A vow of oetmoed: the story of Griseldis in a Bridgettine context.

Abstract

The manuscript Leuven, Leuven University Library, Maurits Sabbe Library, PM0491, better known under its previous shelfmark Nijmegen, Jesuit Library Berchmanianum, 5000 PB 53. It contains one of three independent translations of the story of Griseldis in Middle Dutch. It was created in a Bridgettine context and contains mainly devotional material. This thesis aims to understand why the story of Griseldis is present in this book. In the first part, I analyse Middle Dutch vernacular translations of the story and their interpretative paratext. From this, we learn that independent Middle Dutch translations add a religious dimension to the exemplum. In the second part I construct a codicological and paratextual survey of the codex itself, to try and understand if the story was a later addition to the text and how much importance was placed on it. By studying the use of penwork, we find that the story of Griseldis is not only an intended part of this manuscript, but considered one of the most important texts present, alongside the three hagiographies of the holy women, Elizabeth of Thuringia, Katherina of Vadstena, and Godelieve of Gistel. In the third part of this thesis, I compare these biographies with the Rule of St Birgitta. Through this analysis it becomes clear that these four women can all be read as allegories for nuns entering a Bridgettine convent. Though none of these women are Bridgettine nuns, aside from Katharina of Vadstena, each follow rules and regulations associated with the Bridgettine order. Each woman displays the virtues of humility, chastity and voluntary poverty as well as the social isolation and relinquishment of family the Rule of the Saviour prescribes. Finally, I argue that Griseldis is not an incidental part of this manuscript, but an allegory for a mother and widow who enters a convent, and who could gladly forsake her children as the Regula Salvatoris prescribes, in spite of being a laywoman at her core.