De "Spiegel historiael" in Italië: onbekende fragmenten te Valenza

The public library of Valenza, in the Italian region of Piedmont, holds two parchment fragments of Jacob van Maerlant’s Spiegel historiael which are used to protect other documents. The present paper is the first study dedicated to them. The leaves are first described separately, highlighting their shape as well as the text which has been handed down to us. Taking into account paleographical, ortho- graphical and linguistic aspects, the author tries to reconstruct the original manu- script from which both fragments derive, reaching the conclusion that it was writ- ten in the first quarter of the 14th century in the area of (South-)Eastern Flanders or Western Brabant. Furthermore, special attention is paid to the hypothesis that the fragments reached Piedmont because of the strong presence in the Low Countries of Italian money lenders, the so called ‘Lombards’, who came exactly from that re- gion. The complete edition of the Middle Dutch text, followed by notes, concludes the study.