Manuscript Van den Stock

Medieval Miscellanies in the Netherlands, volume 14

The Handschrift-Van den Stock (Brussels, KBR, II 116) is a thin but surprising little book. The East Flemish copyist most probably created it for his own use (circa 1450). It contains sixteen texts, including a description of table manners, a section from the vers-Lucidarius, rhyming proverbs, rhymed penitential psalms and the sproke Van tijtverlies van Bouden van den Lore. The texts indicate that the Flemish compiler was concerned not only with his soul’s salvation, but also with correct social manners. The manuscript is named after a sixteenth-century possessor who noted his name in a lower margin: Olivier vanden Stock.

Edited by Daniel Ermens