F-xukl: Psalms 149-150 in Geert Grote's Middle Dutch translation
The four parchment strips Antwerpen, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Neerl. 413/21 are the lower parts of two leaves, probably of a Middle Dutch book of hours. Each leaf carries Psalm 149 (Cantate domino canticum novum) and Psalm 150 (Laudate dominum in sanctis eius), two of the three psalms that close Lauds, the morning office, in the translation made for the hours ascribed to Geert Grote (died 1384). The same stretch of text stands on both leaves with different line breaks. If the leaves come from one book, the psalms were copied twice in it, as in a book of hours, where Lauds recurs in several offices; but whether they come from one book is not established, and Grote's psalms were also copied in complete psalters, so the kind of book stays open.
The catalogue record describes Antwerpen, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Neerl. 413/21 as a physical reconstruction of "4 strips (parts of two different leaves)", parchment, 84 x 35 mm, Low Countries, 1401-1500, Northern Textualis, Middle Dutch, title "Unidentified Middle Dutch text", with no description and no literature. The linked MMFC record has the same title under the category "religion". Nothing in the record conflicts with the text found; neither record names it. The Bibliotheca Neerlandica Manuscripta database could not be consulted (it is behind an institutional login), so whether the fragment is recorded there under Grote's hours is not known.
- Identification: identified, high confidence, as Psalms 149:1-4 and 149:8-150:3 in the translation of Grote's hours. On three of the four faces the surviving middle of ten to twelve consecutive lines agrees in wording and order with the edition of the hours by N. van Wijk (1940), pp. 46-47: die dochteren van [Syon hoghe vr]ouwen ... in horen, [l]ouen sinen na[me in eendrachtigh]en versamenden sa[nghe], [i]n santoren sin[ghen], [d]en here wel beha[ghet], en die sachtmo[dighen], and on the other side heilighen / [hei]lighen louet de[n here inden firmamen]te sinre crachte[n] / crachten louet / [menich]voudicheit sin[re]. The fourth face (fol. [1]r) is rubbed and gives six partial lines that fall in the same psalm. The other Middle Dutch psalm translation compared, the psalter of the Bible translation of 1360, words the same verses differently (moeten verbliden in haren coninc, in den stive ende inder tamburen ende in die santerie, es wel ghenoechlec in sinen volke, sal die sachtmoedige verheffen) and is excluded by the fragment's versamenden sa[nghe] and wel beha[ghet]. The fragment differs from the edition's base manuscript in dialect: hem where the edition has the eastern oen and the reflexive sich, wel for wal, -voudicheit for -uoldicheit. A prayer book in the same translation printed in the Corpus Middelnederlands has the same hem forms. That each leaf has the same two psalms written out in full would point to a book of hours, where Lauds recurs in several offices, if the two leaves were shown to come from one book; they are not, and Grote's translation was also completed into a full psalter that circulated widely in the northern Netherlands (B. van den Berg, "Geert Grote's psalmvertaling", Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 61 (1942), p. 262). No rubric, antiphon or gloss survives on the strips to decide between them.
- Transcription: source-assisted, low resolution. The image-only first reading gives letter groups without a text; its secure groups (firmamen, heilighen, lighen louet, he wel beha, die sachtmo) stand, and several others were corrected. The source-assisted reading was made by a research reader on enlargements of the native images with the edition's text beside them: lines 3-12 of both faces of fol. [2], lines 7-12 of fol. [1]r and lines 2 and 5-12 of fol. [1]v. The remaining lines were not reread. A line of script is only about 50 pixels high in the published images, so minim strokes (the short verticals of i, n, m, u) cannot be divided and no line could have been read with confidence without the source. 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 as transcribed by DBNL (the Digital Library for Dutch Literature) and with Google Books snippets of the 1940 print. The edition was not read on page images. The 1360 psalter and the second witness of Grote's text were read in the transcriptions of the Corpus Middelnederlands of the Dutch Language Institute. The coordinator read on the images fol. [2]v (canvas 3) heilighen / lighen louet de / te sinre crachte / crachten louet / ..oudicheit sin / hem in den ghelu and fol. [2]r (canvas 2) die dochteren van / ..en hem in horen / louen sinen na / en versamenden sa / in santoren sin / den here wel beha / en die sachtmo, and compared them with the research reader's quotation of the edition, not with the edition. Gaps: the first two lines of every face, fol. [1]r lines 1-6 and fol. [1]v lines 3-4 are unread, and fol. [2]v line 12 is unresolved. No human review.
