Transnational literary exchange in the early modern Low Countries

Abstract

AbstractDutch culture in the Golden Age has long attracted the attention of scholars working in early modern European history, and the centrality of the urban culture of the Dutch Republic, especially in Holland, in European and global affairs has been frequently noted. Despite the role that the emerging global city of Amsterdam played as the site of economic and social transactions from across all known continents, the position of early modern Dutch intellectual life within this context of transnational exchange has been surprisingly underexplored. With some exceptions, Dutch art, literature, philosophy, religion and science have primarily been investigated within the boundaries of the Dutch Golden Age, and until the last decade, there has been little research on the complex networks of Dutch scholars, writers, diplomats, artists, publishers, and performers who participated in the international exchange of ideas within Europe, the transmission of Dutch language and culture abroad, and the reception and dissemination of European thought within, through, and beyond the Low Countries.