Activity: Talk or presentation types › Presentation
Description
This lecture considers the besloten hofje from the convent of Augustinian Zwartzusters of Kastanjeboom in Bruges. By interweaving texts, relics, and phylacteries, besloten hofjes exemplify anthologizing procedures that preserve and reinterpret fragments of bone and stone. At its center lies a parchment painting of St. Bridget, a mystic depicted in the act of receiving visions. Around her is a hierarchical arrangement of relics—from the body of Christ at the pinnacle to obscure figures like St. Aleydis at the margins—so that the fragments mirror liturgical litanies while incorporating materials acquired through the convent’s hospital. These elements collectively form a site of compressed interweaving, where textual fragments and physical bodies negotiate theological questions, authenticate visions, and memorialize devotion. Nuns played the role of archivists, gluing a hierarchy into place. As a result, this and related shrines anticipate a “future perfect” readership, embodying the nuns’ temporal entanglement while projecting communal knowledge.