The journey of the Brussels Brethren began in 1422 in the neighbourhood of potmakers known locally as the ‘Putterij‘ between the Maria-Magdalenakerk and today’s Brussels Central Train Station. According to a charter of 16 May 1422, a devout wealthy couple, Philips van den Heetvelde and his wife Katherina Stofs, donated a building (called ‘Nazareth‘) with grounds to the community. This building was situated very close to the ‘Bloemartfontein‘ where the properties of notable citizens were located. Although the Brethren named their new home “Domus Annuntiationis B. Mariae Virginis” (House of Annunciation of the Virgin Mary), the community was better known in the common tongue after the name of the building: House of Nazareth.

Van den Heetvelde – a member of one of Brussels’ prominent families – was a cloth merchant and an assayer of foreign currency for the Duke of Brabant. He did not only provide the house in the Putterij but also an annual sponsorship of 50 florins. In return, he and his wife retained the right to live there during their lifetime and stipulated that masses be said for their souls in the chapel of Sint-Katherina in Molenbeek. The foundation was placed under the jurisdiction of the chapter of Sint-Goedele, and a supervisory board was established, including the priors of the nearby Groenendaal and Rood Klooster priories.

For nearly 60 years, this was their home. But by 1480, for reasons lost to history, the community relocated to just outside the Great Island in the River Zenne, very close to the old Sint-Gorikskerk. According to the archives, their new home was donated by Hugo van den Heetvelde, the son of the original donor.

The site of their new home was a very ancient one. Known as the ‘Oude Borght/Borg‘, the location located between the Sint-Gorikskerk and the convent of the ‘Zwarte Zusters’ (Black Sisters) is thought to have been an ancient fortress that guarded the island. The bridge that linked the island to the south bank of the river used to be a small city gate built on the old fortress – built in the 13th century as part of Brussels’ first city walls – known as the “Leeuwswiket” (Lion’s Gate). Most likely it was the entry gate to the home of the patrician family Sleeuws. This bridge and road is today’s Groot Eiland (Rue de la Grande Ile). The word ‘wiket‘ differs from the bigger ‘poort‘, because it was not meant for a larger traffic but more like a loket for travellers going in and out of the city boundary. The spot of the ancient fortress (a ‘borcht’) outside the Leeuwswiket then acquired by a 14th-century rich burgher named Jan Prieme, and he probably built a large gate to his home so the area was renamed as ‘Priemsporte’ after 1326. The street itself leading from the Leeuwswiket became the ‘Priemstraat‘.

Who were the Brethren of the Common Life?

To understand the Brethren in Brussels, one must first look to the Low Countries of the late 14th century. They were the spiritual offspring of Geert Groote (1340-1384), a deacon from Deventer who was deeply concerned with the state of the Church and the spiritual life of ordinary people. His followers, the Brethren, were not a monastic order in the traditional sense. They took no solemn vows. Instead, they lived together in community, pooling their resources (“the common life”) and dedicating themselves to practical piety and labour.

Their way of life became known as the ‘Moderne Devotie‘ (‘Devotio Moderna‘ in Latin). It was a movement of interior renewal, focusing on personal faith, scripture reading, and practical acts of charity, rather than elaborate ritual. One can imagine this subtle criticism of the Roman Catholic Church is not always well taken in cities where the Brethrens settled. The Brethren believed in living their faith through daily work, not shows of moral posturing. This meant teaching poor boys in their “Latin schools,” caring for the sick, and, most famously, copying manuscripts — an act that earned them the nickname “Broeders van de Penne” (Brethren of the Pen) in some cities.

Geert Groote (1340-1384) and a Spiritual Revolution of ‘Moderne Devotie’

To understand the ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘, one must first travel back to the 14th-century towns of the IJssel valley. Their story began in the mind and heart of one remarkable man: Geert Groote. His quest for an authentic, personal faith would give birth to a current of reform that quietly reshaped religious life in the Low Countries and left a profound mark on European thought.

