Organized by Musea Brugge, the Royal Library – National Library of the Netherlands, and Radboud University 

Nijmegen 

In the context of the exhibition ‘Love and Devotion: the Gruuthuse Manuscript’, 22 March – 23 June 2013, Bruges, Gruuthuse Museum, in collaboration with the Royal Library – National Library of the Netherlands and Radboud University Nijmegen.

The Gruuthuse manuscript was compiled in Bruges around 1395-1408. It is a highlight in Middle Dutch literature and an important source of information on late medieval urban culture in the Netherlands. Besides prayers and poems, the manuscript contains the oldest known collection of songs with musical notation in the Low Countries: songs of courtly and uncourtly love, songs of fellowship and sacred songs. 

The Gruuthuse manuscript is the starting point and the main theme of the exhibition at the Gruuthuse Museum. After a brief introduction about the manuscript and the city of Bruges c. 1400, the exhibition goes on to examine a number of themes broached by the manuscript: music, love, ‘const’, fellowship and devotion. The conference will take up these themes as the starting point for an international and multidisciplinary approach to (urban) culture in Northwest Europe in the early fifteenth century. New insights in the field of history, art history, literature and musicology will be explained and developed during this conference.

16h30-18h00 : Registration of participants at the Town Hall, Burg 12, 8000 Bruges

18h00-19h00 : Reception at the Town Hall

19h00-20h00 : Lecture by Herman Pleij – The triumph of literary self-awareness among an urban elite (in Dutch)

20h00 : Dinner at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Burg 10, 8000 Bruges

08h30-9h00 : Registration and reception with coffee, Concertgebouw, ’t Zand 34, 8000 Bruges

9h00-10h00 : Wim Blockmans – Dutch literature in multilingual Bruges (in Dutch)

10h00-10h30 : Break

10h30-11h00 : Herman Brinkman – Nicht vor waeldoen ende vroilic sijn! Early users of the Gruuthuse manuscript (in Dutch)

11h00-11h30 : Ad Leerintveld and Henk Porck – A closer look at the Gruuthuse coat of arms. Spectrometric analyses (in Dutch) 

11h30-12h00 : Anne Korteweg – The acquisition of the Gruuthuse manuscript: facts and fictions (in Dutch)

12h00-12h30 : Panel discussion chaired by Johan Thielemans

12h30-14h00 : Lunch

14h00-14h30 : Cyriel Stroo – Aspects of (the) art (of painting) in Bruges around 1400. Const si doch const met consten loonen (in Dutch)

Sonia Tortajada Hernando – The conservation of the two Tydeman’s angels from the Prado Museum (in English) 

Saskia Van Bergen – Goris de liberaris heeft meer bouken dan alle die vander stede… Book production in Bruges in the early 15th century (in Dutch)

Hugo van der Velden – The concept of ‘const’ in the Gruuthuse manuscript (in Dutch)

Jan Dumolyn – Corporative ideology in the Gruuthuse manuscript (in Dutch)

Jan de Klerk – Goed voorgaan doet goed volgen. Views on good government in Dat kaetspel ghemoralizeert in relation to the Gruuthuse manuscript and the political and legal developments in Flanders between 1380 and 1440 (in Dutch)

Hendrik Callewier – The curate of Oedelem: the secular clergy and the Gruuthuse manuscript (in Dutch)

16h00-16h30 : Break 

16h30-17h00 : Jos Koldeweij – The Gruuthuse manuscript in pictures

17h15-19h30 : Visit to the exhibition Love and Devotion. The Gruuthuse Manuscript, Gruuthuse Museum, Dijver 17, 8000 Bruges

18h00-19h30 : Sandwich meal, Vriendenzaal Musea Brugge, Dijver 12, 8000 Bruges

20h00 : Concert featuring Club Mediéval, Concertgebouw, ’t Zand 34, 8000 Bruges

08h30-09h00 : Reception with coffee, Concertgebouw, ’t Zand 34, 8000 Bruges

09h00-09h20 : Johan Oosterman – Not that I am worth anything as a poet. The first person in the Gruuthuse poems (in Dutch)

09h20-09h40 : Noël Geirnaert – From (informal?) company to rhetoric guild: the continuity between poets of the ‘Gruuthuse manuscript’ and the rhetoricians of the Holy Spirit (in Dutch)

09h40-10h00 : Karl Kuegle – Musical eroticism in the Gruuthuse’ songs (in English)

10h00-10h45 : Break

10h45-11h05 : Joris Reynaert – The many formats of an ethical discourse. Artistic projection(s) in the ‘allegorical poems’ (in Dutch)

11h05-11h30 : Frank Willaert – Poetical connections. Gruuthuse’s lyrical poetry in Flemish and international perspective (in Dutch)

11h30-12h00 : Panel discussion chaired by Wim Blockmans 

12h00 : Lunch

Ita Hijmans – The polyphonic potential of Gruuthuse melodies from a Central European perspective: an experimental musicological exploration (in English)

Pieter Mannaerts – Modality in the Gruuthuse songs (in English)

Hélène Haug and Steven Marien – Different ways of performing the Gruuthuse repertoire (in Dutch and French)

Stefan Rosmer – The sacred songs of the Gruuthuse manuscript and the works of the ‘Monk of Salzburg’. Similarities and differences (in English)

Thom Mertens – The sermon of Brother Jan Lyoen (in Dutch)

Janet van der Meulen – Gruuthuse between Bruges and Paris: on poets, devotion and the debate of the Roman de la Rose (in Dutch)

Dieuwke van der Poel – Uncourtly, mad, erotic? The literary and historical context of certain Gruuthuse songs (in Dutch)

15h30-16h00 : Break

16h00-16h45 : Frits Van Oostrom – The polyphony of Gruuthuse (in Dutch)

16h45 : Closing reception

Please register by sending the attached registration form by 12 April 2013 to: 

Bruggemuseum / congres, Dijver 12, B- 8000 Brugge 

bruggemuseum@brugge.be 

fax +32 (0)50 44 87 37

110 euros non-speakers

75 euros speakers

75 euros students

60 euros conference dinner

Bank account number: see registration form

All conference locations are in the centre of Bruges. 

You can book a hotel at http://www.meetinginbrugge.be/en/scientifique-symposium-gruuthusemuseum-gruuthusehandschrift 

The concert on 26 April is free of charge for all conference participants. On 27 April, conference participants who so wish may attend the concert featuring Psallentes and Camerata Trajectina (8.00pm, Concertgebouw) and can order tickets at a 15% discount.