Resumen de "ut supra dictum est" - "als ich ouch mê gesprochen hân". Zur Frage nach dem internen Gedächtnis in Eckharts lateinischem und deutschem Werk
Internal cross-references are frequent in Eckhart’s Latin works. In many cases it is easy to identify the passages he had in mind, but several quotations refer to works which are no longer extant or, more probably, to treatises the author intended to write but never actually wrote. This network of cross-indications constitutes a virtual internal memory that links the different parts of Eckhart’s work together in a coherent system. In the German works, the recurring reference to ideas and thoughts already “uttered” (“gesprochen”) seems to explicate the same function, particularly in the hypothesis that they refer to passages contained in a written collection of sermons. In this sense, it would seem that Eckhart’s typical formula “als ich mêr gesprochen hân” should not be translated as a generic “as I have often said” (common translation), but as a precise reference to a previous sermon in the collection (viz. “as I have already said above”) and simulates orality in the homiletic literary style, in the same way as Latin written works refer to previous passages as “sicut (iam) supra dictum est”.