Geert Groote (1340-1384) was born in October 1340 into a prosperous family in the Hanseatic city of Deventer. At the tender age of fifteen, he enrolled at the University of Paris, the intellectual capital of its age. There, he immersed himself in scholastic philosophy, theology, and canon law, graduating as a master by the age of eighteen. He subsequently held comfortable prebends (church incomes) in Utrecht and Aachen, and for a time, he lived the life of a successful, if somewhat secular, academic and cleric.

All of this changed dramatically around 1374. A severe illness, coupled with the influence of a fellow student, Hendrik Eger van Kalkar, a pious prior of the Carthusian monastery near Arnhem, forced Groote into a profound spiritual crisis. He underwent a radical conversion. Renouncing his worldly goods and his lucrative prebends, he turned his family home in Deventer into a shelter for poor women and spent several years as a guest of the Carthusians, immersed in prayer and meditation.

During this period of intense self-examination, Groote sought out the wisdom of the greatest spiritual master of the age: Jan van Ruusbroec. Ruusbroec (1293-1381) was a mystic of great renown, living in the Zoniënwoud forests outside of Brussels. For decades, Jan van Ruusbroec had lived as a hermitic prior in the peaceful ‘Groenendaal‘ priory in the woods. Groote made a pilgrimage to Groenendaal around 1381 to meet the aging master.

The encounter was significant. Groote absorbed Ruusbroec’s emphasis on a loving, inward relationship with God. He also saw that Ruusbroec’s lofty mystical visions needed to be translated into a practical path for ordinary people. Groote’s movement would be less about speculative heights and more about the methodical cultivation of inner piety, accessible to anyone anywhere. This pragmatic focus became a hallmark of the ‘Devotio Moderna’.

Emerging from his retreat in 1379, Geert Groote was ordained a deacon and began a fiery career as an itinerant preacher. He crisscrossed the diocese of Utrecht, drawing massive crowds with his sermons attacking clerical abuses and calling for a return to the simple, heartfelt faith of the Apostles. Young men, in particular, flocked to him, eager to live under his guidance.

Among them was Florens Radewijns (c. 1350-1400), a graduate of the University of Prague who became Groote’s most trusted friend and disciple. It was in Radewijns’ own house in Deventer that the movement took its first concrete form. Groote gathered a group of poor scholars there, and under Radewijns’ daily supervision, they lived a simple, communal life, dedicating themselves to prayer and to copying manuscripts. Their labour supported the community, and their focus was on living their faith through practical devotion and study. This was the genesis of the ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘.

When Geert Groote died of the plague in 1384 at just 44 years old, it fell to Florens Radewijns to preserve and structure his legacy.

The Congregation of Windesheim: Spreading the Fire

Groote himself had foreseen a potential problem. The informal, vow-less communities of the Brethren were vulnerable to criticism from established monastic orders. On his deathbed, he advised that some of his followers should form a more traditional, and thus more protected, monastic branch. Florens Radewijns executed this plan.

In 1386, he sent six of the Brethren to an existing monastery to learn the ways of the Canons Regular. The following year, in 1387, they established a new monastery at Windesheim, near Zwolle. This community, adopting the Rule of St. Augustine, became the cradle of the ‘Congregatie van Windesheim‘ (Congregation of Windesheim), formally approved by the Pope in 1395. The movement now had two powerful, complementary arms: the flexible, lay-oriented Brethren of the Common Life, and the more structured, monastic Congregation of Windesheim.

From these twin engines, the fire of the Devotio Moderna spread rapidly. The Windesheim congregation alone grew to encompass nearly one hundred houses of canons and nuns across the Low Countries and into today’s Germany. Its members, like the famous writer Thomas à Kempis — author of the timeless ‘De Navolging van Christus‘ (The Imitation of Christ) — produced works that became the movement’s enduring spiritual classics. Through its schools, its books, and its living example, the spirituality born in the heart of a converted scholar in Deventer and nurtured by a mystic in the Zoniënwoud, flowed out to touch the lives of countless people, preparing the ground for the intellectual and spiritual ferment of the centuries to come.

