Prayer of the wounds (cods. Alcs. 89 and 221): paleographic and critical edition

Abstract

This article presents a paleographic and a critical edition of a short medieval text, identified as the prayer of the wounds in the alcobacenses codices 89 and 221 of the National Library of Portugal. It is a parable that proposes that the believers pray Our Fathers and Hail Marys for each of more than five thousand wounds inflicted on the body of Christ, and, once completed this task, the soul would be automatically saved from any sin, no matter how worse it was deemed by the Christian doctrine. The present study consists of a brief description of the contents of the prayer, a discussion of its possible sources, a brief codicological description of the two testimonies that contain the text and the presentation of the paleographic and critical edition of the text, preceded by a description of the respective edition norms.