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Tables of contents from the last five years

 

2016 (182), 419 p.

• Mario Damen, Prelaten, edelen en steden. De samenstelling van de Staten van Brabant in de vijftiende eeuw, p. 5-274.

  
  Summary - Who were the members of the Estates of Brabant and could receive a summons letter for an assembly in the fifteenth century ? In this study, I give an overview and an analysis of the composition of this representative institution on the basis of four undated summons lists. Given the importance of these lists for the political- institutional and social history of the Duchy of Brabant, a complete critical edition of the lists is the backbone of this study. Moreover, all listed persons are identified in brief biographical notes. New lists were composed by the ducal chancery on the occasion of major political events when the presence and participation of the (most powerful) representatives of the citizens was required. A closer examination showed that these summons lists were compiled on the occasion of the inauguration of Duke Anthony of Burgundy in 1406, the inauguration of Duke John IV in 1415 and to celebrate the peace concluded between Archduke Maximilian and the rebellious cities of Brabant in August 1489. These lists, together with the Brabantine part of the convocation list for the Estates General of 1464, offer an overview of the persons who were considered by their contemporaries as the political representatives of the three Estates: the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate. This overview is then compared with the attendance at several important meetings of the Estates in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. To make the process of convocation yet more transparent, the lists are followed by a critical edition of some summons letters for the abbot of Park, Engelbert I of Nassau, lord of Breda, and the city of Antwerp.

  Mario Damen is assistant professor of medieval history at the University of Amsterdam. He is especially interested in the social, political and cultural history of the late medieval Low Countries and publishes on the nobility, tournaments, political representation, stained-glass windows and the Burgundian- Habsburg princes. Furthermore, since 2016 he directs a research programme subsidized by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) entitled Imagining a territory. Constructions and representations of late medieval Brabant.

• Sara Moens, Guibert de Gembloux's « De destructione monasterii Gemblacensis ». Literary Legacy and Issues of Authorship Against the Backdrop of the Decline of Traditional Monasticism, p. 275-301.

  
  Summary - The Benedictine Guibert of Gembloux is mostly known as the last secretary of the renowned Renish visionary Hildegard of Bingen. However, he also left behind a rich literary legacy that sheds light on the world of a traditional monk during the central Middle Ages. One of his works is De destructione monasterii Gemblacensis, preserved in MS 5535-37 of the Manuscripts Department at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. The text sheds light on Guibert’s concept of authorship, in particular of a collection of fourteen letter treatises that follow De destructione in the manuscript. By employing topoi and biblical exempla, Guibert justified his literary ambitions, placing himself within the traditional learnt discourse on authorship. In addition, De destructione offers insight into the debate on the state of traditional coenobitism during a period in which it was encountering increasing competition from other monastic groups. Guibert employed the discourse of decline of traditional monasticism partly as a literary strategy in order to justify his actions.

  Sara Moens (Ghent University) defended her Ph.D. “De horizonten van Guibertus van Gembloers (ca. 1124-1214). De wereld van een benedictijns briefschrijver in tijden van een verschuivend religieus landschap” [“The horizons of Guibert of Gembloux (c 1124-1214). The world of a Benedictine letter- writer from the decades after the ‘crisis’ of traditional coenobitism”] (supervisor J. Deploige) in April 2014. Since October 2014 she has been employed as a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders on her new research project on Cistercian nuns and the cura monialium in the southern Low Countries, 1150-1275.
  

2015 (181), 327 p.

• Jean-Louis Kupper, La notice d’inféodation du comté de Hainaut à l’Église de Liège (1071) (p. 5-31)

  The enfeoffment of the county of Hainaut to the Church of Liege (1071) is known through a number of documents, among which a notitia, the interest and the potential of which do not seem to have been fully appreciated yet. The present study aims at rehabilitating this notitia while offering a new critical edition of it.

  Jean-Louis Kupper – Corresponding member of the Institut de France. Member of the Académie royale de Belgique. Emeritus professor of the Université de Liège. Deputy secretary-treasurer of the Commission royale d’Histoire.

