Letter collection of Mechteld van Gelre (ca. 1325-1384)

Oldest and largest collection of letters in Middle Dutch to be made accessible to scholars and the general public

The Huygens Institute and the Gelders Archief are collaborating to unlock a unique medieval source: letters of Duchess Mechteld van Gelre. The PICA Foundation is providing funding for this project through its Connected Digital Heritage program. This collaboration will further unlock the content of the letters and make them accessible to a wider audience.

Image: letter with seal. Gelders Archief.

The Gelders Archief houses a unique collection of medieval letters: 184 letters addressed to, written by, or relating to Duchess Mechteld van Gelre (c. 1325-1384). The collection is the oldest and largest collection of letters in Middle Dutch. It is also highly unusual for a woman to have held such a position of power in this early period.

Politics and personal life in the late Middle Ages

The letters, written between ca. 1365 and 1380, kept Mechteld informed of what was happening in the areas she governed. Most of the letter writers were Mechteld’s political and military allies, but she also received letters from family members, friends, and servants.

The letters provide a unique insight into the political and personal life of the late medieval Netherlands. They are also an important source for, for example, the Dutch language and naming conventions in this region and period.

Image: Gelders Archief.

Importance for historical and linguistic research

The collection is digitally available at the Gelders Archief, but is not yet optimally digitally usable and reusable for scientific research. This is precisely what both the Huygens Institute and the Gelders Archief want to work towards: making historical sources accessible in a sustainable and broad manner.

Sustainable digital access and Linked Data

In this collaboration, the Gelders Archief will make the digital photos of the documents available in IIIF, the internationally shared standard for digital images. The archive will also ensure that the metadata of the documents is updated and easily accessible, and that Linked Data is added to the dataset. People and places will be identified as much as possible and provided with a Linked Data ID.

Digital edition at the Huygens Institute

The Huygens Institute is preparing a digital edition of the transcriptions of the letters. TEI-XML and eDITem, a shared set of templates for online editions, will be used for this purpose. The concrete implementation of the project is largely in the hands of Roos in’t Velt, who has already conducted extensive research on the letters for her master’s thesis. Other contributors include Hennie Brugman (Digital Infrastructure KNAW), Rachel Westerveld (Gelders Archief) and Johan Oosterman (Radboud University).