Memory and Reward. Dutch Collections of Sermons and their Functions in the Memoria Tradition in the Female Convent of Jericho in Brussels (c. 1450-1650)

This article deals with commemorative aspects of the late-medieval prologues to the sermon collections preserved from the Brussels convent of Jericho. By composing these collections, Augustinian Canonesses Maria van Pee, Barbara Cuyermans and Janne Colijns, and the other anonymous sisters involved in the process, collectively made books that could not only be used to edify the convent but could also serve to recall, in an act of memoria, the priests who were responsible for their spiritual care, as well as the women who initially redacted the sermons (this last being due to information added posthumously). This culture of remembrance via sermon collections was maintained until long after the Middle Ages, as is shown by the prologue to the seventeenth-century collection of sermons written by Canoness Maria A. de Folije. Finally, the article connects these prologues and the sermon manuscripts to the broader literary, visual and liturgical memoria culture in the convent.