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1558 declaration signed by the great botanist Dodoens in his capacity as Mechelen churchwarden

[MANUSCRIPT]. DODOENS (DODONAEUS), Rembert.
[Declaration of financial and other documents received as incoming churchwarden of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Mechelen].
[Mechelen], 27 December 1558. Oblong 4to (19 x 21.5 cm). A document written in dark brown ink on paper, with the opening words filled in afterwards in light brown ink and the signature in light brown ink. [1] ll.
€ 12,500
An official declaration signed by the great botanist and physician Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585), acknowledging financial and other documents received in his new capacity as churchwarden of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul (now known as the old Pieterskerk) in his native Mechelen (Malines) in what is now Belgium. This was a highly desirable post granted to him in 1558 addition to the post of city physician that he had held since 1548. He received seven receipts signed by Christiaen Verhayct for church property from the seven years 1542-1543 and 1547-1551. Also a signed, authenticated copy of a document of the foundation established in memory of Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), Archduchess of Austria and Savoy, who had been governor of the Habsburg Low Countries from 1507 to 1515 and from 1519 to her death in 1530. Further a 1538 inventory of the church's jewels, also made by Verhayct, and finally a document concerning the service drawn up by the sacristan in 1553. He received all of these documents from Catherine van Loon, widow of the deceased churchwarden Niclaes du Guesne.
The document is written on one side of a quarter sheet of paper with no watermark in this quarter. With some old horizontal and vertical folds and with several small pin holes, but still in very good condition. A primary source for the life of the great botanist Rembert Dodoens. For Dodoens: DSB III, pp. 138-139; Greene, Landmarks, 847-876; NBW (Belgium) 1, p. 419.
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