Medieval Low Countries

The prayer book of Mary of Guelders dates, according to the colophon, from 1415 and has been written by Helmich die Lewe by order of Marie d"Harcourt, duchess of Guelders. It's an extremely big and ambitious prayer book that reflects the ideas of the patroness. This paper argues that Mary not only ordered the book, but that she played a significant role in the design of the book and it's religious programme.

The carillon, the world’s largest musical instrument, originated in the 16th century when inhabitants of the Low Countries started to produce music on bells in church and city towers. Today, carillon music still fills the soundscape of cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Since the First World War, carillon music has become popular in the United States, where it adds a spiritual dimension to public parks and university campuses. Singing Bronze opens up the fascinating world of the carillon to the reader. It tells the great stories of European and American carillon history: the quest for the perfect musical bell, the fate of carillons in times of revolt and war, the role of patrons such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Herbert Hoover in the development of American carillon culture, and the battle between singing bronze and carillon electronics. Richly illustrated with original photographs and etchings, Singing Bronze tells how people developed, played, and enjoyed bell music. With th...

A draft translation of three interconnected documents - two charters and a letter - regarding a donation made by Matilda of Tuscany and Canossa (r.1076-1115). The first charter, issued in May 1095, records Matilda's granting of the estate of 'Standalmont' to found a new house of regular canons in Briey, and her placing of this foundation under the protection of the Holy See. Probably also in May 1095 Matilda wrote a letter to Albert of Briey, asking him to ensure that the donated property was conveyed to the canons. In the second charter, issued in May 1106, Matilda confirmed her earlier grant to the house of canons at Saint-Pierremont.

This paper explores the dissemination of seal usage among the Flemish noble elite throughout the twelfth century. Aristocratic seal culture in the county of Flanders was impacted by opposing external influences: Flanders enjoyed strong relations with both the Anglo-Norman realm, whose cross-Channel baronage became increasingly familiar with seals from 1100 onwards, and the German Empire, where seal usage remained strictly reserved for to the upper nobility well throughout the twelfth century. The study shows that most leading Flemish aristocrats already owned a seal matrix by 1140–1160, while lesser lords and knights gradually accessed seal ownership between 1180 and 1220/30. Flanders therefore appears to have been heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman attitudes towards seals, although the spreading process was delayed by half a century compared to England and Normandy. This was a regular process of downward social diffusion, that happened along the lines of internal stratification in Flemish aristocratic society. Emulation among peers played a key role, as did the imitation of more elevated members of the ruling elite. This was initiated by the counts of Flanders whose iconographical archetypes tellingly set the tone. By contrast, in some peripheral parts of the county, especially in “Imperial Flanders”, dominant noble families may have used seals to politically challenge comital overlordship.

World history of the Netherlands and Flanders: about the (im)possibility of an open, global, and non-nationalist history for a wider audience
Following the success of the Histoire mondiale de la France, 2018 saw the publication of the World history of the Netherlands and World history of Flanders. After the French example both volumes have three goals: to bring history to a wider audience; to give a global reading to the national past; and to offer a non-nationalist and non-teleological perspective. Eminently readable, both books succeed in their first goal. The second ambition is fulfilled by the World history of the Netherlands, but in the World history of Flanders the global dimension is underdeveloped. The verdict on their third aim is double-edged. Both volumes explicitly claim to be open-ended and reject traditional nationalist tropes, but several Dutch and-to a lesser extent-Flemish chapters have a subtext of banal nationalism. The genre of public history seems to be particularly susceptible to this type of teleology.

Translated from latin into dutch and introduced by Jan Kuys, Leontien de Leeuw, Valentijn Paquay & Remi van Schaïk.

