Philosophical Significance of the Mirror Metaphor in the Anonymous Treatise on Mass (Manuscript BSB München Cgm 89)

Abstract

The article is devoted to a detailed analysis of mirror metaphor in an anonymous late-14th-century vernacular theological and philosophical treatise, written in Bavarian dialect and known as “The Mystical Treatise on Mass and Its Influences on a Loving Soul’’. It is preserved as manuscript Cgm 89 in the Bavarian State Library (BSB) in Munich. This text has never been edited critically and still remains unpublished. As a result of its historical and philosophical analysis, the author of this study offers a hypothesis, that “mirror” is used in the treatise not only as a typical metaphor, but also as a term that reflects the teaching presented in this text.