• Annelies Somers, De statuten van het Gentse Sint-Veerlekapittel (1225-1788) (p. 33-148)

  This contribution aims to shed light on the statutes of the chapter of Saint Pharahild in Ghent, from the Middle Ages to the end of the Ancien Régime. Notwithstanding the minor importance of this religious institution on the Flemish canonical scene, an interesting set of documents was preserved. Five subsequent versions of the internal regulations, dating from 1225 to 1788 offer a unique picture of the organization and functioning of the institution. As a whole, they reflect the evolutions and adaptations to which the chapter was submitted, in an attempt to adjust to ever changing circumstances and to overcome periods of crisis. Furthermore, in each version of the statutes, the Institutio canonicorum, the Aachen rule dating from the ninth century, is strongly embedded. This rule not only established the principles of canonical life; it shaped its features for centuries. The statutes of the chapter of Saint Pharahild thus show a great concern for the protection of tradition and the image of the chapter, as well as actual interference – often compelled by events or circumstances – to serve this purpose.

  Annelies Somers (Bruges, 1984) obtained a Master’s degree in history at Ghent University in 2006. She completed the Advanced Master in Archival Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2008. She finished a PhD on the secular clergy, funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office in collaboration with Ghent University and the Ghent State Archives. More particularly, her research concerned the church of Saint Nicolas and the chapter of Saint Pharahild in Ghent (1384-1614).

• Antoine Bonnivert, L’attitude ambivalente des évêques de Liège à l’égard des prêteurs lombards aux XIII^e et XIV^e siècles : autour d’un acte notarié de 1303 (p. 149-208)

  Over the last thirty years, a growing number of scholars have been studying the settlement and activities of Lombard traders north of the Alps. Yet, no systematic study of the relations between these moneylenders and the bishopric of Liège has been undertaken to this day. In this very wealthy and prestigious bishopric, the prince-bishops nevertheless maintained frequent and intense contacts with those financiers, whether these contacts were profitable or not. In this context, we will examine the attitude of the successive bishops towards the practice of usury. We will focus on Adolphe de Waldeck, who expelled the Lombards in 1302, and on the motives behind this significant gesture. Our starting point is an act dating from November 7, 1303. Hereby, two brothers of the Abellonei family, coming from Asti and settled in Liège, authorized their brothers who had remained in Italy to perform a whole series of financial transactions. By studying this act, we want to explore the status of the Lombard moneylenders in Liège at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries.

  Antoine Bonnivert is a Junior researcher (aspirant FRS-FNRS) at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He started his PhD research in medieval history in 2014 under the supervision of Professor Alexis Wilkin. His thesis is entitled “Crosier, Sword and Bread: Bishops and Access to Food in the Rheno-Mosan Area (13th-15th Centuries)”. It aims to study the measures undertaken by successive bishops of Liège, Utrecht, and Cologne in order to regulate the access to food of their bishopric’s population.

• Valerie Vrancken, Opstand en dialoog in laatmiddeleeuws Brabant. Vier documenten uit de Brusselse opstand tegen Maximiliaan van Oostenrijk (1488-1489) (p. 209-266)

  This contribution aims to shed new light on the Brabantine revolt of 1488-1489 against Maximilian of Austria, regent of the Burgundian Netherlands. Whereas former studies have primarily focused on the war-efforts and the military course of the conflict, this article addresses the dialogue that was ensued between the involved parties in these turbulent years. The four edited documents in attachment illustrate how Maximilian, his entourage, the deputies of the Estates General and the insurgents diverted, influenced and sometimes intentionally suppressed deliberations to increase their impact on the conflict. A thorough analysis of these texts offers explanations for the failure of the peace negotiations with the insurgents and makes it possible to study the mediating role of the deputies of the Estates General during the conflict. In addition, the article discusses the arguments that were employed to influence the acts of other parties, next to illustrating that both Maximilian’s entourage and the insurgents sometimes avoided and restrained dialogue in order to secure their own policy.

