TNTL 111

Jan Willem Klein

‘Het getal zijner jaren is onnaspeurlijk'. Een herijking van de dateringen van de handschriften en fragmenten met Middelnederlandse ridderepiek

Abstract - In Kienhorst's book De handschriften van de Middelnederlandse ridderepiek all 150-odd Middle Dutch chivalric manuscripts and fragments are presented in facsimile in at least one sample. This makes it possible for a palaeographer to compare the script and assign - with due caution - a date to the manuscripts. It appears that in a number of cases the dates as given in the literature have to be revised. The new chronology shows a clear change in literary taste in the Low Countries around 1350. Before that date Middle Dutch romances were predominantly Arthurian, whereas after c.1350 literature about Charlemagne was favoured. This result alone proves the necessity of palaeographic atlasses of literary texts.