The Municipal Library of Tournai was struck in an air raid during the Second World War. Among the valuable manuscripts that were lost was Bibliothèque de la ville de Tournai MS 129, a fragmentary... Show moreThe Municipal Library of Tournai was struck in an air raid during the Second World War. Among the valuable manuscripts that were lost was Bibliothèque de la ville de Tournai MS 129, a fragmentary manuscript containing the alexandrine quatrain version of the Old French Vie de Saint Alexis. This poem, also known as the Chanson de Saint Alexis, represents one of the oldest surviving poetic traditions in French and enjoyed considerable popularity during the centuries after it was produced. Despite considerable scholarship on the Vie de Saint Alexis, the Tournai MS has gone largely unnoticed and is not mentioned in editions of the decasyllabic version of the Vie, nor is it mentioned in the only edition of the quatrain version. Thankfully, a nineteenth-century transcription of the lost Tournai copy survived the war. This article compares this transcription to surviving versions of the Vie de Saint Alexis to explore how the lost Tournai text intersects with, and illuminates, the broader tradition of the poem. Show less
This article presents a micro-history of the Leiden catholic bookseller Christiaan Vermey (active 1704-1724). The aim is to show that the study of small entrepreneurs in the early-modern Dutch... Show moreThis article presents a micro-history of the Leiden catholic bookseller Christiaan Vermey (active 1704-1724). The aim is to show that the study of small entrepreneurs in the early-modern Dutch booktrade can provide valuable information with regard to the publication of niche books. Vermey, who was born in the village of Bodegraven, started his career as a second-hand bookseller. He appears to have enjoyed the protection of influential patrons, reason why he was admitted to the guild of printers and booksellers. In the first phase of his career he specialized in catholic devotional texts with Southern-Netherlandish imprints. Thanks to the support of catholic investors he could expand his list with more ambitious publications, such as an edition of the Moretus-Bible (with the imprint Antwerp, Petrus Jouret, 1713-14) and a series of church-historical works written by the prominent jansenists Hugo Franciscus van Heussen and Hendrik van Rhijn. Vermey’s activity ended rather abruptly with a bankruptcy. Its settlement yields rich information on the management of his firm, which shows that the patronage he had enjoyed had made him commercially vulnerable. Show less
