1. The poem ‘Who is the maid? St. Jerome’s love’ is by Thomas Moore. See Moore 1910, pp. 255-256. Van Gogh attributes it to Harriet Beecher Stowe. He therefore knew it from her book We and our neighbours, or the records of an unfashionable street. A novel, in which the poem appears. See ed. London 1877, p. 86. There are several differences between Van Gogh’s copy and the printed version. The most striking are:

5 of calm delight < of this world’s light

9 That light < It’s beam

11 ’Mongst those that < From those who

16 dress < vest

21 dress < grace

22 bloom < dawn

24 wavering < trembling

Van Gogh copied the poem, again with more or less the same differences, twice in Saint-Rémy: at the end of letter 832 to Willemien van Gogh, and on a loose sheet belonging to the estate. Torn on purpose all around the text, the sheet contains part of a letter to Theo on the back (see RM18).