"A wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynnyng of a pryse": Guilds, Ritual, Theater, and the Urban Network...

“A wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynnyng ofa pryse”: Guilds, Ritual, Theater, and the

Urban Network in the Southern LowCountries, ca. 1450–1650*

by ANNE-LAURE VAN BRUAENE

This essay discusses the role of the Chambers of Rhetoric (literary guilds or confraternities) in theconstruction of urban culture in the Southern Low Countries. The Chambers of Rhetoric not onlycontributed to the forging of urban identity through their associational practices, but also playedan important role in the molding of public space through theatrical representations and thestaging of civic ritual. In particular, the Chambers’ participation in large-scale regional andinterregional theater and poetry competitions is crucial for our understanding of sixteenth-centuryurban culture in the Low Countries.

1. INTRODUCTION

On 4 August 1561 Richard Clough wrote one of his many letters fromAntwerp to London to inform his master Sir Thomas Gresham,

financial agent of and advisor to the English Crown, on local affairs.Clough notes that nothing had happened worthy of writing “savying that,as yesterday, (being the 3rd of August,) here hathe beene in thys towne ofAndwarpe a wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynnyng of a pryse, weche yscallyd the Lande Juell.”1 Clough is referring to the entry of the Chambersof Rhetoric that participated in the Landjuweel, a large Brabantine theatercompetition that (in theory) was held every three years. However, due tothe wars with France and the growing distrust of the central authoritiestowards theater practices in general — and the rhetorician guilds in par-ticular — twenty years had passed since the previous Landjuweel had takenplace in the town of Diest in 1541. Although negotiations with the courtof the governess Margaret of Parma (1522–86) had been long and difficult,both the city council of Antwerp and the city’s principal Chamber DeViolieren (The Stockflowers) were determined to turn the competition into

*This research was conducted within the framework of the Belgian-Dutch projectUrban Society in the Low Countries (Late Middle Ages–16th Century), financed by theInteruniversity Attraction Poles Programme — Belgian Science Policy. I should like tothank Peter Arnade, Susie Speakman Sutch, and Gary Waite for their valuable remarks onearlier drafts of this essay. All translations are my own.

1Burgon, 1:377.

Renaissance Quarterly 59 (2006): 374–405 [ 374 ]

an unparalleled celebration of the city, its wealth, and its relations withinthe Brabantine urban network.2

These efforts and their effects did not escape Clough’s keen eye. Firstof all, he notes that the ten-day festival would probably cost 100,000marks. Because he was not sure his master had witnessed a similar com-petition during his own time in Antwerp, he offers Gresham a shortintroduction into the basics of rhetorician culture, where he notes that“every towne in thys lande hathe one company or 2 of Reteryke, so well asthys towne.” He points out that the principal prize was awarded to the bestplay, but that there were also prizes for the best entry, the funniest fool, themost solemn church attendance and the most solemn mass, for the mostimpressive fireworks, and for many other categories. He continues with alengthy description of the pageants of the participating Chambers, payingspecial attention to the costumes and the adornment of the wagons.Clough is particularly impressed with the entry of the Brussels Chamber,“weche methinks was a dreme.” He estimates that the total number ofhorsemen and men and children on wagons equaled a thousand.3 Finally,Clough concludes his description with a mixture of marvel and concern.He favorably compares the entry of the Brussels rhetorician guild in 1561with the entry of Emperor Charles V (1500–58) and his son — then thefuture lord of the Netherlands and future King of Spain Philip II (1527–98) — into the same city in 1549, an entry that had been heavily sponsoredby the foreign nations: “Thys was the strangyst matter that ever I sawe, orI thynke that ever I shall see; for the coming of King Fylyppe to Andwarpe,with the cost of all the nasyons together in apparel, was not to be comparydto thys done by the towne of Brussells. And they shall wyn no more withall, but a skalle of syllver weying 6 ownsys! — I wolde to God that someof owre gentyllmen and nobellmen of England had sene thys, — (I menethem that think the world is made of ottemell) and then it wold make themto thynke that ther ar other as wee ar, and so provide for the tyme to come;for they that can do thys, can do more.”4

Richard Clough’s remarkable letter, with all its invaluable observationsand inevitable exaggerations, illustrates that the Chambers of Rhetoricoccupied a central place in the vibrant urban life of the sixteenth-centuryLow Countries. These guilds or confraternities of laymen devoted to thepractice of vernacular theater and poetry — or what they called the DutchArt of Rhetoric (Const van Rhetoriken) — were a remarkable variant on the

2Van Autenboer, 1981, 48–56.3Burgon, 1:377–91.4Ibid., 388.

“A WONDERFULL TRYUMFE” 375

merchant and artisan guilds, religious confraternities, and shooting guildsthat existed all around Western Europe. The Chambers of Rhetoric trainedtheir members in the writing and reciting of versed texts and in the per-formance of plays. They also participated in civic festivities such asprocessions, princely entries, and peace celebrations and, at the same time,organized their own theater and poetry festivals both in the public sphereand in the semiprivate sphere of their meeting-places. The Chambers ofRhetoric were founded by local inhabitants not only in large metropolitancenters such as Antwerp and Brussels, but also in small towns and even, insome regions, in villages.

This essay aims to establish the role of the Chambers of Rhetoric —and, in particular, the competitions they organized — in the constructionof an urban culture in the Low Countries that resembled, and at the sametime differed considerably from, those in other regions such as northernItaly and England. However, in order to do this, it is necessary first todefine the concept of urban culture further. Therefore, in line with recentscholarship on urban society, the importance of public space and of urbanassociation in the creation of a civic identity is discussed. Second, it isargued that the Chambers of Rhetoric offer an excellent tool for the analysisof urban culture in the early modern Southern Low Countries. Finally, thepublic regional and interregional theater contests the Chambers of Rhetoricorganized are examined in greater detail to demonstrate the role of theChambers of Rhetoric — alongside other festive groups — in what can belabeled, in the terms of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, as aneconomy of symbolic exchanges.5 It is the central argument of this essay thaturban culture in the Southern Low Countries was open, flexible, andmultilayered and that it drew its meaning not only from social relationswithin the city, but also, and significantly, from the complex relationswithin the urban network.

2. URBAN CULTURE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES

Since the attention in Low Countries historiography has turned from socialstructures and quantitative methods to social representation and qualitativemethods, a growing number of scholars has argued that the development ofa dense network of cities and towns in the core regions of the Netherlandsgenerated not only complex economic structures, new social settings, and

5Bourdieu, 179–85.

RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY376

sophisticated political institutions, but also a distinct urban culture.6 Inaddition, the notion of urban culture has brought social historians, literaryhistorians, and art historians together in interdisciplinary debates that focuson communication, ritual, and social representation in art and literature.7

However, a definition of the concept of urban culture, applicable to thegeographical and social context of the Low Countries, is lacking, and isusually not even discussed in studies that claim urban culture as a centraltheme. Yet only by a better understanding of the essence of Low Countriesurban culture can we engage in meaningful comparisons with other highlyurbanized regions. The recent work of Edward Muir on the sources of civilsociety and social trust in Renaissance Italy demonstrates the relevance ofsuch questions, not only from a purely historical point of view but also inview of contemporary debates on social capital and civic culture.8 The caseof the Low Countries is especially relevant, because while the humanistrhetoric on the values of civil society was certainly less developed whencompared with Northern Italy, its urbanites seem to have been markedby (at least) an equally strong civic identity.9 Thus, the study of LowCountries urban cultural practices can give us better insight into the work-ings and varieties of Renaissance culture.

Muir makes an important point in one of his essays: to measure theeffectiveness of Renaissance civil society we have to look beyond the citywalls to assess whether communal institutions and civic practices allowedfor the integration of large groups of Italian society.10 Likewise, LowCountries urban society cannot be understood without taking into accountthe relations with the countryside and within the urban network. In fact,in socioeconomic studies more and more attention is given to the role ofa city as a central place within its rural settings or within a larger urbannetwork.11 Most students of urban culture, however, continue to focus on

6Vandenbroeck; Pleij, 1988; Arnade, 1996; Blockmans and Donckers; Lecuppre-Desjardin.

7Dhanens et al. From 1999 to 2004 the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research(NWO) sponsored a large interdisciplinary project on Stadscultuur in de laatmiddeleeuwseNederlanden (Urban Culture in the Late Medieval Low Countries) with the collaborationof the Dutch Onderzoekschool Mediëvistiek and the Flemish universities of Ghent,Antwerp, and Louvain.

8Muir, 1999 and 2002.9Lecuppre-Desjardin, 131–32.10Muir, 1999, 392–400.11Jansen, 279; Tittler, 231–36; Stabel, 1999, 48; Epstein; Kooij, 293–97. Stabel, 1997,

offers an excellent analysis of the Flemish urban network.


the construction of social relations within the city and to make an abstrac-tion of the city’s role in a broader system.12

When we define cities as central places, the question is whether it ispossible to discern practices and values that can be labeled urban culture. Inline with recent scholarship, I argue that public space was one crucialbinding force of early modern urban society and urban culture.13 Theconcept of public space evokes the dialectical relationship between, on theone hand, the material reality of cities and, on the other, the symbolicpractices that infuse this material reality with meaning. Moreover, theconcept of public space can also inform the relations of a city or town withthe outside world. The most evident example is that of the marketplace.While the marketplace was often situated literally in the heart of the city,it drew its meaning primarily from the interaction of city-dwellers withmerchants of other cities and regions and with inhabitants of smaller townsand the countryside.14

Often the same marketplace was also the scene, or at least one of theprincipal stages, in the enactment of civic ritual. The importance of civicritual in the creation of late medieval and early modern urban identity has,of course, been stressed by many scholars.15 Developing the frameworkproposed by Mervyn James, an impressive amount of research has beendone, for example, on the organization of Corpus Christi processions, andalso for the region of the Low Countries. Yet in this line of research theemphasis lies almost exclusively on the relations within the city walls.16 Thestudy of another remarkable form of civic ritual has brought one type ofrelation between the city and the outside world to the foreground of LowCountries studies. The princely entry — in which the feudal contractbetween city and prince was enacted by the handing over of the city’s keys,the processional entry, and the public exchange of oaths — has gained

12See, for example, some recent studies on Bruges: Brown, 1997 and 1999; Boogaart.A notable exception is Lecuppre-Desjardin.

