Niederländische Literatur bis 1550. Bibliographie der niederländischen Literatur in deutscher Übersetzung, I (review)

The present bibliography is a product of the increasing interest in historical "cultural areas" in general and a growing awareness of the literary transfer between medieval Dutch and German regions in particular. In contrast to recent initiatives that highlight the relations between both areas on the basis of isolated cases, Niederländische Literatur bis 1550 is a comprehensive compendium of all German translations up to the present day of Dutch literature written in the period until 1550. The bibliography is the first volume of a two-part compendium of Dutch literature until 1830 in German translation, which resulted from the DFG-funded project Bibliographie der niederländischen Literatur in deutscher Übersetzung. Rita Schlusemann coordinated the part of the project that encompasses German translations of Dutch works from the earliest period until 1550, for the first time compiling these works and translations in their diverse genres.

The bibliography is preceded by an introduction and several lists of abbreviations. The 892 items are alphabetically arranged by Dutch author or, in the case of anonymous works, title. Each item is provided with a corresponding alphabetical initial, a serial number, and an indication of the source text ("N" for Dutch) or translation ("D" for German). For example, J-015D2 stands for the second German translation (D2) of Jan I. van Brabant's (J) Maienfreude (015). The compendium concludes with a list of references and three indices: "Autoren und Texte," "Handschriften," and "Deutsche Übersetzer und Bearbeiter." Knowing that the project was executed at several universities and involved multiple assistants, the uniform and sound bibliography is an admirable achievement. The following critical observations and suggestions can be seen as stimuli for possible sequels. In sum I very much appreciate and acknowledge the huge effort that was put into making this wealth of information available for the scholarly community.

The thorough introduction to the bibliography discusses some theoretical issues on literary transfer within the "kontinentalwestgermanischen Sprachraum" (p. x). The borders of the present-day nation states of Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria do not coincide with the linguistic borders of a great variety of dialects spoken in this region at the time. Those dialects were loosely grouped in cultural areas, "Kulturräume," irrespective of old or new borders. This medieval cultural situation makes it difficult to map out literary transfer within "Dutch"- and "German"-speaking regions. Schlusemann acknowledges the difficulties and presents an anachronistic solution: "'Niederländisch' bezeichnet die Werke, die im niederländischen Sprachraum in einer Schreibsprache entstanden sind, die man zu den Vorläufern des heutigen 'Niederländischen' zählt" (p. xii). The same criterion is applied to the German translations. The editor could have elaborated theoretically on the medieval linguistic situation, for instance by highlighting the differences between Middle High and Middle Low German dialects. The latter were linguistically much closer to the Dutch language than the former because they had not undergone the High German consonant shift. What arguments would there be, then, to call the transposition of Dutch into Middle Low German a translation? Yet considering the project's objective to collect German translations up to the present day, Schlusemann's decision is understandable and perfectly legitimate.

The decision to draw a sharp line between the works and translations produced in nowadays Dutch- and German-speaking areas does not detract from the merits of the bibliography. It only complicates the situation of translations made in border regions like the Rhine-Meuse-area. Some translations produced in this area were not included in the bibliography, probably because they are borderline cases. This applies to an eastern Brabant or Lower Rhenish adaptation of the Flemish Boeve van Hamtone and a fragment of Van den vos Reynaerde, which was written in a northern Lower Rhenish dialect. It is unclear why these works are not incorporated, whereas in other cases Schlusemann does include Lower Rhenish adaptations among the translations (for instance of Jacob van Maerlant...