Der Heiligen Leben, Band II: der Winterteil. Herausgegeben von Margit brand, Bettina Jung und Werner Williams-Krapp. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2004. Pp. xLVII + 658;1 ill. EUR 156.

Eight years after the edition of Der Sommerteil of Der Heiligen Leben appeared in print, Werner Williams-Krapp and his co-editors have now published Der Winterteil of the most popular and influential vernacular legendary of the Middle Ages. the entire compilation, which is organized according to the so-called "paschal style," thus exists in print for the first time since the Reformation (thirty-three High German and eight Low German imprints are extant from the period 1471/72–1521), when, it is thought, some 30,000–40,000 imprints of the legendary may have circulated in the German-language area as well as in the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Marianne Kalinke
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign