TNTL 110

A.Th. Bouwman en G. Warnar

Willem de Vreese en de Ruusbroec-handschriften

Abstract - In 1900 and 1902 W.L. de Vreese published two parts of his De handschriften van Jan van Ruusbroec's werken. The origin of this unfinished inventory Ä in which 84 manuscripts with works of the famous Middle Dutch mystic are amply described Ä can be found in an unpublished prize-essay of 1893, on the phonetics of Ruusbroec's works. The manuscript of the prize-essay was recently donated to Leiden University Library, together with copy for the (unpublished) third part of De handschriften. This article studies the genesis of De handschriften and its relation to the Bibliotheca Neerlandica Manuscripta, De Vreese's documentation project on Middle Dutch manuscripts. Finally, it shows the importance of the unpublished descriptions for the Ruusbroec philology.