Hans Kienhorst and Ad Poirters
Book Collections as Archaeological Sites
A Study of Interconnectedness and Meaning in the Historical Library of the Canonesses Regular of Soeterbeeck
with a Catalogue of the Soeterbeeck Collection, Compiled with Eefje Roodenburg, and Pictures by Anton Houtappels
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• vii • Preface 1 Abbreviations 5 List of Illustrations 7 Part I Study Chapter 1 19 An Archaeological Approach 1.1 The Madonna of Soeterbeeck 19 1.2 Th e Historical Library 20 1.3 A Bo ok Collection as an Archaeological Site 22 1.3.1 Stratification 23 1.3.2 Interconnectedness and Meaning 26 1.4 Pl an of the Following Chapters 29 Chapter 2 31 Faithful to the Divine Office 2.1 The First Phase 31 2.2 Ch oir Books Attributed to Mariënhage 33 2.2.1 Ba sis of the Argument 33 2.2.1.1 Introduction 33 2.2.1.2 C olophons 33 2.2.1.3 The Patronage of St Anthony 34 2.2.1.4 Two Styles of Illumination 35 2.2.1.5 From Mariënhage to Soeterbeeck 37 2.2.2 Three Groups 38 2.2.2.1 Introduction 38 2.2.2.2 Group 1 41 C oherence 41 St Anthony at Soeterbeeck 42 St Anthony in Helmond 44 De coration and Binding 46 Contents
• viii • CONTENTS 2.2.2.3 Group 2 48 2.2.2.4 Group 3 49 2.2.3 Two Books of Doubtful Origin 51 2.2.3.1 The Position of IV 83 51 2.2.3.2 Manual IV 130 51 2.3 Two Stratigraphic Units in Choir Books 54 2.3.1 A S econd Cover of Chamois Leather 54 2.3.1.1 Antiphonaries from Mariënhage 54 2.3.1.2 Bindings Produced by the Brethren of Den Bosch 57 2.3.1.3 Manchester, John Rylands Library, Latin 439 58 2.3.2 Antiphonaries to Left and Right 59 Chapter 3 79 In Times of Trouble 3.1 The Fire of 1539 79 3.1.1 Reports of the Fire Incident 79 3.1.2 A C hanging Communal Prayer Life 81 3.1.3 The Provenance of the Early Printed Books 85 3.1.3.1 Published before 1539 86 3.1.3.2 Four Books from Sint-Annenborch 87 3.1.3.3 Af ter the Fire 87 3.2 Bo ok Production at Soeterbeeck 90 3.3 Ow nership Notes from the Years 1606-1608 93 3.4 Bo oks that Came in 1613 96 3.4.1 Se ven Sisters for Soeterbeeck 96 3.4.2 The Books of Catharina van Eyck 98 3.4.3 Mater 1 and 2 99 3.4.4 Two Books from St Gertrude in ’s-Hertogenbosch 102 3.4.5 Books Related to Onze-Lieve-Vrouw in de Hage 103 3.5 Aftermath 110 3.5.1 Condemned to Slowly Disappear 110 3.5.2 What Happened to Old Soeterbeeck 112 Chapter 4 131 Personal Ownership of Books in a Monastic Environment 4.1 Two Circuits 131 4.2 Th e Sisters of 1632 and Their Books 133 4.2.1 A Stratigraphic Unit 133
• ix • CONTENTS 4.2.2 Who is Responsible? 140 4.2.2.1 Hands and Persons 141 4.2.2.2 Ce rtainly the Rector’s 143 4.2.2.3 The Hand of Petronella van Berckel 148 4.2.2.4 To o Long a Period of Time 150 4.2.2.5 For Her Notes Only 152 4.2.2.6 An Unexpected Editor 154 4.2.2.7 Johanna Cappeval Herself 156 4.2.2.8 What about the Procuratrix? 158 4.2.3 Handing on Books 161 4.2.3.1 Ti ll Death Do Us Part 161 4.2.3.2 Now for Common Use 164 4.2.3.3 St aying in the Family 165 4.2.3.4 Be fore and After 167 4.2.4 Mottos and Rhymed Sayings 168 4.3 Not to Forget 170 4.3.1 Keeping the Family Record 170 4.3.2 A Farewell Visit 172 4.3.3 A Li st of Pittances 174 4.4 After the Relocation 176 4.4.1 Ne w Housing 176 4.4.2 The Times They are A-Changing 177 4.5 Sister Lips’s Booklets 179 4.5.1 The Generous Giver 179 4.5.2 Tiny Booklets and Fraternities 180 4.6 Bo oks in the Choir Stalls 181 Chapter 5 201 Changing Attitudes towards Old Books 5.1 Cut to Pieces or Sold 201 5.1.1 Sig nificant Changes in the Nineteenth Century 201 5.1.2 Still in Active Use 205 5.1.2.1 The Importance of Being an Antiphonary 205 5.1.2.2 Gra dually Destroyed 206 5.1.2.3 Parts of Books Reassembled 208 5.1.2.4 Those Small Books of Hours 210 5.1.3 A Depository of Discarded Manuscripts 211 5.1.3.1 Re cycling with a Passion 213 5.1.3.2 A Bo ok for the Organist 214
