ABSTRACT
Jan van Leeuwen († 1378) is the author of more than twenty mystical treatises in Middle Dutch that he composed while serving the priory of Groenendaal near the city of Brussels as a lay brother.1 Considering his self-proclaimed illiteracy before entering the priory at a mature age, and his busy engagements in the support for the material life of the community, the quantity of his writings is surprisingly large.2 In fact, he wrote twice the number of works left to us by his confessor John of Ruusbroec (1293-1381), generally acknowledged to be the most prominent mystical author in the medieval Low Countries. Not only was the lay brother a productive author, he was also appreciated throughout the late Middle Ages in the surroundings of Groenendaal. Dates of manuscripts that contain Jan’s works suggest that some of his writings might have been edited as early as 1355 in the midst of his active period as author.3 The fact that the edition of his complete works was made only a few decades after his death also attests to the significant esteem in which his works were held by medieval readers.4
