Religious book owners and their networks. Lay religious practices and social connectivity in the urbanized Low Countries (c.1370-c.1550)

Abstract
This thesis discusses the little-known social role of religion in the lives of late medieval lay people in the Low Countries. Who were these people, what connective religious activities did they undertake, which persons or groups from their personal network did they involve, and why? Religious manuscripts with owners' marks and notes prove to be the most widespread extant sources for tracing individual laity: 120 book owners, mostly urban elite, now form the protagonists of the study. Their religious books, objects and religiously motivated activities reveal connecting intentions indoors and outdoors. Books of hours show domestic use, mostly by mothers, focused on personal devotion, teaching prayers and the beginnings of reading and writing to young children, and memorializing deceased family members; religious and lay. Fathers used catechetical books more often, for follow-up instructions. Domestic altarpieces supported this religious education, but the jointly depicted saints, patrons and heraldry and the religious practice of opening or closing the shutters testify also to the intertwining and dynamics of the sacred and secular in the domestic space. Altarpieces in public church spaces also contained these elements, but sometimes, in addition, aimed to direct the religious (and therefore social) cohesion of the population through their imagery. One protagonist deployed books for this very purpose. Initiators of religious activities were well-known, set a Christian example and connected people to themselves and among themselves. By having all those involved over time pray for their souls, they additionally assured themselves of perpetual support in Purgatory until Judgment Day.