• x • CONTENTS 5.1.3.3 One Antiphonary for Them All 216 5.1.3.4 The Bindings of III 222 and III 64 218 5.1.3.5 Two Manuscripts for a Wrapper 219 5.1.3.6 Top-Down 219 5.1.3.7 The Return of the Dominican Fragments 220 5.1.4 Books on the Market 222 5.1.4.1 Breviary for Sale 222 5.1.4.2 Un finished Business 222 5.1.4.3 From Nuenen with Love 223 5.1.4.4 In E xchange for Silverware 225 5.1.4.5 The Tilburg Manuscripts 226 5.1.4.6 A Re ctor’s Personal Library 228 5.1.4.7 Four More Manuscripts 229 5.2 Fir st Signs of a Library 230 5.2.1 Lack of Evidence 231 5.2.2 Wr itten Directly on the Spine 231 5.2.2.1 The First Shelf-Marks 231 5.2.2.2 A Split among the Books 237 5.2.2.3 Mu ltiple Copies with Different Shelf-Marks 240 5.2.2.4 T he N -Numbering of the Rodriguez Volumes 241 5.2.3 N for Nazareth 247 5.2.3.1 Ow ned by Haasje Dobelman 247 5.2.3.2 Se nt to the Sisters of Ravenstein 251 5.2.3.3 Bo oks of the Schoolmistress 251 5.2.3.4 Sister Augustina Goes to Nazareth 253 5.2.3.5 The Mystery Remains 254 5.2.4 Books United 256 5.2.4.1 From Spines to Labels 256 5.2.4.2 Ju dging a Book by its Cover 257 5.2.4.3 Saved by Van Gerwen 260 5.3 Revaluation 261 5.3.1 Something Unstoppable Set into Motion 261 5.3.1.1 One Swallow 261 5.3.1.2 Label upon Label 262 5.3.1.3 What Place to Be 265 5.3.2 A Historical Collection 268 5.3.2.1 The Shelf-Marks on Woody Paper 268 5.3.2.2 Manuscripts 1-14 271 5.3.2.3 Transplantation and Loose Bindings 273 For the Last Time: The Hague, 130 G 18 273
• xi • CONTENTS Ne w Purposes for Old Bindings 275 From Binding to Slipcase 276 Tw ice Unique 278 5.3.2.4 Cardboard Packaging 280 5.3.3 A He ritage Library 281 5.3.3.1 Ol d Books from Mariëndaal 281 5.3.3.2 Forever Separated 282 5.3.3.3 Round, White Labels and Blue Stamps 287 Chapter 6 321 On the Edge of Beyond 6.1 Special Attention for the Manuscripts 321 6.2 Witnessing to a Tradition 324 6.3 Th e Soeterbeeck Collection 330 6.3.1 Lost in Transition 330 6.3.2 The Exhibition of 2005 336 6.3.3 A Never-Ending Story 336 6.4 Towards an Archaeology 338 Chapter 7 345 Back to Hodder Appendices 351 A Bo oks with Ownership Notes of the Convents of Soeterbeeck and Nazareth 351 B Ali enated Books 353 C Bo oks in the Archives of Soeterbeeck 363 D Shelf-Marks on Labels of Woody Paper (ca 1952) 365 E Fragments from the Winter Part of an Antiphonary 367 Exc ursuses 1 The Term Stratigraphic Unit 24 2 A Bindery at Mariënhage 36 3 Incongruities in the Additional Office for Anthony Abbot in IV 4 and IV 22 43 4 My steries surrounding Psalter IV 75 88 5 Antonius van Hemert 90 6 Catharina Dekens 91 7 A Spiritual Exercise at Mass 91 8 A Vi ew on the Seventeenth-Century Convent 97 9 A Nuns’ Gallery at Soeterbeeck 97 10 The Uncertain Origin of Mater 2 100
1 The Madonna of Soeterbeeck in its shrine (CCS, object nos 01.10 and 01.50)
Chapter 1 An Archaeological Approach
1.1 The Madonna of Soeterbeeck
In one of the corridors of the former convent of the canonesses regular of Soeterbeeck in Deursen, near Ravenstein, in a recess facing the door to the refectory, sits a clothed statue of the Blessed Virgin and Child (Fig. 1).1 The two figures each wear a crown of gilded silver, a white robe with an abbreviation of their name in gold embroidery and a necklace with a cross, and Mary also bears a sceptre in her right hand. Once upon a time, the statue even had a complete wardrobe with numerous sets of gowns. It is housed in a wooden, neo-Gothic baldachin, with two candlesticks on either side.2 Until recently, flowers and a prie-dieu completed the tableau.