  Valerie Vrancken works as a researcher at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). Within the framework of the IAP-project “City and Society in the Low Countries” (P7/26), she is currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on political culture in late medieval Brabant and the Inauguration Charters of the Brabantine dukes in particular. She obtained a Master’s degree in history at the KU Leuven in 2012 with a dissertation on the Brussels revolt against Maximilian of Austria (1488-1489).

2014 (180), 425 p.

• Nicolas Schroeder & Alexis Wilkin, Documents de gestion inédits provenant de l’abbaye de Stavelot-Malmedy et concernant les domaines de Lantremange, Jenneret et Louveigné (x^e-xii^e siècle) (p. 5-48)

  Four estate records from the abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy and concerning the estates of Lantremange, Jenneret and Louveigné (Belgium, Province de Liège) are introduced and edited. The introduction gives information about the textual transmission of the documents. Although dating remains uncertain, a relative chronology is given, which suggests that the documents were written at different moments between the 10^th and the end of the 12^th century. The historiographic and thematic framing of the edited evidence contributes to develop a new understanding of monastic estates and economy in Lotharingia, from the Carolingian period to the high Middle Ages. The organisation of Stavelot-Malmedy’s estates, the importance of writing in their management and the role of manorial officers are also considered.

• Jean-Marie Yante, Authentification des écritures et contrôle comptable. Les clercs-jurés dans le Luxembourg aux xv^e et xvi^e siècles

  
  The office of clerc-juré (sworn clerk) first appeared in the Duchy of Luxembourg either at the end of the 14^th century or the start of the 15^th. Its role in the 16^th century, can be understood thanks to the 1529 instructions issued by the Chambre des Comptes de Bruxelles (Brussels Finance Court) to the holder of the post in the capital, to various provisions of the Arlon practice of 1532 and to the account of the mission in the Duchy led by two officers of the Finance Court in 1546. The latter raises various issues relating to the way the documents were kept as well as instances of allegiance to collectors or provost marshals. This same situation significantly damaged the credibility of the certifications put in place for the Principality’s or Offices of Justice’s receipts and expenses. The role of the clercs-jurés (sworn clerks) in the authentication of the documents, or even in the translation of the same, is also significant. In the absence of a prosopographic study of this material, we do nevertheless have access to information concerning some individuals that shows that many agents belonged to professional dynasties.

• Raymond Fagel, Het Bourgondische hof van Karel V als koning van Spanje. De hofstaat van 21 juni 1517 (p. 69-137)

  
  The court ordinance of June 21, 1517 was drafted when the court of Charles V was preparing itself for the journey to Spain. Compared with the previous ordinance of October 25, 1515 (valid as from January 1, 1516), this new document marks a significant change in de organization of the Burgundian court. The service in terms, seen by Werner Paravicini as one of the most distinguishing features of the Burgundian court, was abolished. The number of courtiers present at any given time grew considerably, while the total number of people that could call itself a member of the court - at least during a few months of the year - strongly diminished. This document, often neglected, shows how the court in Brussels was trying to adapt itself to the Spanish inheritance. It proves that a real shift took place within the character and the structure of the court, a clear break that is easily disregarded because all departments and functions retained their former designations. The new ordinance made it much more difficult for the new Burgundian court of Charles V to reflect all territories under his sovereignty. This may explain the strained relationship of the court with the Spanish aristocracy in the near future. The court ordinance of 1517 is a bureaucratic working document, written in several hands, with erasions and additions. The names of some of the functionaries are still left open, to be added later. In this first complete edition of the court ordinance of 1517, efforts have been made to identify as many names as possible of the functionaries who are mentioned in the document.

• Francis Brumont & Jean-Philippe Priotti, Identités marchandes. Merciers et hommes d’affaires dans le commerce entre les Pays-Bas et l’Espagne (1533-1556) (p. 139-360)

  
  Besides the publication of a new correspondence between Navarrian mercers frequenting the fairs of Castile and big international merchants living in the Netherlands, the authors study in the introduction to these letters many aspects of the personal and commercial links between this province and the kingdom of Castile. First, they are interested in the merchants established in Antwerp (emigrated from Bearn, Castile and the Basque country), in their interrelations, in their links with their homeland of origin as well as in their strategy of upward social mobility in their new country. The small mercers, without comparable size, turn to their protection, to their financing and to their mediation to amplify their field activity, and imbricate by this way big trade with retail trade, what entails disappointments and conflicts. The economic aspects of these exchanges are also approached: goods, routes, fairs system, credit and foreign exchange. Moreover, published letters allow a fine analysis of circumstances and of the impact of political decisions on the commercial and private life of the actors, as well as on their mental universe, and give a very alive picture of all of these elements.

