Jacob Van Maerlant - Uncertainty About Biography

Uncertainty About Biography

Jacob van Maerlant is the modern name of a medieval Dutch author, who called himself Jacob van Merlant. Merlant was the name of a harbour at the island of Oost-Voorne, which was part of the County of Holland (and Zeeland), where the viscount of Zeeland held residence. In the 14th century Merlant disappeared from the map and became a part of the city of Brielle, also known as Den Briel. In the year 1261 or shortly after Jacob got a job as a 'custos' at the church of Saint Martin at Merlant, from which he took his second name.

The date and year of his birth are unknown. Estimates usually range between 1230 and 1240, due to the 'fact' that his oldest work, Alexanders geesten (The deeds of Alexander ), was probably written (shortly) after 1260. Also unknown is where Jacob was born and from what parents or family. His language has been analyzed by the Dutch linguists Amand Berteloot and Evert van den Berg, who came to the conclusion that he grew up and learned to speak in the County of Flanders, somewhere south of the city of Bruges, Belgium.

Also unknown is when and where Jacob died. Tradition holds that Jacob must have been alive in 1291, because he is considered to be the author of a poem Vanden lande van Overzee (On the Land across the Sea ), which was written as a 'complaint' of the fall of the last Christian city in the Holy Land, Saint-Jean d'Acres. This poem however, which survived in only one manuscript (UB Groningen, Ms. 405), has no name attached to it in the manuscript itself. None of the texts in this manuscript bears the name of its author. But since the main body of this manuscript is Jacob van Maerlant's translation/adaptation of Petrus Comestor's Historia scholastica, traditionally known as Rijmbijbel (rhymed Bible) and Jacob's adaptation/translation of Flavius Josephus's De bello judaeico. In his recent edition of the oldest surviving manuscript (BR/KB Brussel, Ms. 15001) Maurits Gysseling treats Jacob's Josephus-translation as belonging to the Comestor-translation, yet it is a different text which Jacob named Die wrake van Jherusalem (The vengeance of Jeruzalem), thereby showing his interpretation of what happened – and why it happened – during the Jewish revolt against the Roman oppressors, which ended in the capture of Jeruzalem and the destruction of the Temple by emperor Vespasianus' son Titus in AD 70. Nineteenth century Dutch scholars who were used to consider rhymed texts as 'poetry' were not too happy with Jacob's rhyming couplets, which they thought were lacking poetical beauty, so they needed his authorship of these 'real' poems at the end of manuscript to prove that he was a real poet or could be a real poet, if only he wanted to.

That Jacob was the author of this poem Vanden lande van Overzee was based on a verse in the 19th and last stanza: "Ghi heren, dit is Jacobs vont. (v. 235): Gentlemen, this is Jacob's creation". This is no evidence in the modern sense of the word, but in the middle of the nineteenth century it was more than enough proof that – considering the subject and the way the poet expresses humself – could not have been anybody else than Jacob van Maerlant. Fact is that Jacob only called himself Jacob when he was young and before he went to Merlant at Oost-voorne. Than he called hemself 'Jacob (die coster) van Merlant'. At older age when he was known and famous as the author of Scolastica in dietschen alias the Rijmbijbel, finished on March 25, 1271, hi simply called himself 'Merlant'. It was not uncommon in medieval literature to use alloniems to give a text more 'weight'. It is very well possible that some poet used the name Jacob – if it wasn't his name, and an often given name to celebrate the apostle Jacobus who lied buried in Santiago de Compostella – to make the impression that it was written by the famous Jacob van Maerlant. The same technique was used to appoint Jacob of Maerlant as the author (and inventor!) of a Dutch poem about the Nine Worthies. In this case the 'pia fraus' was written in Latin.

Recent examination of the manuscript Groningen 405 by bookhistorian Jos Biemans has revealed that this codex is a mixture of older and younger quires. Jacob's Scolastica/Wrake belongs to the younger part, Vanden lande van Overzee to the older part. It took probably some 10 years (1330–1340)? to write and to assemble this book, which was presumably done in the Brabantine city Den Bosch for the nearby monastery 'Marienweerd'. Most likely the main guideline to collect the quires into one codex was not the authorship of Jacob van Maerlant but the virgin Mary, which is in perfect harmony with the name of the monastery 'Marienweert'. To make a long story short: there is no real evidence or reason to think that this manuscript Groningen 405 has to be a 'Maerlant'-collection. There is too much wishful thinking involved.

Tradition says he died at Damme; ca. 1300, yet ca. 1288 is more realistic.