The second quarter of the sixteenth century saw the emergence of a short-lived mystical renaissance in the Low Countries duchy of Guelders and in the neighbouring Rhineland. The Saint-Agnes convent in Arnhem was an important centre of this mystical culture. The group engaged in it possibly consisted of women both inside and outside the convent. These mystical women were in close contact with Carthusians from the Sankt Barbara charterhouse in Cologne, who shared the objectives of the mystical women. They sought to revitalize sincere Catholicism through their numerous editions of classic and contemporaneous mystical texts. A corpus of three interrelated mystical texts is connected to this close-knit network of mystical women: The Arnhem Mystical Sermons, Die evangelische peerle (The Evangelical Pearl), and Den tempel onser sielen (The Temple of our Soul). These texts are a testimony from the heart of the mystical culture in this region. They are intimately interconnected through their language and mystical content. In recent years the study of this little-known episode in the history of spirituality has been intensified.
Die grote euangelische Peerle: critical edition (2014-in progress)
The first edition of Die grote euangelische Peerle (1536-37) is the basis for the edition. Self-evident mistakes are corrected by means of four other manuscript witnesses:
- Die euangelische Peerle of 1535 (the so-called small Peerle)
- The excerpts of Peerle in the manuscript Den Haag, KB, 71 H 51 (middle of the sixteenth century)
- The third edition of Die grote euangelische Peerle (1542)
- The ninth and last edition of the same text (1629)
The orthography of the text is partially modernized and the abundant sources are mentioned. The edition will be accompanied by an introduction describing the contents and the context of the treatise.
- Project: 2014-in progress
- Guido de Baere (edition) & Dirk Boone (introduction)
Authorship, composition and textual interconnectedness of three 16th-century mystical texts. A stylometric approach (2012-2016)
The research project focuses on three sixteenth-century mystical Dutch texts, that reveal a mixture of stylistic and literary interconnectedness on the one hand and individual traits on the other. The Evangelical Pearl (Die evangelische peerle), the Temple of Our Soul (Vanden tempel onser sielen) and the Arnhem Mystical Sermons (Arnhemse mystieke preken) contain lexical, semantic, conceptual and stylistic similarities, counterbalanced by the idiosyncrasies of the texts and inconsistencies between and within the texts. The research case presents a unique opportunity to address several vexing problems connected with ‘authorship’ and the interconnectedness of late medieval, early modern texts. In the search for answers to these problems, the texts will be studied by using both traditional literary analysis and stylometry.
Project: 2012 – 2016
- Renske van Nie
- Supervisors: Kees Schepers & Walter Daelemans (CLiPS, University of Antwerp)
- Funded by: FWO
- Publication: dissertation (forthcoming)
Description and analysis of the popularity of fourteenth-century mystical Dutch and German texts in the sixteenth century (2010-2013)
This PhD-project was part of the research area undertaken by Kees Schepers focusing on Sixteenth-Century Mystical culture in Guelders. The research specifically investigates the revival of interest in late-medieval mysticism shortly after the beginning of the Reformation in female convents and beguinages in the Low Countries. Texts that are central to this research are contemporaneous mystical texts written in Dutch one the one hand (e.g. The Evangelical Pearl, The Temple of our Soul, and The Arnhem Mystical Sermons), and earlier mystical texts from Brabant and the Rhineland that formed an inspiration for this sixteenth-century mystical culture on the other.
Markus Polzer's study focused on the textual history of texts attributed to Johannes Tauler, printed and copied in the sixteenth century, in the Low Countries and in Germany. His method was specifically to look at the paratextual framing of the prints and manuscripts, so as to establish how book design was used to promote religious literature in a religiously divided society.
This project was part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network: Mobility of Ideas and Transmission of Texts: Vernacular Literature and Learning in the Rhineland and the Low Countries (ca. 1300-1550), a cooperation with the universities of Leiden, Oxford, Lecce, and Freiburg. It ran from 1.9.2010-31.8.2013.
- Project 2010-2013
- Markus Polzer
- Supervisor: Kees Schepers
- Funding: Marie Curie Initial Training Network
- Publications:
The Sermons of MS The Hague, 133 H 13: testimony to a sixteenth century Mystical Renaissance in Guelders (2007-2011)
The Saint Agnes convent in Arnhem was a centre of sixteenth century mystical culture, firmly rooted in the works of the fourteenth century Brabantine and Rhineland mystics Ruusbroec, Eckhart, Tauler and Suso. The original texts that sprung from this culture, however, are equally characterized by a specific Christocentric mysticism combined with a mystical understanding of the events of the liturgical year. This sudden re-emergence of mysticism in Arnhem and the surrounding Gelre region has only recently been identified as a coherent phenomenon. It might even be justifiably labelled a 'mystical renaissance'.
A codex at the Royal Library in The Hague, containing 162 mystical sermons and most likely originating from the Saint-Agnes convent, provides a unique access into this mystical culture.
The research project aimed at two objectives: (1) a description of the particular nature of the mystical culture and the inherent mystical theology to which these sermons attest; (2) a description of the network of relations with earlier and contemporaneous systems of mysticism and theology.
- Project: 2007-2011
- Ineke Cornet
- Supervisors: Rob Faesen (KULeuven) and Kees Schepers
- Funding: FWO
- Publications: PhD thesis (forthcoming)
Sixteenth-century mystical culture in Guelders and the Rhineland (2007- )
This research intends to explore a little-known research field in the history of northern European mysticism and spirituality, specifically the mystical culture in the eastern part of the northern Netherlands and the neighboring Rhineland in the second and third quarter of the sixteenth century. This period, just after the beginning of the Reformation, witnessed a sudden revival of mystical texts and culture. This phenomenon was not recognized until recently and hence there has been no concerted research effort. It seems that the Saint Agnes convent was a prominent centre in this sixteenth-century mystical renaissance. The works of Ruusbroec, Eckhart, Tauler and Suso – the classics of fourteenth-century mysticism – were read and provided inspiration for the renewed focus on mystical life and experience. Original texts sprang forth from this culture, characterized, for example, by a strong Christocentrism connected to a mystical imitatio Christi and the mystical reliving of the liturgical year. This flowering of mystical culture in Guelders took place in the context of great religious, cultural and societal strife and transformations, the connections to which needs to be analyzed.
Three texts are crucial for our understanding of this mystical culture. The Evangelical Pearl and The Temple of our Soul, two works that were already known and studied, and the collection of Arnhem Mystical Sermons, a corpus of sermons that has only recently been identified.
Work on a critical edition with English translation of the Arnhem Mystical Sermons is in progress.
- Project: 2007- in progress
- Kees Schepers
- Publications: