10/05/2024
Spiritual Literature in the Late Medieval Low Countries: Essays by Thom Mertens, eds. John Arblaster, Daniël Ermens, Veerle Fraeters, Kees Schepers, Patricia Stoop (Brepols, May 2024)
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503581002-1
This volume brings together fifteen seminal essays by Thom Mertens, a professor at the Ruusbroec Institute (Ruusbroecgenootschap) at Antwerp University since 1985, and a pioneer in the study of the late medieval spiritual literature of the Low Countries, a field that had previously been neglected in favour of the study of belle lettres. This volume is therefore also a celebration of the paradigm shift that Mertens led, as he demonstrated that most of the late medieval texts produced in the Low Countries actually qualify as spiritual literature, and that these understudied literary works are of prime importance within late medieval textual culture.
Of the essays gathered here, nine have been translated into English for the first time, while six have been re-edited, forming a collection that bears witness to the importance of Dutch literature as a broader part of the vernacular literatures of Western Europe, and of the societies that gave rise to these works. It is in large part thanks to Mertens’ efforts that serious scholarly engagement with these spiritual texts, their characteristics, and their function has become a field of research in its own right that continues to flourish.
CONTENTS:
Preface: Pioneering Middle Dutch Spiritual Literature
Publications by Thom Mertens
Thom Mertens: A Tribute by John van Engen
I. Spiritual Literature in the Late Medieval Low Countries - An Overview
Chapter 1: Books for Eternity
Chapter 2: Mystical Culture and Literature in the Late Middle Ages
Chapter 3: The Monastery as a Literary Institution in the Low Countries (13th–16th Century) 111
II. Middle Dutch Sermons
Chapter 4: The Middle Dutch Sermon. A Premature Synthesis
Chapter 5: Collatio and Codex in the Context of the Devotio Moderna
Chapter 6: Ghostwriting Sisters. The Preservation of Dutch Sermons of Father Confessors in the Fifteenth and the Early Sixteenth Century
Chapter 7: The Sermons of Johannes Brugman OFM († 1473). Preservation and Form
Chapter 8: Private Revelation and Public Relevance in the Middle Dutch Sermon Cycle Jhesus collacien
III. Aspects of Genre in Middle Dutch Spiritual Literature
Chapter 9: Reading with a Pen. Developments in Late Medieval Spiritual Prose
Chapter 10: Consolation in Late Medieval Dutch Literature
Chapter 11: Spiritual Testaments in the Late Medieval Low Countries. An Exploration of the Genre
Chapter 12: Die gheestelicke melody. A Program for the Spiritual Life in a Middle Dutch Song Cycle
Chapter 13: Voices without Words. Hendrik Mande’s Spiritual ‘Love Complaint’ as a Mystical Dialogue
Chapter 14: Hendrik Mande’s Apocalypse
