Add MS 24898

This manuscript contains a moral and religious ABC-poem (a poem in which the initials of the poem's stanzas make up the alphabet) in Middle Dutch. The ABC-poem was a popular form of poetry in the late medieval Low Countries, especially among so-called 'Rederijkerskamers', urban societies of artists and poets that flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

This poem, which discusses sin, contrition and penance, was written by a scribe who identifies himself as 'Marcus van Yperen' of The Hague in a banderolle that is wrapped around two quills and a quill knive inside the initial 'D' on f. 5r: 'made by me, Marcus of Ypres, on the 25th of August in the year 1560, residing in The Hague' ('ghemaect bij mij Marcus van ypere den 25 van ougst int iaer 1560 wonende in den haeg').

No other extant copy of this text is known, and it is likely that the scribe wrote the poem for a specific literary-religious milieu. The manuscript has an impressive decorative programme: its large decorated initials and cadels take up more than three-quarter of each page and contain a rich variety of forms and figures.

Contents:

ff. 1r-27r: A religious ABC-poem, 'Als God gheschepen hadde hemel ende eerde / Hij schiep de menschen om sijns lofs verchieren / Ende tot smenschen dienste van hoogher werde / Schiep hij voghelen visschen ende ander dieren / Die mochten de menschen bin sweerelts bestieren / Ghebrucken ter noodt des lichaems cranck / Segghende den here altijds lof ende danck [etc.]'.

All the versos in the manuscript are blank.

Decoration:

The manuscript's decorated initials and miniature were executed by a single artist.

1 miniature in colours (f. 28r), showing God seated on a rainbow, with a banderolle held up by two angels that reads, 'Vreest Gods oordeel Wilt Duecht verstercken Want ghij moet rekeninghe gheven van al u wercken'. The angel on the right is early modern and was drawn when a lost half of f. 28 was replaced)

27 large decorated initials in colours: 1 decorated initial for each letter of the alphabet (some letters are missing and some feature twice); each with its own geometrical, architectural or foliate decoration, and cast of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic (e.g. deer, dogs dragons and a unicorn) and hybrid (satyrs and cherubs) figures; the stork is a recurrent motif throughout the manuscript.

Some initials contain religious imagery:

f. 13r: Christ crucified, in between the two Thieves.

f. 17r: The Throne of Mercy.

f. 20r: St Peter.

f. 23r: The Virgin Mary with Child.

Cadels with human faces and zoomorphic figures throughout the manuscript.