JAN VAN NAALDWIJK’S CHRONICLES OF HOLLAND Continuity and Transformation in the Historical Tradition of Holland during the Early Sixteenth Century Sjoerd Levelt A dissertation in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Combined Historical Studies The Warburg Institute University of London 2010 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. ––––––––––––––––– Sjoerd Levelt 2 ABSTRACT The early sixteenth century was a period of intense experimentation in Dutch history writing. The little-known author Jan van Naaldwijk, whose two Dutch chronicles of Holland are preserved in autograph manuscripts in the British Library, participated in these developments. An amateur writer, but – importantly – an expert reader, Jan compiled chronicles which, while rooted in the historical tradition of Holland, nevertheless expanded it in ways that, for all their idiosyncrasy, can help us to appreciate the broader impact of innovations occurring at the same time in more ‘professional’ scholarly circles. This dissertation is the first in-depth study of his chronicles. Chapter 1 contains a critical appraisal of late medieval chronicles of Holland, focusing in particular on Jan Beke’s Latin Chronographia (c. 1346) and its Dutch translation, which laid the foundation for later historiographical discussions and experiments, including those of the first decades of the sixteenth century. Chapter 2 describes how, in 1514, Jan van Naaldwijk produced a chronicle of Holland, based on traditional historical writing about the county, but extending it in new directions and drawing on over twenty sources, in Dutch, Latin and French, in both manuscript and print. In 1517, what was to become the most influential vernacular chronicle of Holland, the so-called Divisiekroniek, was printed. Chapter 3 examines how Jan responded to its publication by making it the main source for a supplement to his first chronicle. His use of the Divisiekroniek shows that contemporaries perceived the work differently from modern scholars. The rise of humanist and antiquarian studies of the Dutch past from the early sixteenth century onwards did not end the medieval chronicle tradition of Holland. Chapter 4 explores its continuing existence in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, side-by- side with new approaches to writing history. The Documentary Appendix presents transcriptions of both Jan’s chronicles. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Maps and Illustrations 7 Acknowledgements 9 Editorial Principles 10 Introduction: Jan van Naaldwijk and his Chronicles of Holland 13 Chapter 1 ‘Wt voel boecken ende autoeren’ 20 ‘From many books and authors’ – The Historiographical Tradition of Holland before Jan van Naaldwijk Approaches to Pre-Modern Historical Texts 21 Histories of Medieval History Writing in the Low Countries 24 Jan van Naaldwijk’s Sources 29 The Historiographical Tradition of Egmond 30 Jan Beke’s Chronographia 33 The Historiograpical Tradition in Holland after Jan Beke 41 Claes Heynenzoon, ‘Herald Beyeren’ 45 The ‘Anonymous Clerk from the Low Countries by the Sea’ 50 The ‘Chronicle of Gouda’ 56 Johannes Gherbrandi a Leydis 63 The Dutch Fasciculus temporum 70 Accessing the Tradition of History Writing about Holland around 1500 73 Chapter 2 ‘Ghenomen, vergadert ende ghetranslateert ende ouergheset’ 75 ‘Taken, collected, translated and transferred’ – Jan van Naaldwijk’s First Chronicle of Holland Jan van Naaldwijk’s First Chronicle of Holland 76 Part I The Opening Pages of the Manuscript of Jan van Naaldwijk’s 78 First Chronicle of Holland Jan van Naaldwijk at Work: An Image and a Description 79 Jan van Naaldwijk’s List of Sources 83 4 Part II The Textual Sources of Jan van Naaldwijk’s First Chronicle of Holland 86 The Historical Canon of Holland 86 Jan Beke, Chronographia, Dutch translation and continuation (‘Dutch Beke’) 86 ‘Several printed chronicles’ and the Fasciculus temporum 89 Chronological Expansion 92 The ‘Most Excellent Chronicle of Brabant’ 92 Geo-Political Expansion: Chronicles of France 94 Jean Froissart, Chroniques 95 Robert Gaguin, Compendium de origine et gestis Francorum 99 Expanding Beyond the Region: The New Universal Chronicles 103 Antoninus Florentinus, Chronicon 104 Jacobus Philippus Foresti Bergomensis, Supplementum supplementi chronicarum 107 Hartmann Schedel, Liber cronicarum (‘The Nuremberg Chronicle’) 109 Flavio Biondo, Historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decades 110 The Expanding World: Itinerarii 112 Marco Polo, De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum 112 Johannes de Hese, Itinerarius per diversas mundi partes 113 Bernhard von Breydenbach, Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam 114 Miscellaneous Historical Sources 116 Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), Cosmographia 116 Jean Lemaire de Belges, La légende des Vénitiens and l’Histoire