13See also Cowan, 3, who otherwise remains vague on the question of howMediterranean urban culture can be defined.

14Stabel, 2000, 63–64; Arnade, Howell, and Simons, 546–47. The classic book on thistopic remains Lefebvre.

15In the early 1980s there were several groundbreaking contributions in this respect:Trexler; Muir 1981 (on Northern Italy); M. James (on England).

16Rubin, 1991, 243–87; Rosser, 5–25. Valuable studies on local processions and thecreation of a civic religion have been written for the region of the Low Countries on thetowns in the eastern periphery by Gerard Nijsten and on the town of Oudenaarde in thesouth of Flanders by Bart Ramakers.


special attention in recent years.17 Borrowing from older work that stressedthe constant struggle over economic and political power in a long fifteenthcentury between the large metropolitan centers such as Ghent and Bruges,on the one hand, and the Burgundian dukes, on the other, recent studieshave emphasized the crucial importance of civic ritual in the politicalcommunication between the prince and his main cities. The public sphere,with the marketplace, the town hall, and the belfry at its heart, provided thescene for what could arguably be called the Burgundian theater state.18

While civic ritual turned the urban public sphere temporarily into atheater where every actor, from prince to artisan, had to take up his part,the medium of drama itself played an increasingly important role in thepublic communication in towns and cities in the fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies. From the late fourteenth century onwards the inherent dramaticcharacter of religious processions and princely entries was developed by theintroduction of tableaux vivants along the pageant routes or on wagons.After the conclusion of the ceremonial part morality plays and farces werestaged, often in the marketplace or in the graveyard. Farces were alsoperformed, to give another notable example, in the context of ShroveTuesday celebrations, when the world was turned upside down.19

The striking connections between civic ritual and urban theater havebrought social and literary historians much closer together. Both now focuson context and performance.20 This approach has led to one of the mostprovocative and stimulating theses in early modern Low Countries histo-riography. In his studies on urban theater and on urban literature ingeneral, Herman Pleij has argued that from the fourteenth to the earlysixteenth century an autonomous bourgeois culture was formed in the citiesof the core regions of the Low Countries. Urban elites borrowed heavilyfrom court culture and popular culture — the latter understood hereprimarily as rural culture — to develop a whole new value system that fittedtheir own social concerns and which centered on labor, self-preservation,and wisdom. According to Pleij, urban theater provided not only an in-strument for the communication of these values to different social groups,but also a clever tool for the appropriation of older practices of reversal.21

17Blockmans; Cauchies.18The most notable and best-documented studies on this subject are those of Arnade,

1996 (on Ghent); Lecuppre-Desjardin (on the cities in Walloon Flanders, Artois, andHainault).

19Pleij, 1983; Ramakers.20Van Oostrom, 202–06; Janssens, 262.21Pleij, 1986; Pleij, 1988, 35–36, 348–49.


Pleij’s work has fueled the debates on subjects related to the theme ofurban culture, but at the same time critical notes have been sounded,especially by social historians who question his model of social structuresand social relations.22 This issue brings us to the social implications of theconcept of urban culture. In many studies the (often vaguely defined)urban elites are considered to be the primary actors in the efforts to createan urban identity.23 Yet in recent years it has been increasingly stressed thatthe social middle class also played a crucial role in the shaping of urbansociety. More particularly, recent studies on the sixteenth-century LowCountries emphasize the political and religious dynamism of a prosperousand literate middle class.24

In a stimulating essay Jonathan Barry argues that men belonging to themiddle class — for example, master artisans and small merchants — were,first and foremost, involved in the establishment and reestablishment ofurban identity because they resolved their differences and individual pow-erlessness by association and collective action. The economically andpolitically divided middle class associated in guilds, corporations, societies,and confraternities, where they could forge the stability and continuity theyneeded to counter the challenges of migration and social mobility that theearly modern city constantly presented. Obviously, this was often in theinterest of urban elites, but just as often — for instance, during revolts —it was not.25 I therefore argue, following Barry, that a second crucial bind-ing force of urban culture was urban association, and that the valuesexpressed by guilds and corporations — often in the public sphere — werepreeminently urban values.26

3 . THE CHAMBERS OF RHETORIC

The Chambers of Rhetoric are an excellent tool for analyzing our centralquestion: How can we understand and define urban culture in theSouthern Low Countries?27 The Chambers were organized as traditionalguilds or confraternities. A Chamber was devoted to a patron saint, heldreligious services at its altar in a local church, organized an annual feast, and

22Dhanens et al., 426–33 (especially the contribution of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens).23See, for example, Arnade, 1997.24Marnef; Dambruyne, 2002.25Barry, 84–88.26See also Reid, 2003.27Two recent studies of the literary practices of the Chambers of Rhetoric are Waite;

Moser. Waite, 26–48, has a chapter on “Rhetoricians and Urban Culture,” but does notelaborate the concept of urban culture.


held funeral services and Requiem Masses for its deceased members. AChamber had an elected board with a deacon or a prince at its head. Inprinciple, one chose freely to become a member. Usually, members had topay an entrance fee, annual fees, and a doodschuld (death duty) to cover thecost for funeral services or Requiem Masses. There were often differentcategories of members, with possible distinctions between brothers — andsometimes also sisters28 — with minimal devotional and financial duties;gezellen (companions) with additional financial duties and many represen-tational duties, such as wearing the guild’s uniform on public occasions;and, finally, personaigien (actors) with minimal financial duties butwell-defined theatrical duties such as rehearsing, performing, and buildingand breaking-up stages. Of course, the elected board was expected to investthe most time and money in the Chambers’ activities. In addition, mostChambers had a factor, a talented individual who was responsible forcomposing and directing plays, and who was remunerated for his services.(This was usually not enough to make a living.)29

A large part of the activities of the Chambers — from devotional tosociable and literary events — took place in the semiprivate sphere of theirmeeting-places. Sometimes this was a proper guild house: Richard Clough,for example, notes in his letter “that in thys towne of Andwarpe ther are3 companys or brotheroods of Reteryke; whome have every one of them ahouse alone.”30 However, the case of a less wealthy Chamber in Ghentcalled Mariën Theeren (In Honor of Mary) shows that for lack of betteraccommodations other rhetorician guilds kept their costumes and attrib-utes in the guild’s chapel, rehearsed in the homes of members, and heldtheir meetings and annual feasts in inns — or sometimes, too, at theirmembers’ homes.31

Already in the late Middle Ages the core regions of the Low Countrieshad a strong tradition of merchant and artisan guilds, religious confrater-nities, and shooting guilds.32 The institution of the Chambers of Rhetoricproved to be an equally great success. From the first half of the fifteenthcentury, when rhetorician culture took shape, to about the 1560s, the

28On the role of women in the Chambers of Rhetoric, see Van Bruaene, 2005.29Van Elslander; Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:175–84.30Burgon, 1:378.31Archives of the church of St. James, Ghent, no. 1473 (account book of Mariën

Theeren).32On the merchant and artisan guilds, see Lambrechts and Sosson; Lis and Soly, 1994

and 1997. On the confraternities, see Trio; on the shooting guilds, see Van Autenboer,1993.


number of Chambers kept growing in the Southern Low Countries. In1561 about forty Chambers were active in the Duchy of Brabant and noless than about 120 in the County of Flanders.33 This meant that everytown or city in these core regions had at least one — but often two, three,or more — Chambers within its walls. For example, in Brabant bothAntwerp and Brussels hosted three Chambers, while in Flanders Brugesand Ghent had two and four, respectively. The available information sug-gests that these Chambers were established in different parishes orneighborhoods. The majority of these Chambers were officially recognizedby their town council and enjoyed local privileges. Moreover, in industrialcenters such as Antwerp informal Chambers, which were sometimes domi-nated by younger members, held theatrical performances and gathered inrented rooms and attics.34

In addition to these urban Chambers, in sixteenth-century Flanders alittle less than forty percent of the total number of Chambers of Rhetoricwas situated in villages.35 This was especially the case in the west ofFlanders, where a market-oriented agriculture flourished and rural industry(especially cheap cloth production) was expanding.36 At the same time, thegrowth of economic wealth in this region was mirrored by the developmentof an elaborate schooling network. In the towns, large industrial villages,and even small villages of western Flanders, primary schools and sometimeseven Latin schools were instituted. As a result, these towns and villagesincreasingly furnished the University of Louvain with students. On theother hand, Calvinism, especially from the second half of the 1550s on-wards, was well received in this region.37 Thus it can be argued that withchanging economic relations the boundaries between town and countrysidebecame more fluid in Flanders, and that new intellectual practices wereintroduced into the Flemish countryside. These new practices sometimeswent hand-in-hand. Jan van Mussem, priest and Latin schoolmaster in thevillage of Wormhoudt, became the leader of the local Chamber — DeCommunicanten (The Communicants) — that was established in the

33Van Bruaene, 2003, 48–50, 55. In the Northern Low Countries — namely, Holland,Zeeland, Het Sticht, Oversticht, and Gelre — seventy-five Chambers were active in 1566:Van Dixhoorn, 2003, 68.

34Van Bruaene, 2004, 3:19–25, 67–81, 132–40. This information is based on a sourcerepertory of all Chambers of Rhetoric active in the Southern Low Countries between 1400and 1650.

35Ibid., 1:229.36Coornaert, 354–411, 433–34; Vandewalle, 373–75; Stabel, 1997, 34, 269.37Decavele, 1992.