The Madonna and its baldachin acquired their current place in the 1960s, when the nuns’ gallery where they had enjoyed pride of place for several decades (see Figs 232 and 234) was removed from Soeterbeeck’s conventual church.3 The move was necessitated by architectural changes, and the devotion which the statue inspired will not have been any the less for its new location. This situation changed radically, however, when in 1997 the last remaining sisters left the convent for Sint-Jozefoord, a nursing home for elderly religious in Nuland, and the building afterwards became the study and conference centre of the Catholic University of Nijmegen, now known as Radboud University. The statue is still there, but in its newly acquired academic context it has an entirely different meaning than it had when it was still in a monastic environment. It is exactly the same statue, but it has turned from a devotional object into a historical piece of art, nice to look at but not to bow down to. The prie-dieu before it first became a piece of scenery and has since been removed altogether, as have the flowers.
The step from object of religious veneration to museum piece was only a small one, however, compared to a much more profound change which the statue had already undergone long before the end of the twentieth century. When the figures’ clothes are removed, it becomes evident that the body parts that are normally visible are all late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century replacements of portions of what is in fact a late medieval, polychrome wooden statue, severely damaged by wood-worm (see Figs 253 and 254). The substitutions will have been made as restorations or to hide the object’s deterioration from view, but it looks as if something else is going on as well. A large part of the statue’s front is clearly missing, and it seems likely that Mary and Jesus were not always just with the two of them. A third figure, originally held by what is now the Infant, appears to have worn off or been forcibly removed. If this is indeed the case, the Madonna of Soeterbeeck was once a statue of Anne with the Virgin and the Child on her lap, and the replacements confirm and contribute to an earlier transformation.4
The statue’s materially effected identity change did not only cause it to be venerated as a different image, but is also likely to be at the root of a legend surrounding the object. In the second version of
• 19 •
• 72 • CHAPTER 2
34 IV 130, front pastedown and f. [I]r, with ownership entry
32 IV 130, front board, with panel stamp
33 First page of the office for the feast of Anthony abbot. IV 130, f. 4r
• 73 • FAITHFUL TO THE DIVINE OFFICE
37 Idem. IV 22, verso first front flyleaf
35 IV 21, verso front flyleaf and f. 1r, with ownership entries
36 Ownership entries. IV 4, f. 1r
• 78 • CHAPTER 2
48 IV 7, tail edge. The overback of thick chamois leather has been fastened to the boards with flat brass strips and turned in over the caps. The boards’ edges have been bevelled on the outside. The toggle’s bookmarks are also made of chamois leather.
