Description: "This study follows the transmission and reception of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum (1219-1223), a Cistercian collection of miracles and memorable events, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It ranges across different media and within different interpretive communities and includes brief summaries of a number of the exempla"--
Brief description: Victoria Smirnova holds a doctoral degree in medieval Latin literature from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2006) and is currently a research fellow in the Bavarian State Library (Munich). She specializes in medieval sermons and exempla with particular emphasis on Caesarius of Heisterbach, to whose works she has dedicated numerous articles. She is also the principal editor of the collection of essays in The Art of Cistercian Persuasion in the Middle Ages and Beyond (2015).
Review Quotes: "Victoria Smirnova has written the story of the pivotal exempla collection of the Middle Ages. By contrast to Caesarius' very long book of 300,000 words, her book is concise but comprehensive. She tells the fascinating story of exempla before and after Caesarius Dialogue and traces the book's Cistercian roots and reception by Cistercians and others from Caesarius' time to our own. For anyone interested in exempla, Cistercians, or Caesarius, this book is required reading."
Hugh Feiss, OSB