1540s. In the same years he wrote a heretical play and a textbook in thevernacular on classical rhetoric, which was printed in Antwerp in 1553.38

The leadership of priests seems to have been a special feature of thevillage Chambers. The fragmented sources indicate that besides priests,local officials were particularly prominent in the board of villageChambers.39 This group of priests and local dignitaries derived its prestigefrom its contacts with the outside world, both in a religious and a secularsense.40 Fortunately, more sources have survived with regard to the socialbackground of the members of the urban Chambers. Best-documented forthe late fifteenth to the late sixteenth centuries are the large cities of Ghentin Flanders and of Brussels in Brabant — both had a population of about40,000 in the sixteenth century41 — with membership lists for the GhentChamber Mariën Theeren from 1478 onwards and for the Chamber of DenBoeck (The Book) and De Corenbloem (The Cornflower) in Brussels for thesecond half of the sixteenth century.42 The principal observation is that theChambers of Rhetoric in Ghent and Brussels recruited almost exclusivelyfrom among the middle class of skilled artisans, shopkeepers, and localmerchants. The data available for other cities corroborates this fact.However, this middle class that was attracted to membership in rhetoricianguilds was also socially and culturally divided. While in Ghent thesixteenth-century Chambers of Rhetoric assembled mainly skilled manuallaborers from the textile, clothing, leather, and fur sectors, the BrusselsChambers also recruited from among highly skilled artisans such as paintersand tapestry weavers and from among well-to-do merchants. The differ-ences in recruitment can be partly attributed to the divergent economicstructures of Ghent and Brussels: Ghent was an industrial city primarilyoriented towards mass textile production, while Brussels was a center forluxury products, especially renowned on the international scene for thequality and composition of its tapestries.43 It has yet to be noted that inother cities, too, the Chambers of Rhetoric counted visual artists amongtheir more prominent members. In Antwerp, the Chamber of De Violieren,which hosted the festival of 1561, was even active within the institutional

38Decavele, 1975, 1:510; 2:122–23; Spies, 75–76.39Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:232–33.40Robisheaux, 79–97.41Aerts and Daelemans, 24; Dambruyne, 2001, 54.42Archives of the Church of St. James, Ghent, no. 1472 (membership list of Mariën

Theeren); Royal Library Brussels, ms. 21377, fols. 42r–79r (membership list of Den Boeck);Royal Library Brussels, ms. G.219 (list of the board members of De Corenbloem).

43Dambruyne, 2002, 355–68; Aerts and Daelemans, 8–9; Delmarcel, 116–17.


context of the prestigious guild of St. Luke that boasted the membership offamous painters such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.44

4 . THE CHAMBERS OF RHETORIC AND THE URBAN

PUBLIC SPHERE

While the meetings of a Chamber of Rhetoric offered members — at leastthose who chose active membership — an honorable and educationalpastime and a shared religious self-image, the Chambers unmistakablyconstructed their collective identity around their role in the urban publicsphere. From the first half of the fifteenth century until the early seven-teenth century, when they were upstaged by the Jesuits, the Chambers ofRhetoric determined the genres, subject matter, formal rules, and messagesof urban public theater in the Low Countries. They staged allegoricalplays — called spelen van zinne (morality plays) and most often containingreligious subject matter — and comic plays, called esbattementen (farces),that promoted moral rules and ridiculed archetypal characters such asgreedy clerics, coarse peasants, and unruly women. These plays were per-formed publicly, on fixed stages or wagons, most often in the context oflocal events such as fairs, procession days, celebrations of local patronsaints, and peace celebrations. Often during official or ceremonial mealsless-elaborate plays, called tafelspelen (table plays), were staged by one tofour actors.45 A chain of incidents in Brussels in 1559 gives a valuableinsight into the variety of plays the local Chambers of Rhetoric were usedto performing. Firstly, in April an esbattement was staged by De Corenbloemin the context of the public celebration of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis(3 April 1559). It was a straightforward play with a clear anticlerical mes-sage: alms should be given to the real poor instead of to the friars. In spiteof the outraged protests from the local Franciscans, the play was stagedagain at the central marketplace in September 1559. A week later, on thefeastday of St. Michael, the patron saint of Brussels, a tafelspel was per-formed by the Chamber of Het Mariacransken (The Garland of Mary) inhonor of the local magistracy. Finally, in October a tafelspel was staged, thistime by Den Boeck, during the wedding party of a local official. Complaintsfollowed that during these two tafelspelen the Mass was ridiculed.46

Incidents such as those in Brussels in 1559 — with plays that upset atleast some members of the urban community — provided a threat not only

44De liggeren, 1:31, 175.45Coigneau, 1984 and 1994.46See the judicial dossier with the playtexts in Van Eeghem, 1937.


to religious, but also to civic, unity. Indeed, in the preambles of statutesand requests the rhetoricians wrote, the honor of the city was frequentlyinvoked beside the honor of God and his saints. In 1481 the gezellen of DeRoose (The Rose) in Louvain requested the city magistracy to ratify theirnew statute “because the honor of the city and of the company greatlydepends on it.”47 Another common formula pointed to the efforts of theChambers to entertain the local population. In a conflict with the localshooting guilds the Antwerp Chamber De Olijftak (The Olive Branch)pleaded in 1556 for the continuation of the exercise of rhetoric “in adorn-ment of our city and in the recreation of the inhabitants.”48 According toa particularly eloquent scribe of the small town of Deinze in Flanders, thelocal Chamber De Nazareenen (The Nazarenes) deserved to be remuner-ated because they “performed in a rhetorical way an amorous play on thefair day of this city in 1561, where many poor neighbors were gathered inrecreation and consolation of melancholy spirits, and in honor and profitof the city.”49

The Chambers of Rhetoric quasi-monopolized urban theater, but itmust not be overlooked that, more generally, they also played an importantrole in the performance of civic ritual in the Low Countries. ManyChambers of Rhetoric had developed in the fifteenth century out of localgroups that performed plays and tableaux vivants in the context of religiousprocessions. For example, in 1514 the confraternity of the Holy Crossasked the city magistracy of the town of Kortrijk in Flanders for an officialrecognition as a Chamber of Rhetoric, arguing that for years on end it hadperformed a large part of the passion plays in the local Corpus Christiprocession.50 In fact, the role of the Chambers of Rhetoric in local pro-cessions could vary from the parading of the Chamber’s gezellen or its boardmembers in the guild’s uniform to the performance of tableaux vivants andplays during and after the pageant, or to the responsibility for the organi-zation of the procession itself.51 According to their statute from 1496, the

47City Archives of Louvain, no. 1523, fol. 181r: “want de eere van der stat ende vander geselscap grotelijck daerinne gelegen was.”

48Royal Academy of Antwerp, Archives of the St. Luke guild, no. 273: “tot cyratevan . . . onser stadt ende Recreatie van den Ingesetenen.”

49General State Archives Brussels, Chambres des Comptes, no. 33986 (city accounts ofDeinze, 1560–62), fol. 48r: “die Rethoryckelic vertoochden den spel van amoureushedenup den keeremesfeestdach deser stede 1561, daer veel vergaderinghe van armen voisinenwaeren, ter recreatie ende verwerken van zwaermoedeghe gheesten, eere ende proufyt vander stede.”

50De Potter, 41–43.51Van Bruaene, 2004, 2:385.


rhetoricians of De Vreugdebloem (The Flower of Joy) in the Brabantinetown of Bergen op Zoom were expected to set up and coordinate thetableaux and dances — notably the dance around the Golden Calf — in thelocal Holy Cross procession.52 In practice, the city magistracy usually ap-pointed one individual to direct the local procession. Until the end of thesixteenth century this was often a prominent rhetorician, such as thefactor of a local Chamber. Around the middle of the sixteenth century inthe Flemish town of Oudenaarde, the priest and notary Matthijs deCastelein — one of the most famous Dutch rhetoricians — was not onlythe factor of two local Chambers, but was also paid for the writing andcorrecting of all the short speeches that were to be recited by the actors inthe tableaux vivants of the local Corpus Christi procession. The other rheto-ricians received a short written note explaining their role only a week inadvance.53

The Chambers of Rhetoric also contributed to the staging of princelyentries. Although the antagonism between city and prince has beenhighlighted in Low Countries studies, it has to be noted that the efforts theprinces made to integrate themselves with urban political and culturalnetworks were exceptional. It is true that townsmen often did not hesitateto rise up in arms against the prince’s representatives if local privileges wereunder threat, but at the same time they highly valued rituals, such as entryceremonies, that could function as symbolic tools to smooth and elaboratethe relations with their prince. Besides, these ceremonies served economicinterests as well as the city’s prestige.54 The first documented participationof a Chamber in a princely entry dates from 1458, when, as an act ofreconciliation after years of rebellion, Ghent lavishly welcomed theBurgundian Duke Philip the Good (1396–1467) within its walls. Duringthe entry De Fonteine (The Fountain) draped its guildhouse with blue clothand illuminated it with torches to present itself — in the same fashion asthe artisan guilds — as a guild with a clearly defined collective identity. Acouple of days later De Fonteine and Sint-Barbara, another local Chamber,competed together with other local companies in a theater contest. Theplays were performed first in the streets and subsequently, with explana-tions in French, at the town hall in the presence of the duke.55

As the number of entries and related festivities — such as ducal mar-riage or birth celebrations — increased during the fifteenth century, the

52Slootmans, 73.53Van der Meersch, 7:254–65; Ramakers, 77, 85–86, 93.54Boone and Prak; Arnade, 1996; Brown, 1997 and 1999; Lecuppre-Desjardin.55Kronyk van Vlaenderen, 2:235, 254–55.