The story of the Brethren in Brussels is remarkable because, despite constant friction with the chapter of Sint-Goedele, they managed to establish a centre of learning and innovation that was unique in the city.

The Struggle for Education: Forging a Literate Christian Elite

The Brethren’s core mission was to provide free education to poor children. However, in Brussels, the ‘scholaster‘ (headmaster) of the Sint-Goedele chapter held a monopoly on education. For decades, the Brethren were forbidden from teaching. The chapter jealously guarded its rights, fearing the loss of both authority and income. A long and bitter school conflict ensued, with the Brethren persisting in their efforts. Their perseverance paid off. In 1491, the chapter finally granted them the right to run a school for nine years, and in 1504, they were permitted to establish a full Latin school — a victory confirmed by Habsburg Emperor Karel V in 1515. For the first time, the children of Brussels had a viable alternative for a classical education, one rooted in the pious and practical ideals of the Devotio Moderna.

The spiritual ideals of the ‘Moderne Devotie‘ were not meant to be confined to the cloister or the chapel. For the ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘, true faith had to be lived, and a key part of that life was work—practical, diligent, and purposeful work. It was through their labour in the classroom and the scriptorium that they would exert an influence far beyond the walls of their houses in Deventer, Brussels,  Leuven, or Zwolle. They became, perhaps unwittingly, the educators of a continent and the custodians of a revolution in communication.

From the very beginning, education was central to their mission. Geert Groote himself had gathered poor scholars in Deventer, and after his death, his disciple Florens Radewijns formalised this. When Radewijns and his community moved to a larger house — the famous ‘Heer Florenshuis‘ — in 1391, his old residence was converted into a boarding house for poor students attending the local Latin school. This simple act was the seed of a transformative educational movement.

The Brethren did not merely teach; they created an environment. Their houses offered a structured, disciplined, and deeply moral setting where boys from humble backgrounds could live and study . They provided free instruction to the needy, embodying the charitable ideals of the Moderne Devotie. As the movement grew, so did its educational reach. By the end of the 15th century, the Brethren had come to control numerous grammar schools across the whole Netherlands and western Germany .

Their approach was remarkably progressive. They placed a strong emphasis on Latin, the language of the Church and scholarship, but also incorporated the teaching of Greek and classical literature as humanist ideas began to spread . They pioneered new organisational patterns for schools, establishing clear curricula, grade levels, and new textbooks . Their goal was not just to impart knowledge, but to forge what has been called a “Christian elite”—men whose learning was matched by their inner piety .

Before the Brethren of the Common Life, very few people below the elite class knew how to read and write before the 15th century. The schools established by the Brethren of the Common Life, particularly the renowned Latin school in Deventer, became intellectual hothouses in the 15th century. They attracted some of the most intelligent thinkers of the age, shaping the spiritual and intellectual landscape of Northern Europe.

According to Henne et Wauters, at one point, the school had more than 200 pupils! The Brussels Brethren also taught two of the most brilliants minds of the 16th century:

– Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564): The father of modern anatomy, born in Brussels, “likely received his elementary education from the Brethren of the Common Life” before embarking on his legendary medical studies at the universities of Leuven, Paris, and Padua. The Brethren’s emphasis on rigorous, text-based learning and direct observation may well have informed Vesalius’s revolutionary approach to anatomy, which challenged centuries of accepted medical dogma by dissecting actual human cadavers and recording what he truly saw . His foundational work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), corrected the errors of the ancient physician Galen and laid the groundwork for all modern medicine.

– Aubert le Mire (1573-1640): Also known by his Latinized name Aubertus Miraeus, this renowned ecclesiastical historian and librarian to Archduke Albert of Austria was born in Brussels and educated at Douai and Leuven. It was under Brussels’ Brethren of the Common Life that he received his earliest education.

