VU Research Portal Kamper kronieken Bakker, P. 2020 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Bakker, P. (2020). Kamper kronieken: Stedelijke geschiedschrijving in de Noordelijke Nederlanden (ca. 1450- 1550). General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Summary Summary The city archives of the Hanseatic city of Kampen contains two late medieval chronicles by its fifteenth and sixteenth-century town secretaries. These chronicles give us a glimpse into the function of urban historiography in the late Middle Ages. In addition, they provide an insight into the political development of the modern-day Netherlands from the perspective of a city that existed at a vulnerable spot on the border between Oversticht Utrecht and the Duchy of Guelders. In the fifteenth century, the city of Kampen, situated at the mouth of the river IJssel, was a prosperous city with approximately 8,000 inhabitants. The city's cog ships sail to all parts of the world: from the Baltic Sea to Portugal. The sixteenth century, however, saw the city deteriorating economically. One cause for this decline may have been the silting up of the IJssel and the many armed conflicts that took place in the prince-bishopric of Utrecht at the end of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century. This economically, politically and militarily unstable period also left its mark on historiography. The authors of both chronicles, as this study has found, were all town secretaries. They were men of stature and often had family ties with the town's patriciate. As other studies have shown, the town secretaries of Kampen also belonged to the urban elite. They were wealthy and, as far as could be determined, had all enjoyed an education. The tasks of the town secretaries were diverse; they held such positions as writer, lawyer, archivist and city diplomat. Many of them were also notaries. Since until the sixteenth century most aldermen had not completed a study, the town secretaries will likely have been regarded as authorities on urban law, administration and diplomacy. The chronicles studied were examined for their function and the purpose the authors had in mind with the text. Urban chronicles could fulfil multiple functions: they were, among other things, a medium of knowledge transfer and identity formation, they gave meaning to historical events, and they provided examples from which future readers could learn. For the town secretaries, they were an important aide-mémoire and a source of historical precedents. Finally, historiography proved itself an aid in supporting a current agenda with historical arguments. It was assumed until now that there was only one chronicle; this study has shown that there are in fact two separate chronicles. These are the chronicles De annalibus quaedam and Annalia ende andere copien. The texts are currently housed in two different registers. The idea that the two chronicles form one whole was based on the fact that the chronicles seemed to complement each other. De annalibus quaedam describes the history from the time of Adam until 1517, subsequently skipping a period of about thirty years, before continuing with the period from 1542 to 1545. At first sight, the younger chronicle, Annalia 347 Summary ende andere copien, seems to complement these time periods, by covering the years (1045) 1505-1560. However, the fact that the chronicles overlap in content and have been divided into two separate volumes is an indication that the texts had autonomous functions. De annalibus quaedam is included in a composite manuscript containing a variety of documents that guides the user through the tasks of a fifteenth-century town secretary. Annalia ende andere copien, on the other hand, is bound in its entirety in a single volume without any other original codices. The codicological and palaeographical characteristics of the Kampen chronicles have been extensively studied in order to reconstruct their creation, physical history and use. Both chronicles contain copies of archival records or originals. Here, too, the archival records had a different function within the individual chronicles. In the oldest chronicle they were included to ensure the content of the text of the privilege was handed down. In the younger chronicle, the copies form part of the argument. De annalibus quaedam was compiled between 1 November 1467 and 16 October 1470 by town secretary Jacob Bijndop (town secretary 1466-1482). This is then followed by subsequent writing phases of him and his successors. Bijndop was the first author to go back to narrative sources in order to record the period up to the first half of the fifteenth century, for which he very likely used the Cronijck van Gelre or a common predecessor. He also made use of eyewitness accounts of older residents of Kampen for his accounts, as well as archival records of the city. Reinier Bogherman van Dokkum (town secretary ca. 1497-1515 and 1541-1553) included copies of privileges in the chronicle after they were damaged by a fire in the town hall in 1543. It was his way of trying to preserve the contents of the privileges for eternity. Bijndop and his successors often refer to documents in the city archives. The authors have added keywords in the margin so that passages can be found quickly. The chronicle is arranged chronologically; only Henric Claessen (town secretary 1481-1518) deviates from this method. By mapping the most important themes of the chronicle, it was furthermore possible to determine what each individual author was focused on. For example, Bijndop writes more about lawsuits, disputes and imprisonment than the other authors in De annalibus quaedam. Regional and other wars are an important topic for all the authors in this chronicle. This is in line with Ebels-Hoving's findings that late medieval historiography has a predilection for war (among other topics) and is locally and regionally oriented. The latter is evident from the distribution of the reports in the chronicle. Until Kampen came under imperial rule in 1528, the city identified itself with the prince-bishopric of Utrecht. Nowhere is there mention of identifying with the Hanseatic League, but the reports in the chronicle do concern the geographical scope of the city's rights and privileges, as well as its trade and other contacts. In the chronicle this is reflected in the reports from the French coast, and from the North Sea area up to the Baltic Sea region. 348 Summary The urban identity and bourgeois mentality as observed by Heinrich Schmidt in German urban chronicles from this period is also reflected in the Kampen chronicles. The city council is keen to protect its autonomy and privileges; the honour of the city is an extension of this. The city is Christian and it is there on earth to serve Christ. An attack on the city is therefore seen as an attack on Christ. In the eyes of the authors, peace and stability are the most important pillars for the prosperity of the city, making these the foremost goals the city should strive for. Loving one's neighbour is also a recurring subject in De annalibus quaedam. Given the depiction of Charity over the hearth in the town hall (ca. 1545), the city council considered it an important civic value in the late Middle Ages. In order to answer the question what purpose the chronicle served and what it was used for, examining the context of De annalibus quaedam proved essential; both the context in which it was created - the environment in which and by whom it was created - and the handing down of the manuscript. The chronicle is contained within a composite manuscript consisting of several original codices. Among other things, they provide an insight into what the city archives looked like in the fifteenth century, what the tasks of the city council were, what obligations the city had, how the city accounts were drawn up, which offices were funded by the city and how legal and other documents were drawn up. This register provided the town secretary with a practical example and script for his duties as a notary, town clerk, ambassador, diplomat and archivist. The chronicle was incorporated into a composite manuscript by Bijndop's successors. The function of the chronicle was to place and interpret within a certain context the city's archival records. From the fourteenth century onwards, the city's archives and collection of privileges had grown dramatically. It must have become increasingly difficult for town secretaries to understand the rights of the city and important decisions made in the past and thus make them usable. This was nevertheless essential for them in carrying out their duties as ambassadors and diplomats of the city. They had to be able to plead a case with other powers and substantiate it with historical documents.