Nyt lys på Jesu Barndoms Bog

The influential Middle High German “Marienleben” (c. 1300) by the Carthusian Philipp von Seitz is known to be an important source for the Old Danish popular book on the life of Mary and the infant Christ, known as “Jesu Barndoms Bog”, first published in 1508 by the Dutch printer Govert van Ghemen in Copenhagen. The Old Danish version is probably based not on the Middle High German text, but on a Middle Low German (or even Middle Dutch) manuscript. In this article the manuscript Lübeck, Stadtbibliotek, Ms. theol. germ. 23 4° is presented as a better means of comparison than the Middle High German text. Even though Ghemen’s print is not based on a single source, the Lübeck manuscript and the Old Danish version share extra material not found in any other German version. This article, partly based on a new book by Christina Ostermann on the Middle Low German reception of “Marienleben”, argues that Ostermann’s book and the Lübeck manuscript should be a point of departure for future research into “Jesu Barndoms Bog”.