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Document Details : Title: Visies op de schrijfkunst in de Late Middeleeuwen Subtitle: 'Laus scripturae' bij Jan van Boendale, Jean Gerson, Hermann Strepel Author(s): REYNAERT, Joris Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Date: 2011 Pages: 123-152 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.53.2.2119621 Abstract : In this article I examine and compare three late medieval ‘praises of handwriting’: Jean Gerson’s Tractatus de laude scriptorum (1423), the chapter ‘On writing and on learning’ (Vander lettren ende vander clergien) in Der leken spiegel (‘The layman’s mirror’, Antwerp about 1325) by the Brabantine author and town clerck Jan van Boendale and the ‘advertisement sheet’ of the Münster writing master Hermann Strepel (1447). The contrast between the two ‘lay’ praises of writing and Gerson’s Tractatus, which in the first instance was intended for a monastic audience, mainly manifests itself in a number of (strikingly similar) ‘worldly’ motifs and motivations found in Boendale and Strepel. These concern not only the preservation of faith and civilization, of legal agreements and scientific knowledge, but also considerations of social profit, individual merit and career opportunities. On further investigation, these similarities do not really link these two texts together directly, but turn out to continue in a recognizable manner the self-laudatory discourse of 13th century ars dictaminis. |
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