Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde

Joris Reynaert

Abstract -- Manuscript fragment Leiden, University Library, Ltk. 1202 is the only Middle Dutch text in verse which directly attests some knowledge of the zodiac and of sun astrology among the laity as early as the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. This zodologium, in which essentially the names of the signs of the zodiac are linked to their influence on the seasons, must have been translated from the same Latin text which was the source of the passage of the zodiac in the Natuurkunde van het geheelal (The physics of the Universe), another Middle Dutch artes text, but of a higher 'scientific' purport. The Latin model of both vernacular texts must have shown some typical features which connect it (together with its translations) to the Latin zodologium in the fifteenth century Spanish manuscript Gerona, Cathedral Archive, Ms. 91.

TNTL 122-1 (maart 2006), 70-88