The Geraardsbergen Manuscript: Story 1

The first story of the Geraardsbergen Manuscript was told by Gerard Sonnemans, the scholar who took the initiative that led to the publication of the whole manuscript. Sonnemans was interested in the ‘profile’ of the compiler of the manuscript. What type of person would want to possess such a text collection. As there are no external data to answer this question, Sonnemans constructs a profile from the types of text that are found in the manuscript. He suggests that the book was made for (and; by?) a secular cleric from Geraardsbergen with a passion for pilgrimage. The link to Geraardsbergen is justified by the references to two famous local inhabitants and the name of one of Geraardsbergen’s most famous inns. These conclusions are still generally accepted.

The passion for pilgrimage is assumed because there are two texts in the manuscript that discuss pilgrimages, one to Rome, one to Maastricht, Aachen and Cologne. The idea of a secular cleric is based on the appearance of a number of texts in the manuscript regarding confession, mass, care of the dying and devotion. However, Sonnemans neglects many of the more worldly texts in the manuscript and the religious texts he mentions are all fairly elementary and their use by a devout lay person is just as plausible. And talking about a passion for pilgrimage on the basis of two texts is not very convincing. So in more recent research Sonnemans’ ideas are no longer followed. One could even argue that one of the pilgrimage texts shows that Sonnemans is wrong and Joris Reynaert is right.

For more details, see: further reading

Go back to: the five stories of the Geraardsbergen Manuscript

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