete series of sermones de tempore and two complete series of sermones de sanctis. Thus, these priests and preachers had at their disposal both a practical performance manual and a large number of ready-made catechistic sermons for all occasions during the liturgical year’ (Roest, p. 106).
The text opens with an attractive initial ‘D’ in Netherlandish style, which fits with the provenance: a contemporary inscription indicates that this copy was presented to the library of the Dominican brothers of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), in the Dutch province of Brabant, by Gregorius de Weerdt of Zundert, Master of Arts.
A few of the sermons have attracted the attention of a contemporary annotator, in particular no. 42 describing various rich men, and no. 53 on the four voices sinners should listen to.
Only twelve copies of this edition are listed on ISTC, including only three in the UK (BL (2), Bodleian) and one in the US (University of Chicago).
BMC I 226; Bod-inc J-204; Goff J454; ISTC ij00454000. See Roest, Franciscan Literature of religious Instruction before the Council of Trent (2004).