Het Chronicon Tielense dankt zijn naam aan het feit dat het handschrift, vermoedelijk al vanaf zijn ontstaan, te Tiel bewaard wordt. Het is een in de zestiende eeuw tot stand gekomen bundeling van drie op zichzelf staande teksten. De inhoud bestaat uit een vijftiende-eeuwse wereldkroniek, in en nabij Tiel op schrift gesteld en voltooid in 1455, een opsomming van Tielse wederwaardigheden uit het tijdvak 1552-1566, genoteerd door de toenmalige pastoor van de Tielse Sint-Maartenskerk én een afschrift van een topografische beschrijving van het Heilige Land, maar geschreven door dezelfde schrijver als die van de wereldkroniek. In deze uitgave staat het zesde boek van de wereldkroniek centraal, waarin de geschiedenis van de Lage Landen aan bod komt. Dit gedeelte van het handschrift is door zijn verslag van lokale en regionale gebeurtenissen het meest interessant voor de Nederlandse lezer. Deze uitgave bevat een moderne vertaling van de Middeleeuws-Latijnse tekst, voorafgegaan door een uitgebreide inleiding die stilstaat bij onder andere het handschrift, het auteurschap, de bronnen en de enige beschikbare druk uit 1789. Het werk is tevens voorzien van een gedetailleerde inhoudsopgave en passende illustraties.

The Chronicon Tielense owes its name to the fact that the manuscript, presumably from its creation, is kept in Tiel. It is a part of a convolute of three independent texts, created in the sixteenth century. That convolute consists of a fifteenth-century world chronicle, written down in and around Tiel and completed in 1455, a rather short overview or narrative of events in Tiel  from the period 1552-1566, recorded by the pastor of the St. Martin's church in Tiel in that time and a topographical description of the Holy Land, copied by the same writer as that one of the world chronicle. This edition focuses on the sixth book of the world chronicle, which deals with the history of the Low Countries. This part of the manuscript is the most interesting for the Dutch reader by its report of local and regional events. This edition contains a modern translation of the Latin text, preceded by an extensive introduction that focuses on the identity of the copyist/author, his written and oral sources, the transmission of the manuscript and text and the only available print from 1789. The work is also provided with a detailed table of contents and appropriate illustrations.

Political Representation: Communities, Ideas and Institutions in Europe
(c. 1200 - c. 1690), a scholarly collection on representation in medieval
and early modern Europe, opens up the field of institutional and
parliamentary history to new paradigms of representation across a wide
geography and chronology – as testified by the volume’s studies on
assemblies ranging from Burgundy and Brabant to Ireland and Italy.
The focus is on three areas: institutional developments of
representative institutions in Western Europe; the composition of these
institutions concerning interest groups and individual participants; and
the ideological environment of representatives in time and space. By
analysing the balance between bottom-up and top-down approaches to
the functioning of institutions of representation; by studying the actors
behind the representative institutions linking prosopographical
research with changes in political dialogue; and by exploring the
ideological world of representation, this volume makes a key
contribution to the historiography of pre-modern government and
political culture.

