Snakes were terrifying and symbolically very loaded animals in the Middle Ages. This thesis compares the treatment of snakes in Van den proprieteyten der dinghen [De proprietatibus rerum] (1485) and Der naturenbloeme [Der Naturen Bloeme] (ca. 1270) by Jacob van Maerlant. Both works are Middle Dutch translations of thirteenth-century scholarly encyclopaedias written in Latin by monks. Van den proprieteyten der dinghen closely follows his Latin source of Bartholomeus Anglicus. Maerlant, on the other hand, has simplified his source into a book that can be called popular science. The treatment of snakes in both works illustrates this difference. Maerlant discusses the animals in separate books and thus divides the animal kingdom into large groups. Snakes also get their own book. However, Maerlant pays little attention to the characteristics on which this classification of the animal kingdom is based. Nor does he divide the snakes into further subgroups. Bartholomew treats all land animals in one book. This means that snakes are scattered among the other animals. Bartholomew divides the serpent kingdom into many more groups and subgroups than Maerlant and explains in detail why these divisions are valid according to him. Bartholomew strongly thematizes a number of loaded traits of snakes, such as belly-crawling, venom, dwelling in dark burrows, and crooked paths. Such properties are often used as classification criteria. Because of this, Bartholomew constantly emphasizes the interrelationships between snakes and the relationship between snakes and the rest of nature. Bartholomeus usually does not make symbolic interpretations and moral lessons explicit, although his information about snakes does evoke connotations with the devil. Maerlant emphasizes the thematic similarities between snakes much less, but focuses on providing practical information and telling tall stories about the different snake species. The relationship between snakes and other animals receives less attention from him than from Bartholomew. Maerlant gives explicit moral lessons. All in all, Der naturenbloeme offers more practical and simpler information about snakes than Van den proprieteyten der dinghen. This may have to do with differences in the level of development of the (intended) audience of the two works. - Abstract

Language: Dutch