The Limburg Sermons: Preaching in the Medieval Low Countries at the Turn of the Fourteenth Century

For a long time it was thought that there were no Middle Dutch sermons dating from the thirteenth century. It was only after J.P. Gumbert had redated the manuscript from The Hague containing the Limburg Sermons that its contents could be assigned to that century. Most of the Limburg Sermons appear to be translations of the Middle High German St. Georgen sermons. But sixteen of these texts are known only in Middle Dutch, and among these is to be found material drawn from the works of Hadewijch and Beatrijs van Nazareth. Thus the Limburg Sermons emerge to take their place in the famous tradition of Brabantine mysticism.

Wybren Scheepsma, Ph.D. (1997), Leiden University, works as a post doc researcher at Leiden University. He has published extensively on the role of vernacular religious literature in late medieval Europe.