The Multilingual Literary Dynamics of Medieval Flanders: The Production and Reception of Manuscripts

Project outline

The Multilingual Literary Dynamics of Medieval Flanders project is a large scale investigation devoted to the multilingual literary culture in the county of Flanders from the thirteenth to the late fifteenth century. The project puts forward a multilingual perspective on the literary culture of medieval Flanders. It seeks to advocate the innovative, European-wide reshaping of literary historiography by studying this region between ca 1200 (when the spoken vernaculars were becoming written languages) and ca 1500 (when the introduction of the printing press was beginning to change the production and reception of literature). Medieval Flanders, which corresponds nowadays with the provinces of West and East Flanders in Belgium, Zeelandic Flanders in the Netherlands and French Flanders in France, was in medieval times a highly influential principality of the Low Countries. Due to phenomena such as the strong presence of French culture and the exceptionally high degree of urbanization, this region is eminently suited for research that focuses on literary multilingualism. The project was divided into three subprojects.

Dataset

In one of the subprojects, we set up a database of 2539 extant manuscripts (version January 2024) produced in the county of Flanders or owned by a Flemish resident, roughly dating from 1200 to 1500. This dataset includes metadata of extant manuscripts holding ‘literary’ texts such as romances, chronicles, Books of Hours, but also law treatises and theological works. This subproject focused on the production and reception of manuscripts containing Dutch, French and Latin texts in medieval Flanders. The extant manuscripts originating from medieval Flanders probably represent a small fraction of the manuscripts once owned and used within the monasteries, courts, and cities within the county of Flanders. Nonetheless, these manuscripts are one possible window through which we can view the multilingual dynamics of this region. The material evidence consists of single-text manuscripts (mainly monolingual) and multi-text manuscripts (mono- or multilingual). 

There are some important sidenotes.

First, this dataset is based on extant manuscripts only, not including library lists or lost manuscripts. Research on manuscript survival has pointed to a survival rate of 7%. This survival rate was influenced, not by a manuscript’s content, but by its material value (illuminated manuscripts were more likely to be passed on) and its ownership. Manuscripts owned by private persons tended to have a slimmer survival chance than manuscripts in (monastic) institutions. Due to historical events, some collections were lost. The Flemish city Ypres for instance is over-all absent in our dataset, because these archives were largely destroyed in WWI.

Second, this dataset is mainly based on library catalogues. Origin attribution is often highly problematic and vague in library catalogues, which makes it difficult to select Flemish manuscripts. For this reason, we only included manuscripts that could be attributed to a Flemish context with relative certainty.

The dataset focuses on manuscripts; manuscript fragments are excluded (apart from specific cases).

Lastly, what constitutes Flanders? Medieval feudal borders, and in the case of Flanders the southern ones in particular, are extremely unstable. During the period central in this research project, roughly from the early thirteenth upto the late fifteenth century, the county of Flanders loses and gains various territories in the south. For instance, in 1312, after the Treaty of Pontoise, the southern francophone castellanies of Lille and Douai, were transferred to the French king, but came back to the county of Flanders with the marriage of Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders in 1369. The instability of borders and the constantly changing geographical entity of Flanders is an important aspect to take into account. However, by including broader spheres of influences such as the independent enclave Tournai or the border town Arras, we hope to gain more insight in the consumption and production of Flemish texts and manuscripts in a constantly changing reality.

Content

The dataset includes metadata of Flemish manuscripts dating between 1200 and 1500 focusing on 6 topics: 

general information (shelfmark, date, folia, origin, binding, sources)

text (genre, author, title, languages, mono-or multilingual, single- or multitext, editions, additional literature) 

provenance (milieu, use context, scriptorium, scribe, patron/owner, religious order, gender) 

codicology (dimensions, writing support, columns, lines) 

decoration 

script

Disclaimer

We strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided, including metadata verification. However, errors or inaccuracies may still occur. Users are advised to cross-reference information. We do not guarantee the absolute accuracy or completeness of the metadata, and users should acknowledge that mistakes may be made despite our efforts.

Acknowledgments

The original Filemakerdatabase was designed by Jenneka Janzen. Thanks to our other teammembers (Jelmar Hugen and David Murray) for their fruitful suggestions and contributions during the process. We would like to thank Godfried Croenen (MMFC) and Ludo Vandamme (Openbare Bibliotheek Brugge) for sharing metadata of Flemish library collections. 

Funding

This work has been funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in the context of the project: 'The Multilingual Dynamics of the Literary Culture of Medieval Flanders (ca 1200 - ca 1500)'.