The Comburg Manuscript (Dutch : Comburgse handschrift; German : Comburger Handschrift) or Comburg Codex (Dutch : Comburgse codex) is a manuscript containing literary texts in Middle Dutch, written between 1380 and 1425 and originating from the vicinity of Ghent. It contains many rare or unique texts and therefore is of inestimable value for Middle Dutch literature, the literature of Flanders and the Netherlands, and medieval Flemish and Dutch culture more broadly.
This miscellany contains some fifty stories on 346 folios, [1] including:
Some texts have only been preserved in this manuscript, such as several prose pieces, a large number of fables, and:
The Comburg Manuscript is not a beautiful, finely crafted illuminated manuscript with lavish miniatures, as is often imagined. The parchment is of poor quality, uneven and pigmented, with holes in it, and it is poorly bound. It contains only one graphically elaborate initial and a single drawing of the Flemish count Philip of Alsace on folio 282, at the beginning of the Rhymed Chronicle of Flanders. The miniature depicts a new legend, namely that Philip exchanged the old azure-gules coat of arms of the legendary forestiers for the rampant black lion (later known as the "Flemish lion"), which he is said to have brought back from the Holy Land with his crusaders. [b] The Rhymed Chronicle of Flanders and the chronicle of John Iperius (c. 1390) are the earliest accounts to claim this for the first time, two hundred years after Philip's death. [2]
Perhaps the Comburg Manuscript was a kind of library catalogue, written in the storytelling tradition of the time, which could be consulted by anyone who wanted to order a story, which would then be carefully and skilfully copied. Although the codex does not contain any prices for the copying services and orders, the number of verses allows us to assume that professional copyists were at work here.
Modern researchers assume that no fewer than nine different hands worked on the text. The Rhymed Chronicle of Flanders alone, which covers approximately the last 20% of the pages, was written by four different hands. The Rhymed Chronicle consists of 10,571 verses (10,569 according to older counts) and is compiled from at least five sources:
On linguistic, content-related, palaeographic and material grounds, it can be concluded that the codex was produced in the Ghent area between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century. It is believed that the manuscript was moved from Brussels to Comburg in 1536, because the Brussels canon Gerhardus von Schwalbach was appointed in that year as the dean abbot of the Comburg Abbey or Ritterstift (located in Schwäbisch Hall on the Comburg in Baden-Württemberg); he would then have taken the codex with him to his new home and workplace. [1] Since Erasmus Neustetter, dean and later provost of the Ritterstift, had his family coat of arms added in 1578, the manuscript must have already been in Comburg at that time. [1]
The Stift was dissolved in 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss; the possessions went to the Electorate of Württemberg. [1] A short time later, in 1805, F.D. Gräter (1768–1830) discovered the unique manuscript in the library of Comburg, which gave it its name, the 'Comburg Manuscript'. [1] It was kept there until Frederick I, since 1806 king of Württemberg, donated this library to the "Königliche Öffentliche Bibliothek" founded in 1810 in Stuttgart, in 1921 renamed to Württembergische Landesbibliothek. [1] Since then, the manuscript has been kept there under document number Cod. poet. et philol. fol. 22. [1]
On one occasion – in 1991 – the fragile Comburg Manuscript from the Landesbibliothek was released for photographic reproduction in a facsimile edition of the animal epic Van den vos Reynaerde .
In 1997, a diplomatic edition of the Comburg Manuscript was published by Herman Brinkman and Janny Schenkel at Uitgeverij Verloren.
Around 2011, the entire Comburg Manuscript was digitised. Since then, it has been available for consultation online in the digital library of the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.
