Origins

The Rederyker Kamers, Camer van Rhetorica, or "Chambers of Rhetoric" were a phenomenon of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in northern France and the Low Countries. The Chambers were societies devoted to the creation and performance of poetry, music, and plays. In "Literature of the Low Countries" Reinder P. Meijer claims that the origin of the Chambers was not Dutch, but French. "Associations of Rhetoriquers" existed in the north of France as early as the twelfth century.

These Associations were popular with the Burgundian court in the fifteenth century. The theories of Jean Molinet, a Walloon who worked at the Burgundian court in Brussels, had an influence on the aesthetic ideas of the Dutch writers.

The first Chamber was organized in 1441 at Oudenaarde in Flanders. Many other societies were founded in the fifteenth century. By the sixteenth century the majority of towns in the area hosted at least one Chamber or branch of a chamber from a larger city. Major cities often were home to several Chambers. The city of Ghent had five Chambers. Seven were located in Audenarde and its suburbs.