"A remarkable adaptation of Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour"

Two fragments of a Middle Dutch translation in verse of the Bestiaire d'amour have survived on two sheets of parchment kept in the University Library of Amsterdam under the signature IA 24 f [Universiteit van Amsterdam Bibliotheek, IA 24 f]. One of the sheets contains 114 lines of verse from the first quarter of the translation, the other contains the last 84 verses. The text concludes on the verso of this sheet with 'Explicit die Beestearis', after which the inscription 'Hier beghint Ovidius' with the first ten lines of a poem about love have been preserved. Judging by the dialect, the manuscript originates from West Flanders and is dated around 1290. ... The two sheets contain two columns of text on each side. In a number of places, especially on the verso of the first page, the text is very difficult to read. Here and there spaces have been saved in the columns for miniatures, which, however, have not been added. - [Author]

Language: Dutch