Jaargang / Volume 24 (2017)

Nummer / Issue 1

Marta Bigus

A pragmatic path to salvation
The meaning of the Decalogue in fourteenth-century Dutch catechetical teaching

1-26

Ghent University, Department of Medieval History, St. Pietersnieuwstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium, [email protected]

De Tien Geboden waren een populair thema in de Middelnederlandse literatuur. Dit verschijnsel wordt vaak in verband gebracht met het volkstalige biechtonderwijs. Toch blijken de Middelnederlandse verklaringen van de Tien Geboden weinig te maken te hebben met de voorbereiding op de belijdenis van zonden. Het onderzoek waarvan dit artikel een verslag vormt heeft aangetoond dat de Middelnederlandse catechetische teksten de observantie van de Decaloog vooral als een noodzakelijke voorwaarde voor de verlossing definiëren. Daarmee wordt het bereiken van zaligheid afhankelijk gemaakt van de menselijke daden. Bovendien bracht het volgen van de geboden voorspoed en welvaart tijdens het aardse leven. Hoe meer mensen zich aan de voorschriften van de Decaloog hielden, des te voorspoediger de gemeenschap. Gelegd naast de scholastieke commentaren op de Tien Geboden blijken deze opvattingen soms ronduit onorthodox. Vaak zijn ze echter niet zozeer tegenstrijdig met, maar eerder anders dan de geldende doctrines.

Thomas Denys

Duytsche Alchimye
Een kennismaking met het oudste gedrukte alchemistische traktaat in het Nederlands

27-51

[email protected]

This essay provides a case study of the printed Middle Dutch alchemical treatise Duytsche Alchimye (‘Dutch Alchemy’), by looking at its content, generic conventions, textual history, production, and reception. The text, first printed in 1551 and reprinted unaltered in 1600, deals mainly with the fabrication of the philosopher’s stone and alchemical elixirs. It is the first translation of an originally French treatise, presumably written around 1432 by a Parisian alchemist, Jehan Saulnier, on his death bed. The Dutch print of 1551 is particularly remarkable as it is part of a larger volume of seven texts, mainly on medicine, all of which were translated, printed and sold by the same three men in a distinct partnership. Moreover, it concerns an alchemical text (traditionally a genre with a limited target audience), which was translated into a vernacular language and consequently printed, suggesting some sort of predefined market. By means of this case study, this essay also wants to highlight the importance of research in the somewhat neglected domain of Dutch alchemical literature and the promising results it may yield, in particular regarding textual tradition, production, and reception.

Youri Desplenter & Eva Vandemeulebroucke

Herschikt en herschreven, van Groenendaal tot Rebdorf
De laatmiddeleeuwse edities van Jan van Leeuwens geschriften geanalyseerd met inbegrip
van handschrift Pommersfelden, GSS, 280/2881

52-76

Universiteit Gent, Vakgroep Letterkunde, Blandijnberg 2, B-9000 Gent, België, [email protected], [email protected]

The present article demonstrates that Jan van Leeuwen’s writings were distributed outside the Groenendaal cloister in two separate movements, or ‘editions’, which profiled the author in different ways. The first edition, completed around 1355, contains five of Van Leeuwen’s already completed treatises. Witnesses of this edition include ms Deventer (1425; containing only one treatise) and ms Pommersfelden (1459; five treatises). Around 1400, a second edition was compiled, including further treatises selected from the master copy that was preserved at Groenendaal. This later edition is made up of the five treatises already found in the first edition, together with four others. Those nine writings were revised by the addition of chapter numbers and chapter titles, and/or by the deletion and rephrasing of certain passages. In the 1930s and 1940s, scholars stressed the importance of ms Pommersfelden as offering insight into Jan van Leeuwen’s opera omnia, as it is the only complete witness of the first edition. However, the present article argues that although ms Pommersfelden contains passages which are not preserved in the Middle Dutch manuscripts – all of which are witnesses of the second edition – ms Pommersfelden cannot necessarily be considered as being closer to Jan van Leeuwen’s autograph than the witnesses of the second edition. The translator of the texts in ms Pommersfelden, a lay brother from the Low Countries, not only rendered the Middle Dutch text in a dialect resembling High German, but also deleted and adapted passages. That said, ms Pommersfelden remains an intriguing source, offering insight into the preparation and dissemination of the works of Jan van Leeuwen.