Chambers became more and more involved in their organization.Especially in the years around 1500 — during the government of DukePhilip the Fair (1478–1506) and the regencies (1482–94 and 1506–15) ofEmperor Maximilian I of Austria (1459–1519) — prominent rhetoriciansfrom local Chambers were engaged to direct entries and other ducal cel-ebrations.56 In Brussels, Jan Smeken (d. 1517) and Jan Pertcheval (d. 1523)from De Lelie (The Lily) were frequently remunerated during the years1498–1506 for their involvement in the organization of all kinds of fes-tivities, often in honor of the Burgundian-Habsburg dynasty. Moreover,they were sent on behalf of the Brussels magistracy to cities such as Ghent,Bruges, and Malines to report on how these cities dealt with dynasticceremonies. In addition, both men wrote plays and poems that celebratedthe fusion of urban and courtly values in general, and the relations betweenthe city of Brussels and its dukes in particular, such as the poem JanSmeken wrote on the eighteenth chapter of the Order of Knights of theGolden Fleece that was held in Brussels in 1516.57

As the sixteenth century progressed the number of princely entriesdecreased, since both Charles V and Philip II were often absent from theirLow Countries territories. At the same time, the role of the rhetoricians(who increasingly stirred religious controversy) in the entry ceremoniesdeclined. These entries, notably those of 1549, were now modeled onclassical prototypes: city magistracies therefore turned to learned humanistsfor their services. Yet the Chambers continued to stage some of the tableauxvivants.58 Moreover, when rebellious Calvinist city magistracies (1577–85)set up entries for the leader of the Dutch Revolt William of Orange(1533–84) in 1577 and for the French Prince François d’Anjou (1554–84)in 1582, much of the classic form and subject matter was dropped in favorof more traditional biblical and mythological themes. Again, the organi-zation was run by men with strong links to the Chambers of Rhetoric, suchas the painter and poet Lucas d’Heere (1534–84) in Ghent, the poet andcivil servant Jan-Baptist Houwaert (1533–99) in Brussels, and the versatilevisual artist Hans Vredeman de Vries (1526–1609) in Antwerp.59

5 . COMPETITIONS AND THE URBAN NETWORK

It can be concluded at this point that the Chambers of Rhetoric — asassociations of skilled artisans, shopkeepers, and local merchants — played

56Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:143–60.57Speakman Sutch, 146–58.58Soly, 350–54.59Waterschoot, 116–22; Soenen, 53–55; Van de Velde.


an important role in the construction of urban culture in the Southern LowCountries through their stress on public theater, civic ritual, and publiccommunication, and through their ability to fashion complex discoursesthat alternately sustained urban and princely politics while expressing theconcerns of their own social group. In addition, another feature of rheto-rician culture reveals a particularly striking characteristic of Low Countriesurban culture. When held locally, the competitions of the Chambersof Rhetoric underlined the relations among different groups and neigh-borhoods within one city. Yet, when held on a regional or interregionallevel, they emphatically celebrated the relations among different cities andtowns within the urban network.

Flanders and Brabant were indeed highly urbanized and densely popu-lated regions. Cities, towns, and even a number of villages were involved intheir export-oriented industrial production. Exchanges among the inhab-itants of different localities were facilitated by an elaborate system of roadsand waterways. The economic networks also gave rise to hierarchical po-litical networks. In the County of Flanders the representational institutionswere formally dominated by the cities of Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres — eachof which represented a larger district — and the prosperous rural district ofthe Franc.60 In the Duchy of Brabant the principal urban centers wereLouvain, Brussels, Antwerp, and Malines. Of course, in the sixteenth cen-tury the rise of Antwerp as a commercial metropolis profoundly changedeconomic relations, as the city’s influence and attraction spread well be-yond the duchy’s borders.61

Evidently, the economic and political networks in the Southern LowCountries not only necessitated interaction, but also generated sharp rivalrybetween cities and towns.62 One of the cooperative solutions to theseconflicts and tensions lay in the elaboration of a delicately balanced dis-course of paternal hierarchy and fraternal reciprocity. The Chambers ofRhetoric played a significant role in this process because, on the one hand,their practices reflected and reinforced the economic and political hierar-chies within the urban network, and, on the other, they contributedactively to the creation of civic networks of social trust.63 In this process,urban identity — both in the strict sense of a consciousness of belongingto one city or town, and in the larger sense of a consciousness of being part

60Stabel, 1997, 271–72.61Van Uytven, 31.62Blaas, 11.63See Muir, 1999 and 2002.


of a greater community of interdependent cities and towns — was con-stantly tested and redefined.

In the first half of the sixteenth century it became a rule in Flandersthat Chambers from smaller towns and villages should seek official con-firmation, first from local authorities and then from one of the threeChambers in Flanders that had the competence to baptize new rhetoricianguilds and allow them to participate in competitions. It was no coincidencethat these three Chambers were established in the principal cities of Ghent,Bruges, and Ypres.64 In 1516 De Kruisbroeders (The Brothers of the Cross)from Kortrijk asked Alpha et Omega from Ypres to be baptized “in order tobe allowed to appear in all rhetorician meetings, both inside and outsidethe County of Flanders, free, unrestricted and without reproach, like otherguilds and companies.”65 Significantly, Alpha et Omega conferred the au-thority to charter and judge subordinate chambers upon a “father.”66

The Chambers of Rhetoric were sometimes directly involved in theinauguration of new channels for trade. In 1561 the Brussels Chambers ofRhetoric celebrated with plays and banquets the opening of a new canalbetween Brussels and the basin of the river Scheldt — and, thus indirectly,Antwerp.67 This is no coincidence, because a large number of members ofthe Brussels Chambers were tapestry weavers who depended upon theAntwerp market for the trading of their finished products.68 This exampleindicates that the rhetoricians were very aware of the importance of rela-tions within the urban network, both for their own professional and fortheir city’s interests.

In the same way we must understand the pomp that accompanied theentries of the competing Chambers into a rhetoricians’ contest. Theseentries were greatly appreciated by the crowd and sometimes even matchedthe princely entries in splendor, as was the case in Antwerp in 1561. Whileprincely entries underlined the feudal contract between prince and city, theentries of the rhetorician guilds ritualized the interdependencies within theurban network. As such, the public practices of the Chambers of Rhetoricwere part of a set of cultural strategies to decrease tensions, and consolidate

64Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:218–25.65De Potter, 44–45: “om . . . te moghen comparerne in allen vergaderinghen van

rethorijcken, alzo wel binnen den lande van Vlaendren als daer buuten, vrij, vranck endesonder reprochen als andere tijtlen ende ghezelscepen.”

66Ibid., 44: “vadere.”67Degroote, 263–64.68Aerts and Daelemans, 20.


and extend existing relations. Therefore, it can be argued that theChambers of Rhetoric contributed to what can be called an economy ofsymbolic exchanges.69 One strategy within this economy was to create reli-gious ritual networks among cities and towns. For example, delegationsfrom cities in Flanders, Artois, Hainault, and Brabant annually attendedthe Our Lady procession in the city of Tournai and donated devotionalobjects to the miraculous statue of the Virgin. Tournai was an episcopalcity situated on the banks of the river Scheldt, one of the crucial commer-cial arteries of the Low Countries. By participating in the procession, thedelegations from other cities consolidated their relations with this impor-tant religious and economic center.70

Another effective strategy within this economy of symbolic exchangeswas the setting up of competitions among companies from different citiesand towns. These could be sportive encounters — jousts, for example, orcontests for the crossbow or hand-bow — or literary meetings, as in thecase of the Chambers of Rhetoric.71 During these different types of com-petitions (which were always sustained by elaborate ritual) a symbolicsphere was created, where real political and economic tensions were chan-neled. Symbolic competition temporarily replaced the need for real rivalryand offered communities the opportunity to commit themselves andstrengthen their mutual ties. Significantly, the organizers of theater contestsapplied a rhetoric of harmony, joy, fraternity, reciprocity, and peace.72 Aninvitation to a competition in the small Flemish town of Hulst in 1483 wasaddressed to “dear, worthy and special brothers and friends”; one to acompetition in Antwerp in 1496 to “honorable, prudent and dearlybeloved brothers and friends.”73 In the last verses of its invitation to theLandjuweel of 1561 the Chamber of De Violieren underlined the value ofreciprocity: “Because you are as we, and we as you.”74

The organization of literary competitions — such as theater and poetrycontests, and sometimes a combination of both — among companies fromdifferent localities proved to be a successful formula in the Southern LowCountries. Between 1400 and 1650 at least 270 literary competitions were

69See n. 5 above.70Boone, 1992, 51–54; Arnade, 1996, 78–79.71On the jousts and competitions of the shooting guilds, see Van den Neste; Arnade,

1996, 65–94.72Knight, 380–81.73J. F. Willems, 1840, 411: “lieve, weerde ende uutvercoorne broederen en vrienden”;

Van Autenboer, 1978–79, 143: “eerbaere, voorsinnighe, sonderlinge geminde heeren,medebroeders ende vrinden.”

74Spelen van Sinne, invitation: “Mits dat ghy sijt als wy, wy als ghy.”


organized that gathered companies from different cities, towns, andsometimes even villages. From about the middle of the fifteenth centurythese competition networks were dominated by the emerging Chambers ofRhetoric. In the years 1480–1565, when rhetorician culture enjoyed itsheyday, more than two competitions between different localities were or-ganized on average each year. The year 1566, however, brought a brutalstop to the rhythm of competitions, as iconoclast riots broke out all overthe Low Countries and, in many places, rhetoricians were held partlyresponsible. The Chambers of Rhetoric in the Southern Low Countriesnever succeeded in overcoming the distrust of the central authorities beforethe end of the Dutch Revolt (1566–1648), but during the Twelve-YearTruce (1609–21) the Catholic government conditionally allowed, and evenencouraged, Chambers to organize some large-scale competitions.75 Theregional and interregional contests of the shooting guilds, notably those ofthe crossbow and of the hand-bow, have been less systematically studied,but it seems likely that their number was even higher than that of therhetorical contests.76

The power of these symbolic competitions lay in their creation of astrong fiction of equality. Economic and political hierarchies and socialinequalities were temporarily neutralized, because all participating groupshad to undergo the same tests, without exception. In the case of rhetoriciancompetitions, there were ritual contests — such as staging the most im-pressive entry into the organizing city or attending Mass in the mostsolemn manner — and literary contests — such as performing the bestmorality play or farce, or reciting the best refrein (an adaptation of the olderFrench ballade). Nor did the social prestige of the competing Chamberscount as such, but rather their ability to handle creatively literary and moralconventions and rituals. In this context it was essential to avoid referencesto the political and economic rivalry between communities, and to em-phasize repeatedly the motif of disinterested love.77 The invitation to thecompetition in Hulst in 1483 argued eloquently that the Art of Rhetoricmust promote brotherly love, recreation, and virtuousness, and banish hate,envy, sloth, wrath, and other sins.78 The rhetoricians even tried to circum-vent the explicit formulation of the competitive nature of their contests byusing alternative terms such as feasts, solemnities, meetings, plays, jewels, orprizes, suggesting in the last two cases that competitors might win, while

75Van Bruaene, 2003, 48–50.76On the shooting competitions, see Van Autenboer, 1993.77Bourdieu, 180–89. See also Muir, 1999, 405.78J. F. Willems, 1840, 411–13.


veiling the possibility of their losing.79 In this manner a compelling fictionof social harmony, limited in time and space, was instituted.