This article focuses upon the first phases of the systematic peat reclamation in the area between the Zuiderzee and the Drenthe plateau in the northeastern part of the Netherlands. Due to the scarcity of sources, the reclamation history of this region has not been studied as thoroughly as that of the Holland-Utrecht peat districts. Usually, the beginning here is dated in the second half of the 12th century, though its chronology is rather confused since different dates are given for villages lying close to one another. Recent archaeological findings for the southern part of Friesland indicating that the whole blanket bog up to the shore of the Tjeukemeer was already occupied by the year 1000 induce us to take a new look at the first reclamations in this region bordering on Friesland in the south.
Our study, combining a retrospective GIS-based analysis of relevant church property with a close rereading of charters and other administrative documents, has led to several new insights. The first is that the zone between Kuinre and Vollenhove behind which the blanket bogs extended up to the lateral moraine of the Drenthe Plateau, originally was not a coast (of the lake Almere) but a river bank zone. It appears to have been taken into cultivation shortly before or after the year 1000, in a manorial setting, by serfs belonging to the ‘Olde Hof’ (Old Manor) of the bishop of Utrecht at Vollenhove. This was realized after the bishop, who by then was not yet count in the regions involved, had acquired the ius forestense from the king for his demesnes near Vollenhove, Steenwijk and possibly also near Voorst. This development can be seen as the first reclamation phase.
The second then, was the systematic opening up of the large peat blocks of IJsselham and Giethoorn. The settlers of IJsselham did not commence their draining activities in the centre of the block – as has long time been assumed - but at its southwestern edge, just behind the manorial settlements on the former river bank. The problem of where to locate their original starting line – emanating from the fact that the river bank zone makes part of the late medieval parish of Blankenham that was only split off from IJsselham in 1418 – can be solved by establishing that the first church of IJsselham was founded in the river bank zone some time before 1132. Property reconstruction makes clear that this church did migrate with the colonists when they moved further into the blanket bog. Seen in this way, the IJsselham case is not a unique one. On the contrary, it fits exactly in the ‘shift’ model that has been developed for analyzing the process in the peat ridge district north-west of Utrecht and the Staphorst-Rouveen area.
Another important observation is that both in IJsselham and in Giethoorn the first settlers were unfree, just like the serfs on the river bank holdings dependent on the Old Manor at Vollenhove. They were called servi and had to perform labour services on the demesne of the bishop. Until now, we had only few indications that early large-scale peat reclamations in the Northern Netherlands have been organized in a manorial context. The dominating view is that in a relatively short space of time, around 1050, small-scale reclamations of the manorial type gave way to large-scale enterprises involving large numbers of free settlers. The IJsselham and Giethoorn cases then, do not fit in this pattern. They seem to represent an intermediate form, of large-scale projects carried out within a manorial context. Just because of this, it is likely that they started already in the 11th century, probably not long after the bishop had been given territorial count’s rights in Drenthe (1042) and Salland (1046).
The last conclusion concerns the third phase, i.e. the opening up of the other large peat blocks, north and south of IJsselham and Giethoorn. A reasonable case is made for dating its beginning in the last quarter of the 11th century during the administration of bishop Koenraad, at least for the Kuinre region and the area of Oosterzee, which were part of the Frisian county of Suthergo that had come under the rule of the bishop in 1077. It is known that all reclamations here have been carried out by free peasants paying only small recognition fees. In Stellingwerf, the earliest enterprises of this type probably were only realized after 1125. As for the zone along the Sethe southeast of Vollenhove, it is established that cultivation concessions were given out to groups of colonists in the first three decades of the 12th century. This was done in packages of hundred strips or breaks (‘slagen) of about 20-25 meters in width. It lies at hand that the first similar concessions at the opposite side of the Sethe – in the Staphorst/Rouveen blocks – have been given out in the same years or shortly thereafter.
With all this, a rough three phase model pushes itself forward regarding the early peat reclamations in territories where – different from Friesland – in the early Middle Ages several manors with large demesnes had been established. The years that mark these three phases, 1. 1000-1050, 2. 1050-1075, and 3. 1075-1150, are at variance with the dates given thus far. They suggest that the developments in the northwestern part of the prince bishopric of Utrecht (the Oversticht) were not lagging far behind those in its southwestern part (the Nedersticht), where the first large-scale reclamation projects appear to have been well under way after the middle of the 11th century. More historical and archaeological research is needed however, to test the model in detail for both the researched region and similar peat reclamation districts.

Although the sources for urban culture in the early medieval West are much less abundant than they are for the period from c. 1100 ce onwards, it is nevertheless all but impossible to deal with all aspects of 'Civic Identity and Civic Participation in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages' for all of the West and for the whole of the period c. 500-c. 1100 ce in the scope of an article. An attempt can be made, however, to answer the following three questions: Is anything known about how early medieval town dwellers organized themselves? How did they see themselves as a group? And were there continuities in the ways late antique town dwellers and their early medieval successors saw themselves?

