Music and Liturgy at the Beguinage of Amsterdam around 1600
Posterpräsentation am 31. Oktober 2015 in Utrecht während der Herbstversammlung der KVNM.
The ‘round beguinage’ was the only catholic institution in Amsterdam that continued after the Reformation in 1578, due to the specific economic structure of court beguinages: all houses of the Amsterdam beguinage belonged to the beguines by law.
Although they could not be expropriated, their church, a parish church, became Presbyterian. During the first years the women celebrated in the church sacristy, but later on they had to move to the small houses on the court. Only in 1671, a new chapel was built for the beguines by assembling two neighbouring houses on the court.
Liturgical books as far as they belonged to the church, were removed in 1578 as well. Only private songbooks – property of the beguines – were allowed to be kept. In this situation a very special book was made for the liturgical needs of a beguinage without a church: the codex Nijmegen 402.
