F-3l5z: Geert Grote, Getijdenboek, Hours of the Eternal Wisdom, Compline (hymn and Nunc dimittis antiphon)
Two parchment strips and a small scrap of Antwerpen, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Neerl. 413/45 are parts of one leaf carrying the end of Compline, the night office, of the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom in the Middle Dutch translation ascribed to Geert Grote (died 1384). The recto has the close of the hymn Ihesus regniert in den vreden and the versicle that follows it; the verso has the antiphon to the Nunc dimittis, O gloriose coninc onder dinen heilighen (Latin O rex gloriose inter sanctos tuos). A further narrow strip in the same record is illegible and is not placed.
The catalogue record describes Antwerpen, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Neerl. 413/45 as a physical reconstruction of "5 strips (3 part of same leaf)", parchment, 68 x 26 mm, Low Countries, 1401-1500, Northern Textualis, Middle Dutch, decoration in red, title "Unidentified Middle Duch text", with no linked description. Nothing in the record conflicts with the text found; it does not name it. The images show three objects, not five: a pair of strips lying side by side, one narrow strip, and a scrap. The Bibliotheca Neerlandica Manuscripta database could not be consulted, so whether the fragment is recorded there under Grote's hours is not known.
- Identification: identified, high confidence, as the Compline of the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom in the translation of Grote's hours. On the verso the beginnings of nine consecutive lines agree in wording and order with the antiphon as printed in the edition of the hours by N. van Wijk (1940), p. 111: ose coninc on[der] / du bis altoes l[ouelic] / [noch]tan ons[prekelic] / [o]ns ende dine / an gherope[n] / en laet ons n[iet] / ... / waerdighe / onder dinen h[eilighen]. On the recto the line ends agree with the last strophes of the hymn on the same page: [ihes]us is weter ghe / hi is in ghegaen / ... / [wijs]heit. The scrap supplies the opposite ends of the same lines: on the recto choer / dine lo / ganc d / reden mit, each beginning 31 to 33 letters of the edition's text after the one before, which is the line length the strips give; on the verso O glor at a line end, directly before the strips' ose coninc. The antiphon alone is a common Latin chant and would not decide the containing work; the hymn followed by this antiphon is the sequence of the Wisdom Hours, an office built on Henry Suso's Cursus de aeterna sapientia, and the hymn's wording agrees with Grote's version. A Dutch Te Deum and the Marian hymn O gloriose vrouwe in the same book were considered for single lines and do not fit the sequence. Other Middle Dutch versions of the Cursus were not compared, so the translation is named on the strength of agreement with the edition, not by excluding a rival version. The fragment differs from the edition in small points: du bis altoes without the edition's die, dinen h[eilighen] for dine heilighen, waerdighe- for verwerdighen, weter for weder. A prayer book containing only the Wisdom Hours, and not a full book of hours, is not excluded.
- Transcription: source-assisted. The image-only first reading gives letter groups without a text; its ose .oninc ou, en̄ dine, O glor and .eilighe stand, and several other groups were corrected (hiran ons to [noch]tan ons, erbaer ons to en laet ons, chort to choer, re vut to reden mit). The source-assisted reading was made by a research reader on enlargements of the native images with the edition's text beside it: verso lines 2-10 and recto lines 1-6 of the strips, and lines 1-5 of both faces of the scrap. Recto lines 7-10 of the strips and line 6 of the scrap rest on the first reading. Verso line 8 and recto lines 1, 4 and 5 are rubbed and are read only as compatible with the edition. Accuracy has not been measured.
- Verification: manuscript images against a transcription of the edition. A research reader compared the lines listed above with the text of Van Wijk's edition, p. 111, as transcribed by DBNL (the Digital Library for Dutch Literature); the edition was not read on page images. The Corpus Middelnederlands of the Dutch Language Institute was searched for the hymn and antiphon and returns them only from this work. The coordinator read "ose coninc on / du bis altoes l / ..tan ons / ..ns ende dine / an gherope" on the verso of the strips, "is weter ghe / hi is in ghegaen" on their recto and "choer / dine lo / ganc d" on the scrap, on enlargements of the manuscript images, and read the same passages in the DBNL text of Van Wijk's p. 111 (a transcription, not a page image). Gaps: the narrow strip on canvases 2 and 3 is unread; recto lines 7-10 give only two or three letters each; no other Dutch version of the Cursus was compared. No human review.
