While editing and rewriting sections of my novel about medieval France I have been researching the
development of the rosary. I came across a fascinating blog called
Paternosters which was a name given to prayer beads in the medieval period.
Here is an article about the origins of the the word "rosary" which I found quite interesting. To quote:
To get back to beads, however, traces of the earlier meaning of bid/bede as "a prayer" still remain. For instance, a wealthy patron in the Middle Ages may have supported poor bedesmen, who had promised to pray for the patron, and may have provided a bedehouse for bedesmen or bedeswomen to live in. Likewise, “bidding one’s bedes” in the Middle Ages does not so much mean praying with a literal string of beads, as it means praying for one’s bedes, that is, the people or requests one is obliged to pray for.
The word “rosary” originally meant a garden devoted to the growing of roses (c1440, “This mone is eke rosaries to make, with setes [seats]”)....Probably both the rose-garden concept and the book title contributed to the idea of referring to a collection of written prayers and devotions as a (metaphorical) rosary, such as the 1526 Rosary of Our Savyour Jesu or the 1533 Mystik sweet Rosary of the faytheful soule.
From here it was a short step to applying the term “rosary” to the specific prayer practice we have been discussing, including its string of beads.
Other European languages also call the rosary by a name referring to roses. In German it is a rosenkranz, in French a rosaire, in Italian and Spanish a rosario, and in Hungarian it is a rózsafüzért (literally a “rose string”). However in Austria it is more commonly a betschnur (“prayer string”) and in France, often a chapelet.
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While editing and rewriting sections of my novel about medieval France I have been researching the development of the rosary. I came across a fascinating blog called Paternosters which was a name given to prayer beads in the medieval period. Here is an article about the origins of the the word "rosary" which I found quite interesting. To quote:
5 comments:
Thank you for such an interesting post. The research behind every historical novel is so incredible. There certainly are pitfalls, aren't there? I read "Leonardo's Swans" last year--set in the Renaissance, one of the characters prays the Rosary and adds the Fatima prayer at the end of the decade! Perhaps the author was not a Catholic and she just looked up "How to pray the Rosary" not considering the development of the devotion in time; thus her anachronism. Of course only a Catholic knowing something about the development of the Rosary would catch it!
What is your new book called!? I must know! =D
That's funny, Stephanie. And many people would not know that the second part of the Hail Mary "Holy Mary, Mother of God, etc..." was not added until the 15th century. It is a beautiful addition, though. In earlier times, however, people only said the first part of the Angelic Salutation.
Cate, thanks for asking. There have been several ideas for titles and I just thought of a new one yesterday, but nothing is firm yet. The publisher has the final say in the matter. I will let everyone know as soon as it's all settled.
Oh, good. :) I will be on the lookout for it.
And in Swedish it is rosenkrans - one letter and one capitalisation away from German.
The first printing press in Sweden was owned by Carthusians. They used it to further the rosary devotion. It was confiscated by Gustav Wasa (not to be confounded with Gustavus II Adolphus who was his grandson, ally of Richelieu in XXX years war, nor that one with Gustavus IV Adolphus who lost both Finland to the Czar and Sweden to his uncle in 1809, and who is seven generations ancestor of our Crown Princess Victoria) and given to Reformers, who destroyed the work of the Carthusians.
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