‘By Vincent van Drielenburch, member of God’s Church’ The Author-Function in Pamphlets during the Truce Conflicts (1609-1621)

Abstract

Abstract Seventeenth-century Dutch pamphleteers rarely stated their name on the title-page of their tracts. One exception to the rule was the pamphleteer Vincent van Drielenburch. From 1615 through 1617 he wrote at least thirty-five pamphlets against the remonstrants, exposing himself to the reader by explicitly stating his name, or by placing an anagram, a riddle, or an identifiable depiction on the title-page or elsewhere. In doing so, he purposely created an image of himself that enhanced the popularity of his pamphlets. The remonstrant ministers did not have an effective response to this innovative rhetorical use of the author’s name, and constantly described Van Drielenburch as someone who had lost his senses. In this article I argue that it was precisely his reputation of a mad man that was exploited by the author, as well as by his publisher Marten Jansz Brandt, to create an author-construct.