Identity and space in the Utrecht chronicle manuscript 'Het Utrechts Archief, VII F 5' (c. 1477)

Abstract

This study attempts to distinguish the local, regional and supraregional identities that are produced in manuscript Utrecht, Het Utrechts Archief, VII F 5 (‘the Utrecht chronicle manuscript’). This fifteenth-century manuscript in Middle Dutch (c. 1477) contains a world chronicle, followed by an extensive series of regional chronicles. The codex was compiled by an Utrecht canon, who was almost certainly part of a network of historiographers centred around Willem van Berchen, Theodoricus Pauli and Johannes a Leydis. Codex-internal references and overlap between several of the manuscript’s chronicles reveal that the texts in the manuscript form a unity, but, at the same time are able to function independently. The forward references in the manuscript’s world chronicle indicate that the regional chronicles were an intended part of the manuscript. Since identities are partly rooted in space, the manuscript’s represented space is analysed. A Geographical Information System (GIS) is used to perform a data analysis on more than 2500 references to geographical locations. Space is represented on three levels. The manuscript includes a local Utrecht space, several regional spaces and a supraregional space roughly corresponding with the core areas of the medieval Low Countries. In all, the combination of the manuscript’s codicological features, overlap, codex-internal references and represented spaces are able to produce local, regional and supraregional identities. Although most territories situated in the Low Countries were ruled by the Burgundian dukes, the promoted supraregional identity does not coincide with a possible Burgundian identity.