TNTL 112

J.W.J. Burgers

De invoering van het Nederlands in de dertiende-eeuwse documentaire bronnen in Holland en Zeeland

Abstract - In the county of Holland and Zeeland charters were written in Latin until the middle of the thirteenth century. In the third quarter of the century the Dutch language was introduced into these documents, but initially this habit developed very slowly. Especially in the towns and in the entourage of the local nobility of Zeeland, charters tended to be written in Dutch, as was the case in the chancery of Aleid and Floris of Hainaut, the powerful relatives of count Floris V. In the eighties the use of Dutch in charters and other documents spread rapidly throughout the county, at first in Dordrecht and with the local nobility, and from 1285 onward also in the chancery of the count. In the last decade of the century, when the other towns and the monasteries also started to use Dutch, Latin became the exception in documents written in Holland and Zeeland. In the past it has been said that the clerks of count Floris set the trend, but now it has become clear that they were merely following a fashion which was introduced at lower administrative levels, and which spread from Zeeland northward to Holland.