du prince Sophy 117 Poggio Bracciolini, Epistola de morte Hieronymi Pragensis 119 Willem Hermans, Olandie Gelrieque bellum 123 Biographical sources 124 ‘The Life of Jean Tristan’ 124 ‘The Chronicle of the Countess of Hennenberg’ 126 Giovanni Simonetta, Commentarii rerum gestarum Francisci Sfortiae 129 Martial d’Auvergne, Les vigilles de la mort de Charles VII; Jacobus Philippus Foresti Bergomensis, De claris mulieribus 131 ‘Other poems and privileges’ 135 Unhistorical Histories: Anecdotes 139 Gesta Romanorum 139 Poggio Bracciolini’s Facetiae, French translation by Guillaume Tardif 141 Johannes Vitalis, Defensorium Beatae Virginis Mariae 142 Conclusion: Jan van Naaldwijk and the Sources of his First Chronicle of Holland 144 Part III Autobiographical Elements in Jan van Naaldwijk’s First Chronicle of Holland 145 Anecdotes from Jan’s Own Experience 145 Personal Information about Jan 151 Jan’s Earlier Works 153 5 Chapter 3 ‘Dit boeck hoert toe Jan van Naeldwijck’ 159 ‘This book belongs to Jan van Naaldwijk’ – Jan van Naaldwijk’s Second Chronicle of Holland The Divisiekroniek 163 The Prologue to Jan’s Second Chronicle of Holland 171 Erasmus, Willem Hermans and Cornelius Aurelius 174 Jan van Naaldwijk and the Divisiekroniek 181 Jan van Naaldwijk’s Use of the Divisiekroniek 187 Questioning Humanist Historiography: The Batavians 188 Jan’s Use of the Divisiekroniek 195 Additions from Other Sources 205 The Naaldwijk Family 208 Hoeken and Kabeljauwen 210 The Unfinished End 214 Chapter 4 ‘Veel fabuleuse dingen’ 216 ‘Many fabrications’ – Medieval Chronicles in the Early Modern Period Emanuel van Meteren as a Reader of Jan van Naaldwijk’s Chronicles of Holland 217 Medieval Chronicles and the Popular Printing Press 223 Adelskronieken 233 Current Affairs and Topical Histories 239 Early Modern Historical Writing and the Medieval Chronicle Tradition 247 Conclusion: Medieval History and the Dutch Republic 257 Bibliography 261 Manuscripts 261 Printed Books 264 Documentary Appendix 1: Jan van Naaldwijk’s List of Sources 292 Documentary Appendix 2: Transcriptions of London, British Library, MSS Cotton Vitellius F xv and Cotton Tiberius C iv CD-ROM 6 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Map 1: Dioceses before 1557 11 Map 2: The Burgundian Low Countries, 1384-1536 12 Fig. 1: Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS BPL 2429, fol. 1r: Jan Beke, Chronographia, manuscript c. 1360 20 Fig. 2: The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 130 C 10, fol. 153r: Jan Beke, Croniken: successive additions of the second half of the fifteenth century 32 Fig. 3: The Hague, Museum Meermanno, MS 10 D 36, fol. 1r: a late fifteenth-century manuscript of Claes Heynenzoon’s chronicle of Holland 44 Fig. 4: Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS VI E 9 (cat. 1177): a late fifteenth-century manuscript of the chronicle of Holland of the ‘anonymous clerk’ 49 Fig. 5: Chronike of Historie van Hollant, Zeelant ende Vrieslant ende van den sticht van Utrecht (Leiden, 1483), sig. a2r: ‘Chronicle of Gouda’, prologue 54 Fig. 6: The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, MS 75 H 34, fol. 18r: ‘Chronicle of Gouda’, manuscript copy after a printed exemplar 55 Fig. 7: Alkmaar, Rijksarchief, MS 128 A 1, fol. 2r: Johannes a Leydis, chronicle of Holland, with early sixteenth-century interpolations 62 Fig. 8: Werner Rolevinck, Fasciculus temporum, showing different branches of history around the central time line 69 Fig. 9: London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 19v: Jan van Naaldwijk, first chronicle of Holland, frontispiece 75 Fig. 10: Author portrait of Jan van Naaldwijk from London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 19v 78 Fig. 11: Author portrait of Jean Miélot, from Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque Nationale, MS 9278-80, fol. 10r 80 Fig. 12a: Hartmann Schedel, Liber cronicarum (Nuremberg 1493), fol. 63r 102 Fig. 12b: Hartmann Schedel, Liber cronicarum (Nuremberg 1493), fol. 79v 102 Fig. 13: London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 165v: Countess Margaret of Holland 132 Fig. 14: London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 25r: Count Dirk I receiving the county 133 Fig. 15: London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 54v: Count Willem II, emperor-elect 134 Fig. 16: London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius F xv, fol. 49r: The Mountain of Fortune 138 7 Fig. 17: Willeme van Naaldwijk (c. 1455–1506), cousin of Jan van Naaldwijk: Historisch Archief Westland, Naaldwijk 149 Fig. 18: Hendrik van Naaldwijk (c. 1430–96), uncle and guardian of Jan van Naaldwijk: Rijskmuseum, Amsterdam 150 Fig. 19: London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C iv, fol. 8r: Jan van Naaldwijk, second chronicle of Holland, descriptio 159 Fig. 20: Divisiekroniek, title page 160 Fig. 21a: Divisiekroniek,