Textual evidence
The images are public: fol. [1]r https://fragmentarium.ms/loris/F-xukl/ua_rb_20220310b_0109_Neerl_413_21.jp2/full/2527,/0/default.jpg (canvas 0), fol. [1]v ..._0110_... at width 2585 (canvas 1), fol. [2]r ..._0111_... at width 2483 (canvas 2), fol. [2]v ..._0112_... at width 2471 (canvas 3). The passages are at these native-pixel boxes: fol. [2]r 270,130,580,720; fol. [2]v 320,120,640,700; fol. [1]r 160,440,500,780; fol. [1]v 260,130,610,740.
Square brackets mark text lost at the cut and supplied from the edition; (?) marks an uncertain reading; / is a line end.
| Manuscript | Van Wijk 1940, pp. 46-47 |
|---|---|
| fol. [2]r 3-5: ..yen(?) sanc si[n] / [ver]gaderinghe(?) / in dien die hem | Synghet den heren nyen sanc . sijn lof is inder heilighen uergaderinghe Israhel uerblide hem in den die hem |
| fol. [2]r 6-8: die dochteren van / [vr]ouwen hem in hore[n] / [l]ouen sinen na | ghemaket heeft ende die dochteren van syon hoghe vrouwen sich in horen coninghe Sie moten louen sinen name |
| fol. [2]r 9-12: ..en versamenden sa / [i]n santoren(?) sin / [d]en here wel beha / en die sachtmo | in eendrachtighen versamenden sanghe in der bonghen ende in den santoer singhen sie hem. Want den here wal behaghet in sinen volc ende die sachtmodighen |
| fol. [2]v 3-5: e/deling(?) / doen moeg(?) / gerichte(?) | ende hare edelinghe in yseren hantbanden. Op dat si doen moghen in hem dat bescreuen gherichte |
| fol. [2]v 6-9: heilighen [space] / lighen louet de[n] / te sinre(?) crachte[n] / crachten louet | dese glorie is alle sinen heilighen. Salm. Louet den here in sinen heilighen louet den here inden firmamente sijnre crachten Louet oen in sinen crachten louet |
| fol. [2]v 10-11: ..oudicheit sin[re] / hem in den ghelu[de] | oen nader menichuoldicheit sijnre groetheit Louet oen in den ghelude der basunen |
| fol. [1]r 7, 9-12: [s]yon hogh[e] / in eend[rachtighen] / ..he in bonghen en[de] / ..ghen si hem wa(?) / ..het in sinen vol[c] | syon hoghe vrouwen ... in eendrachtighen versamenden sanghe in der bonghen ende in den santoer singhen sie hem. Want den here wal behaghet in sinen volc |
| fol. [1]v 5-8: [i]s alle sin[en] / in sinen h[eilighen] / .. in den(?) firmamen[te] / [l]ouet hem in sin[en] | dese glorie is alle sinen heilighen ... in sinen heilighen louet den here inden firmamente sijnre crachten Louet oen in sinen |
| fol. [1]v 11-12: [b]asunen lou[et] / ..en(de) in der herpe[n] | ghelude der basunen . louet oen in den santoer ende in der herpen |
The differences seen are hem for sich and for oen, wel for wal, si for sie, -voudicheit for -uoldicheit and perhaps santoren for den santoer; all are differences of dialect or spelling. On fol. [2] the right margin survives on the recto and the left margin on the verso, so the edition's text can be laid out across the lost halves of the lines: it fills them at a steady 30 to 33 letters a line on both sides, and the ten lines of text between the last recto line and the first legible verso line give a page of about 21 or 22 lines. For comparison, the psalter of the Bible translation of 1360 reads at Ps 149:2-4: die dochtere van Syon moeten verbliden in haren coninc Si moeten sine name loven in den stive ende inder tamburen ende in die santerie moeten si hem singen Want die Heere es wel ghenoechlec in sinen volke ende hi sal die sachtmoedige verheffen in salicheit.
Edition: N. van Wijk, Het getijdenboek van Geert Grote naar het Haagse handschrift 133 E 21, Leiden 1940, pp. 46-47 (Lauds of the Hours of the Virgin); the same psalms are printed again at p. 192 (Lauds of the Vigil of the dead). DBNL transcription. The edition prints the Middle Dutch hours from The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 133 E 21 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 1360 psalter and the prayer book were read in the Corpus Middelnederlands.
Leaves, other items, limits
The strips are lettered A to D in pencil. A and B join to give fol. [1], C and D to give fol. [2]; on each leaf the recto ends in Ps 149:4 and the verso runs from Ps 149:8 or 9 into Ps 150:3, with a blank lower margin beneath. The order of the two leaves in their book or books is unknown. Faint red on fol. [2]v line 6, at the head of Psalm 150, may be the remains of a rubric and was not read.
Not claimed: that the book was a book of hours and not a psalter; which office either leaf would belong to; that the two leaves come from one codex (script and line length are alike, which is not proof); the date and origin, which are the catalogue's; any relation to a particular manuscript of the hours; and whether this fragment is already recorded under Grote's hours in a census of the manuscripts.