A DUTCH MANUSCRIPT OF CA. 1480 FROM AN ATELIER IN BRUGES
A richly illuminated fifteenth century Prayer Book written in Dutch was recently acquired by the University of Chicago Library as part of the William J. Blum Collection (1). Dutch manuscripts of canonical hours from this period are plentiful, largely due to the efforts of the Brethren of the Common Life, a lay reform movement initiated by Gerard Groote towards the end of the fourteenth century. Among the chief concerns of Groote and his followers was the availability of such religious texts in the vernacular.
The Chicago manuscript includes a Calendar, Prayers to the Virgin, a Long Prayer to the Holy Cross, Prayers to Eternal Wisdom, Prayers to the Holy Ghost, the Vigil of the Dead, Penitential Psalms, a Litany, and the One Hundred Articles, interspersed with prayers to special saints. On the basis of contemporary testimony Groote himself is credited with the translation of this complete text (2). Groote's version of the One Hundred Articles derives from the third part of Henry Suso's Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, an important precursor of the teachings of the Devotio moderna (3). Suso may also have been responsible for the original version of the Prayer
(1) University of Chicago Ms. 347, composed of 222 vellum leaves, measuring 16,2x11,7 cm., bound in 28 gatherings mainly of eight leaves :
Folios Gatherings
1-15 ; I8, II6+1 (f. 14 terminates the calendar, f. 15 encompasses both gatherings,
is ruled and cut off before f. 1)
16-24 ; IIP (inserted miniature)
25-49 ; IV8, V8, VI9 (inserted miniature)
50-74 ; VII8, VIII8, IX9 (inserted miniature)
75-91 ; X8, XI9 (inserted miniature)
92-100 ; XII9 (inserted miniature)
101-125 ; XIII8, XIV8, XV9 (inserted miniature)
126-184 ; XVP, XVII8, XVIIP, XIX8, XX6, XXP, XXIP, XXIIP (inserted miniature preceding a new section of text)
185-222 ; XXIV8, XXV8, XXVP, XXVIP, XXVIII6
The text is written in a crude bastard script. The binding is seventeenth century red leather tooled with gold. An ex libris inside the front board : "Ing. Ludwig Freude," and an early French inscription with the owner's name erased are the only indications of previous ownership.
(2) This is reported by Groote's biographer Petrus Horn, by Thomas à Kempis and others. For an account of the evidence see : Maria Meertens, De Godsvrucht in de Nederlanden, 1930, I, p. 10 ff. ; K. G. L. M. de Beer, Studie over de spiritualiteit van Geert Groote, Brussels, 1938, p. 35-53 ; and N. van Wijk's published edition of the Dutch Prayer Book, Het Getijdenboek van Geert Grote, Leiden, 1940, p. 1-5. A "Short Prayer to the Holy Cross," absent from the Chicago Hours, is also included among Groote's translations.
(3) Translated into English by James M. Clark, New York, 1953. For the original German text of the Dutch "Hondert artikulen of gheheuchenisse des lidens ons heren jhesu christi" see Karl Bihlmeyer, Heinrich Seuse Deutsche Schriften, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 314 ff., "die hundert betrachtungen und begerunge." De Beer, op. cit., p. 52, ascribes the Dutch version to Groote. See also Meertens, op. cit., p. 153 ff.
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