The Devote ghetiden vanden leven ende passie Jhesu Christi (Devout Hours on the Life and Passion of Jesus Christ) provides an intriguing case study of text and image relationships in the... Show moreThe Devote ghetiden vanden leven ende passie Jhesu Christi (Devout Hours on the Life and Passion of Jesus Christ) provides an intriguing case study of text and image relationships in the transitional age between manuscript and print. The 1483 and 1484/5 editions of the Devote ghetiden were an innovative commercial endeavor by the prolific printer Gerard Leeu. These editions of a new vernacular religious text, flexible in use and primarily aimed at laymen, combined with no less than eighty-four full-page illustrations, offered the lay reader an unprecedented level of visual material for private devotion located in the same object as the text. Changes in both composition and page layout, which occurred when text and image were refashioned in a different medium, altered the reader’s meditative experience, reflecting not only the multiform character and individuation of religious practice on the eve of the Reformation but also the influence of printed books on late medieval textual and visual culture as a whole. Show less
This article explores the printing business of the widow of Roland van den Dorpe within the urban context of Antwerp. However modest in scale, the business of Van den Dorpe’s widow does show that... Show moreThis article explores the printing business of the widow of Roland van den Dorpe within the urban context of Antwerp. However modest in scale, the business of Van den Dorpe’s widow does show that when a woman continued her husband’s printing business in the early 1500s in Antwerp, she was able to put her stamp on the work she produced. A close examination of the works the widow printed shows that she did depart from her husband’s editorial program, tapping into her own new associations and thus contributing to the intellectual and religious life in the town where she worked and beyond. In order to acquire texts suitable for printing, the widow must have had a network at her disposable that was already initiated by her husband, but that she was able to broaden. The first text she printed came from the Franciscan Observant friars who most likely familiarized her with the text. This shows the importance of religious houses and networks for the mobility and dissemination of texts. The widow would not have been the first woman to be in touch with the Observant friars minor, nor the last. The woman for whom Hendrik Herp initially composed the Spieghel der volcomenheit was a widow herself and Herp was her father confessor. In the first half of the sixteenth century the Antwerp schoolteacher Anna Bijns had strong connections with the Observant friars: one of them, Bonaventura Vorsel, is believed to have been her father confessor and even a close friend of hers. Show less
Members of the Franciscan Observance, introduced in the Low Countries in the 1440s, seem to have become actively involved in the production and circulation of religious literature, both in the... Show moreMembers of the Franciscan Observance, introduced in the Low Countries in the 1440s, seem to have become actively involved in the production and circulation of religious literature, both in the vernacular and in Latin, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. Although the observance was a factor of importance in several religious orders at that time, this issue focuses on the Franciscan order. The aim is to explore several aspects of the involvement of the Observant branch in this order in the production and dissemination of religious literature in the Low Countries, in the period before, during and after the Reformation. Show less
Rond het midden van de vijftiende eeuw schreef de minderbroeder Hendrik Herp een mystiek meesterwerk: de Spieghel der volcomenheit. Het was het enige werk dat deze bestuurlijke en spirituele leider... Show moreRond het midden van de vijftiende eeuw schreef de minderbroeder Hendrik Herp een mystiek meesterwerk: de Spieghel der volcomenheit. Het was het enige werk dat deze bestuurlijke en spirituele leider van de franciscaanse observantiebeweging in de volkstaal zou schrijven. De taal stond een snelle verspreiding van de tekst niet in de weg. Herps Spieghel werd een ongekend internationaal succes. In Literatuur en observantie beschrijft Anna Dlabacová dit succes, dat zich afspeelt tegen de achtergrond van een brede religieuze vernieuwing in middeleeuws Europa. De lezer maakt kennis met een wereld waarin het strenge observantie-ideaal hand in hand ging met de verspreiding van nieuwe teksten onder religieuzen en leken. Persoonlijke contacten en netwerken van kloosters, drukkers en leken zorgden ervoor dat de verspreiding van literatuur een nieuwe impuls kreeg. Het verhaal van Herps Spieghel weerspiegelt deze nieuwe dynamiek. Show less
