Opera omnia IV

This volume is published after volumes 1-3, 10, 7-7A and 8. It is certain that Dat rijcke der ghelieven was Ruusbroec's first treatise and it was written in Brussels (possibly ca. 1338). His next work, Die geestelike brulocht, takes a good number of themes from the first treatise and expands them considerably, while the fundamental vision of the ordinary and mystical life of prayer is identical in the two works. The three levels of spiritual life (the 'active' life, the 'life of longing', and the 'superessential life'), forming the principal structure of Brulocht, are already determinative for the structure of the first treatise. However, the treatment of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in Rijcke is mainly a literary procedure. Ruusbroec's first audience of readers/listeners consisted of a few priests and their friends. The Middle Dutch text is based on a critical study of all manuscripts. Besides the Middle Dutch text the edition contains a new American-English translation and the Latin translation by L.Surius O.Carth (1552). The edition of the Middle Dutch text is critically recontructive. The text is accompanied by a variant apparatus, paleographic annotations, a source apparatus, a textcritical commentary and a lemmatized vocabulary with localizations.