MAERLANT

maerlant, jacob van (c. 1235-c. 1300), flemish poet, was born in the franc de burges (tradition says at damme) between 1230 and 1240. he was sacristan of maerlant, in the island of ost-voorne, and afterwards clerk to the magistrates at damme. his early works are translations of french romances. maerlant's most serious work in the field of romance was his _ystorien van troyen_ (c. 1264), a poem of some forty thousand lines, translated and amplified from the _roman de troie_ of benoit de sainte-more. from this time maerlant rejected romance as idle, and devoted himself to writing scientific and historical works for the education and enlightenment of the flemish people. his _heimelicheit der heimelicheden_ (c. 1266) is a translation of the _secreta secretorum_, a manual for the education of princes, ascribed throughout the middle ages to aristotle. _van der naturen bloeme_ is a free translation of _de natura rerum_, a natural history in twenty books by a native of brabant, thomas de cantimpre; and his _rijmbijbel_ is taken, with many omissions and additions, from the _historia scholastica_ of petrus comestor. he supplemented this metrical paraphrase of scripture history by _die wrake van jherusalem_ (1271) from josephus. although maerlant was an orthodox catholic, he is said to have been called to account by the priests for translating the bible into the vulgar tongue. in 1284 he began his _magnum opus_, the _spiegel historiael_, a history of the world, derived chiefly from the third part of the _speculum majus_ of vincent de beauvais. this work was completed by two other writers, philipp utenbroeke and lodowijk van velthem. maerlant died in the closing years of the 13th century, his last poem, _van den lande van oversee_, dating from 1291. the greater part of his work consists of translations, but he also produced poems which prove him to have had real original poetic faculty. among these are _die clausule van der bible_, _der kerken clage_, imitated from the _complaintes_ of rutebeuf, and the three dialogues entitled _martijn_, in which the fundamental questions of theology and ethics were discussed. in spite of his orthodoxy, maerlant was a keen satirist of the corruptions of the clergy. he was one of the most learned men of his age, and for two centuries was the most celebrated of flemish poets. see monographs by j. van beers (ghent, 1860); c. a. serrure (ghent, 1861); k. versnaeyen (ghent, 1861); j. te winkel (leiden, 1877, 2nd ed., ghent, 1892); and editions of _torec_ (leiden, 1875) by j. te winkel; of _naturen bloeme_, by eelco verwijs; of _alexanders geesten_ (groningen, 1882), by j. franck; _merlijn_ (leiden, 1880-1882), by j. van bloten; _heimelicheit der heimelicheden_ (dordrecht, 1838), by clarisse; _der naturen bloeme_ (groningen, 1878), by verwijs; of _rijmbijbel_ (brussels, 1858-1869), by david; _spiegel historiael_ (leiden 1857-1863), by verwijs and de vries; selections from the _ystorien van troyen_ (1873), by j. verdam.