2013 (179), 427 p.

• Jean-Louis Kupper, La donation de la comtesse Ermengarde à l’Église de Liège (1078)
  (p. 5-50)

  The present study aims at substantiating the identity of Countess Ermengarde, who donated most of her possessions - more specifically her estate and castle at Waremme in the Hesbaye - to the Church of Liège in 1078. Ermengarde, who belonged to the Grandpré lineage in Champagne, was the widow of Count Gozelon de Rochefort, who died in 1064. The documentary file, now entirely published, is here scrutinized so as to bring out new information about the economic, political and cultural history of Western Europe ad the end of 11^th century.

• Maxime Tondeur, Les « Observations regardantes l’état militaire et son oeconomie aux Païs-Bas autrichiens, 1752 » : une étude sur la composition et le financement de l’appareil militaire dans les Pays-Bas au milieu du 18^e siècle (p. 51-156)

  
  The organization and working of the Austrian Netherlands’ military are still scarcely known due to the loss of much of its administrative archives. Maxime Tondeur’s article is filling a part of this historical gap by presenting an exceptional document issued by the Brussels War commissariat in 1753. With some kind of “pedagogical” aim, this source gives much information about the organization of the military institutions, the composition of the army and its administrative staff, the management of the military finances, and the arrangements regarding the quartering and supplying of the troops. The figures concerning the War treasury’s accountings, the recruitment and the desertion, for example, do contain exceptional data. Put together with a survey that explains the effects of political centralization upon the military organization, within the framework of Maria Theresa’s institutional reforms, the edition of this document should enlighten the history of the army and military settlement in the Austrian Netherlands.

• Françoise Muller et Jean-Pierre Nandrin †, Regard sur la société élitaire belge du dix-neuvième siècle. L’autobiographie du conseiller de cassation Louis Crahay (1834-1904)
  (p. 157-295)

  
  This contribution presents the autobiography of the councellor of the court of cassation Louis Crahay (1834-1904). A significant part of the relation is devoted to his father, Jacques-Guillaume Crahay, one of the first professors at the Université de Louvain. L. Crahay immerses the reader in the high Belgian catholic society of the 19^th century from which it portrays the daily life unrestrainedly, the text being intended to a strictly familial circle. It offers thus an exceptional testimony of the private life of the elites. The framework of the social relationships become clear, highlighting the importance, at that age, of the recommendations regarding the entrance and promotion in Magistracy.

• Joost Luyckx, Prins Albert op verkenning in Noord-Amerika (1898). Het merkwaardige reisdagboek van een toekomstig Belgisch staatshoofd (p. 297-358)

  
  In the spring of 1898, prince Albert of Belgium - the future king Albert I - travelled through the United States of America, the north of Mexico and the south west of Canada. This educational trip was an important part of his preparation to royalty. On 11 March 1898, the prince was received by the American president William McKinley and afterwards, he travelled incognito through North America, where he visited numerous large companies, universities and charities. During his journey, Albert wrote down his experiences in a diary. This article contains a critical edition of his travel report and tries to clarify the broader context in which the princely visit to the United States and Canada took place. In this way, we hope to complete the existing historiography on the education and the personality of the prince. Furthermore, the diary shows us how North America was perceived by a prominent aristocrat of Western Europe in the late nineteenth century.

2012 (178), 295 p.

• Mark Clarke, Recovery of effaced mediaeval recipes for painters and illuminators from Brussels Poyal Library MS 10512 (circa 1200) (p. 5-21).