The following figures are among the most prominent who studied under the influence of the Brethren of the Common Life elsewhere:

– Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471): Perhaps the most famous alumnus, Thomas arrived in Deventer in 1392 to attend the Latin school run by the Brethren. The encounter with the Brethren and their Devotio Moderna spirituality shaped his entire life . He went on to join the Congregation of Windesheim and became a prolific writer and copyist. He is universally credited as the author of ‘De Imitatione Christi’ (The Imitation of Christ), a timeless devotional classic that remains one of the most influential works of Christian literature.

– Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464): A towering figure of 15th-century thought, the German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer from Kues also studied at the Brethren’s school in Deventer. His wide-ranging and original work, which touched on church reform, ecumenism, and scientific inquiry, exemplifies the kind of rigorous and independent thinking that the Brethren’s educational methods helped foster.

– Wessel Gansfort (c. 1419-1489): Often called the “Light of the World” by contemporaries for his great learning, Gansfort studied with the Brethren before moving on to the University of Cologne. A theologian of immense depth, his teachings on grace, faith, and the scriptures—including a rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation and a clear articulation of justification by faith—strikingly anticipated many of the core ideas of the Protestant Reformation. So profound was his influence that Martin Luther later remarked, “If I had read Wessel’s works earlier, my enemies might think I had borrowed everything from him, so closely do our views agree”.

– Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536): The great humanist scholar of the Northern Renaissance received his early education at the school in Deventer, where he was taught by the famed rector Alexander Hegius. The Brethren’s emphasis on inner piety, classical learning, and a direct relationship with scripture left an indelible mark on him, even as he later criticised certain aspects of monastic life. His erudition and sharp pen, used to satirise ecclesiastical abuses, earned him the reputation of having “laid the egg that Luther hatched”.

– Martin Luther (1483-1546): The father of the Reformation himself spent one year of his early education, from 1497 to 1498, at a school in Magdeburg run by the Brethren of the Common Life. While a short period, this formative experience immersed him in the movement’s focus on Bible-reading and personal piety, planting seeds that would later blossom into his own calls for reform.

The Scriptorium and The First Printing Press in Brussels

Long before Gutenberg, the Brethren were in the business of producing books. Their communities were filled with the quiet scratch of pens on parchment. Copying manuscripts — work that earned them the name “Broeders van de Penne” — was a sacred task, a form of prayer and a way to support the community. The ‘Heer Florenshuis‘ in Deventer, for example, amassed a significant collection of copied books, the foundation of a library that would later become the city’s public library.

This ingrained culture of book production meant that when Johannes Gutenberg‘s invention revolutionised Europe in the mid-15th century, the Brethren were uniquely positioned to embrace it. The printing press did not render their skills obsolete; it provided a powerful new tool for their mission. Between 1475 and 1540, six presses were owned by houses of the Devotio Moderna —five of them run by the Brethren of the Common Life and one by the Regular Canons of Windesheim. The Brussels house was part of this pioneering wave, operating the city’s very first press for a brief but significant period (1480-1491).

The output of these presses was varied and revealing. Of the roughly 200 editions they produced, about one-third were in the vernacular—Dutch/Low German (known as ‘Nederduits‘) directly to the laity with devotional and catechetical texts. They also printed Latin school texts, works of theology, and even humanist grammar books. A significant portion of their work was devoted to producing the complex liturgical books needed by the many houses of the Windesheim congregation, helping to standardise worship across the movement. By selling their printed books such as Bibles, textbooks, and devotional works etc at low prices, they put reading material within reach of ordinary people, playing a crucial role in the spread of literacy.

In Brussels, the most significant contribution of the Brethren of the Common Life was yet to come. Some time around 1480, shortly after their move to the Sint-Goriks quarter, the Brethren installed a printing press within their walls. This was the very first printing press in the history of Brussels. The city, which would later become a Habsburg centre for printing and publishing, had its typographic beginnings in this small religious community. For a brief period of about eleven years, the Brethren produced ‘incunabula’ — the earliest printed books — before the press was shut down for reasons that remain unknown. It would take until after 1500 for another press to appear in the city.

