J
JACOB VAN MAERLANT
(ca. 1230–ca. 1290)
A Flemish poet, Maerlant came from Bruxambacht, or,
the “Freedom of Bruges” (het Brugse Vrije). His oeuvre,
which shows strong didactic tendencies, clearly indi-
cates that he was well educated, even though his exact
place in society is unclear. He probably received minor
orders and held several positions as a clerk (clerc). In the
late 1350s, Maerlant moved northward to the island of
Voorne (in the estuary of the River Maas in the southern
part of the county of Holland), taking his name from
the village Maerlant (near Brielle) on that island. He
became sexton (coster, custos) of the local church of St.
Peter (if Coster is not his family name), a profession that
agreed perfectly with his activities as an author. During
his stay in Maerlant he was possibly a tutor to young
Floris V (d. 1296), count of Holland. Around 1270 he
returned to Flanders, to Damme, near Bruges, earning
his livelihood as a civil servant (in toll regulations) and
continuing his writing. Tradition (unproved) has it that
he was buried after his death ca. 1290 “under the bells”
of the church of Our Lady in Damme.
Some of Maerlant’s works are only known from
references in his other works, such as the Sompniarijs
(a book on dream interpretation), the Lapidarijs (a book
on the mineral qualities of stones), and a vita (life) of St.
Clare of Assisi. Maerlant’s authorship of some works is
still a matter of dispute, but his oeuvre amounted to at
least 225,000 lines in coupled rhyme.
The oldest surviving work is Alexanders Geesten
[Deeds of Alexander (ca. 1260, 14,277 verses)]. Mae-
rlant wrote this history of Alexander the Great on a
commission from Aleide van Avesnes, to whom he gives
the pseudonym Gheile in an acrostichon (series of fi rst
letters in lines of a poem which spell words). The text
is a translation and adaptation of the Alexandreïs of
Walter of Châtillon, which Maerlant took from a manu-
script with glosses. But the poet used a broad range of
additional sources, including the Historia Scholastica
(Scholastic History) of Petrus Comestor, Lucanus’s De
Bello Civile (Civil War), Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Virgil’s
Aeneid, the Disciplina Clericalis (Clerical Discipline)
of Pedro Alfonso, the Secreta Secretorum (Secret of
Secrets), and Honorius of Autun’s Imago Mundi (Image
of the World).
For Albrecht of Voorne, Maerlant wrote Merlijn in- The text encompasses two separate tales: the
Historic van den Grale (History of the Grail, 1607
verses) and Boek van Merline (Book of Merlin, 8485
verses), which were adaptations of Robert de Boron’s
Joseph d’Arimathie (Joseph of Arimathia) and Roman
de Merlin (Tale of Merlin). The To re c (ca. 1262) is
Maerlant’s second Arthurian romance. This text (about
3,800 verses) has only been handed down to us in an
abridged form, included in the vast Lancelot Compila-
tion of The Hague.
Maerlant’s Historie van Troyen (ca. 1264, 40,880
verses) renders the history of the Trojan War, from its
preparatory stages to its aftermath. Among the sources
he used were the Roman de Troie of Benoît of St. Maure,
the Achilleid of Statius, the Aeneid of Virgil, Ovid’s
Metamorphoses and his own Alexanders Geesten. In
addition, he incorporated the complete Trojeroman of
Segher Diengotgaf into his text. The patron behind this
work is not yet known, but it is likely the Historie van
Troyen was intended for a noble audience.
The “Mirror of Princes,” the Heimelijkheid der
Heimelijkheden (ca. 1266, 2,158 verses), was possibly
written for the young count of Holland, Floris V, and is
a translation of the Secreta Secretorum of Pseudo-Aris-
toteles. (Maerlant’s authorship of this text is sometimes
disputed.) Der naturen bloeme [Flower of Nature (ca.
1266, 16,670 verses)], the fi rst bestiary in the vernacu-
lar, assimilated Aristotle’s books on biology. Maerlant