Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum

Record summary

Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum gathers hundreds of early thirteenth-century miracle stories, including apparitions, revenants, demonic encounters, haunted buildings, and reports connected with monasteries and villages. It is valuable for comparative research because it records how Cistercian authors classified, authenticated, and morally interpreted anomalous experiences. The work is explicitly didactic and its stories may be hearsay, inherited exempla, or literary constructions. Place names, interlocutors, and chapter references should be verified individually in a critical edition.