Truth

Fake news has been flying around lately. Some say the earth is flat, others that there are aliens living among us. Even Presidents will quite cheerfully lie. Why do so many people believe nonsense? And how do you know whether something is true or not? Journalists and scientists are not allowed to assert anything they like, and work according to set methods. Because journalists get to the truth, they are often arrested and sometimes even murdered by dictators.

Brother Cornelis Brouwer was a fanatical preacher who lashed out in his sermons at every citizen of Bruges who was a moderate Catholic or had sympathy for Protestantism. He got a taste of his own medicine. Two satirical books about him appeared with some racy stories. Cornelis Brouwer – according to the author of the satire – was said to enjoy beating sinful women with a scourge on their naked buttocks. Both the character of Cornelis Brouwer (a hard-line man, there is only one truth) and the satirical stories and sermons are still very recognisable today: people who make high moral demands of others are themselves approached very critically.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

Several artists and works in the collection of Musea Brugge depict the Last Judgement: Hieronymus Bosch, Memling (St. John’s Retable), Rik Poot (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). The last judgement inspires some very imaginative scenes. Recently, it was the inspiration for a video by David Claerbout at St John’s Hospital.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

Simon Stevin Square in Bruges is named after Simon Stevin (1548-1620), a Dutch scientist who became an advisor to Prince Maurice. With a fresh outlook, he constantly enriched new fields such as hydraulic engineering, navigation, accounting, physics, military science, architecture, urban planning, political science and mathematics. The exhibition at the City Archives brings together for the first time all the works and manuscripts by Simon Stevin, including ten works from the heritage collection of the Public Library of Bruges. Two films talk about his life and how his insights and discoveries are still present in our daily lives. A great many items in the collection of the Public Library, the City Archives and Musea Brugge refer to this scientist.

Supplied by Erfgoedcel Brugge.

Bernard begs Mary in a prayer to ‘show yourself as a mother’, to which she replies ‘just look’ and squirts her breast milk into his mouth. In one variation of the legend, Bernard prays to Mary for so long that his lips become dry. Mary takes pity and heals the fissures with her milk.

Supplied by Musea Brugge.

Manuscript 008 (M 008), Augustine, De civitate Dei, 2nd half of the 15th century.

Aurelius Augustine (+ 430) wrote the 22 books on the City of God in the period 413-426. The accusation that Christianity was responsible for the capture of Rome by Alaric in 410 was what led to this extensive work. In the first part, Augustine refutes the notion that the Roman cult of gods would be a blessing for earthly and eternal life. He then develops at length the theme of the opposition between the civitas Dei and the civitas terrena, faith and lack of faith, good and evil. This theology of history is perhaps Augustine’s most widely distributed work. Around 400 Latin manuscripts have been preserved and translations into various modern languages existed as early as the Middle Ages. This miniature is a striking illustration of the main theme of Augustine’s work: the antagonism or struggle between the city of God (the good) on the one hand and the civitas terrena or the civitas diaboli (the evil) on the other.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.

Speculum doctrinale, Vincent of Beauvais, late thirteenth century. The Dominican Vincent of Beauvais (+ ca. 1264), by order of the French king Louis IX and with the help of his confrères, compiled a gigantic encyclopaedia around 1250. This Speculum Maius contained three volumes and the second volume was the Speculum Doctrinale, which in turn contained eighteen books. Manuscript 251 contains the first nine books of the Speculum Doctrinale (Bruges, OB, MS 252 contains the remaining nine books) and discusses logic, rhetoric, poetics, geometry, astronomy, education, anatomy, economics, mechanics, medicine and jurisprudence. It is immaculately written (with headings in red and blue, lombards with penwork and headings) and also beautifully illustrated, with historicised initials and border decorations at the beginning of the various books. This last aspect in particular makes the manuscript attractive. In addition to the stereotypical caricatures (hybrid creatures with mitres, a woman playing the fiddle with a rake as a bow), the marginalia contain a series of more realistic scenes (ball games, puppetry, a stake mill, a sower) and possibly some literary reminiscences, in which some piquancy is not shunned.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.

When Bruges was an international trading post in the 15th century, a melting pot of foreign cultures, its inhabitants were persecuted on the charge of homosexuality (then described as sodomy). During the sixteenth century, the period of Protestantism and Calvinism, monks were executed on charges of sodomy too. In the seventeenth century, it was witches who were persecuted. ‘Being different’ was always punished.

Supplied by Stadsarchief Brugge.

During the interbellum, Desclée de Brouwer, a publishing house in Bruges, published Dutch-language picture books under the name De Kinkhoren. ‘The journey of Gold Wing and Nightingale’ is a wonderful example of this. Wies Persyn (1914-1999), daughter of the writer and literary critic Jules Persyn, wrote a children’s fairytale about the seven works of mercy. The story fits perfectly into the Catholic tradition of publishing. The Ghent illustrator and miniaturist Jeanne Hebbelynck (1891-1951) illustrated the booklet. The very devout artist initially made a name for herself painting small religious scenes, but later devoted herself to illustrating children’s books and communion cards.

Supplied by Library of Bruges.