But how effective in practice was this fiction of brotherly love, har-mony, and peace? When we take a closer look, it seems that the ideals ofthe rhetoricians were more often than not flawed by conflicts betweencompeting Chambers. In 1494, the provincial Court of Flanders had tojudge a conflict between De Vreugdenaars (The Joymakers), a Chamberfrom Ypres, and a theatrical company from the French-speaking city ofLille in Walloon Flanders. Both companies had performed plays at a com-petition in the small Flemish town of Wervik. Ironically, this competitionhad celebrated the treaty of the Peace of Senlis (23 May 1493), which hadended war with France and a decade of rebellion in the Low Countries. Tohonor the occasion, the city magistracy of Wervik had put up a silver statueof St. Medard, patron saint of the town, for the best spel van zinne. Thecompeting plays were then judged by a jury of three clerics, namely anAugustinian, a Carmelite, and a Dominican. According to De Vreugdenaarsof Ypres, these clerics had recommended that the prize be awarded to theirplay, but instead the city magistracy had given the prize to the companyfrom Lille. This company in turn claimed that none of this was true andthat they had staged in Wervik “the most subtle morality play that ever wasperformed there.”80

Many other examples can be given of disputes over rhetoriciancontests. Moreover, other types of regional and interregional competitionsgenerated conflicts. A joust that was organized by the city of Douai at theend of the thirteenth century caused so many skirmishes between theinhabitants of Douai and Lille that the Count of Flanders had to intervene:the animosity between both cities did not fade in the following centuries.81

Throughout the sixteenth century the rivalry between the Brabantinetowns of Lier and Herentals time and again caused squabbles during the

79Ibid., 412: “eene feeste ende prijs van der edeler consten der Rethorijcke” (compe-tition in Hulst in 1483); Van Eeghem, 1935, 14:431: “une feste et solennite deRethoricque” (competition in Brussels in 1493); Van Autenboer 1978–79, 143: “een feestevan der rethorijcken” (competition in Antwerp in 1496); Recueil des Ordonnances, 105:“feeste ende vergaderinghe” (competition in Ghent in 1539); Van Autenboer, 1981, 92:“spel van der Rethoriken” (competition in Diest in 1541); J. F. Willems, 1837, 161: “eenigeRethorycke spelen, dwelck men noempt het landtjuweel” (competition in Antwerp in1561); De Schadt-kiste der philosophen, introduction: “Blasoen-Feeste” (competition inMalines in 1620).

80State Archives of Ghent, Raad van Vlaanderen, no. 7510, fol. 170v: “le pluseptile-ment jeu de sens que jamais y avoit esté jué.”

81Mestayer, 415–16.


regional competitions of the shooting guilds and those of the Chambers ofRhetoric.82 However, these conflicts were not as contradictory to the idealsof the rhetoricians as they seemed. It can be argued that although thefiction of peace and harmony temporarily lost its credibility, conflicts wereinevitable in — and, in a sense, even vital to — this economy of symbolicexchanges. It was indeed crucial that all participants took the play seriously.Therefore, they had to invest symbolic capital — in the first place theircollective honor, namely that of the company and that of its city or town.83

In theory, competitions could better the relations with other groups andcommunities while enhancing the honor of the company and, by exten-sion, of the city or town it represented. In practice, although the organizersof competitions were very creative in the invention of numerous categoriesfor prizes to be won, there were always losers — and, more often thannot, bad losers. But this did not mean that there was nothing to gainfrom losing. Collective honor was an essential value in a society wheremembership in well-defined groups and corporations was indispensable tosocial survival. To develop this collective honor in a complex urban societyit was necessary to interact with other groups, even — or, perhaps,preferably — if this was in the aggressive manner of an open conflict.84

Corporate honor was, of course, a value that counted as much insideas outside the city walls. The Chambers of Rhetoric in one city oftendisputed each other’s privileges and seniority and argued with the shootingguilds over issues such as the design of the guild’s uniform.85 Early modernurbanites clearly understood that the strength of a group’s collective honorwas best tested in the public sphere.86 In the Low Countries the Chambersof Rhetoric in particular played an important role, as they had mastered alanguage and a ritual discourse that could be used effectively in publicdisputes over collective honor. In songs and poems and in dialogues andactions on stage, rhetoricians could subtly communicate their insults toother groups. Local authorities often warned the rhetorician guilds againstinsulting other guilds. To prevent new conflicts between the two Chambersof Rhetoric in the Brabantine town of Aarschot, the widow of the margraveissued an undated charter (ca. 1521–40) that stated “from now on, nocompany may abuse the other in words or in plays, nor bring the other intoshame with words or ridicule the other through ballads, songs, poems, or

82Van Autenboer, 1955, 74–77.83Bourdieu, 187–88.84Wiesner, 125; Boone, 1996, 43–45.85Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:410–11.86Dinges, 50–51.


moral or comic plays.”87 Even worse, of course, was the mocking ofsecular and religious dignitaries. In fact, what had outraged the BrusselsFranciscans most in 1559 was that one of the actors of De Corenbloem hadworn a real Franciscan habit so as to ridicule their order.88

While corporate honor was an essential part of corporate identity, civichonor was a crucial part of urban identity. Therefore, rhetoricians did nothesitate to insult the inhabitants of other towns. Mathijs de Castelein, thefactor from Oudenaarde (and, notably, a priest) wrote a poem on theinhabitants of the nearby city of Tournai — which had been recentlyconquered by Charles V — with no fewer than thirty-six stanzas filledwith abusive terms and nicknames. In the same text De Castelein alludedto a performance by a company from Tournai of a play that had simulta-neously ridiculed the emperor and St. Andrew, the patron saint of theBurgundian-Habsburg dynasty.89

De Castelein’s text was primarily written for his own public, the in-habitants of the town of Oudenaarde. Rhetorician contests, on the otherhand, offered an opportunity to bring disputes between towns into themicrocosm of symbolic competition. As such, these disputes could bedirectly and publicly settled with the other competitors as witnesses. It isrevealing that while the language of love and harmony dominated, it wasalso stressed in invitations to competitions that, besides material prizes,competing companies could win honor. The invitation for the Landjuweelin Antwerp in 1561 encouraged Chambers to participate with the follow-ing formula: “Thus, do not lament your journey; he who wins honor willwin a good reward.”90 What is more, the honor of the urban communitywas directly at stake during rhetorician contests. The organizers of thecompetition in Hulst in 1483 explicitly asked the participants to bring withthem the coats of arms of their respective cities. A prize was awarded to thebest-executed escutcheon.91 For the competition in Antwerp in 1496 theorganizers put up a prize for the prologue “that most honored the city ofAntwerp.”92 The Chamber De Peoene (The Peony) from Malines decided

87A. Willems, 62–63: “dat van nu voert aen gheen van den geselscapen en sal moeghenschijmp segghen oft spelen op den anderen, noch oeck met eenigherande woerden deen denanderen beschamen oft bespotten in refereijnen, lieckens, dichten, spelen in dwijse oft in ’tsotte.”

88Van Eeghem, 1937, 75.89De Vooys, 5–6.90Spelen van Sinne, invitation: “Dus en laet niet verdrieten / u voiagie // Die Eere

verwerft / wint een goede gagie.”91J. F. Willems, 1840, 416.92Van Autenboer, 1978–79, 144: “die stadt van Antwerpen meest eerende.”


to print the literary productions from a competition in 1620 because theywould contribute to the “fame and honor of our neighboring towns and ofeach poet in particular.”93

Significantly, honor disputes between Chambers of Rhetoric oftencorresponded to the position within the urban network of the towns theyrepresented. For example, the rivalry between the Chambers of Rhetoric ofthe secondary Brabantine towns of Herentals and Lier mirrored the eternalfriction between their home towns. Both Chambers claimed that, in rela-tion to each other, they enjoyed the privilege of precedence at regionalcompetitions. During the Landjuweel in Brussels in 1532 this conflictreached a climax. While Mass was being celebrated the members from theChamber from Herentals ostentatiously marched to the offering and re-turned to their seats before the members from Lier did. This incident wastaken very seriously by the other Chambers. While the conflict was inten-sified during a competition between the shooting guilds in 1534, atemporary verdict was reached only during the following Landjuweel inMalines in 1535. According to the judging Chambers it was not theseniority of the guilds that counted, but that of the cities they represented.The conflict was continued before the provincial Court of Brabant, wherethe magistracy of Turnhout, another Brabantine town, argued that theChamber of Lier was acting rightfully — because, analogously, during themeetings of the secondary towns belonging to the district of Antwerp themagistracy of Lier had always enjoyed precedence over that of the city ofHerentals.94

6 . COMPETITIONS AND CIVIC RELIGION

We must conclude at this point that the competitions of the Chambers ofRhetoric played an important role in the process of defining and redefiningcollective identities in the Low Countries: not only corporate and urbanidentities, but also regional and interregional ones. It is no coincidence thatmost interregional competitions in the Southern Low Countries — withparticipants from Flanders, Brabant, and sometimes Holland, Zeeland, andHainault — were held during pivotal periods — such as during and afterthe civil wars at the end of the fifteenth century and during the growingpolitical and religious unrest in the 1560s on the eve of the Dutch

93De Schadt-kiste der philosophen, introduction: “roem ende eer van onse naerburighesteden ende van igelyck dichter in ’t bysonder.”

94Van Lom, 236–39; Van Autenboer, 1955, 74–77; Van Autenboer, 1981, 33–39.


Revolt95 — when political crisis forced urban communities closer together.It would go too far, however, to label these events as evidence of theemergence of a precocious national sentiment. The Low Countries re-mained an amalgam of principalities dominated, at least in the core regions,by wealthy cities that tenaciously defended their local privileges.96

Yet, another feature that is revealed by the study of rhetorician contestsindicates how exceptional urban culture in the Southern Low Countrieswas in comparison with other regions in Western Europe. With regard toRenaissance Italy, Edward Muir has argued that one of the most importantsources of civil society and urban identity was civic religion. Civic rituals,especially processions, modeled and sustained the ideal of community, butthe weakness was that civic religion “could not be easily exported beyondthe town walls to the countryside.”97 In the Southern Low Countries,however, civic religion was decidedly more open due to the practices of theChambers of Rhetoric. By organizing competitions in the context of reli-gious events, the rhetoricians contributed to the shaping of a uniquereligious culture that drew its meaning from the public and often-ritualizedexchange of values, practices, and ideas among the inhabitants of differentcities, towns, and villages.

