Het gebedenboek van Catharina Bonen

De rijke gebedscultuur in Limburgse vrouwenkloosters

Samenvatting

Recently, Radboud University acquired a prayer book from the Maagdendries convent in Maastricht (Ms 610). It was not known to researchers until now. Further study sheds light on the manuscript culture in the Maastricht monastery and on the rich prayer culture in the southeast of the Dutch language area. This contribution argues that the manuscript originated in Maagdendries around 1500 and shows that it was in use by Catharina Bonen, procuratrix of the monastery, in the early years of the 16th century. Subsequently, the indications in this manuscript and other manuscripts for provenance and use in Maagdendries are examined in more detail. In the course of this examination, some manuscripts can be attributed that previously played no role in the research on Maagdendries, while the attribution of some other manuscripts can be rejected. Striking in the majority of the prayer books of Maagdendries and the monasteries in Hasselt and Maaseik associated with it is the distinctive literary text culture. We are probably on the trail of a network of monasteries within which related texts circulated, and which, one could perhaps say, were part of a shared reading community.