Clara Strijbosch

Explorations beyond the black hole
Alba amicorum and their place in the Dutch and German song culture of the sixteenth century

77-95

Universiteit Utrecht, Janskerhof 13, NL-3512 BL Utrecht, [email protected]

Alba amicorum (Freundschaftsalben) waren seit der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts in den Niederlanden und Deutschland sehr verbreitet. Der Artikel fokussiert einen spezifischen Typus in einem ausgewählten Korpus von Alben: In fast zehn Prozent der Alben tauchen Beiträge mit vulgärsprachlichen Liedern aus den Niederlanden und Deutschland auf; diese zehn Prozent sind meistens ‚Frauenhandschriften‘, d.h. sie wurden von Frauen des niederen Landadels in den Niederlanden und in Regionen des westlichen deutschen Sprachraums gesammelt. Sie sind nie ediert worden und enthalten insgesamt ungefähr 500 volkssprachliche Liedtexte. Im Artikel werden Textübereinstimmungen gezählt und visualisiert, um deutlich zu machen, welches Liedmaterial Sammlern oder Sammlerinnen zur Verfügung stand, wo sie ihr Quellenmaterial vorfanden und wie Verbindungen zwischen Albenbesitzern oder -besitzerinnen etabliert werden können. Um die Übereinstimmungen zu ordnen, werden sie nach Region und Entstehungszeit gegliedert. Die Konkordanzen machen Gruppierungen sichtbar, die vermuten lassen, dass Albenbesitzer(innen) aus den Westlichen Niederlanden und der niederländisch-deutschen Grenzregion unterschiedliche Lieder benutzt haben. Offensichtlich haben sie, abgesehen von einigen wichtigen Vermittlerinnen, nicht weit über ihren kleinen Kreis hinausgeschaut, weder zeitlich noch geografisch. In der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts wird eine Bewegung von Liedgut aus der niederländisch-deutschen Grenzregionen nach Holland sichtbar, in die Provinz, die im 17. Jahrhundert das kulturelle Leben dominierte.

Naar aanleiding van ... / Apropos of ...

Sarah L. Peverley

The Virtues of Vice
Staging Vice: A Study of Dramatic Traditions in Medieval and Sixteenth-Century England and the Low Countries. Charlotte Steenbrugge

96-97

University of Liverpool, 19, Abercromby Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, L69, 7ZG, UK

Lisanne Vroomen

Intertekstuele dierenlucht
Vossenlucht: over Reynaertpersonages en hun fictionele aanverwanten. Y. De Maesschalck
97-99

Ruusbroecgenootschap, Universiteit Antwerpen, Prinsstraat 13, B-2000 Antwerpen, [email protected]

Nummer / Issue 2

Joost Robbe

Enkele opvallende overeenstemmingen tussen Dirc van Delfts Tafel vanden kersten ghelove, het Speculum artis bene moriendi en de Bilder-ars

101-116

Joost Robbe (Aarhus University), School of Communication and Culture - German, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4 Building 1481, 527, 8000 Aarhus, Denemarken

This article examines the relationship between a passage (Summer Part XXXVIII, vs. 96-207) in Dirc van Delft’s Tafel vanden kersten ghelove (1404) and two fifteenth-century artes moriendi: the Speculum artis bene moriendi and the Picture Ars Moriendi. It demonstrates that there are clear similarities between the three texts and claims that these similarities suggest a common Latin source text. It then continues to partly reconstruct this source text.

Renée Gabriël

‘Doctrina dats leringhe’
Publiek en gebruik van de Dietsche doctrinale

117-156

Renée Gabriël (Radboud University), [email protected]

In 1345, an Antwerp poet finished the Dietsche doctrinale, a rhymed Middle Dutch translation of Albertanus of Brescia’s De amore et dilectione Dei et proximi et aliarum rerum et de forma vitae (1238). Like the Latin original, the Dietsche doctrinale was a great success. Ten complete manuscripts of the work have been preserved, as well as fragments of twenty more manuscripts, a printed edition from 1489, and three German translations. Until now scholars have studied the Dietsche doctrinale from the author’s perspective, focussing on authorship, meaning, and the intended use and reception. This paper combines an analysis of the author’s text with the study of the actual manuscripts in which the text is found, with the aim of acquiring a better understanding of the reception of this popular text. Also included are the printed edition from 1489 and booklists.

The title Dietsche doctrinale and the notion of leringhe form the starting point of my discussion. Leringhe refers to the world of education and learning, but in the Dietsche doctrinale it is also linked to the attainment of practical skills (artes mechenicae). The author presents himself as a teacher, and addresses children, adults, and educated men who can teach others. Ownership marks and booklists show that the Dietsche doctrinale was not only read by lay people from the urban administrative upper class, but also by clerics and religious men and women. The text has been intended for both individual reading and aural reception. Apparently, some manuscripts were designed for public reading or educational use. The Dietsche doctrinale might not only have been used for private study or home teaching, but also by clerics for the moral instruction of the laity and in the context of vernacular education.