Religious processions — and, in particular, Corpus Christi proces-sions — were held everywhere in Western Europe, in cities and even insmall towns.98 These rituals focused primarily on the city’s insiders:the adult male burghers and the secular and regular clergy. Women, jour-neymen, and children generally participated in a more passive way asmembers of the public. Some notable processions could also boast a largerpublic, with visitors from the surrounding countryside and neighboringtowns and a delegation of religious and secular dignitaries.99 This was nodifferent in the Southern Low Countries. For example, the Corpus Christiprocession in the town of Oudenaarde was widely renowned, not in theleast because of its spectacular tableaux vivants.100 Many local processions,especially in the west of Flanders, offered an additional attraction: thepageant was followed by a rhetorician contest of religious and sometimeseven comic plays. These contests were open to companies from neighbor-ing towns and villages. For example, each year from the late fifteenth

95Van Bruaene, 2003, 53–54.96Duke, 10–11.97Muir, 1999, 382.98Rubin, 1991, 258–59, 273–75, 286–87.99James, 12; Rubin, 1991, 266.100Ramakers, 1–2.


century to 1560 the small seaport of Nieuwpoort organized a theatricalcompetition after the Corpus Christi procession. Alternately, rhetoricianguilds from no fewer than thirty-four cities, towns, and nearby villages inwestern Flanders participated.101 Similar competitions were organizedwithin the context of the Our Lady procession in Ypres. Some plays thatthe Bruges playwright Cornelis Everaert wrote for both processions havesurvived, such as two morality plays that typologically compared the Virginwith the city of Jerusalem (for the Nieuwpoort competition in 1527) andwith the throne of Solomon (for the Ypres competition in 1529), as wellas a farce (for the 1529 competition).102 It is striking that Everaert wrotethese plays for two different Chambers, one in Bruges and in one in thetown of Veurne, indicating that some playwrights had built up an acknowl-edged expertise. A particularly prestigious competition took place in 1517when the city of Bruges set up a ten-day contest in the context of itsillustrious Holy Blood procession. On May 1 the Chambers — mostlyfrom the larger cities in Flanders — made their solemn entry; on the secondday they drew lots for the order of play; on the third day they paraded inthe Holy Blood procession; finally, on the fourth day, the competitionstarted.103

Thanks to the combination of religious processions and rhetoricalcompetitions, the Southern Low Countries, and Flanders in particular,developed a civic religion that differed considerably from those in otherregions. While the urban public sphere remained at the center of religiousritual, competitions allowed inhabitants of small towns and villages toparticipate as intensively and on a near-equal footing. In comparison, innorthern Italy hierarchical relations between city and countryside alwaysdominated during religious processions. Inhabitants from the surroundingcountryside were often forced to participate in civic rituals, but — notsurprisingly — they seldom identified with the urban idiom. Moreover,there was almost no ritual interaction among different cities.104 In pre-Reformation England there is evidence for processional activities in smalltowns and villages, but interactions among different localities were excep-tional and clearly less elaborate than those in the Southern LowCountries.105

101Van Bruaene, 2004, 1:231.102Everaert, 3.103Vandecasteele.104Trexler, 1–5; Chittolini; Arnade, 1996, 56.105Stokes, 250–51. For a broader discussion of religious practices in town and coun-

tryside, see Rubin, 1992, 10–15.


In the Southern Low Countries the exchanges among rhetoriciansfrom cities, towns, and villages contributed to an open civic religion in adouble sense. First, they allowed townsmen to define themselves as mem-bers of a community that was part of a larger urban network. Urban spacedid not end at the city walls: the civic body in the Southern Low Countrieswas a socialized body. Second, this civic religion was flexible because itstimulated the exchange and creative assimilation of ideas. Rhetoricianswrote, discussed, performed, and compared texts and let their performancesbe judged by clerics and fellow rhetoricians from outside their hometown.While in the fifteenth century these cultural practices could boast theapproval and support of secular and religious authorities, in the sixteenthcentury they more and more constituted a threat to religious and civicunity. Richard Clough, the keen English observer of the Landjuweel inAntwerp in 1561, was well aware of this fact. In his letter he refers to acompetition in Ghent in 1539 that had led to a condemnation of thereligious morality plays which had not only been performed for a largepublic, but had also been printed (and illegally reprinted).106 Although thecentral authorities had reacted severely — the printed plays had been puton the Index and the Chambers had received some serious warnings —Clough clearly, but no less meaningfully, exaggerates the consequences ofthe 1539 competition: “But ther was at thatt tyme syche plays played, thathath cost many a thowsantt man’s lyves; for in those plays was the wordeof God fyrst openyd in thys contrey. Weche plays were, and ar forbeden,moche more strettly than any of the boks of Martyn Luter.”107

7 . CONCLUSION

In many respects, rhetorician culture was a unique feature of urban culturein the Low Countries. In this essay we have limited ourselves to theSouthern Low Countries, especially the core regions of Flanders and Bra-bant, but it must be stressed that many Chambers of Rhetoric were activein the Northern Low Countries as well, notably from the late fifteenthcentury onwards.108 There is enough evidence that in northern Italy con-fraternities, and especially youth confraternities — such as the Florentineconfraternity of the Arcangelo Raffaello that has been the object of animpressive study by Konrad Eisenbichler109 — performed theater. In

106Van Bruaene, 2000; Waite, 134–64.107Burgon, 1:379–80.108Van Dixhoorn, 2004, 67–98.109Eisenbichler, 198–234.


pre-Reformation England, craft guilds and religious guilds were responsiblefor the staging of procession plays, such as those of the famous Yorkcycle.110 Nevertheless, guilds in northern Italy and England never reachedthe same degree of specialization as the Chambers of Rhetoric. From thelate Middle Ages onwards, Singschulen (singing schools) and puys marials(Marian literary confraternities) developed in the German and the northernFrench territories, respectively. These were urban associations that devotedthemselves to poetry and singing and that held competitions. Yet, theSingschulen and puys marials only found fertile ground in the larger cities,and as such were much more limited in numbers than the Chambers in theLow Countries.111 On the other hand, the French sociétés joyeuses (foolsocieties) primarily occupied themselves with the performance of farces andother entertainment during Shrove Tuesday celebrations. In the fifteenthcentury many of these sociétés joyeuses seem to have lacked the organiza-tional structures of the Chambers. However, in the sixteenth century someclaimed a central place in urban public culture, such as the Abbaye desConards in Rouen.112 As such, there were many similarities between thesociétés joyeuses and the Chambers of Rhetoric, but there are no indicationsof a comparably developed competition network in France.

It is evident that further comparative research on the literary practicesof early modern confraternities and guilds is needed, not only to documentand interpret these practices from a literary point of view, but also to reacha better general understanding of the cultural practices of townsmen. Theparticular case of the Chambers of Rhetoric has proved to be an excellenttool for analyzing urban culture in the Low Countries. It can be concludedthat the Chambers of Rhetoric gave meaning to Netherlandish urban cul-ture in significant ways because their institution and development wereinseparably linked to two features essential to the concept of early modernurban culture: urban association and public space. The rhetoricians usedand adapted corporate models in order to express their ever-changing cul-tural and religious needs and values; at the same time they helped to moldurban public space — both in a physical and in an intellectual sense — intoan open, flexible, and competitive civic sphere that was profoundly markedby the relations within the urban network.

GHENT UNIVERSITY

110Johnston; Dobson.111Gros, 14–35, 249–51; Nagel, 16–25; Brunner and Wachinger, 1:4–5.112Reid, 2001.


Bibl iography

Aerts, Erik, and Frank Daelemans.“Sociaal-economische aspecten vanhet 16de-eeuwse Brussel.” Tijdschriftvoor Brusselse Geschiedenis 1 (1984):5–44.

Arnade, Peter. Realms of Ritual: Burgun-dian Ceremony and Civic Life in LateMedieval Ghent. Ithaca, 1996.

———. “City, State, and Public Ritualin the Late Medieval BurgundianNetherlands.” Comparative Studies inSociety and History 39 (1997): 300–18.

Arnade, Peter, Martha Howell, and WalterSimons. “Fertile Spaces: The Produc-tivity of Urban Space in NorthernEurope.” The Journal of Interdiscipli-nary History 32 (2002): 515–48.

Barry, Jonathan. “Bourgeois Collectivism?Urban Association and the MiddlingSort.” In The Middling Sort of People:Culture, Society and Politics inEngland, 1550–1800, ed. JonathanBarry and Christopher Books, 84–112. London, 1994.

Blaas, P. B. M. “Stedelijke naijver. Een in-leidende verkenning.” In Stedelijkenaijver. De betekenis van interstedelijkeconflicten in de geschiedenis. Enige be-schouwingen en case-studies, ed. P. B.M. Blaas and Jan Van Herwaarden,11–26. The Hague, 1986.

Blockmans, Wim. “Le dialogue imaginaireentre princes et sujets: les joyeuses en-trées en Brabant en 1494 et 1496.”Publications du Centre européend’études bourguignonnes 34 (1994):37–53.

Blockmans, Wim, and Esther Donckers.“Self-Representation of Court andCity in Flanders and Brabant inthe Fifteenth and Early SixteenthCenturies.” In Showing Status:Representations of Social Positions inthe Late Middle Ages, ed. Wim Block-

mans and Antheun Janse, 81–111.Turnhout, 1999.

Boogaart, Thomas A. An Ethnogeography ofLate Medieval Bruges — Evolution ofthe Corporate Milieu 1280–1349.Lewiston, 2004.

Boone, Marc. “Les Gantois et la grandeprocession de Tournai: aspects d’unesociabilité urbaine au bas moyen âge.”In La Grande Procession de Tournai(1090–1992), ed. Jean Dumoulin andJacques Pycke, 51–58. Tournai,1992.