1476: “Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae” by Arnoldus de Geilhoven

Not many books printed by Brussels’ Broeders van het Gemene Leven have survived. Thanks to the Glasgow Incunabula Project by the University of Glasgow, one particular book was saved, digitalised and analysed.

Printed in 1476 by the Broeders van het Gemene Leven in Brussels, the “Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae” was written by Arnoldus de Geilhoven (Arnold Geilhoven/Gheyloven, 1375?-1442). The Gnotosolitos was the most “important” book produced by the Brothers, having been tracked down by researcher Elly Cockx-Indestegen in the 1980-90s. Beautifully decorated after the printing process, such that each copy of the same book is unique, the surviving Gnotosolitos book is an important example of “incunabula” – which were the first book before 1501 printed using moving types and tracing. You can see some pages from the book in the photos below.

Of their first house (1422-1480) in the Putterij, we know little except that it was a “domistadia cum domibus superstantibus” — a plot of land with buildings on it. Its location suggests it was a typical urban property of the time.

About their second home (1480-1588) by the Sint-Goriks island, the information was more substantial. The complex was large enough to house the community, their school, their scriptorium, and the revolutionary printing press. The complex was a dense cluster of buildings which started on the south bank which spread onto the island. The Latin school was definitely located on the island. A bridge was later built to connect the main community buildings to the school across the river without having to exit the compound.

The complex itself had its own small and humble chapel, which was consecrated in 1481 by the suffragan Bishop of Kamerijk, Godefridus Greveray. This ceremony elevated their oratory to a collegiate church, allowing them to ring bells and celebrate the full divine office. One can imagine the small stone church, the quiet cloister where monks copied texts, and the new, clanking machinery of the print shop all coexisting in this busy riverside neighbourhood.

The Final Act: The Tragedy of 20 July 1587

The story of the ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘ in Brussels did not end with a quiet decline or a peaceful transition. It ends with a sudden, shocking accident — a moment of chaos that, in the space of a single day, fatally wounded a community that had endured for nearly two centuries. By the late 1580s, the Brethren had already weathered immense challenges: financial troubles, internal disputes, and the brief conversion of their house into a Calvinist school during the republican period. They had been restored in 1585 after the Catholic recapture of Brussels, and their Latin school was functioning once more. But their revival was to be tragically short-lived.

On 20 July 1587, a fateful day for the house of Nazareth, the students of the Brethren’s school were preparing to perform a play. It was to be a Eucharistic mystery play entitled “Het Sacrament van Mirakel” (The Miracle of the Sacrament), staged to coincide with the annual procession for Sint-Goedele. In previous years, such performances had been held on the Grote Markt, but for this occasion, a stage had been erected on the churchyard of Sint-Goedele church itself, close to the tower on the southern side. A grandstand and loges were built against the churchyard wall to accommodate the distinguished audience.

As the curtain was raised, catastrophe struck. A gallery collapsed, plunging the spectators into the crowd below. The consequences were horrific: Among the dead were two figures of considerable standing: Petrus Fabri, the plebaan of the collegiate church and the author of the play, and Eustachius Pipenpoy, a city magistrate (schepen). The injured included the president of the Privy Council, Willem van Pamele, and the Mayor of Brussels, Baron van Wesemael. The last, the document notes, was almost among the dead himself .

1588: From Brothers to Sisters: The Coming of the ‘Rijke Klaren’

The following year, in 1588, the fate of the Brethren was sealed. The ‘Rijke Klaren‘ (Urbanist nuns), whose convent had been destroyed for strategic reasons during the religious wars, were seeking a new home. They had attempted to buy a property, but ultimately, the city magistrate decided on a simpler solution. The house of Nazareth, with its church and buildings, was confiscated and handed over to the nuns as compensation for their losses. The last rector of the Brethren, H. Ghijssels, was pensioned off with an annual rent, and the claims of the archdiocese, which had briefly turned the house into a seminary, were settled with a payment from the city. The ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘ in Brussels were no more.

