Susie Sutch

The seven sorrows of the virgin Mary: devotional communication and politics in the Burgundian-Habsburg Low Countries, c. 1490 - 1520

This article discusses the propagation of the devotion of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary in the Low Countries around 1500. The central argument is that the secular goal of the promoters of the devotion was to create a large spiritual and emotional community in support of the Burgundian-Habsburg dynasty and its ideology of peace and territorial unity. To this end a whole array of old and new media was exploited. The article analyses the dynamics of this devotional communication and gives special attention to the role of miracles, vernacular theatre and the printing press.

Vroeg zestiende-eeuwse Frans-Nederlandse relaties: Pierre Gringores 'Entreprise de Venise' en de Antwerpse 'Venegien'

Between 1500 and 1513 Pierre Gringore wrote three propagandistic pieces in support of the foreign policy of French King Louis XII One of these, the 33-stanza Entreprise de Venise, was printed for the first time in Paris sometime between mid-March and early April 1509. This polemical pamphlet was inspired by the formation of an alliance of European princes against the republic of Venice, which had resulted from the League of Cam-bray of 10 December 1508, whose agenda had included a coordinated military attack against the Venetians. A few years later the Antwerp printer Michiel Hillen van Hoochstraten published an anonymous translation of Gringores Entreprise in Dutch under the title Venegien (ca 1514). This article examines how the alterations made in the Dutch rendering of Gringores polemical poem serve to create a pamphlet that no longer promotes the policies of the French King but rather supports the aspirations of Emperor Elect Maximilian of Austria.