[POST-INCUNABLE - ROOKLOOSTER - WINDESHEIM].
Ordinarius divini officii pro ordine Canonicorum Regularium, Capittuli sive Congregationis Wyndesemensis. Anno Domini. M.CCCCC.XXI.
Deventer, Albert Pafraet, April 1521.
With: (2) [POST-INCUNABLE]. Statuta capituli Windeshemensis. - Incipiunt statuta capituli de windesim. impressa amstelredammis Et primo de elecione intronisatione & confirmatione novi prioris.
Den Hem (near Schoonhoven), Regular canon Frater N., 1508.
(3) [MANUSCRIPT - LATIN]. Forma inclusionis.
[Rooklooster, after 1480 (ca. 1490)].
4to. Ad 1: With the title set within a magnificent woodcut frame consisting of four pieces. Further with two smaller woodcuts in the text, woodcut initials and a full-page woodcut illustration at the end. All illustrations are beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand. The text is set in roman type (with some occasional Gothic type), rubricated throughout. Ad 2: With a large handcoloured woodcut beneath the two lines of the title, the text is set in Gothic type, rubricated throughout. Ad 3: Latin manuscript written in a neat littera hybrida with the titles written in a littera textualis, rubricated throughout. In a beautifully and richly paneled original and signed binding of the famous Rooklooster (the "Red monastery"), the Augustinian Abbey of St. Paul in Oudergem (Auderghem) in the "Soniënbos" (Forest of Zonia) near Brussels: contemporary polished calf over wooden boards with (on both sides) two borders of three lines with rolls in between and a stamp of the Holy Lamb in the four corners and lozenge-shaped floral ornaments in the centre divided by three lines with a little floral double-rose stamp on the crossings; below the central panel on the front side a stamp "Roedencloester" flanked by eight little stamps of a star within a circle; one brass clasp and catch at the fore edge, brass strips at the edges of the corners; vellum pastedowns. [16], LXXIV; 63; 17 ll.
€ 75,000
Two very rare post-incunables printed, respectively, in Deventer and in De Hem (near Schoonhoven), and a very interesting manuscript probably written in Rooklooster. All three works being primary sources for the history of the Modern Devotion in the Low Countries in general and the famous monastery Rooklooster at Auderghem in the Zonia forest near Brussels in particular. The three works are bound together in beautiful contemporary blind tooled leather over wooden boards, with the stamp of the bindery at Rooklooster on the front cover.
All three works are of the utmost importance for the affiliation of Rooklooster with the so-called Congregation of Windesheim in 1412. In the course of the 15th century, many monasteries in the Northern and Southern Netherlands - including the lower Rhine region - were affiliated with the Congregation founded in the monastery of the regular canons at Windesheim near Zwolle, a city situated in Overijssel. This is the same area where the spiritual movement of the Modern Devotion - founded by Geert Grote - originated from. Inspired by the spirituality of Ruusbroec and the way of living of the Carthusians, the Congregation aspired to an interiorisation of their religious life and enhancement of devotion, focusing on the spiritual practise, attitude of humility and prayer relationship with God. Jan van Ruusbroec (or Johannes van Ruysbroeck, 1293-1381), was an Augustinian canon and one of the most important medieval mystics of the Low Countries. He lived for many years in the monastery Groenendael near the Rooklooster in the Zonia forest.
Time and again the question of the enclosure (clausura, "inclusio", not allowing the monks to leave the monastery) came up in these monasteries, also in Rooklooster in the years 1477-1480, after the clausure had officially been introduced in 1438. In connection with that question, the manuscript texts of the ecclesiastical instruments were collected, copied, and bound together with the two most important printed texts relating to the Congregation.
Rooklooster is famous for its library and the intriguing catalogue of the books present in Rooklooster, as well as in many other monasteries of the Congregation, compiled by the Canons at Rooklooster. Many of these books are now in the major libraries in Paris, Vienna, and Brussels.
A more detailed description, including a list of contents for ad 3, is available upon request. Monasticon Windesh. 1, pp. 109-130 (this copy: p. 115). Ad 1: Acquoy, Windesheim I (1875), pp. 209-10, III (1880), pp. 302-5; BCNI 813; Jan van Ruusbroec (Exp. cat. Brussels, 1981), 226; H.M. Franke, Ordinarius divini officii ... congregationis Windeshemense (diss. Roma, 1981; and German translation: Leverkusen 1981); Nijhoff & Kronenberg 1649;Vervliet, Post-Incunabula (1979), pp. 130-131; S. van der Woude, 'Het Calendarium van Windesheim', in: Huldeboek Bon. Kruitwagen, pp. 465-81; Mon. Wind. II (1977), pp. 61-70; Moderne Devotie. Figuren en facetten (1984), nr. 86. Ad 2: Acquoy, Windesheim I (1875), p. 93, nt. 1, 144-224 (esp. 205-9); BCNI 293; Dalm. van Heel, 'Het klooster ... te Den Hem bij Schoonhoven', in: Archief gesch. aartsbisdom Utrecht, 69 (1950), pp. 173-9; Jan van Ruusbroec (Exp. cat. Brussels, 1981), 224; W. Lourdeaux & E. Persoons, 'De statuten van de Windesheimse mannenkloosters in handschrift en druk', in: Archief gesch. Kath. kerk in Ned., 6 (1964), pp. 180-224 (with mention of this copy); Jaspers, Den Hem en zijn drukpers, nr. 33; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 1950; Vervliet, Post-Incunabula, p. 116. Ad 3: Similar manuscript collections are known from other monasteries belonging to the Congregation of Windesheim: Groenendaal (Hoeilaart; Exposition cat. Jan van Ruysbroec (Brussels, Royal Library, 1981), nr. 27) and Zevenborren (St. Genesius-Rode; Huisman, Cat. middeleeuwse handschriften in de UB Nijmegen, nr. 67); Binding: Weale, 340-2 (fig. of the 'Roedencloester'-stamp with nr. 341): 6 stamps and a roll used in the bindery of Rooklooster; cf. Goldschmidt I, p. 11 and 28; Exposition de reliures (Brussels, Royal Library, 1930), nrs. 52, 126-7, 173-4, 206 and plate VIII; Wereldtentoonstelling voor koloniën ... en Oud-Vlaamsche kunst, vol. V Boekbanden, nrs. 210-12; Ghellinck van Vaernewyck, in: Annales de l'Acad. roy. d'Archéologie, 53 (1902), p. 403, with reproduction; Relieurs belges avant 1800 (manuscript by Hector Dubois d'Enghien), 148); cf. For the Rooklooster: P. Obbema, 'Het register van Rooklooster op de weegschaal', in: P. Obbema, De Middeleeuwen in handen (1996), pp. 103-120 and W. de Vreese, 'De Dietsche boeken van 't Rooklooster omstreeks het jaar 1400', in: W. de Vreese, Over handschriften en handschriftenkunde (1962), pp. 61-70.
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