Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages are identified here through the remarkable popularity of a devotional work by Henry Suso. His Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, circulated in Latin as Clock, was said to have been surpassed in popularity only by The Imitation of Christ, usually attributed to Thomas á Kempis. The account presents the period not through a general chronology but through the reach of a particular work and the surviving evidence of its readers.

A Measure of Devotional Circulation

The book’s transmission gives substance to its reputation: more manuscripts of the Little Book of Eternal Wisdom survive than of any other German book. Its Latin version, Clock, was especially popular in the Late Middle Ages. The comparison with The Imitation of Christ places Suso’s work near the top of the period’s devotional literature, while the manuscript record offers a concrete measure of that wide circulation.

A Work Shaped for Devotion

The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom is divided unevenly into three parts. Its first twenty chapters focus on the Passion of Christ and include one hundred meditations on the crucifixion; a further four chapters address death, inward living, receiving God, and perpetual praise. Much of the work takes the form of dialogue between Suso, called “The Servitor,” and Eternal Wisdom. These subjects and the dialogic form show how the book’s circulation joined meditative attention to Christ’s suffering with instruction in interior religious life.