2023-04-20 08:48:00
It was during an internship in the archives of Parc Abbey (Flemish Brabant) that students unearthed a medieval parchment with “considerable” historical value. Laurent Breeus-Loos (UAntwerpen) and Irene Van Eldere (University of Leiden) discovered that regarding seven centuries ago a monk wrote a passage from the epic in question on a piece of parchment. According to the researchers, it is remarkable that it is precisely a monk who is at the origin of this prose, because the animal epic is, historically, devoid of any religious character.
The parchment contains a dozen notes described as “pen proofs”. In the Middle Ages, copyists copied texts using quill pens, which they tested beforehand by writing on a flyleaf. Research on the type of writing showed that one of these essays, dating from 1300, contained a short passage from the famous Flemish epic.
The discovery of the piece of parchment sheds light on a section of Flemish literature. It shows that shortly following its creation, the story “Van den vos Reynaerde” already met with success outside the county of Flanders, including in ecclesiastical circles.
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