49 Stamp of the Brethren of the Common Life in ’s-Hertogenbosch. IV 7, back board
50 Idem. IV 7, front board
Chapter 3 In Times of Trouble
3.1 The Fire of 1539
3.1.1 Reports of the Fire Incident
After its auspicious beginnings in the fifteenth century, Soeterbeeck suffered a series of severe calamities in the sixteenth. The first of these was what a document dating from 1556 describes as a brandt […] in huer goidshuys (‘fire in the convent’) on 20 March 1539, daer bij dat zij grotelijcx beschadicht zijn geweest (‘in which they suffered severe damage’) and were forced die huysinghe vanden convente wederomme op te tim[meren] (‘to restore the convent’s buildings’).1 Soeterbeeck’s later chronicler Arnoldus Beckers, who was rector from 1772 to 1810, reports that the fire started due to a sister’s carelessness and almost entirely destroyed the convent:
Ons klooster Soeterbeeck alduis gefondeert en begiftight sijnde, is door sorghloosheit van een suster afgebrandt, en bijnaer door t vier geheel vernielt.2
(‘Our convent of Soeterbeeck, having been founded and gifted in this way, burned down because of a sister’s carelessness, and was almost completely destroyed by the fire.’)
Schutjes appears to have had access to a more specific source, and writes that the fire devastated the church, the dormitory and the women’s house.3
That the flames laid waste to a large part of the convent, including the church, is relevant to this chapter’s purpose of continuing the history of Soeterbeeck’s library, because it means that many books will have been lost. This is explicitly confirmed by Beckers, who continues his account by describing the fire as follows:
In welckers brandt buijten den onnomelijcken schaeden des kloosters, de religieusen haere brevieren, swarte mantels etc. hebben verlooren.4
(‘In which fire the religious did not only suffer unutterable damage to the convent, but also lost their breviaries, black copes, etc.’)
The sisters wore black copes over their habits during choral prayer. For practical reasons, these garments will have lain or hung in a room close to the nuns’ gallery that we suppose to have been present in the
• 79 •
• 118 • CHAPTER 3
59 V 4, front board, with rolls
60 V 4:1, f. i8v, with additional text
58 V 115 and V 116, spines
• 119 • IN TIMES OF TROUBLE
61 IV 75, front board, with panel stamp
62 Panel stamp. IV 75, back board
63 IV 75, f. H3v and recto first leaf of an inserted bifolium
Changing Attitudes towards Old Books
5.1 Cut to Pieces or Sold
5.1.1 Significant Changes in the Nineteenth Century
On the day of his coronation as king of the Netherlands on 28 November 1840, William II lifted a governmental ban on novices at Soeterbeeck that had been in place since 1812.1 As mentioned in Paragraph 4.4.2, the community not only survived this suspension, but during it even secretly expanded to about thirty members, passing off the new sisters as ‘boarders’. The prioresses who managed so well to lead the convent through these exceptionally difficult times were Theresia Heijnen (1783-1822) and her successor Aloysia Verkleij (1822-1840). Rector at the time was the secular priest Joannes van den Broek, who had succeeded Arnoldus Beckers (1772-1810) in 1811 and remained in office until his death in 1842. His successor, Henricus Joannes Antonius de Bruijn, already resigned on 12 November 1844.2 In his continuation of the second version of Beckers’s chronicle of Soeterbeeck, covering the period between 1808 and 1844, Rector De Bruijn reports on the convent’s deplorable financial situation, saying that wij hebben ons […] in alles veel moeten bezuinigen (‘we had to cut back a lot on everything’).3 Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, the community had grown to forty-nine professed sisters and one novice by 1857, when Antonius Lambertus van der Heijden became rector.4 In 1870 it consisted of more than fifty members. Van der Heijden was of the opinion that this was the maximum number of sisters that Soeterbeeck could sustain, given its continuing poverty.5
In 1844 the monastic enclosure was reintroduced at Soeterbeeck.6 A year later, the sisters founded the convent of Nazareth in the nearby town of Ravenstein.7 This move betrays a certain lack of balance on a spiritual level, even though it is understandable if taken as being at least partially driven by the community’s financial hardships. At Nazareth, a small group of sisters would run a school, and later also a boarding-house, for girls. In addition, there was also room for lay boarders of a higher age. Soeterbeeck’s own in-house school had ceased to exist after the convent’s temporary dissolution and the foundation of Nazareth clearly took the sisters’ teaching activities to another level. As a result, however, the convent in Ravenstein was much less isolated from the world than its mother house in Deursen. This may have caused problems for the choir sisters who inhabited the new convent, given the restrictions that the reestablished enclosure imposed upon them (whose precise nature, however, is unknown). In addition, they were still bound to the obligation to choral prayer.
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