Maria Craciun is Senior Lecturer, Department of Medieval and Early Modern History and Art History at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania.Katalin Luffy is a Librarian (Special Collections) at "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.Edit Szegedi ist Universitätsdozentin an der Babes-Bolyai-Universität Klausenburg.Dr. Ulrich Andreas Wien ist Akademischer Direktor am Institut für Evangelische Theologie der Universität Koblenz-Landau.Maria Craciun is Senior Lecturer, Department of Medieval and Early Modern History and Art History at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania.Katalin Luffy is a Librarian (Special Collections) at "Lucian Blaga" Central University Library of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.Dr. Ulrich Andreas Wien ist Akademischer Direktor am Institut für Evangelische Theologie der Universität Koblenz-Landau.Dr. Christopher B. Brown is Associate Professor of Church History at Boston University.Dr. Günter Frank ist Direktor der Europäischen Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten und außerplanmäßiger Professor am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie.Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer ist Professorin em. für "Neuere deutsche Literatur" an der Universität Bern.

This volume brings together local and global to define the place of the written word in lay piety, highlighting continuities between medieval/Catholic and early modern/Protestant practice. Instead of focusing on individual prayer books, it places them within the broader genre of devotional literature and considers them in connection with prevailing cultural, religious and artistic developments, taking into account the Reformation, the printing press and growing interest in lay piety, in the context of increasing individualism, developing literacy, privatization and/or personalization of religion.Religious texts of various literary genres reveal the transforming expressions of piety from medieval times to the early modern period.

This volume brings together local and global to define the place of the written word in lay piety, highlighting continuities between medieval/Catholic and early modern/Protestant practice. Instead of focusing on individual prayer books, it places them within the broader genre of devotional literature and considers them in connection with prevailing cultural, religious and artistic developments, taking into account the Reformation, the printing press and growing interest in lay piety, in the context of increasing individualism, developing literacy, privatization and/or personalization of religion.

This collected volume is dedicated to the role of prayer books in lay piety in medieval and early modern contexts. Instead of focusing on individual examples, it places them within the broader genre of devotional literature and considers them in connection with prevailing cultural, religious and artistic developments, taking into account the Reformation, the printing press and growing interest in lay piety, in the context of increasing individualism, developing literacy, privatization and/or personalization of religion. Contextualising devotional literature, the volume refines understandings of religious practice fostered by traditional Catholicism and early modern Protestantism and its relationship with the written word, locating the use of books within a devotional 'diet' that included oral recitation of prayers as well as contemplation of images. Stressing continuities, often against the grain of existing literature, this volume highlights differences between regional cultures of prayer in contrast to norms set by the universal Church and emphasizes the tension between public/communal and private/individual devotion.