PhD students from the universities of Antwerp and Leiden made a “historical” discovery when they went through a parchment that included a passage from “Van den vos Reynaerde,” an animal epic considered a major work of Dutch literature. This story, composed in 1260, would have become famous much more quickly than previously thought, including within the religious sphere.
During an internship in the archives of Parc Abbey (Flemish Brabant), students unearthed a medieval parchment with “considerable” historical value. Laurent Breeus-Loos (UAntwerpen) and Irene Van Eldere (Leiden University) discovered that some seven centuries ago a monk wrote a passage from the epic in question on a piece of parchment.
According to the researchers, it is remarkable that it was precisely a monk who originated this prose, as the animal epic is, historically, devoid of any religious character.
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The parchment contains a dozen notes described as “pen proofs.” In the Middle Ages, copyists copied texts using quill pens, which they tested beforehand by writing on a cover sheet. Research into the type of writing has shown that one of these tests, dating from 1300, contained a short passage from the famous Flemish epic.
The discovery of the piece of parchment sheds light on a part of Flemish literature as it shows that shortly after its creation, the story “Van den vos Reynaerde” was already successful outside the county of Flanders, including in ecclesiastical circles.