Galbert of Bruges's The Murder, Betrayal and Assassination of the Glorious Charles, Count of Flanders is one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. It recounts the assassination of Charles, count of Flanders, and the events leading up to and following the murder. Galbert was a resident of Bruges and had served in the count's administration for at least thirteen years by the time of the assassination in 1127. He was well-acquainted with Charles and many of the other actors in this drama, an eyewitness to many of the events he relates, and exceptionally well positioned to gather information about others. Galbert's chronicle takes the form of a journal, the only one that exists from northwestern Europe in the twelfth century. Edited by two of the world's most prominent specialists on Galbert today, Jeff Rider and Alan V. Murray, this book brings together essays by established scholars who have been largely responsible for the radical changes in the understanding of Galbert and his work that have occurred over the last thirty years and essays by younger scholars. The essays are written by British, Belgian, Dutch, German, Canadian, and American scholars of literature and history, and are divided into four sections--Galbert of Bruges at Work, Galbert of Bruges and the Development of Institutions, Galbert of Bruges and the Politics of Gender, and The Meanings of History. The book includes an extensive bibliography of editions, translations, and studies of Galbert's chronicle, and of works devoted to the reign of Charles the Good and the Flemish Crisis of 1127-28, to the government and institutions of Flanders in the age of Galbert, and to the topography and history of medieval Bruges. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Lisa H. Cooper, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Godfried Croenen, the University of Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Bert Demyttenaere, University of Amsterdam; Mary Agnes Edsall, Bowdoin College; Martina Häcker, University of Mainz; Dirk Heirbaut, University of Ghent; Steven Isaac, Longwood University; Nancy F. Partner, McGill University; Robert M. Stein, Purchase College and Columbia University; and R. C. van Caenegem, University of Ghent.

In 1127 Charles the Good, count of Flanders, was surrounded by assassins while at prayer and killed by a sword blow to the forehead. His murder upset the fragile balance of power between England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire, giving rise to a bloody civil war while impacting the commercial life of medieval Europe. The eyewitness account by the Flemish cleric Galbert of Bruges of the assassination and the struggle for power that ensued is the only journal to have survived from twelfth century Europe. This new translation by medieval studies expert Jeff Rider greatly improves upon all previous versions, substantially advancing scholarship on the Middle Ages while granting new life and immediacy to Galbert’s well informed and courageously candid narrative.

“Jeff Rider’s new translation remains faithful to the journalistic organization and impulses of The Murder of Charles of Flanders, which enables him to bring out previously obscured elements of the text as well as the concerns that prompted Galbert to write his important chronicle in the first place. This is an outstanding piece of scholarship that all students of the Middle Ages will appreciate.”—Gabrielle M. Spiegel, Johns Hopkins University

“The 1959 translation of Galbert of Bruges by James Bruce Ross set a high bar for replacement, but it was time for one and Jeff Rider is the scholar who understands this crucial 12th-century text most thoroughly and profoundly. His lucid and readable translation rests on a deep foundation of historical and literary scholarship—all of which is made available to the reader. Rider has ensured that this fascinating book will remain central to medieval scholarship and teaching.”—Nancy Partner, McGill University

“More than just superseding the deeply flawed text of James Bruce Ross from 1959, this new translation is a serious contribution to knowledge, enhancing and advancing scholarship on the Middle Ages. Rider’s introduction is learned and thoughtful, adroitly establishing the context of the De Multro. His scholarly apparatus to the translation is wonderful, always detailed and rewarding to read, never descending into numbing pedantry.”— Mark Gregory Pegg, Washington University

"This is truly a splendid work. Users of the old translation by James Bruce Ross (1959) will be delighted by Jeff Rider’s text and adopt it for teaching. Rider’s unique knowledge of the book’s genesis and the historical figures that feature in it offers fresh insights without taking anything away from the pleasure of discovery that will await all readers."—Walter Simons, Dartmouth College

“This new English translation . . . is a triumph of scholarship . . . Essential.”—R. F. Berkhofer III, Choice

Rider’s translation is clear and accessible to students of all levels. The volume includes an in-depth introduction to the author, his complicated political context, and the character of his work, . . . It also boasts a short essay by Marc Ryckaert and James M. Murray on the history and physical features of the city of Bruges in the Middle Ages and copious notes by Rider to the translation itself. . . . The Murder, Betrayal, and Slaughter of the Glorious Charles, Count of Flanders is unlike any other historical text from the twelfth century available in English translation. The author does not fit easily into the medieval tradition of history writing . . . [T]he text is tremendously appealing for the immediacy of its voice and the clarity of its details; it demands our attention because it seems to speak in an idiom that we understand.—Scott G. Bruce, Speculum

Article écrit en collaboration avec Carole Ledent (UNamur / PolleN).

