Queeste - Volume 31, Issue 1/2, 2024

Vanden winter ende vanden somer is a Dutch play using allegorical characters. Although less common in the Dutch-language corpus, this type of representation certainly flourished in Europe from the fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth centuries. This is why we would like to compare the abele spel from the Van Hulthem manuscript to two of its French and English counterparts, the Moralité des quatre éléments and the Four elements composed by John Rastell. Our aim is to study both the use of allegorical characters and the semantic networks they conjure up in order to shed some light on the inclusion of this spectacle in the European corpus of the early sixteenth century.

In Van den Winter ende van den Somer, written about 1400 in or around Brussels as one of the four secular plays known as ‘abele spelen’, the traditional folkloristic motif of a struggle between summer and winter is permeated by a discussion on the cosmic order. This is explained by Venus, who acts as a planet as well as the goddess of love. From the beginning the love theme pervades the discussions. Venus’ role and explanation are in line with contemporary ‘modern’ theories on love and cosmic order. The ideology of this play – love is worth striving for, the cosmic order has to be maintained and the goal in life is harmony between partners and in the cosmos – echoes the message of the surrounding ‘abele spelen’ and the farces following them. However, in Van den Winter ende van den Somer the role of the tramp provides a stark reminder that even in a harmonious natural order there will be losers.

Apart from a small fragment, Die Riddere metter Mouwen (‘The Knight with the Sleeve’), a thirteenth century Arthurian romance written in Middle Dutch, has only survived in the Lancelot Compilation (c. 1320-1330). Here, the story is presented in two parts: not like a ‘Doppelweg’, but in a diptych structure with two narrative panels of approximately equal size, duplicating each other. Despite this clever design, remarkable differences between the two panels, as well as many striking contradictions in the second half of the story, suggest that the Brabantine compiler substantially adapted his Flemish original. He even appears to have altered the storyline, having the protagonist and his ladylove not marry at the end, but halfway through the story. This change allowed for the interpolation of new episodes in the second part of the narrative. Thus, using entrelacement technique to interweave additional adventures in which Arthurian knights act prominently, the compiler aimed at aligning the romance’s form and content with the narrative concept of the great Lancelot cycle. In the second and third part of this article, to be published in later issues of Queeste, an attempt is made to substantiate these hypothetical modifications and to reconstruct the original story. First however, Die Riddere metter Mouwen will be introduced, and recent understandings of contradictions in medieval literature are to be discussed. Should we consider narrative inconsistencies as mistakes, and if so, is there any chance to ascribe these to either authors or other persons involved in textual transmission, like adapters, compilers, or scribes?

This article describes the history of a series of editions of complete manuscripts, the Middeleeuwse verzamelhandschriften uit de Nederlanden (MVN). It pays attention to the people involved in the project, the principles of the editions, the results achieved and the scholarly reactions to the series.

At a seminar on 2 October 2023, the Committee overseeing the publication of Medieval Miscellanies from the Low Countries and the Huygens Institute presented four new digital editions of medieval miscellanies: the Vanden Stock manuscript, the Serrure manuscript, the Blauwe Schuit manuscript and the Heber-Serrure Codex. One more volume will follow. The digital volumes follow the conventions for the printed volumes. As a follow-up to Paul Wackers’ article on the history of the series and the printed volumes that appeared, in this article I discuss the digital editions: their functionality, some technical background and some reasons why the making of these editions has taken so long.