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Winnipeg author Jerrad A. Peters recently released his new book The Way Back Home: Wandering the Renaissance and Reformation of the First Flemish Anabaptists, exploring the pre-history of Mennonites.
"It's an origin story," says Peters. "In the first chapter of the book I talk about how I struggle to find where to start. When writing history, I have a note on the side of my desk that says, 'It matters where we enter the story.' I wanted to go to the places where I was going to enter the story."
Peters spent a year and a half researching and writing the book, travelling to Bruges and Antwerp in Europe.
"I visited churches and cathedrals, looking at the art in the galleries there. Researching church records, genealogy records, and demographic records. I had a benefit because so much of it is wonderfully recorded."
The book isn't just one genre, but part travelogue, part historiography, part historical fiction with some colourful artwork thrown in.
"I had this preconceived notion and picture of a very austere, pious people. But that really wasn't the case if you go back to the beginning, of the first one or two generations of Flemish Mennonites. They're colourful, involved, and doing art. They're excelling in their field professionally and interacting with some of the most famous other families we had in that period, such as the Medici and Portinari. For me, that was really heartening."