Textual evidence
The images are public: fol. [1]r https://fragmentarium.ms/loris/F-3l5z/ua_rb_20220317c_0066_Neerl_413_45.jp2/full/2528,/0/default.jpg (canvas 0), fol. [1]v ..._0067_... at width 2424 (canvas 1), fol. [3]r ..._0071_... at width 2491 (canvas 4), fol. [3]v ..._0072_... at width 2411 (canvas 5). The passages are at these native-pixel boxes: fol. [1]r 290,90,650,620; fol. [1]v 190,200,580,720; fol. [3]r 220,130,390,430; fol. [3]v 215,100,375,400.
Square brackets mark text lost at the cut and supplied from the edition; (?) marks an uncertain reading; / is a line end; ... is the lost middle of a line between the scrap and the strips.
| Manuscript | Van Wijk 1940, p. 111 |
|---|---|
| recto, scrap 1-2: choer ... / dine lo ... | Di so prediket dat choer des hemels ende weder haelt dine loue . |
| recto, scrap 3 and strips 1: ganc d ... [rubbed] | ihesus uerblijt den omganc der werlt ende maect ons te |
| recto, scrap 4 and strips 2: reden mit ... [ihes]us is weter ghe | vreden mit gode Ihesus is weder ghe- |
| recto, scrap 5 and strips 3: gaen t(?) ... hi is in ghegaen | gaen to den vader . hi is inghegaen |
| recto, strips 4-6: ..emelsche(?) r.. / .. ende(?) is ihesus(?) / ..heit | in dat hemelsche rike mijn herte is van mi ghegaen ende is ihesus nae ghegaen. O ewighe wijsheit di ende den vader |
| verso, scrap 3: O glor | Antiffen. O glor- |
| verso, strips 2 and scrap 4: ose coninc on[der] ... [h]eilighe[n] | -iose coninc onder dinen heilighen |
| verso, strips 3 and scrap 5: du bis altoes l.. ... [e]nde(?) .. | du die biste altoes louelic ende noch- |
| verso, strips 4: ..tan ons.. | -tan onsprekelic. Here du biste in |
| verso, strips 5-6: ..ns ende dine / an gherope[n] | ons ende dijn heilighe name is angheropen van ons onse god |
| verso, strips 7: en laet ons n.. | en laet ons niet achter alsoe dattu |
| verso, strips 8: en(?) .nden dagh(?).. | in den daghe des ordels di ver- |
| verso, strips 9-10: waerdighe.. / onder dinen h.. | -werdighen wilste ons te setten onder dine heilighen ende wtuercoren |
The differences seen are bis without die for die biste, dine for dijn (before heilighe name), dinen for dine (before heilighen), waerdighe- for (ver)werdighen and weter for weder; all are small differences of form or spelling. The edition's apparatus records for other witnesses the order altoes bist(e) and the omission of en before laet ons; the fragment has neither. The line divisions in the right-hand column are the fragment's, laid out on the edition's text; the edition's text fills the lost middles at a steady 31 to 33 letters a line. Between the last recto line and the first legible verso line the edition has the Nunc dimittis cue and a rubric, about 110 letters, which suits a page of about 14 to 16 lines of which the lower ten survive.
Edition: N. van Wijk, Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote naar het Haagse handschrift 133 E 21, Leiden 1940, p. 111 (Compline of the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom). DBNL transcription. The edition prints the Middle Dutch hours under Grote's name, the ascription under which this translation is generally cited; that ascription was taken from the edition and not examined further. The searches were made in the Corpus Middelnederlands.
Leaves, other items, limits
The two strips on fol. [1] continue each other's lines across a slit one or two letters wide and keep ten lines above a blank lower margin; the recto has the line ends and the verso the line beginnings, so they are the outer part of the leaf. The scrap catalogued as fol. [3] comes from the inner part of the same leaf, level with the two lines above the strips' first line and their lines 1 to 3. The narrow strip catalogued as fol. [2] shows ink traces and a reddish stain; it was not read and its relation to the leaf is unknown. The only decoration seen is a red-touched O at the head of the antiphon.
Not claimed: that the book was a full book of hours and not a prayer book with the Wisdom Hours alone; that no other Middle Dutch version of the office has this wording; the date and origin, which are the catalogue's; any relation to a particular manuscript of the hours or to any other fragment; and whether this fragment is already recorded under Grote's hours in a census of the manuscripts.