Paru dans "Catastrophe(s) ! Namur face aux calamités dans l’histoire", numéro spécial des "Cahiers de Sambre et Meuse", 2017. Commande : http://www.sambreetmeuse.be/

En lien avec l'exposition "Catastrophe(s) ! Namur face aux calamités dans l’histoire" : https://www.unamur.be/lettres/histoire/nouvelles/catastrophes

In the 15th century the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order was internally divided by a long-lasting con ict between two groups of knight brethren, the Westphalians and the Rhinelanders, who were united according to regional origin. They each strived to control the most important offces, though their discord indirectly also concerned the
political course of the Order state. The central question in this paper is how the brethren from the Netherlands – not clearly being tied to Westphalia or the Rhineland – fared in this strife for predominance within Livonia. It is shown that the brethren from the Low Countries got access to central positions by joining the Rhineland group, who – with support of Grand Master Paul von Rusdorf in Prussia – gained the upper hand for some time, especially after one of them, Cisse van den Rutenberg, was appointed Livonian Master in 1424 The result was that the ‘Dutch’ could increase their number, counting for about one sixth of the Livonian knights around 1435. Looking more closely at the background of the Rhinelanders we have to conclude that these, originating from regions at relatively great distance from each other, did not constitute a cohesive party but must have made up a broad non-Westphalian rest category. The members might have tended to seek each other’s help against exclusion by a Westphalian core group. When the Westphalians succeeded in regaining the leading position in 1438, they reinforced their grip on the recruitment and advancement of the knight brethren. For the ‘Dutch’, this meant that they lost all career
perspectives, with the result that their number decreased greatly after 1450.

An evaluation of recent contributions concerning the history of the Modern Devotion movement, published in in: Die Devotio Moderna, Sozialer und kulturelles Transfer (1350-1580), II: Die räumliche und geistige Ausstrahlung der Devotio Moderna – Zur Dynamik ihres Gedankenguts, ed. Iris Kwiatkowski & Jörg Engelbrecht (Münster: Aschendorff, 2013), 245-262.

Journal of the Alamire Foundation 2 (2010), 233-269.
This paper focuses on the Cistercian historia in honor of the beguine and recluse Mary of Oignies. It provides a context for the office by studying the musical and literary culture at the Cistercian abbey of Villers, where it was composed, and aspects of the liturgical legislation in the Cistercian order. Furthermore, it suggests that the abbey protected the early beguine movement and promoted the cult of local saints in general, and that of Mary of Oignies in particular. The historia's only source, combined with a seventeenth-century reference, suggests that it was not composed for use at Oignies — where a different office, no longer extant, was sung — but for the Cistercian devotion to Mary of Oignies, or perhaps for a specific, not yet identified ceremonial event. The analysis of the office's texts demonstrates that it relies on the vita and its pastoral theme of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and furthermore reflects the prominence of Bernard of Clairvaux and Mary Magdalene in the order. It cannot be certified if the author of the office is Goswin of Villers, even though it seems probable on account of his authorship of several vitae of local saints and his duties as a cantor at the abbey. Musically, the historia seems to be in accordance with the characteristics of the genre in the thirteenth century, and thus suggests that informed musicians were at work at the abbey.

