Manuscript enrollment book for a 17th-century Flemish confraternity.
[Manuscript]. Confraternitas Sanctae Crucis instituta in Ecclesia Parochiali Deiparae Virginis oppidi Ninivensis ab Ill.mo R.mo D.no D. Iacobi Boonen Archiepiscopo Mechliniensi A.no Millesimo sexcentesimo quadragesimo septimo decimo octavo die mensis Aprilis… S.l. [Ninove, Flanders]: s.n., begun 1647. Folio [31.2 v 20.1 cm], [234] ff., of which [173] ff. remain blank. Bound in contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine and boards, formerly with ties, all edges gilt. Abrasions and edge wear to spine and boards, joints opening at extremities. Written in many hands, only minor edge wear and the occasional stain, legible throughout.
Original 17th-century manuscript enrollment book for the Confraternity of the Holy Cross at the Premonstratensian Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in the town of Ninove, Flanders (15 miles west of Brussels). Some 1500 signatures were added to the book between the founding of the confraternity in 1647 and the 1720s (a handful date to the later part of the 18th century). More than three quarters of the signatures belong to women, with scores of Marias, Catharinas, and Barbaras.
Some new members added details about the circumstances of their enrollment. The manuscript also includes sections recording committees of various sorts, groups of nuns (e.g., hospitalières), the confraternity ‘Rule,’ expenses, etc. More than 170 leaves remain blank.
The Confraternity of the Holy Cross in Ninove was founded by the authority of Jacobus Boonen (1573–1655), Archbishop of Mechelen, and though the efforts of the noted Jesuit mathematician Jean-Charles della Faille (1597-1652). This manuscript (“Catalogus sive series fratrum et sororum”) was begun by Jodocus de Clerck, a canon regular at the Abbey of Sint-Cornelius en Sint-Cyprianus, which adjoins Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk.
Construction was begun on the new Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in 1640 following designs brought from Rome. The Ninove Confraternity of the Holy Cross helped finance that building project.