Een oude spiegel voor nieuwe maagden

Abstract

The article aims at reconstructing the production and the diffusion of the Middle Dutch text Spieghel der maechden, a late fourteenth-century translation of the twelfth-century treatise Speculum virginum. Research shows that the manuscripts containing the Spieghel der maechden circulated in the first years after the translation mainly in communities of tertiaries associated to the Chapter of Utrecht. The treatise, which promoted an enclosed life for female religious, was probably used in the spiritual education of tertiaries. More specifically, the Spieghel der maechden served as an instrument of formation in the process of claustralization of communities following the third rule of Saint Francis. The relevance of the text in the organization of spiritual life in convents of tertiaries is evidenced by the explicit reference to the Spieghel der maechden in the Informieringheboeck der jongen (1510-1512) written by Jan de Wael, confessor of the convent of tertiaries St. Agnes in Amersfoort. In the Informieringheboeck, the Spieghel der maechden is described as an instrument in the formation of novices and in the preparation to claustral life.