The ancient traditions before the VIIIth century concerning the final fate of Mary constitute a large and very complex group. The literary traditions on the dormition and the assumption represent the major part of this dossier. We can only situate and classify them if we also study their topological traditions. The present volume completes the volume published in 1995 (Dormition et Assomption de Marie. Histoire des traditions anciennes). It is the final result of a research started in 1986. In the current compilation we regroup thirteen contributions published between 1992 and 2007. These different articles, rectified and completed, present a fundamental contribution, literary and doctrinal: particularly those on the history of the research, the Lives of the Virgin and the Apocalypses of the Virgin.
All those interested in religious history of Late Antiquity, the history of Marian Traditions, and the history of Christianity, as well as classical and oriental philologists, theologians and historians.