In the prologue to the Legatus divinae pietatis (henceforth Legatus), the hagio-graphic and mystical text dealing with the life and revelations of Gertrude of Helfta, also known as Gertrude the Great (1256–1301/2), the compiler stresses the necessity of using ‘de imaginationibus corporearum similitudinum’ [seemingly material images] to render the things described and revealed to Gertrude more ‘intelligible for the human intellect’. That the immaterial can be visualized in images seems to pose a problem for the compiler of the Latin Legatus – at the very least it needs addressing. The German version based on the Latin Legatus takes up this passage but introduces a significant change: ‘seemingly material images’ do not appear to Gertrude; instead she is unified with God ‘durch bildunge’ [through images/imagination] ; we would not understand the state in which divine miracles are revealed to her ‘der wir nit moehten verstanden haben, het er sú nit erzoeiget mit liplichen bilden’ [were they not generated with material images]. This proclamation of a material programme differs substantially from the Latin version where there is a succinct tension between the mystical revelation and the mode in which it is represented. The earliest vernacular transmission of the Legatus offers a striking example of a material image as mentioned in the prologue to the Legatus; more specifically, it presents a textile image loaded with allegorical meaning. Studying it allows us to understand conceptions of time and temporality through the lens of material culture. The mystical language found in the Legatus and its German redaction, the botte der götlichen miltekeit (henceforth botte), is framed by a liturgical reception of the Scriptures, lending a collective dimension to what is presented as a highly personal account. Gertrude's visions and auditions are structured according to liturgical feast days, and within that, they are directed by the rhythm of monastic life. The monastic rhythm in which the visions are structured reflects the social and religious practices of the nuns, as can be illustrated with the following analysis of the Easter Monday vision of Gertrude the Great.

The earliest German transmission of Gertrude the Great's late thirteenth-century Legatus, composed in Latin as a communal writing project in the convent of Helfta, describes the vision of a dress which marks devotional conduct over time. In an Easter Monday vision, Gertrude's religious comportment as a nun is vividly illustrated in the image of a cloak or dress.