Catherine da Geberschweier

CATHERINE DA GEBERSCHWEIER. - Dominican mystic, author of the Liber sororum de Subtilia (v. UNTERLINDEN) in Colmar in Alsace, written toward the end of the 13th century or more probably at the beginning of the 14th. Thanner and Pez and others call her C. of Gebwiler; but Ancelet-Hustache calls her C. of Geberschweier (Gueberschwihr) between Ruffach and Colmar. The Liber sororum de Subtilia contains a prologue, an introduction in 8 chapters and then 59 lives of nuns of the first decades of the famous German Dominican monastery, and it is a work that was vital nourishment for many devout souls in past centuries and would deserve in our own day a far greater diffusion (Clementi). There exist versions in Italian (Florence 1888), German (1863) and French (1864) and many summaries in treatises on the history of mysticism (Wilms etc.).

A cultured woman and of great virtues, C. lived in and brought distinction to the monastery from her youth. Thanner and Pez have her enter the monastery in 1260 and die in 1330. The identification of our author with the prioress Catherine to whom Venturino of Bergamo (d. 1346) wrote is a question still open.

The text of the Liber sororum de Subtilia was critically edited from ms. 508 of the library of Colmar by J. Ancelet-Hustache in 1930. The edition prepared by Thanner and Pez in the Bibliotheca ascetica, VIII (Ratisbon 1725), pp. 35-399, is based on foundations no longer verifiable today. The two editions present notable differences.

Angelo Walz