The Legacy of the Brethren of the Common Life: Sowing the Seeds of Reformation

The potent combination—rigorous, morally-focused schools and the mass production of books—created an intellectual and spiritual ferment that would have profound consequences.

The Brethren of the Common Life carried the spirit of the Moderne Devotie out into the world. Its emphasis on inner faith, personal study of scripture, and a direct, unadorned relationship with God resonated with the core concerns of the Reformation that would soon erupt. While the Brethren themselves remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, their schools and their presses had cultivated a literate, thoughtful, and spiritually independent laity. The very idea that a person could, and should, engage directly with the Bible and with devotional texts in their own language was a foundational principle that the Protestant reformers would take up and run with.

The Brethren did not set out to start a revolution. Their aim was simply to live a devout life, to teach the poor, and to copy books. But in doing so, they laid the essential groundwork. They forged the minds and shaped the spiritual sensibilities of the men who would go on to challenge the old order, and they harnessed the technology that would carry those challenges to every corner of Europe. Their quiet, dedicated work in the classroom and the print shop was, in the end, anything but quiet in its consequences.

By the 17th century, the various Brethren and Sister Houses of the Common Life throughout the Low Countries and Lower Germany were closed. Even the Congregation of Windesheim was destroyed in 1570 by the ‘Geuzen‘ protestants. In the Protestant regions, they were ironically deemed ‘Roman Catholic’ and were either absorbed or disbanded. In the Catholic Habsburg regions, such as in Habsburg (Southern) Netherlands, they too have disappeared in the religious conflicts of the century.

Who were the Rich Clares in Brussels?

Like the Poor Clares (Grey Sisters), the ‘Rijke Klaren‘ (Rich Clares) were part of the Order of Saint Clare. They underwent a reform by Pope Urban IV in 1263, and compared to their ‘unreformed’ sisters, they were indeed more well-off as they were free from the vows of poverty. In Brussels like elsewhere, both branches openly oppose each other, and the Rich Clares have first settled in Brussels in 1343 close to the Obbrusselpoort (today’s Hallepoort) at the invitation of the donor Willem van Duivenvoorde.

When the property of the Brethren of the Common Life was assigned to the Rich Clares, the Brothers’ dilapidated church and ruinous compound was insufficient for their more well-to-do lifestyle. They started building their new convent by tearing down some of the buildings starting in 1588. The nuns then decided to build a new church, the foundation stone of which was laid on September 1, 1665. They called upon the renowned architect Lucas Faydherbe, a student of Rubens, for this project. He designed a Baroque central structure with a dome. On December 20, 1670, Archbishop of Mechelen ‘Alphonsus of Mons’ consecrated the place of worship.

The Rich Clares suffered greatly from the French bombardment of Brussels in 1695. The barely 25-year-old church required thorough restoration. Under the French Occupation, the Rich Clares were expelled from their convent in 1796. The church was used as a military warehouse, and the remaining buildings were sold as national property in 1805. Two new streets were built through the former convent (the current Rijkeklarenstraat and Sint-Kristoffelstraat).

The church was spared and regained its religious function in 1806, this time as a parish church. In the 19th century, the former nunnery church underwent an extension enlargement into a full-fledged nave, giving the floor plan the appearance of a Latin cross. In 1824, a left aisle was added to the north side, and in 1833, a right aisle was added to the south side (by Charles Vander Straeten). During the uprising of September 1, 1830 for Belgian independence, the church was used as a hospital.

On June 15, 1989, a fierce fire broke out, causing extensive damage to the bell tower, the roofs, the dome lantern, and the furnishings. The organs were completely destroyed, and the restoration took ten years (1991-2001). The opportunity was used to conduct excavations.

The arms of the Zenne that once defined the island have long been vaulted over. The only faint reminder of the Brethren of the Common Life‘s presence is the church of the ‘Rijke Klaren’ itself, standing on the corner of the ‘Rijke Klarenstraat‘ and the ‘Groot-Eilandstraat‘.

