'Although it falls outside my expertise to pass judgment on all technical and book-historical evaluations in this study, it seems to me that Anna Dlabačová has provided us with nothing less than an exemplary piece of scholarship. It points the way towards a renewed engagement with many other important late medieval texts of religious instruction. It also is a strong invitation to look with a different lens at the religious panorama of the late medieval Low Countries, and to situate it in the wider European late medieval world of Observance and reform.' Bert Roest in: Church History and Religious Culture 95 (2015), p. 56-57; 'Throughout this compelling book, Dlabačová marshals the best recent English and Dutch criticism in manuscript studies and the medieval Low Countries. While her discussion of mysticism and compilation might have benefited from consideration of work by Bernard McGinn, Sara Poor, and Arthur Bahr, she remains clear-sighted about the stakes of her critical intervention: her examination of the Mirror convincingly shows the Observant Franciscans as influential agents of fifteenth-century reform. In a larger sense, Literatuur en observantie calls for greater scholarly attention to fifteenth-century texts, such as the Mirror, that circulated in both manuscript and print as influential participants in vernacular devotion.' Barbara Zimbalist in: Speculum 90 (2015) 3, p. 796-797; 'We are in agreement with the author when she states that this study fills a gap. the Franciscan Observance had never been studied before as a literary movement in the Low Countries. The results are generally convincing. The methodology is innovative as it combines two existing methods [...] with a third, new method: an approach that gathers relevant information according to three determining aspects for the reception of a text: the origin of the codex and the intellectual networks associated with it; the book as an entity in which the collected texts influence each other's functionality (Mitüberlieferung) and, finally, the material text. Another positive result of this study consists in having proved in some way that Herp was an intermediary between the older mystic tradition and the fifteenth-century world of religious communities that were interested in observance and reform.' Theo Jansen in: Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 108 (2015) 1-2, p. 351-355; 'Dit fraai vormgegeven boek handelt weliswaar over een specialistisch onderwerp, maar de schrijfster is erin geslaagd haar onderwerp tot leven te brengen. [...] Dit werk verdient het om een breder publiek te bereiken.' Paul Hendriks op: www.historischhuis.nl/recensiebank 09-10-2014; 'In het eerste hoofdstuk van haar boek schetst ze [=Dlabačová] nog de ontstaanssituatie van de Spieghel en positioneert ze het werk binnen de grillige levensloop van de auteur. Het tweede tot en met het zesde hoofdstuk zijn vervolgens volledig gewijd aan de studie van de verspreiding van de Middelnederlandse tekst in de Lage Landen in de periode van ca. 1460-1550 en stellen verschillende facetten van de overlevering centraal. [...] Het geheel vormt een vlot geschreven verslag van naarstig promotieonderzoek. Dlabačová weet in heldere bewoordingen de veelzijdigheid van de laatmiddeleeuwse religieuze leefwereld te schetsen, geeft duidelijk inzichten in de verspreidingsmogelijkheden van spirituele teksten en boeit de lezer van begin tot einde.' Ine Kiekens op: nederl.blogspot.be 13-08-2014; 'The strong title of this book ('Literature and Observance') also captures its weakness: a lack of definition of Observance in relation to literature or otherwise. [...] This general problem cannot be ignored, but otherwise the book is a solid interdisciplinary effort.' Krijn Pansters in: The Medieval Low Countries 2 (2015), p. 291-293. Ook besproken in: Bulletin codicologique 1 (2018), p. 25.

Voor dit proefschrift ontving auteur Anna Dlabačová de Dissertatieprijs 2016 van de stichting Praemium Erasmianum. Lees hierover meer op: http://www.erasmusprijs.org/index.cfm?lang=nl&page=Studieprijzen.