This contribution discusses the hitherto overlooked ownership of the earliest printed books (incunabula) by Netherlandish female religious communities of tertiaries and canonesses regular connected... Show moreThis contribution discusses the hitherto overlooked ownership of the earliest printed books (incunabula) by Netherlandish female religious communities of tertiaries and canonesses regular connected to the religious reform movement of the Devotio moderna. Studies of book ownership and book collections in these communities have tended to focus on manuscripts. From the last decades of the fifteenth century onwards, however, these religious women increasingly came in contact with printed books, even though the involvement of the Devotio moderna with the printing press was limited. The discussion focuses on the channels via which tertiaries and canonesses acquired books produced by commercially operating printers, the ways in which incunabula affected what these (semi-)religious women read, as well as the ratio between printed books in Latin and the vernacular, and their function(s) within these communities. Thus the essay intends to sketch a preliminary image of the role of incunabula in female convents, and advocates a more inclusive approach of female religious book ownership. Show less
De Madoc-redactie bedient zich graag van haar eigen netwerk om aan kopij te komen. Zo zet ze in feite een traditie voort die terug reikt tot de Middeleeuwen. Vijftiende-eeuwse drukkers zetten hun... Show moreDe Madoc-redactie bedient zich graag van haar eigen netwerk om aan kopij te komen. Zo zet ze in feite een traditie voort die terug reikt tot de Middeleeuwen. Vijftiende-eeuwse drukkers zetten hun connecties ook al in om aan teksten te komen die interessant waren om te drukken en het liefst ook nog geld in het laatje brachten. Het is vaak evenwel lastig om het netwerk van vroege drukkers te reconstrueren. De connectie tussen Gerard Leeu en de Leidse schoolmeester Engelbert Schut biedt in dit verband een interessante casus. Show less
This essay explores the Dutch recension of the richly illustrated Latin Meditationes de vita et passione Jesu Christi, a weekly excersie that went directly into print and was first published by... Show moreThis essay explores the Dutch recension of the richly illustrated Latin Meditationes de vita et passione Jesu Christi, a weekly excersie that went directly into print and was first published by Gerard Leeu in Antwerp on 10 February 1485. The Dutch text appeared about two years later, on 5 Janruary 1487. Both the Dutch and the Latin texts contain at their core the sixty-five prayers on the Passion (from Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane to his funeral) from Jordan of Quedlinburg’s Meditationes de passione Christi (1365). Each of the prayers is accompanied by a woodcut, which in itself was an important innovation and departure from previous manuscript transmission that did not systematically illustrate each prayer. Furthermore, the compiler of the weekly exercise used Jordan’s prayers as his reference point, and divided them over five days of the week (Monday-Friday). He added other (meditative) texts and prayers so that readers are presented with an exercise for each day of the week that permits them to meditate on the entire life of Christ (from Mary’s visit to Elizabeth to Mary’s Ascension), as well as on other subjects, such as the four last things (death, judgement, hell, heaven) throughout the week. Here, images are also used as an integral part of the meditative exercise. The printed text might have been based on a similar exercise found in a manuscript from South-Holland, currently held at The Hague, Royal Library, 133 H 1. Moreover, the Dutch edition of 1487 is not just a translation of Leeu’s earlier Latin edition: apart from changes to its physical appearance, the text has undergone a siginificant reworking as well. The meditations to be performed before lunch, before and after dinner, and before going to sleep, are longer and much more detailed than in the Latin edition, allowing unexperienced readers to use these ‘intimate scripts’ in their meditations. Leeu’s parallel editions of the Latin and Dutch Meditationes thus provided various groups of readers (Latinate, non-Latinate, those familiar with meditative techniques and the Gospels, and those who were not) to participate in affective meditation on Christ’s life and to deepen their spiritual lifes in a similar fashion despite the differences in their background. Show less
The allegorical Middle Dutch text, Een gheestelijc casteel [A Spiritual Castle], encourages readers to mentally construct a precious castle in which they will be able to receive Christ. The... Show moreThe allegorical Middle Dutch text, Een gheestelijc casteel [A Spiritual Castle], encourages readers to mentally construct a precious castle in which they will be able to receive Christ. The description of the castle provides a mnemonic image that readers could use during prayer and meditation. Although the author makes no direct reference to Luke 10:38, the allegory is authorized by the exegesis of this Biblical passage: Mary is the castle in which Jesus has entered and she keeps the active and spiritual life, symbolized by Martha and Mary Magdalene, in perfect balance. The Middle Dutch text likely originated around 1460 in the Brussels convent of Jericho (Regular Canonesses). In the last decade of the fifteenth century, the text, now adapted for a lay audience, was printed in Antwerp by Govaert Bac. He was an important member of the Antwerp guild of St Luke, the professional association of painters and printers that also included Antwerp’s principal chamber of rhetoric. The attractive architectural allegory and exercise presented in Bac’s booklet finds parallels in contemporary paintings of Mary and the Christ Child, who are often either portrayed in a landscape with a castle-like architectural structure clearly visible in the background or within a castle-like building. In the former compositions the castle can be viewed as a reflection or ‘echo’ of Mary as a castle (the painting thus portrays two castles) while at the same time functioning as a reminder to those familiar with the meditative image of the spiritual castle to pursue their spiritual skopos. The latter images could be seen as portraying a castle (Mary) within a castle (building), similar to Mary (or the womb) within a room, or even Jan van Eyck’s Madonna in the Church. Show less
This article studies the role of the earliest books printed in the Dutch vernacular in the religious practice of lay individuals and the devout home. Many of the texts disseminated in these early... Show moreThis article studies the role of the earliest books printed in the Dutch vernacular in the religious practice of lay individuals and the devout home. Many of the texts disseminated in these early printed books have received little attention and scholars have tended to view them within the sphere of the Modern Devotion, even though often there is no direct link to this religious reform movement. This article attempts to show that the first books printed in Dutch offer an interesting lens through which to study domestic devotion in the Low Countries in the last decades of the fifteenth century. It argues that these books bridged the gap between catechetical instruction and the private home, literally bringing home many of the ideals and instructions that the clergy would have offered in church and thus increasingly ‘textualizing’ the lives of the late medieval laity. Printers such as Gerard Leeu and his contemporaries acquainted Christians to the use of printed books for personal and practical religious instruction and knowledge and thus paved the way for developments in the sixteenth century. Show less
Margriet Boelen, who hailed from Amsterdam, is known to have commissioned a painting from Jacob Cornelisz in 1512 with the Nativity and devotional portraits of her and her family members. This... Show moreMargriet Boelen, who hailed from Amsterdam, is known to have commissioned a painting from Jacob Cornelisz in 1512 with the Nativity and devotional portraits of her and her family members. This contribution attempts at portraying Margriet as an owner and reader of books. Her (family’s) books provide additional information about the Boelens as well as about Margriet’s devotional interests and religious practice. Margriet’s book(s) – and more in general the increasing information about ownership of early printed books – also trigger questions regarding the role of the early printed book within a wider array of media, and the relationship between text and image in late medieval lay devotional culture in particular. When applied to viewing as well as reading, the concept of ‘ethical reading’ introduced by John Dagenais can be helpful in providing an indication of the way(s) in which lay readers and viewers connected both texts and images to their every day lives and used both media to advance their devotion. Show less
