Collection of manuscript fragments
New in our collection
The Special Collections has obtained several items of intriguing research material trough the work of dr. Marcus de Schepper, book collector and retired bibliographer at the BNTL. This collection consists of early Dutch, French and German handwritten texts, which only survived in fragments, scraps and loose pages. Interesting about these fragments is that many of these documents are yet to be studied identified.
The university library exists primarily to facilitate and stimulate the education and research of students and lecturers. That is why dr. Marcus de Schepper approached the Special Collections to be the holding library of his collection of manuscript fragments. Prof. Remco Sleiderink (department Literature) expressed interest in one specific fragment: a remnant of the dialogue poem by Jacob van Maerlant called Wapene Martijn. The identification of this humble document (the size being ca. 14cm high and 3,5cm wide) is remarkable in itself. The fragment resembles a double page currently held in Switzerland, and another double page that once belonged to the Special Collections of the Catholic University of Leuven, but was lost in a fire during World War II.
The preliminary identification of several texts was made during the prof. Sleiderink’s first visit to the collection, but remarkably the contribution of the international twitter community played an important part too. The photo of an early French manuscript, together with an appeal to analyse the fragment’s provenance, quickly went viral. Users Gauthier Grüber (University of Valenciennes) and Catherline Légly (University of Luxembourg) recognized it as being part of the Anseÿs de Gascogne, a 'chanson de geste' dating to the 13th century and written in the French speaking part of the County of Flanders. Only four manuscripts of this text were hitherto known. Our fragment fates to the last quarter of the 13th century and can be traced back to the north east of the French speaking region.
Prof. Sleiderink’s enthusiastic work, the various research techniques and the immediate availability of the university were instrumental in preserving not only the Maerlant fragment, but also other manuscript fragments. The collection consists of:
Three declaration certificates, including one about the Nazareth Convent, and François d’Anjou (Antwerp, 1582).
A collection of Middle Dutch fragments dating to the 15th century, containing calendar pages, parts of a prayer book and a psalm verse.
Parchment scraps in Middle High German, which served as reinforcement in the binding of another book.
A map containing Dutch and French poems (17th-19th centuries).
A letter by Napoleon De Pauw about the borrowing of the famous Van Hulthem manuscript (1889).
The university prioritizes the catalographical description and the digitization of this collection, so that the fragments are easily visible and searchable. If you want to consult these documents, please contact the reading room of the Special Collections and we will schedule an appointment.