Research centre Ruusbroec Institute

Devotional literature

In Tune with Eternity (2012-2016)

Since the 1470’s onwards collections of vernacular devout songs have been copied into manuscripts. These codices were often owned by (semi)religious women. Many questions about the use of these books and the songs they contain remain unanswered: Were the songs intended to be used during meditation? Were the songs actually sung or were they merely read? Why do the devout song collections only come into existence in the second half of the fifteenth century? Who collected the songs and to what purpose?

The VNC-project In Tune with Eternity: Song and Spirituality of the Modern Devotion started in the year 2012. It is a collaboration between the University of Utrecht and the Ruusbroec Institute. Both in Utrecht and in Antwerp a PhD-dissertation will be written, focusing on ms. Berlin, SBB-PK, mgo 185, a vernacular, devout song manuscript. This manuscript has been used by the Sisters of the Common Life of Zwolle and contains 92 devout songs. In Utrecht Berlin 185 is compared with other song manuscripts to gain insight into the structure of late medieval devout song books. The aim of the project in Antwerp is to locate Berlin 185 within the textual culture of the Modern Devout by comparing the songs with prose originating from the same female religious environment. The prose texts used for this comparison consist of biographies and sermons written down by the Sisters of the Common Life of Deventer. The main focus is on the function and themes of the songs on the one hand, and the function and themes of the prose on the other.  

Project 1: In Tune with Eternity: Core Themes in Devotional Songs, Sermons, and Sister Books of the Modern Devotion  (2012-2016)

  • Lisanne Vroomen
  • Supervisors: Thom Mertens, Dieuwke van der Poel (UUtrecht)
  • Funded by: VNC (FWO/NWO)
  • Publications: 
    • Vroomen, L.  ‘Ick byn verdoelt op deser jacht: gedachten over het publiek van Berlijn, SBB-PK, mgo 185 en de rol van de wereld.’ In : Queeste 21, 2014 (2), pp. 91-107.
    • Dissertation: defended at the University of Antwerp, 14 October 2016

Project 2: In Tune with Eternity: Genesis, Organization and Function of Devout Song Manuscripts (2012-2016)

  • Cécile de Morrée (UUtrecht)
  • Supervisors: Paul Wackers (UUtrecht) and Dieuwke van der Poel (UUtrecht)
  • Funded by: VNC (FWO/NWO)
  • Publications: 
    • De Morrée, C.V.. ‘Komt het Deventer Liederenhandschrift wel uit Deventer?’ In: Spiegel der Letteren 55, 2013 (2), pp. 121-132.
    • De Morrée, C.V., '"Guede geistelicke liedekens."Het Middelnederlandse lied bij de Moderne Devoten in de IJsselstreek' In: Deventer Jaarboek 29 (2015), pp. 6-18.
    • Van der Poel, D.E. & C.V. de Morrée, 'Authorial and Editorial Roles in Modern Devout Song Manuscripts.' In: Proceedings of the conference ‘The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript’. (expected in 2016)
    • Dissertation: defended at the University of Utrecht, 12 May 2017

'Vanden twaelf dogheden': an exemplary study of the sources, functions, distribution and impact of Middle Dutch spiritual writings (2012-2016)

The main aim of this project is to gain more insight into the sources, possible functions, distribution and impact of Middle Dutch spiritual writings. To reach this objective, the long spiritual tradition of the Twelve Virtues will be investigated. The central point of this tradition is the Middle Dutch treatise Vanden twaelf dogheden (On the Twelve Virtues), a text written at the end of the fourteenth century, probably in the Groenendaal monastery near Brussels by the canon Godfried Wevel. The text contains twelve chapters, each discussing a virtue or a way to achieve virtuousness. It is likely that the treatise was originally destined for newly-arrived monks who needed instruction in the spirituality of the Devotio moderna. However, the text became more widely spread during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was read by novices as well as by more educated men and women, both in Catholic and Protestant milieus. In the context of this research project the focus is on the evolution and appropriation of the Twelve Virtues in the different contexts in which they were read and recommended. The forthcoming PhD thesis will consist of three parts: an examination of the sources of the Twelve Virtues, a study of the distribution of Vanden twaelf dogheden in the fifteenth century, and an investigation of the sixteenth- and seventeenth century adaptations of the treatise.

Seventeenth-century religious culture in Malines (2012- )

The critical edition and contextualization of a unique seventeenth century text entitled Middelspraecke. This text occurs only in a manuscript that was acquired by the Ruusbroec Institute Library in 2012 (RG Hs Neerl  36). The study of manuscript and context led to the acquisition of a second manuscript (RG Hs Neerl. 38), also from seventeenth century Malines.

Sixteenth-century intellectual culture in the monasteries of the Bois de Soignes (2007- )

In sharp contrast to the thirteenth century intellectual and spiritual culture of the southern Low Countries, that of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has only garnered sparse attention. Although some groundbreaking work has certainly been carried out by historians, the domain of literary studies has been neglected. Two causes can be identified. Understandably, scholarly attention has focused on the two earlier authors of international stature: Ruusbroec and Hadewijch. A second consequence of the focus on these vernacular masters of mysticism has been the disregard for Latin texts and authors. And when scholars of Latin literature did look at these texts, they judged them to be stylistically inferior. Thus, the spiritual and intellectual literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has fallen prey to two disadvantages: the period (‘too late’) and the language (Latin). Numerous authors from the Bois de Soignes have passed into oblivion. Their works have remained largely unstudied. Nonetheless, these authors  were often highly reputed in their own time.

This project intends to explore the Latin intellectual and spiritual culture that flowered in the southern Low Countries. The monasteries of regular canons of St Augustine in the Bois de Soignes played a central role in this culture. A monastic, intellectual culture developed for a century and a half  – from the late medieval till the early modern era – in these affiliated religious communities. External developments that might have influenced this culture, are (Christian) Humanism and, in a later phase, the Reformation. The objective is to determine the extent of their influence.

One of the texts studied (and edited) in this project is the Labyrinthi of Gielis vander Hecken. The Labyrinthi codex contains 33 elaborate full-page drawings, visualizing an equal number of aspects of Christian doctrine from a late medieval perspective. Despite the overwhelming artistic and conceptual qualities of the Labyrinthi, the drawings have received remarkably little scholarly attention.