Add MS 38527

This manuscript is one of the twenty-five extant copies of the Dutch translation of the Speculum Virginum: the text is a didactic work written by Conradus Hirsaugiensis (b. c. 1070, d. c. 1150), a Benedictine monk and poet from Hirschau Abbey, instructing readers about the female monastic life in the form of a dialogue between a fictional male teacher named Peregrinus and a female disciple named Theodora. Until the fourteenth century, the Speculum Virginum circulated exclusively among male religious – particularly Canons Regular and Cistercian monks – since it was used a manual by clerics involved with the spiritual care of nuns. The Middle Dutch translation, however, circulated especially among female religious communities: the translation dates to the late fourteenth century when it was perhaps completed or commissioned by the preacher Wermbold van Boskoop (d. 1413). In 1399, Wermbold founded the Chapter of Utrecht, a congregation of houses of male and female Franciscan tertiaries that sought to develop a more strict religious lifestyle influenced by the Devotio Moderna. The translation was almost certainly produced in the milieu of the Chapter of Utrecht and intended to provide guidance and instruction for its communities of female Franciscan tertiaries. Several copies from the first half of the fifteenth century were owned by its female religious houses. The London manuscript is an early example of this: it was owned by the female Franciscan tertiaries of Mariëngaard, a community in Utrecht that Wermbold had personally guided and reformed. The London manuscript is particularly interesting because it is the only copy of the Dutch translation that contains illustrations. However, the manuscript may have lost both text and images: its prologue refers to all of the Speculum Virginum's original twelve books, but includes only six books.

ff. 1r-143v: Spieghel der Maechden, 'Hier beghint dat prologus vanden spieghel der maechden' (Books I-VI).

[ff. 4r, 68v, 69r, 70r, 90r, 124v are blank]

Decoration:

5 full page miniatures on tipped in singletons with colours and gold in blue and red frames. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 4v: The Tree of Jesse with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Peregrinus ('Pelgrimus') at the top, Isaiah on the left, and Theodora and an unnamed Old Testament figure on the right.

f. 69v: A Tree of Vices, with a king ('Pride') holding the 'chalice of Babylon' below, and 'Old Adam' (Luxuria) on top of the tree.

f. 70v: A Tree of Virtues, with the Virgin Mary ('Obedience') and two angels below and the 'New Adam', Christ ('Minne') on top of the tree.

f. 90v: Madonna: The Virgin Mary seated and holding a book, with the Christ-child below her, writing on a piece of parchment.

f. 124r: The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

8 large blue initials with red penwork decoration, most used to introduce the prologue and six books (1r, 5r, 32v, 34v, 48r, 71r, 89v, 123v); a few smaller initials in blue without penwork decoration.