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
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
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