Scholarly work on all aspects of women, gender, and medicine has exploded in the past 30 years, largely due to the influences of women's and gender studies.  Texts on women's medicine, in Latin as well as the medieval vernaculars, have been edited, and new discoveries have been made about women as medical practitioners as well as the care women received as patients.  This bibliography comprises all the entries that appeared in the bibliography on “Women and Medicine” that I published periodically in the Medieval Feminist Forum (formerly, Medieval Feminist Newsletter) from 1990 to 2004. The previously published entries have been merged into a single alphabetical list by author, and some editorial commentary has been updated or modified. I have added items that were previously overlooked or that date before the original dates covered, and I have added new material published up through 2009, including a few items that cross over into the early modern period since they carry forward issues that began in the late Middle Ages.  At the end, I have added a summary listing of all those works that include edited primary sources (noting English translations where they are included); these will be especially useful for teaching purposes. This bibliography is intended for free use, but please note that the editorial commentary should be properly credited if cited elsewhere.

Hoewel een stad doorgaans beschouwd wordt als een fysieke ruimte, toont deze benadering slechts één zijde van de medaille. Een stad is immers niet slechts de optelsom van zijn fysieke gebouwen, straten en braakliggende terreinen, maar is een constant veranderend weefsel waarvan het uitzicht mee wordt bepaald door de ideeën en handelingen van de mensen die in die stad wonen. Daarnaast mogen we een middeleeuwse stad niet langer zien als een geïsoleerd eiland, aangezien de stedelijke ruimte onlosmakelijk verbonden is met haar rurale voorgeschiedenis en één ecosysteem vormt met het omliggende platteland. Vanuit dit perspectief schetst Jelle Lisson een gevarieerd beeld van het ontstaan van een stad in de regio Zoutleeuw, op basis van de meest recente internationale inzichten over stadsontwikkeling, stadsmorfologie, nederzettingsgeschiedenis en Border Studies, en met behulp van andere disciplines zoals de cartografie, archeologie, geografie en toponymie. Zo staat de auteur stil bij de eerste sporen van bebouwing en bewoning in de regio vóór het ontstaan van de eigenlijke stad, bij de ontwikkeling van verschillende, kleinschalige bewoningskernen waarvan er uiteindelijk één zou uitgroeien tot een toonaangevend economisch, politiek en religieus centrum, en bij de relatief vroege achteruitgang van de stad Zoutleeuw in vergelijking met andere Brabantse steden. Het resultaat is een diepgaand chronologisch overzicht van de geschiedenis van de regio Zoutleeuw, vanaf de Romeinse periode tot de veertiende eeuw.

Whereas tournaments of the late thirteenth century were infused with cross-channel contact, whether in reciprocity of form or in the international composition of the participants involved, by the early fifteenth century, tournament forms in England and the Netherlands had significantly diverged. As has been thoroughly explored by recent historians, English tournaments became increasingly socially exclusive, whilst retaining an international dimension in the interests of diplomacy. However, this essay demonstrates that this development was by no means typical of all late medieval tournaments. The case of the Low Countries demonstrates that the more socially inclusive style tournaments did continue into the fifteenth century, and provided an opportunity for the ducal household and noblemen to come into contact with patrician townspeople and even more diverse urban audiences.

Near Arlon in Belgium  (province of Luxembourg), the site of Clairefontaine, the ancient abbey of the Cistercian nuns, has been under excavation for ten years. Combining archaeological evidence and historical sources, the article presents an architectural synthesis of the monastic complex, rebuilt four times:  Clairefontaine I (ca. 1247), Clairefontaine II (first half of  the 14th century.), Clairefontaine III (first half of the 16th century), Clairefontaine IV (late 17th-early 18th century), and finally its total destruction following the suppression of monasteries by the French in 1796. Such a stratigraphy is rare for a nuns' church, but is exceptional for the buildings around a cloister, because few feminine abbeys have been the object of programmed excavations on the scale of Clairefontaine. Each change is related to particular historical context, linked with the successive princes who reigned in Luxembourg: the countess Ermesinde, Henri le Blondel, John the Blind, Christophe de Bade, Pierre-Ernest de Mansfeld, as well as the archdukes Albert and Isabelle who were great patrons and powerful protectors of this dynastic abbey inhabited by a small community of Cistercian noble women.

