St Birgitta is one of Sweden’s most well-known personalities and the country’s first great author. The seventh centenary of her birth, celebrated in 2003 with commemorative activities in Sweden and in Rome, showed that there is more than a fleeting interest in her. Already in 1999 Pope John Paul II had proclaimed her one of three co-patronesses of Europe in his motu proprio Spes Aedificandi. Among international scholars she is increasingly regarded as one of the foremost visionaries and mystics of the late medieval Church.

Birgitta’s writings, having the form of some 700 divine revelations divided into various books, have been published many times in centuries past, both in the original Latin and in translations into various vernaculars. Before our time, however, there has been no complete scholarly edition of the Latin text and no complete translation into English.

The need for a complete and reliable edition of the Latin text was filled in the autumn of 2002, when the final volume of the critical edition published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and begun in 1956 appeared in print. The purpose of the present project has been to fill the need of a complete English translation, based on the Royal Swedish Academy edition, with introductions, explanatory comments and notes, in order to meet the increasing interest in St Birgitta in the whole of the English-speaking world, not least in the U.S.A.

 

Results of the Project

The translation has been divided into four volumes to be published in a unified format by Oxford University Press, New York. At the start of the project, vol. 1 had already been translated as part of another project financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, “The Image of Birgitta – Iconographical Database, Virtual Birgitta Library and International Birgitta Edition” (dnr 2000-7080:01). This first volume was published in 2006. The present project comprised vols. 2 and 3, containing Books IV–VII of the Revelations and published in 2008 and 2012 respectively. With vol. 3 the translation of the original body of revelations, first brought together in 1377 by Alfonso Pecha da Vadaterra, is complete. Vol. 4, which will contain the remaining texts authentically attributable to St Birgitta (Liber Caelestis Imperatoris ad Reges, Regula Salvatoris, Sermo Angelicus, Quattuor Orationes and Revelationes Extravagantes), is being funded jointly by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and is estimated to appear in 2015.

Vol. 1 contains a General Introduction. Each volume then contains scholarly introductions to the translated texts, headings summarizing the content of every chapter, indications of the date of every chapter, and footnotes providing (a) sources and literary parallels, (b) comparisons with the Old Swedish text, and (c) factual comments with references to relevant literature. At the end of each volume there is a bibliography and an index. Vols. 1–3 comprise a total of 962 pages.

The translation is in modern idiomatic English, stylistically on a level similar to that of the original, being neither colloquial nor formal or pompous. Both the translation and the notes follow a format that was carefully worked out at the start of the project.

The translation has been performed by Denis Searby while the introductions, notes, bibliographies and indices have been written by Bridget Morris, who has also handled the contacts with the publisher. Stephan Borgehammar acted as project administrator and contributed to the planning and proof-reading.

 

Unforeseen Problems

When the project started we did not foresee that all three project members would soon experience major changes in their work situation. New duties and job engagements made it impossible for us to maintain the planned pace of the project. Thanks to the generous attitude of both the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy, the project period could be prolonged and the project thus be felicitously brought to completion.
   
 

The Project’s Integration into and Legacy to its Host Organization

The project was hosted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, which administered its economy efficiently and without cost. As mentioned above, the Academy published the definitive Latin edition of St Birgitta’s Revelations 1956–2002. During the project period, and prompted by Borgehammar, the Academy commissioned an on-line version of the complete text of the Latin edition, which was carried out by Sara Risberg in 2004 (see Corpus Reuelacionum sancte Birgitte on the web page www.riksarkivet.se/CRB). In 2012, when vol. 3 was completed, the Academy gave a grant which, together with the remainder of the money from the present project, will cover the costs of producing the fourth and final volume of the translation.

 

New Research Questions Generated by the Project

The translation fulfills the aim of making the Revelations easily accessible to an international audience, together with a wealth of information based on research that is otherwise only available in the Scandinavian languages. Thus, it has the potential of raising numerous new research questions and has already been utilized in doctoral dissertations, such as Emilia Zochowska, The Christian Kingdom as an Image of the Heavenly Kingdom According to St. Birgitta of Sweden (University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 2010). More specifically, the introductions and commentary of the translation clearly point out areas in need of research, by raising numerous as yet unanswered questions. Finally, the translation has revealed a small number of places where the Latin edition seems to be unreliable or is clearly in error. This information can be used in future in order to improve the text of the Latin edition.