Sabrina Corbellini

Een oude spiegel voor nieuwe maagden

The article aims at reconstructing the production and the diffusion of the Middle Dutch text Spieghel der maechden, a late fourteenth-century translation of the twelfth-century treatise Speculum virginum. Research shows that the manuscripts containing the Spieghel der maechden circulated in the first years after the translation mainly in communities of tertiaries associated to the Chapter of Utrecht. The treatise, which promoted an enclosed life for female religious, was probably used in the spiritual education of tertiaries. More specifically, the Spieghel der maechden served as an instrument of formation in the process of claustralization of communities following the third rule of Saint Francis. The relevance of the text in the organization of spiritual life in convents of tertiaries is evidenced by the explicit reference to the Spieghel der maechden in the Informieringheboeck der jongen (1510-1512) written by Jan de Wael, confessor of the convent of tertiaries St. Agnes in Amersfoort. In the Informieringheboeck, the Spieghel der maechden is described as an instrument in the formation of novices and in the preparation to claustral life.

Challenging the Paradigms: Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe

This introductory chapter summarizes the main results of the research project ‘Holy Writ and Lay Readers. A Social History of Vernacular Bible Translations in the Late Middle Ages’ (2008–2013). The project, funded by the European Research Council and the University of Groningen, aimed at reconstructing the process of translation and dissemination of vernacular Bibles in three European areas (Italy, France, and the Low Countries) during the late Middle Ages (from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century). Challenging paradigmatic views and research traditions on severe restrictions of the circulation of vernacular Bible by the medieval Church, the project has chosen to specifically concentrate on readers and readerships and investigates the varied modes of approach taken by lay and non-professional users of the Holy Writ. The emphasis is laid on the dynamic approach of lay believers, male and female votaries, primarily involved in wordly activities and experiencing their religious life within the framework of family, marriage, and professional activities.

Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe: Translation and Participation

The late medieval and early modern cultural transformation has been a much debated topic in European research agenda over the last decades. This chapter focuses on didactic and moralizing literature, in which themes strictly related to the life and activities of lay readers are discussed. The chapter discusses the relations between individuals and groups in the late medieval and early modern urban environment, in particular professional ethics, and family relations. The specific question of the emancipation of the laity, through active readership of religious literature in the vernacular, and in particular the active role of lay people in the transmission and in the production of religious knowledge is still an underestimated subject in medieval research, in spite of the growing interest in the study of religion as cultural manifestation and the significant advances in the study of late medieval religious movements. Keywords: early modern cultural transformation; European research; family relations; religious literature

Introduction: Discovering the Riches of the Word

Religious learning involves reading. More than that, it is largely constituted by reading [. . .] Religious reading requires and fosters a particular set of attitudes to what is read, as well as reading practices that comport well with those attitudes; and it implies an epistemology, a set of views about what knowledge is and about the relations between reading and the acquisition and retention of knowledge.1

Vernacular Bible Manuscripts in Late Medieval Italy: Cultural Appropriation and Textual Transformation

Franco Sacchetti combined business, diplomatic missions and literary activities with commentaries on the Gospels, theological issues, catechetical discussions and moral interpretations of biblical episodes. This chapter analyses the formation of textual clusters in vernacular Bible manuscripts, in which the biblical text is combined with basic catechetical instruction, as well as with moral and didactic treatises. The examination of this combination of biblical, didactic and catechetical material will contribute to the reconstruction of the social and cultural context in which the diffusion of vernacular Bible manuscripts in medieval Italy occurred. The fragmentation of the biblical text, which was probably influenced by the private and liturgical use of the codices, is also reflected in the composite character of the manuscripts. The combination of religious education and moral instructions suggested and described by Paolo da Certaldo plays a pivotal role in the construction of lay religious identities in late medieval Italy. Keywords:cultural context; didactic treatises; Gospels; late medieval italy; textual clusters; vernacular Bible manuscripts

Reading, Writing, and Collecting: Cultural Dynamics and Italian Vernacular Bible Translations

The contribution focuses on the dissemination of vernacular Bible translations in late medieval Italy. After a short description of the status quaestionis in the research of vernacular Bible in Italy, the contribution will illustrate which processes of cultural transmission and translation contributed to the diffusion of the biblical texts. The essay will also evaluate the role played by lay people in reading and writing activities connected to the biblical text and in the ‘domestication’ of biblical knowledge: the use of biblical manuscripts and early prints in domestic, private, and semi-private space. Far from being passive recipients, lay people were involved in every stage of the dissemination of the Holy Writ: as dedicatees of the translations, as scribes, as collectors, as distributors, and as readers.

Instructing the Soul, Feeding the Spirit and Awakening the Passion: Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Medieval Europe

The oeuvre and the biography of Belcari, presenting the intriguing combination of lay and religious elements that indicate the possibility of the contiguity of Holy Writ and lay readers in the Late Middle Ages, will in this contribution act as a starting point for an analysis of the active use and readership of the Holy Writ in late medieval Europe. This article aims to contribute to the reconstruction of the laitys various routes to accessing the Scriptures and of the impact of the presence and the circulation of vernacular Bible translations in the formation of late medieval religious lives and identities. The three different approaches described by Belcari - the learning process directed at developing the ability to decode the biblical text, the sensual experience of the message, and the moral interpretation of the Writ - will be used as guidelines to the discussion. Keywords:Belcari; Holy Writ; lay readers; medieval europe; Scriptures