As the politico-economic exploits of vikings in and around the Frankish realm remain, to a considerable extent, obscured by the constraints of a fragmentary and biased corpus of (near-)contemporary evidence, this volume approaches the available interdisciplinary data on a cumulative and conceptual level, allowing overall spatiotemporal patterns of viking activity to be detected and defined – and thereby challenging the notion that these movements were capricious, haphazard, and gratuitous in character.

Set against a backdrop of continuous commerce and knowledge exchange, this overarching survey demonstrates the existence of a relatively uniform, sequential framework of wealth extraction, encampment, and political engagement, within which Scandinavian fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities – or ‘hydrarchies’. By delineating and visualising this framework, a four-phased conceptual development model of hydrarchic conduct and consequence is established, whose validity is substantiated by its application to a number of distinct regional case studies. The parameters of this abstract model affirm that Scandinavian movements across Francia were the result of prudent and expedient decision-making processes, contingent on exchanged intelligence, cumulative experience, and the ongoing individual and collective need for socioeconomic subsistence and enrichment.

'Monarchs and Hydrarchs' will appeal to both students and specialists of the Viking Age, whilst serving as an equally valuable resource to those investigating early medieval Francia, Scandinavia, and the North Sea world as a whole.

Full text of the conference proceedings: Marc Libert & Jean-François Nieus (eds), Le sceau dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux, Xe-XVIe siècles. Entre contrainte sociale et affirmation de soi. Actes du colloque de Bruxelles et Namur, 27-28 novembre 2014, Brussels, 2017 (Archives et bibliothèques de Belgique. Numéro spécial, 103).

This article provides a study and edition of two letter formularies of Margaret of Constantinople, countess of Flanders and Hainault (1244-1278). They are transmitted in two manuscripts, near-contemporary to the copied letters, collections "A" (MS from Bruges) and "B" (MS from Maynooth), which partly overlap while being both fragmentary. They contain a total of 41 letters which originate from the same epistolary pool, and are abridged and anonymized to varying degrees. These are real letters sent by Countess Margaret between 1270 and 1273 (1276 for some additions), and relating to international affairs (Eighth Crusade, relations with the papacy, imperial election, etc.) as well as to the domestic administration of Flanders. The main initiator of both compilations seems to be the comital clerk and provost of St. Peter’s chapter in Cassel Gerard of Vertain († after 1298), who accompanied Count Guy of Dampierre on the Tunis expedition and carried out several embassies in Italy and in the Empire in 1272 and 1273. The idea of compiling these very rare princely formularies was probably inspired by the Flemish administrators’ frequent stays in the Roman Curia, where the major 'summae dictaminis', which were about to spread across European chanceries, were then taking shape. In any case, collections A and B paved the way for the compilation of a more ambitious formulary by another clerk of the Dampierre family around 1290.

The Middle Dutch ‘Chronicle of Flanders’ is a complex chronicle group consisting of various distinct manuscript versions. This chronicle group is generally divided into three separate ‘traditions’: the Chronicle of Jan van Dixmude, the Kronijk van Vlaenderen, and the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen. The most important question dealt with in this contribution is whether this subdivision still makes sense today. Research strategies on medieval chronicles shifted from a focus on the authority of a chronicle’s ‘author’ towards an increasing attention to its readers and audience. Searching for this (intended) audience makes it possible to underline the connections among various manuscripts. However, lately, a countermovement has renewed the interest in chronicles’ (scribal) authorship; it focuses on the self-fashioning aspect in historiographical works. This article argues that these methodologies are not so conflicting as has been thought previously. The manuscripts of the Middle Dutch ‘Chronicle of Flanders’ provide an ideal opportunity to analyse the relationship among medieval manuscripts on the one hand as a fluid, interwoven web of connections and networks, and as the self-fashioning project of one person or family on the other hand.