———. “Les gens de métiers à l’époquecorporative à Gand et les litiges pro-fessionnels (1350–1450).” In Statutsindividuels, statuts corporatifs et statutsjudiciaires dans les villes européennes(moyen âge et temps modernes), ed.Marc Boone and Walter Prevenier,23–48. Louvain, 1996.

Boone, Marc, and Maarten Prak. “Rulers,Patricians and Burghers: The Greatand the Little Traditions of UrbanRevolt in the Low Countries.” In AMiracle Mirrored: The Dutch Republicin European Perspective, ed. KarelDavids and Jan Lucassen, 99–134.Cambridge, 1995.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Raisons pratiques. Sur lathéorie de l’action. Paris, 1994.

Brown, Andrew. “Civic Ritual: Bruges andthe Counts of Flanders in the LaterMiddle Ages.” English HistoricalReview 122 (1997): 277–99.

———. “Bruges and the Burgundian‘Theatre-State’: Charles the Bold andOur Lady of the Snow.” History 84(1999): 573–89.

Brunner, Horst, and Burghart Wachinger,eds. Repertorium der Sangsprüche undMeisterlieder des 12. bis 18. Jahrhun-derts. 16 vols. Tübingen, 1986–.

Burgon, John W. The Life and Times of SirThomas Gresham, Knt., Founder of the


Royal Exchange. 2 vols. London,1839.

Cauchies, Jean-Marie. “La significationpolitique des entrées princières dansles Pays-Bas: Maximilien d’Autricheet Philippe le Beau.” Publications duCentre européen d ’ é tudes bour-guignonnes 36 (1994): 19–35.

Chittolini, Giorgio. “Civic Religion andthe Countryside in Late MedievalItaly.” In City and Countryside in LateMedieval and Renaissance Italy: Essayspresented to Philip Jones, ed. TrevorDean and Chris Wickham, 69–80.London, 1990.

Coigneau, Dirk. “Rederijkersliteratuur.” InHistorische letterkunde. Facetten vanvakbeoefening, ed. Marijke Spies, 35–57. Groningen, 1984.

———. “Inleiding.” In Uyt Ionsten Ver-saemt. Het Landjuweel van 1561 teAntwerpen, ed. Elly Cockx-Indestegeand Werner Waterschoot, 9–44.Brussels, 1994.

Coornaert, Emile. La draperie-sayetteried’Hondschoote (XIVe–XVIIIe siècles).Un centre industriel d’autrefois. Paris,1930.

Cowan, Alexander. “Introduction.” InMediterranean Urban Culture, 1400–1700, ed. Alexander Cowan, 1–11.Exeter, 2000.

Dambruyne, Johan. Mensen en centen. Het16de-eeuwse Gent in demografisch eneconomisch perspectief. Ghent, 2001.

———. Corporatieve middengroepen. Aspi-raties, relaties en transformaties in de16de-eeuwse Gentse ambachtswereld.Ghent, 2002.

Decavele, Johan. De Dageraad van deReformatie in Vlaanderen. 2 vols.Brussels, 1975.

———. “Het culturele en intellectuelenetwerk: middeleeuwen en 16deeeuw.” In Het stedelijk netwerk in Bel-gië in historisch perspectief (1350–1850). Een statistische en dynamischebenadering. Handelingen van het 15de

Internationaal Colloquium Spa, 4–6sept. 1990, 365–84. Brussels, 1992.

Degroote, Gilbert. “Gysbrecht Mercx’gedicht ter ere der opening van de‘Nieuwe Sch ipvae r t ’ Brus s e l -Willebroek (1561).” Eigen Schoon ende Brabander 31 (1948): 263–76.

Delmarcel, Guy. Het Vlaamse wandtapijtvan de vijftiende tot de achttiende eeuw.Tielt, 1999.

De Potter, Frans. Geschiedenis der stadKortrijk. Vol. 2. Ghent, 1874.

De Vooys, C. G. N. “Een ruzie tussenOudenaardse en Doornikse Rederijk-ers.” Jaarboek de Fonteine 4–5 (1946–47): 5–6.

Dhanens, Elisabeth, Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Marjoke de Roos, HermanP l e i j , a n d W i m B l o c k m a n s .“Literatuur en stadscultuur tussenmiddeleeuwen en nieuwe tijd.”Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffendede Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 106(1991): 421–50.

Dinges, Martin. “Die Ehre als Thema derhistorischen Anthropologie. Bemerkun-gen zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte undzur Konzeptualisierung.” In VerletzteEhre. Ehrkonflikte in Gesellschaften desMittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit,ed. Klaus Schreiner and GerdSchwerhoff, 29–62. Cologne, 1995.

Dobson, R. B. “Craft Guilds and City: TheHistorical Origins of the York Mys-tery Plays Reassessed.” In The Stage asa Mirror: Civic Theatre in Late Medi-eval Europe, ed. Alan E. Knight, 92–105. London, 1997.

Duke, Alastair. “The Elusive Netherlands:The Question of National Identity inthe Early Modern Low Countries onthe Eve of the Revolt.” Bijdragen enMededelingen betreffende de Geschiede-nis der Nederlanden 119 (2004): 10–38.

Eisenbichler, Konrad. The Boys of the Arch-angel Raphael: A Youth Confraternity


in Florence, 1411–1785. Toronto,1998.

Epstein, Stephan R. “Introduction: Townand Country in Europe, 1300–1800.”In Town and Country in Europe,1300–1800, ed. Stephan R. Epstein,1–29. Cambridge, 2001.

Everaert, Cornelis. Spelen van CornelisEveraert. Ed. Jacob Wijbrand Mullerand Lodewijk Scharpé. Leiden, 1920.

Gros, Gérard. Le poète, la Vierge et le princedu Puy. Etude sur les Puys marials de laFrance du Nord du XIVe siècle à la Re-naissance. Paris, 1992.

James, Mervyn. “Ritual, Drama and SocialBody in the Late Medieval EnglishTown.” Past and Present 98 (1983):3–29.

Jansen, Harry, S.J. “Wrestling with the An-gel: On Problems of Definition inUrban Historiography.” Urban His-tory 23 (1996): 277–99.

Janssens, Jozef D. “Van Mierlo of vanOostrom? Literaire netwerken in deMiddeleeuwen.” In Op avontuur.Middeleeuwse epiek in de Lage Landen,ed. Jozef D. Janssens et al., 261–71.Amsterdam, 1998.

Johnston, Alexandra F. “The Plays and theReligious Guilds of York: The Creedplay and the Pater Noster play.” Spec-ulum 50 (1975): 55–90.

Knight, Alan. “Drama and Society in LateMedieval Flanders and Picardy.” TheChaucer Review 14 (1980): 379–89.

Kooij, Pim. “Het format van de stad. Eenevaluatie van recente Nederlandsestadsgeschiedenissen.” Bijdragen enMededelingen betreffende de Geschiede-nis der Nederlanden 117 (2002): 293–306.

Kronyk van Vlaenderen van 580 tot 1467.Ed. Philip M. Blommaert andConstant P. Serrure. 2 vols. Ghent,1839–40.

Lambrechts, Pascale, and Jean-PierreSosson, eds. Les métiers au Moyen

Âge: aspects économiques et sociaux.Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994.

Lecuppre-Desjardin, Elodie. La ville descérémonies. Essai sur la communicationpolitique dans les anciens Pays-Basbourguignons. Turnhout, 2004.

Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space.1974. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Malden, 2003.

De liggeren en andere historische archievender Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onderzinspreuk: “Wt ionsten versaemt.” Ed.Philips Rombouts and Th. VanLerius. 2 vols. Antwerp and TheHague, 1872–76.

Lis, Catharina, and Hugo Soly, eds.Werken volgens de regels. Ambachten inBrabant en Vlaanderen, 1500–1800.Brussels, 1994.

———. Werelden van verschil. Ambachts-ilden in de Lage Landen. Brussels,1997.

Marnef, Guido. Antwerp in the Age ofReformation: Underground Protestant-ism in a Commercial Metropolis,1550–1577. Baltimore, 1996.

Mestayer, Monique. “Rivalités et dépen-dances entre villes: l’exemple deDouai du Moyen Age à nos jours.”Revue du Nord 82 (2000): 413–22.

Moser, Nelleke. De strijd voor rhetorica.Poëtica en positie van rederijkers inVlaanderen, Brabant, Zeeland enHolland tussen 1450 en 1620 .Amsterdam, 2001.

Muir, Edward. Civic Ritual in RenaissanceVenice. Princeton, 1981.

———. “The Sources of Civil Society inItaly.” Journal of Interdisciplinary His-tory 29 (1999): 379–406.

———. “The Idea of Community in Re-naissance Italy.” Renaissance Quarterly55, no. 1 (2002): 1–18.

Nagel, Bert. Meistersang. Stuttgart, 1962.Nijsten, Gerard. “De stad en haar meta-

foor. Processie, toneel en openbarefeesten in Venlo, ca. 1380–1525.”


Volkskundig Bulletin 17 (1991): 223–41.

Pleij, Herman. Het gilde van de BlauweSchuit. Volksfeest en burgermoraal in delate middeleeuwen. Amsterdam, 1983.

———. “The Function of Literature inUrban Societies in the Later MiddleAges.” Dutch Crossing 29 (1986):3–22.

———. De sneeuwpoppen van 1511. Liter-a t u u r e n s t a d s c u l t u u r t u s s e nmiddeleeuwen en moderne ti jd .Amsterdam, 1988.

Ramakers, B. A. M. Spelen en figuren.Toneelkunst en processiecultuur inOudenaarde tussen Middeleeuwen enModerne Tijd. Amsterdam, 1996.

Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas. Deu-xième sér i e 1506–1700. TomeQuatrième contenant les ordonnancesdu 9 janvier 1536 (1537 n.st.) au 24décembre 1543. Ed. J. Lameere andHenri Simont. Brussels, 1907.

Rederijkers: conformisten en rebellen. Liter-atuur, cultuur en stedelijke netwerken(1400–1650). Ed. Bart Ramakers.Amsterdam, 2003.

Reid, Dylan. “Carnival in Rouen: A His-tory of the Abbaye des Conards.” TheSixteenth Century Journal 32 (2001):1027–55.

