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Anonymous Dutch scribes

Lot 18
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 3 780
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 870837
Lot 18 | Anonymous Dutch scribes
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
Anonymous Dutch scribes

Five fragments of a Middle Dutch translation of the Old and New Testament and a bifolium from a Middle Dutch translation of a monastic Rule, decorated manuscripts on vellum [Low Countries, 15th century]

Rare witnesses to an early Middle Dutch translation of the Bible, and an intriguing survival of a Middle Dutch regula for a monastic order.



The bifolium: 183 x 137mm (each leaf), 20 lines in Middle Dutch, ruled space: 121 x 89mm., rubrics and paraphs in red, initials touched in red, one larger initial in blue, the text from a monastic Rule in Middle Dutch, beginning: 'liken dat voersien in dese plaetse [...]' to 'constitucie doer des paeus', and '[...]he huse. Dat wort [...]' to 'en sullen da[...]'; 5 fragments from the same manuscript: (i) 210 x 86mm.; (ii) 235 x 87mm.; (iii) 209 x 86mm.; (iv) 60 x 173mm.; (v) 195 x 90mm.; the text 32 lines (with the exception of iv, with 11), originally in double column, rubrics and paraphs in red, initials alternately in red or blue, the text a Middle Dutch biblical translation (all recovered from bindings and consequently stained and creased, some holes and fading to text). The bifolium loose in half-calf marbled paper binding, the fragments tipped in to a similar binding.



Provenance:

(1) 19th-century annotations written on the biblical fragments, variously dated Ghent 1850s-60s and indicating the printed books the fragments were extracted from (a French grammar, a Parisian 1803 legal book, a French history from 1804, a 1789 biblical text, and an 1801 'Dictionnaire de la Fable').

(2) Willem Lodewijk de Vreese (1869-1938), the Middle Dutch philologist, primary editor of the Dictionary of the Dutch Language (WNT), Head Librarian of Ghent University Library, and passionate defender of Dutch-speaking culture (see Schmook, 100 groote Vlamingen, 1941, pp. 382-85): his notes and transcriptions loose or tipped in, the first dated 10 July 1893.

(3) Willy L. Braekman (1931-2006), Belgian historian and expert in Middle Dutch.



The first near-complete Middle Dutch translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate was the Hernse Bijbel, likely made at the Carthusian monastery in Herne in the second half of the 14th century. The anonymous author has been variously identified as the 'Bible translator of 1360' or Petrus Naghel. Later in the century translations of the New Testament emerged, probably written by the Windesheim monk Johan Scutken. The Hernse Bijbel served as a template for the oldest print translation of Biblical books into the Middle Dutch language: the Delft Bible, printed in Delft in 1477. Our five fragments are consequently early witnesses to the first Middle Dutch translations of the Bible.



The bifolium, also in Middle Dutch, is from a regula for a monastic Order, perhaps the Augustinians or the Bridgettines. It mentions both brothers and sisters, and the founding of new institutions involving a bishop and the Pope.





Special notice


This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
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