Maerlant, Jacob van

Maerlant, Jacob van (yä'kōp vän mär'länt) [key], c.1235–c.1300, Flemish poet, earliest important figure of Dutch literature. He wrote lyric poems and chivalric verse romances after the French as well as long didactic poems, chief of which is Spiegel historiael, an adaptation of the Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais. Jacob van Maerlant is an early literary representative of the bourgeois spirit.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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