Built on the site of their home, it is the last, silent heir to the legacy of the ‘Broeders van het Gemene Leven‘ in Brussels — the men who brought the printed word to the city and fought for the right to teach its children.

When you get to visit the church today, which is rarely open, its side altars house valuable 18th century marble altars from the nearby demolished Sint-Gorikskerk.

Sources:

Vannieuwenhuyze, B. (2011) “Brussel, de Ontwikkeling van een middeleeuwse stedelijke ruimte.” Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Henne, A. Wauters, A. (1845) “Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles. Volume I-III” Brussels: Librairie Encyclopédique de Périchon.
Hymans, L.S. (1884) “Bruxelles à travers les âges” Bruxelles : Bruylant-Christophe
Rombaut, J-A. (1777) “Bruxelles illustrée, ou description chronologique et historique de cette ville.” Brussels: Chez Pauwels.
Lefèvre, Placide Fernand. (1938) “Documents relatifs aux Frères de la vie commune établis à Bruxelles aux XVe et XVIe siècles.” Bulletin de la Commission royale d’Histoire, Vol. 103, 41-114. Brussels: Persee.
Indestege, Elly. (1958) “De Broeders van het Gemene Leven te Brussel (1422-1595).” Eigen Schoon en De Brabander, 1958 January-February, 1-28. Brussels: Drukkerij A Hessens.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broeders_van_het_Gemene_Leven_(Brussel)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%BCder_vom_gemeinsamen_Leben
https://artkarel.com/tag/broeders-van-het-gemene-leven/
https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/moderne-devotie/
https://artkarel.com/broeders-gemene-leven-moderne-devotie/
https://www.persee.fr/doc/bcrh_0001-415x_1938_num_103_1_1744
https://web.archive.org/web/20171017043513/https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/incunabula/a-zofauthorsa-j/bg.1.3/#d.en.290318
https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/glasgow-incunabula-project-update-181213/µ
https://monument.heritage.brussels/nl/buildings/32943
https://monument.heritage.brussels/fr/Bruxelles_Pentagone/Rue_des_Riches_Claires/23/32943
https://collections.heritage.brussels/fr/objects/86789

1. 1. 1. Van Deventer, J. (1550-1565) “Atlas of the city of the Low Countries : 73 minutes between 1550-1565 on orders of Emperors Charles V and Philip II” KBR (image)
      2. Braun, G, Hogenberg, F. (1572-1617) “Civitates orbis terrarum” Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht (image)
      3. de Tailly, M., van der Horst, N., Santvoort, A. D. (1640) “Bruxella nobilissima Brabantiae civitas anno 1640” KBR (image)
      4. Laboureur, J., Van der Baren, J., Harrewijn, J. (1695) “Bruxella Nobilissima Brabanti Civitasae” Bibliothèque Nationale de la France (image)
      5. Unknown. (circa 1380) “The Ruusbroec Miniature originally from manuscript Koninklijke Bibliotheek Brussel, 19.295-97” Brussels: KBR (image)
      6. Unknown. (1500s) “16th-century woodcut representing early modern educational settings such as Latin schools run by the Brethren of the Common Life.” Berlin: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) (image)
      7. Derkinderen, Antoon. (1800s) “Geert Grote and his followers.” Deventer: Geert Groote Huis (image)
      8. De Geilhoven, Arnoldus. (1476) “Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae.” Brussels: Huis van Nazareth van de Broeders van het Gemene Leven (image)
      9. De Geilhoven, Arnoldus. (1476) “Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae.” Brussels: Huis van Nazareth van de Broeders van het Gemene Leven (image)
      10. De Geilhoven, Arnoldus. (1476) “Gnotosolitos, sive Speculum conscientiae.” Brussels: Huis van Nazareth van de Broeders van het Gemene Leven (image)
      11. Unknown. (1776-1800) “Plan du Couvent des Riches Claires Situé Rue des Sœurs Noires / à Bruxelles avec les jardins, et le jardin de St Christophe Situé Rue de Vinquette, avec tous les batiments” Brussels: City Archives (image)