Lektürezeichen und Rezeptionsspuren in The Book of Margery Kempe. Ein mystischer Vitentext in den Händen englischsprachiger Kartäuser

Abstract
‘The Book of Margery Kempe’ constitutes one of the key texts of medieval English mysticism. Surviving in a unique manuscript copy from Mount Grace Charterhouse (London, British Library, Add MS 61823, c. 1440), the text focuses on the conversion of Margery Kempe in her role as þis creatur, who leaves her comfortable life as a wealthy wife and mother of fourteen children to pursue her journey towards Christian perfection. Most contributions take the rich textual details as a basis to reconstruct the biographical data of the historical Margery Kempe. This approach relies on the problematic premise that the text offers unmediated access to real life experience.Due to this research focus, the extensive marginalia in the manuscript have received considerably less attention. Based on new evidence from the Kempe manuscript, this essay challenges the accepted chronology of annotating scribal hands and outlines contemporary reception. It becomes apparent that the red ink annotator sees a connection between the corporeal experience of divine grace exemplified by the Margery Kempe persona and the ‘mystics’ of Mount Grace, Richard Methley and John Norton, who shaped the monastery’s reputation as a centre of literary production.