———. “Measuring the Impact of Broth-erhood: Robert Putnam’s MakingDemocracy Work and ConfraternalStudies.” Confraternitas 14 (2003):3–12.

Robisheaux, Thomas W. “The World ofthe Village.” In Structures and Asser-tions, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr., et al.,79–112. Vol. 1 of Handbook of Euro-pean History 1400–1600: Late MiddleAges, Renaissance and Reformation.Leiden, 1994.

Rosser, Gervase. “Myth, Image and SocialProcess in the English MedievalTown.” Urban History 1 (1996):5–25.

Rubin, Miri. Corpus Christi: The Eucharist

in Late Medieval Culture. Cambridge,1991.

———. “Religious Culture in Town andCountry: Reflections on a Great Di-vide.” In Church and City, 1000–1500: Essays in Honour of ChristopherBrooke, ed. David Abulafia, MichaelFranklin, and Miri Rubin, 3–22.Cambridge, 1992.

De Schadt-kiste der philosophen ende poetenwaer inne te vinden syn veel schooneleerlycke Blasoenen, Refereynen endeLiedekens ghebracht ende ghesonden opde Peoen-Camere binnen Mechelen vand’omliggende steden in Brabant, Vlaen-deren, Hollandt ende Zeelandt:Geprononciert ende gesongen op hen-lieder Feeste den 3. Mey van den Iaere1620. . . . Malines, 1621.

Slootmans, Korneel. “De Bergse rederijker-skamer en het volksfeest.” Jaarboek deGhulden Roos 34 (1974): 42–85.

Soenen, Micheline. “Fêtes et cérémoniespubliques à Bruxelles aux temps mod-ernes.” Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis68 (1988): 47–102.

Soly, Hugo. “Plechtige intochten in desteden van de Zuidelijke Nederlandentijdens de overgang van Middeleeuwennaar Nieuwe Tijd: communicatie, pro-paganda, spektakel.” Tijdschrift voorGeschiedenis 97 (1984): 341–61.

Speakman Sutch, Susie. “Dichters van destad. De Brusselse rederijkers en hunverhouding tot de Franstalige hoflit-eratuur en het geleerde humanisme(1475–1522).” In De macht van hetschone woord. Literatuur in Brusselvan de 14de tot de 18de eeuw, ed. JefJanssens and Remco Sleiderink, 141–59. Louvain, 2003.

Spelen van sinne vol scoone moralisacien,uutleggingen en bediedenissen op alleloeflijcke consten waer inne men claer-lijck ghelijck in eenen spieghel,Figuerlijck, Poetelijck ende Retorijckeli-jck mach aenschouwen hoe nootsakelijck


ende dienstelijck die selve consten allenmenschen zijn. Antwerp, 1562.

Spies , Mari jke. “Developments inSixteenth-Century Dutch Poetics:From ‘Rhetoric’ to ‘Renaissance.’” InRenaissance-Rhetorik, ed. Heinrich F.Plett, 72–91. Berlin, 1993.

Stabel, Peter. Dwarfs among Giants: TheFlemish Urban Network in the LateMiddle Ages. Apeldoorn, 1997.

———. “Recente tendensen in de stadsge-schiedenis.” In De toekomst van hetverleden. Reflecties over geschiedenis,stedelijkheid en musea, ed. MandyNauwelaerts, 47–52. Antwerp, 1999.

———. “The Market-Place and CivicIdentity in Late Medieval Flanders.”In Shaping Urban Identity in Late Me-dieval Europe, ed. Marc Boone andPeter Stabel, 43–64. Louvain, 2000.

Stokes, James. D. “Processional Entertain-ments in Villages and Small Towns.”In Moving Subjects: Processional Per-formance in the Middle Ages and theRenaissance, eds. Kathleen Ashley andWim Hüsken, 239–57. Amsterdam,2001.

Tittler, Robert. “Capitalism and Culture:The Functions of the European City.”Urban History 25 (1998): 231–36.

Trexler, Richard C. Public Life in Renais-sance Florence. New York, 1980.

Trio, Paul. Volksreligie als spiegel van eenstedelijke samenleving: de broederschap-pen te Gent in de late Middeleeuwen.Louvain, 1993.

Van Autenboer, Eugeen. “Rhetoricalevaria.” ‘t Land van Ryen 5 (1955): 72–77.

———. “Een landjuweel te Antwerpen in1496?” Jaarboek de Fonteine 29(1978–79): 125–50.

———. Het Brabants landjuweel der red-erijkers, 1515–1561. Middelburg,1981.

———. De kaarten van de schuttersgildenvan het hertogdom Brabant (1300–1800). 2 vols. Tilburg, 1993.

Van Bruaene, Anne-Laure. “Printing Plays:The Publication of the Ghent Plays of1539 and the Reaction of the Au-thorities.” Dutch Crossing 24 (2000):265–84.

———. “Sociabiliteit en competitie. Desociaal-institutionele ontwikkelingvan de rederijkerskamers in de zuideli-jke Nederlanden (1400–1650).” InRederijkers: conformisten en rebellen(2003), 45–63.

———. “Om beters wille. Rederijkerska-mers en de stedelijke cultuur in deZuidelijke Nederlanden (1400–1650).” 3 vols. PhD diss., Ghent,2004.

———. “Brotherhood and Sisterhood inthe Early Modern Chambers ofRhetoric in the Southern Low Coun-tries.” The Sixteenth Century Journal36 (2005): 11–36.

Vandecasteele, Maurits. “Een rederijkers-feest te Brugge in 1517.” Jaarboek deFonteine 17 (1967): 27–46.

Vandenbroeck, Paul. Jheronimus Bosch.Tussen volksleven en stadscultuur.Berchem, 1987.

Van den Neste, Evelyne. Tournois, joutes,pas d’ armes dans les villes de Flandre àla fin du Moyen Age (1300–1486).Paris, 1996.

Van der Meersch, P. J. “Kronyk der reder-ykkamers van Audenaerde.” BelgischMuseum 6 (1842): 373–408; 7(1843): 15–72, 232–65, 386–438.

Van de Velde, Carl. “Hans Vredemande Vries en de blijde intreden teAntwerpen.” In Tussen stadspaleizenen luchtkastelen. Hans Vredeman deVries en de Renaissance, ed. HeinerBorggrefe et al., 81–88. Ghent, 2002.

Vandewalle, Paul. De geschiedenis van delandbouw in de kasselrij Veurne(1550–1645). Brussels, 1986.

Van Dixhoorn, Arjan. “Burgers, branies enbollebozen. De sociaal-institutioneleontwikkeling van de rederijkerskam-ers in de Noordelijke Nederlanden


(1470–1650).” In Rederijkers: con-formisten en rebellen (2003), 65–85.

———. “Lustige Geesten. Rederijkers enhun kamers in het publieke leven vande Noordelijke Nederlanden in de vi-jftiende, zestiende en zeventiendeeeuw.” PhD diss., Amsterdam, 2004.

Van Eeghem, Willem. “Rhetores Bruxel-lenses.” Belgisch Tijdschrift voorFilologie en Geschiedenis 14 (1935):427–48; 15 (1936): 47–48.

———, ed. Drie schandaleuse spelen (Brus-sel, 1559). Antwerp, 1937.

Van Elslander, Antonin. “Letterkundigleven in de Bourgondische tijd: de re-derijkers.” Jaarboek de Fonteine 18(1968): 3–20.

Van Lom, Christiaan. Beschryving der stadLier in Brabant; behelzende eene naeu-keurige Verhandeling van deszelfsoorsprong, benaeming, bevolking, aen-was, voorrechten en rampen als ook destichting der kerken, kloosters, godshuy-sen en andere godvrugtige plaetzen,mitsgaeders alles wat aldaer zedert hetjaer 760 tot op heeden aenmerken-swaerdig is voorgevallen, getrokken uythet leven van den H. Gommar, de ar-chiven der kanonikale kerk, derekeningen der stads rentmeesters, endegeloofwaerdigste schryvers. The Hague,1740.

Van Oostrom, Frits. “Schetskaart of ge-schiedverhaal? Over methode enpraktijk van (een) geschiedschrijvingvan de Middelnederlandse letter-kunde.” In Tussentijds. Bundel studiesaangeboden aan W. P. Gerritsen tergelegenheid van zijn vijftigste ver-

jaardag, ed. A. M. J. van Buuren,198–217. Utrecht, 1985.

Van Uytven, Raymond. “Brabantse en An-twerpse centrale plaatsen (14de–19deeeuw).” In Het stedelijk netwerk inBelgië in historisch perspectief (1350–1850). Een statistische en dynamischebenadering. Handelingen van het 15deInternationaal Colloquium Spa, 4–6sept. 1990, 29–79. Brussels, 1992.

Waite, Gary. Reformers on Stage: PopularDrama and Religious Propaganda inthe Low Countries of Charles V, 1515–1556. Toronto, 2000.

Waterschoot, Werner. “Vorstelijke intoch-ten 1577–1584.” In Het eind van eenrebelse droom. Opstellen over het calvin-istisch bewind te Gent (1577–1584) ende terugkeer van de stad onder de ge-hoorzaamheid van de koning vanSpanje (17 september 1584), ed. JohanDecavele, 115–27. Ghent, 1984.

Wiesner, Merry E. “Guilds, Male Bondingand Women’s Work in Early ModernGermany.” Gender & History 1(1989): 125–37.

Willems, A. “Over de rederijkerskamersvan Aarschot.” Het Oude Land vanAarschot 16 (1981): 7–11, 57–70, 97–106.

Willems, Jan Frans. “Chronologische lystvan oorkonden, de kamers van rhe-torica te Antwerpen betreffende.”Belgisch Museum 1 (1837): 147–71.

———. “Oorkonden van rederykkamers.I. Prijskaerte van de Rederykkamerder stad Hulst: De Transfiguratie, 7September 1483.” Belgisch Museum 6(1840): 411–18.


"A wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynnyng of a pryse": Guilds, Ritual, Theater, and the Urban Network...

Documents

Transcript of "A wonderfull tryumfe, for the wynnyng of a pryse": Guilds, Ritual, Theater, and the Urban Network...