Factor de prácticas de conservación (P)

That late medieval secular women owned (manuscript) books cannot be doubted. As Susan Groag Bell has shown for the fifteenth century, all over Europe the number of book owning laywomen went up as well as their possessions.^^® Systematic research concerning possession of books in the late medieval Low Countries is sadly lacking, but a case can be built up by a quick glance in

manuscript catalogues and some secondary literature. Although most references that follow involve religious females' possession of books we have only extracted information which shows involvement of laywomen. The following paragraphs are intended to show that laywomen were involved in one way or another with Low Countries book culture.

Some secular women donated books to religious houses as a pious deed. Since most did so after the death of the owner it also suggests, inter alia, that they possessed and used them during their lifetime. Tine van Grolle, for instance, left

a Maechden Spiegel to the Adamanshouse in Zutphen. The tertiaries of St.

Mary's at Haarlem possessed the Gospels in Dutch, donated by a mother of one of the sisters.^^° Frequently, the owner requested to benefit from this pious book donation. In 1453, Alyt Lauwers left an expensive Dutch Bible to a convent of canonesses of St. Agnes near Nijmegen in memory of her parents and her h u s b a n d . A Dutch breviary was donated to the convent of Bethlehem near

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Krol, T., 'Vrouwen en retorica', Vrouwen in taal an literatuur, K. Korevaart ed. (Amersfoort, Leuven, 1988), p. 31.

Groag Bell, 'Book owners', table 1. Gumbert, The Dutch, pp. 59-60.

Boeren, P.C. ed., Catalogus handschrlften van het Rijksmuseum Meerm anno-

Westreenianum ('s-Gravenhage, 1979), p. 22. This Historiebijbel is an edition based on the translation of the so-called Bible translator of 1360 and the Historia scholastica by Peter Comestor (d. 1178).

Utrecht by Johanna, wife of Jan van Walincoerd, with the express wish that the tertiaries prayed for her f a m i l y . B u t also, religious houses benefited from secular women's book possession. When entering convents, novices or new sisters could bring books to the community which they had previously used at

home.^^^

But the reverse happened as well. For instance, daughters residing in convents could copy books for use at their parental home, such as the book of hours that the Benedictine nun Alheyt van Limberghen finished in 1491 for her mother Liesbeth who lived at Deventer.^^^ The nun Janneke Pinnox from the St. Elizabeth convent copied St. Barbara's miracles for her parents. She warned them not to lend it to anyone rashly, however for the love of Barbara they should not refuse anyone access to it, but Janneke was willing to make another copy.^^^ Some books appear to have been intended for usage of both the female religious and the female secular. In a fifteenth-century vernacular manuscript in praise of the religious life and proper comportment, with a heavy emphasis on chastity, not only was the 'holy virgin' addressed but her (presumably secular and widowed) mother was admonished to read it too.^^®

Buying books may not have been uncommon. There is evidence that secular middle class women commissioned manuscript books. For example, widow Gheertruit Scaden had commissioned a Dutch book with a religious content to be

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Gumbert et Lieftinck eds., Manuscrits, II, nr. 727. Other laywomen leaving books to religious establishments are mentioned in Gumbert et Lieftinck eds., Manuscrits, II, nr. 385 and 427.

Magry, P.J., 'Het Katharijneconvent te Heusden. Een onderzoek naar het boekenbezit en boekengebruik van een tertiarissenklooster in de late middeleeuwen', O G E 60 (1986), p. 188, who cites examples from Nuremberg.

Hermans, J.M .M ., 'Laatmiddeleeuwse boekcultuur in het Noorden: zoeken en vinden',

Boeken in de late middeleeuwen. Verslag van de Groningse codicologendagen 1992, J.M .M . Hermans en K. van der Hoek eds. (Groningen, 1994), p. 223.

Lockwood, W .B., 'Mirakelen van Sinte Barbara in Middelnederlandse handschrlften', O G E

30 (1957), p. 368.

Bergkvist, E. ed., D at boec van der ioncfrouscap (sprachlich untersucht und lokalisiert),

copied for her, which she donated in 1442 to a convent at Utrecht.^^^ In 1498, Gerrit a brother regular from Beverwijk, aged sixty-four and using spectacles, had copied a book of hours for Aef van Bolgerien.^^®

A chance remark made by confessor Nicolaas Christi to certain beguines

casually advising them to buy new Evangelie boeckskens,^^^ may be indicative of a common practice of purchasing books (rather than borrowing them). But even though incunables must have been relatively cheap compared to manuscript books they could still be expensive. However, books did not need to be brand new; second-hand books were in circulation as well. The vernacular manuscript books in possession of the bookseller Welter de Hoge are thought to have been second-hand, and must have been relatively cheap.^'*^

Women bequeath books to other women. Women left books in a commemorative capacity and this is referred to as early as in the thirteenth-century

Sachsenspiegel, where books are listed among household items to be passed

down. Following this tradition, one Dutch book of hours contained the names of six generations of women.

Alternatively, women may have borrowed from each other or from convents. Statutes of monasteries and semi-religious houses refer to lending to 'strangers' outside the convent. Frequently, they were to leave a written pledge or a security. A manuscript version of the Life of St. Agnes, for instance, was in apparent

demand. A Charterhouse nun noted that she had already copied it for the

brothers and 'for people from outside who sometimes ask for it and to whom one cannot well give the church lectionary.' In a volume of devout texts in Dutch written by a priest in 1428, it is stated that because the material is weak (probably

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Wittek, et al. eds., Manuscrits, III, nr. 232. Ttie book contains mainly sermons. Obbem a, P.F.J., D e middeleeuwen in handen. O ver de boekcultuur in de late middeleeuwen (Hilversum, 1996), p. 31.

Naber, Vrouwenleven, pp. 78-79. The beguines were advised that if they would buy, read and study them as well as reflect on their sins, they would be saved.

Gumbert, The Dutch, p. 73. Groag Bell, 'Book owners', p. 142.

paper) it should not lightly be given out of the house and lent to worldly

people, for they are wont to keep books b a d l y ' . T h e manuscript book containing sermons commissioned by Claes van Dorssen and his wife Yde was bequeathed to Bri-^gettine nuns at Gouda on the condition that it would only leave the convent for two to three days at any one time.^"'^ And a sixteenth-century message written by sister Duufgen Jansdochter to return the Leven van Liedwij to her at the convent of the sisters St. Dyonisius (regulars at Amsterdam), also points towards the fact that people may have borrowed it from her.^'’"

Churches possessed books as well. These books could be kept in the church itself, presumably for general use by the public, such as the books chained to the choir in the Buurkerk at Utrecht in the 1440s, but more usually the valuable books were safely stored in a less accessible separate church library.^''^ It is of course questionable whether and to what extent women would have had direct recourse to them.