‘Die jeeste ende daventuren’ (Floris and Blancheflour)
Medieval ‘young adult’ stories – Leo van Zanen (lecture in Dutch)
After our series ‘Great Books’ and ‘Great Loves’ we start 2025 with a new series: ‘Children’s Classics’. This series includes much-loved international masterpieces such Winnie-the-Pooh, Pinocchio, Sans Famille and Emil und die Detektive, in addition to the mother of children’s poetry, the Dutch Annie M.G. Schmidt.
Early children’s literature consisted of spoken stories, songs and poems, which were used to teach, instruct and entertain children. Only in the 18th century, with the development of the concept of childhood, did a separate genre of children’s literature begin to emerge, with its own divisions, expectations and canon.
The art of printing had yet to be invented. Young people were at most a target group to be taught. Children’s books were not yet written. Knight’s tales, fairy tales and saints’ lives were told, read and acted out.
Leo van Zanen, a regular guest-lecturer at Mayflower Bookshop, opens the series on Sunday February 23 focusing on the question: ‘What did young people get to read in the Middle Ages?’ concentrating on the famous manuscript ‘Floris and Blancheflour), that was very popular in the Middle Ages.
Van Zanen highlights this earliest form of children’s book and reads excerpts.
Sunday February 23, 2025. Start: 16.00. Admission: free. Mayflower Bookshop, Breestraat 70, Leiden.