Gunther of Pairis: De Oratione, Jejunio et Eleemosyna

This long treatise on prayer, fasting and almsgiving, in thirteen books, was written by Gunther, a monk of the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace. It opens with editorial matter: a note on the first printed edition at Basel in 1507, which described the work as useful for sermons and collations and as long hidden but newly found, and a preface by Conrad Leontorius of Maulbronn addressed to the reader. The author’s prologue and the chapter lists for each book follow, and then the treatise. Most of it concerns prayer; the sample analyses petitions according to whether the one asking and the one asked are worthy or unworthy, suitable or unsuitable, producing fourfold divisions.

Gunther is better known for his history of the Fourth Crusade and his epic on Frederick Barbarossa. This work shows him as a scholastic-minded monastic teacher, applying careful distinctions to the practice of devotion. It is one of the more extensive medieval treatises on prayer and was printed early in the age of print as a resource for preachers. The editorial material at the start is later than the work.