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Anonymous Dutch scribe
A fragment from the Rijmbijbel of Jacob van Maerlant, in Middle Dutch, manuscript on vellum [Flanders, early 14th century]
A fragment in Middle Dutch from the Rijmbijbel – or ‘rhymed Bible’ – by the poet Jacob van Maerlant, the most important Dutch author of the Middle Ages.
78-130 x 185mm (open). 21 lines, text block: c.100 x 67mm, in rhyming couplets (aabbcc), versal initials touched in red. The text here twice makes reference to Samson (a binding fragment, central crease where the spine would have been and staining more obvious on one side of the leaf, loss of 5 lines one page). Provenance: Auctions Van de Wiele, Bruges, 13 March 2021, lot 770.
Until the Reformation, Dutch Bible translations largely existed as adaptations, paraphrases or rhymed verse renderings of single books or parts thereof. Best known of all the rhymed versions is the Rijmbijbel (1271) of Jacob van Maerlant, a free translation, with many omissions and adaptations, of Peter Comestor’s 12th-century biblical paraphrase, the Historia scholastica. Fifteen complete manuscripts of the Rijmbijbel are known, dating from about 1285 until the 15th century, while additional sources for the text are found in fragments.
The Flemish poet Jacob van Maerlant (c.1230-c.1288) was one of the most important Dutch authors of the Middle Ages: his earliest known works, such as the Historie van Troyen (c. 1264), comprise translations of the chivalric romances from French into Middle Dutch, but in the years that followed his focus turned to works of science and scriptural history, written for the edification of his noble patrons. In 1266, he translated the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise, the Secreta secretorum, followed in 1270 by Der naturen bloeme (‘The Flower of Nature’), a natural encyclopedia and bestiary in verse translated from De natura rerum, a natural history by Thomas of Cantimpré. Along with his Rijmbijbel, 1271 saw another work of scriptural history in metre: Die Wrake van Jherusalem, from Josephus. Van Maerlant began his most ambitious project in 1283: the Spiegel Historiael, which survives as his most extensive work, is a rhymed compendium of medieval knowledge translated from the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais, dedicated to Count Floris V. It was left unfinished at the poet's death.
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