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Document Details : Title: 'Een phantasie-stuk over Jezus' geboorte'? Subtitle: Aantekeningen bij een Suverlic Tractaet vander Kersnacht ende der gheboerten ons heeren van Suster Bertken Author(s): VAN BUUREN, Fons Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 77 Issue: 3 Date: september 2003 Pages: 276-299 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.77.3.616497 Abstract : The Utrecht recluse Sister Bertken (1426/1427 – 1514) left behind a small literary œuvre. One of her works is the so called ‘Christmas Vision’ (or ‘Christmas Tract’), which relates what ‘een persoen, ghecledet met gheesteliken habite, heeft gevoelt van der geboerten ons heren’ [‘what a person, dressed in spiritual clothing, felt upon the birth of our lord’]. The vision consists of two parts. The first part narrates what happened to Mary in Bethlehem; the second part concentrates on the way Joseph experienced this special occasion. In this article the author presents an analytical survey of the studies that have been written about this Visionand concludes that more than a century of Bertken scholarship has not been able to solve many of its riddles. In the rest of the article he analyses Bertken’s Visionin the light of the theoretical writings from the circles of the Modern Devotion, in particular De spiritualibus ascensionibusof Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen. |
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