  
  Two articles in the Bulletin reported (1842), and partially edited (1954), technical recipes for painters and illuminators, from c. 1200, which are preserved in Royal Library of Belgium MS 10147-58. The edition of 1954 omitted f. 26 vo as it was almost completely illegible. This paper identifies a series of parallel recipes from Montpellier MS H 277, c. 1350-1400. The similarities allow the content of f. 26 vo to be reconstructed. The Brussels MS is shown to be an important witness to an alternate textual tradition of the Romanesque craft treatise of Theophilus, its importance is confirmed as probably the earliest technical document relating to art from the Low Countries.

• Thérèse De Hemptinne & Valéria Van Camp, Gens, maisnie, ou hôtel ? Le personnel à gages à la cour de Guillaume I/III de Hainaut et Hollande/Zélande et de son épouse Jeanne de Valois (1304-1337) (p. 23-64).

  
  This contribution aims, with the help of seven accounts from the archives of the counts of Hainaut and Holland between 1304-1337, to shed light on the practices of paid employment at the court and in the count’s household. An analysis of the terms used in these documents to designate the services for wages and the people remunerated allows us to sketch a picture of the organisation of the comital household. Contrary to what normative texts, such as court ordinances, show us, these services were not rigidly structured according to a clearly defined schema. Rather they were (dis)organised pragmatically according to the changing daily needs of the count’s family, whose members were frequently travelling and often separated from one another, to the financial resources of the moment and to the fortuitous availability of the people involved to perform the various services. Over a period of roughly 25 years these snapshots reveal personnel with widely diverse skills, flexible and employable in multiple tasks, faithful to and valued by their employers but also often very active in other sectors than in the service of the count and his family.

• Frederik Buylaert, Sociale hiërarchisering en informatiebeheer tussen vorst en kasselrij. De productie van “adelslijsten” in het graafschap Vlaanderen (14^e - 16^e eeuw) (p. 65-128).
  

  
  This publication provides a critical edition of the lists of nobles and dignitaries that are preserved for different moments in the fifteenth and sixteenth century for the rural districts of Courtrai, Waas, Furnes and the Liberty of Bruges, as well as of a document that lists the nobility of the entire county in 1540-1543. Those documents are first and foremost important for future research into local elites, but they also help to contextualize a series of preserved surveys that cover the entire Flemish nobility and which were used by the central institutions of the Burgundian and Habsburg state to convoke the nobility for military duties. Those general surveys of the nobility were not the result of active prospecting by state officials, but must be understood as a compilation of more local lists of nobles and dignitaries that were provided by the administration of the rural districts of the county. In doing so, the central administration of the prince essentially relied on the judgment of the elites that dominated those local administrations to assess who was supposed to fulfill noble duties. As such, the documents edited in this contribution provide precious insight into processes of social hierarchisation in the upper layers of premodern Flemish society.

• Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, Twee 14^de-eeuwse cautsiderekeningen van Brussel (p. 129-174). Joseph DROOGHAAG, Visitation en Limbourg et Outre-Meuse: l’état des forteresses ducales en 1406 (p. 175-219).

  
  The majority of medieval accounts of the so-called cautside, the public pavement service of the town of Brussels, has been lost. Luckily, two documents dating from the 14^th century have been preserved. Both are edited in this article: on the one hand the enrolled accounts for the year 1369-1370 and on the other a summary account for the period 1372-1379, which is conserved as an attachment to the urban edict of 22 October 1379. Obviously, the documents contain data on the operation and activities of the cautside itself, but are very interesting for the study of urban immigration, building materials and public works as well.

• Joseph Drooghaag, Visitation en Limbourg et Outre-Meuse: l’état des forteresses ducales en 1406.

  
  Within the framework of his seizure on the Duchy of Limburg and its appendants, Philippe the Bold orders in 1389 an investigation relating to his rights and the state of the fortresses which he just has acquired. This document was published in the Thirties by the historian Fritz Quicke. In 1406, Anthony of Burgundy, recently nominated Duke of Limburg, requires a new expertise of the castles in Limburg. In addition to a setting in prospect for these documents in their political context, this article proposes a critical edition of the act of 1406 as well as an analysis of its contents under the angle of the evolution from the way of besieging the cities.

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