This response to Marjolein ’t Hart’s Oorlog en ongelijkheid reconsiders her argument about the indirect benefits of war for women by focusing specifically on those engaged in sex work. It argues that although urban sex workers initially profited from the booming wartime economy, the subsequent professionalization of the military and the rise of moral and legal reforms ultimately undermined these gains. It shows that the economic opportunities during war were tempered by harsher scrutiny, prosecution, and cultural marginalization that eroded the legitimacy of sex work. Immediate monetary benefits came at the cost of long-term social and legal disadvantages for these women.

This article brings together the main historiographical discussions that concentrate on women in science and science on women in the early modern Low Countries, with a focus on recent decades and the Dutch Republic. Modern scholarship on the early modern Dutch scholars, writers, and thinkers that discussed the female nature in this period is relatively limited. The first part of the article brings together publications on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century developments in Dutch anatomy, studies that discuss the ideas of particular scholars, for example Johannes Swammerdam (1637-1680), Reinier de Graaf (1641-1673), and Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731), and the recent work on the early modern debate on female education. In contrast, current scholarship that discusses the role of women in scientific and scholarly debates in the Dutch Republic is a broad and varied field, consisting of studies on the genres in which the debate about the (potential) position of learned women was conducted, of in-depth explorations of the lives and works of individual women, and, more recently, of projects that construct a more collective understanding of female participation in the intellectual domain. Building on recent insights, this contribution makes a plea for interdisciplinarity and a more integral perspective that moves beyond the disciplinary, the singular, and the exceptional.

Politically active women in the early modern period have often been seen as exceptional figures, notable primarily for their ability to influence decision-making despite societal constraints on female authority. Historians have traditionally focused on examples of women from noble, princely, or royal backgrounds, given the prominence and status that enabled their influence. This article argues that expanding the scope of research to include a broader array of social contexts will allow a clearer understanding of early modern women’s roles as legitimate political agents. We propose three approaches to achieve this, highlighting the potential of new digital tools and technologies. By adopting a more systematic analysis that inherently acknowledges women’s political agency, we can gain deeper insights into the dynamics of power in early modern society.

Abstract Historical sources show that cultivated grapevines (Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera) grew in mediaeval and early modern city gardens and the gardens of country houses in the northern Low Countries (today’s Netherlands). Archaeobotanical analysis of cesspit samples often report hundreds to thousands of grape seeds per sieved macrobotanical soil sample. These seeds are invariably interpreted and recorded as (fresh) grape, currant or raisin. Unfortunately, neither (culinary) historians nor archaeobotanists have so far studied the exact possible uses of the grapes. This paper describes the results of our aim to ascertain if aDNA-analysis of archaeobotanical grape seeds from early modern cesspits can help identify grape variety, and in extension can be used to deduce provenance and use, i.e. how the grape was processed and consumed. In this pilot study, aDNA of six grape seeds found in early modern cesspits in the town of Delft, Holland, was analysed. The results show that two samples provided high quality endogenous DNA, three samples provided moderate levels of endogenous DNA, and one sample yielded basically no identifiable grape DNA. There is evidence for multiple varieties of grapes, ascribed to different European regions of origin. A kinship-analysis between the archaeological samples analysed and modern varieties shows that there are likely connections with Iberian grapes and a possible parent-offspring relation with Pinot. For some seeds, a raisin might be the most likely provenance, for others use as verjuice or fresh grapes is most likely. In all cases, grapes used for wine remain a possibility. The results of the aDNA and kinship analysis therefore provide novel insights into early modern grape consumption practices in general and provenance and potential processing of the grape seeds in particular.

Private Life and Privacy in the Early Modern Low Countries ed. by Michaël Green, and Ineke Huysman (review)

Abstract Early modern local chronicles are a largely neglected, yet stable genre of texts that can be used for comparative research over time and space. The NWO-funded research project Chronicling Novelty (2018–24) investigated the reception of new media and new knowledge among early modern chroniclers in the Low Countries. For this purpose, we created a digitized corpus of 204 Dutch-language chronicles from the period 1500–1850. This article presents the methodological decisions made in creating this corpus and their implications for its representativeness. The second part examines the social, religious and political profile of the chroniclers: who wrote chronicles and what does this reveal about chronicling as a cultural and social practice? Particularly interesting in this respect is how the chroniclers’ strong involvement in local public affairs authorized their chronicling practices, and vice versa.

Introduction to the special issue 'Printing Privileges in the Early Modern Low Countries'.

ABSTRACT In the sixteenth-century Low Countries, a market developed for a specific type of translation, designed for educational purposes. From the second half of the century onward, in particular, many bilingual editions appeared, presenting two versions of the same texts parallel to each other. These works furnished authoritative models that students could use to verify their own translation exercises. Children whose native language was Dutch, both boys and girls, used the pedagogical tool of translation to learn the prestigious French language that was crucial for a career in international trade or public service, or Latin, required for an academic trajectory. In this context, translation not only offered an authoritative published end product, but also an educational activity. This article maps the visibility of the various actors involved in these educational translations: printers, schoolmasters, and students. By analysing published schoolbooks designed for translation exercises, as well as handwritten material by schoolmasters and their pupils, it explores the involvement of different actors of translation and questions to what extent the activities of student translators can be retraced.

Abstract The production of sculpture in the early modern Low Countries was gendered as masculine. Seventeenth-century writings about sculptors as well as mythological representations of the artform advanced this masculine notion of carving and casting. Construed as a physical craft, sculpture seemed to necessitate a strong laborer. Nevertheless, women including Anna Maria van Schurman and Maria Faydherbe earned accolades as well as notoriety for their carved works. This chapter argues that the gendered conception of sculpting presented a barrier to entry for the small number of women who worked in stone and wood; they countered this construction of production, however, in subverting expectations about their bodies, self-image, and behaviors. In transgressing conventions of femininity, women could succeed as sculptors in the Low Countries.

This article investigates the consumption of knowledge in early modern Amsterdam. A dataset of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century probate inventories is employed to examine the synergies and inequalities between the skilled and educated middle classes and the intellectual elites. A series of democratisation waves in the ownership of books, writing equipment, and measuring tools confirms the unprecedented levels of basic literacy and numeracy skills in the urban centres of the early modern Low Countries revealed by research on signature proficiency and age heaping. The concentration of secular books and advanced knowledge objects in the hands of a small but growing group of affluent households, on the other hand, corresponds to other research that has fixated instead on the role of upper-tail human capital in scientific, technological, and economic progress. Yet, the relatively low value estimates of libraries and scientific instruments, together with a more qualitative examination of two amateur scientists of middling background, dovetails with the hypothesis that the Dutch Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment were marked by a close interaction and mobility between craftsmen and scientists. An above-average income and enough leisure time to develop intellectual interests could be sufficient for inhabitants of Amsterdam to cross the Rubicon from consuming to (re)producing knowledge.

TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis

The early modern book economy thrived on a system of bartering, swapping printed sheets for printed sheets or other valuable bookish material. Widely discussed as Tauschhandel in the context of the Frankfurt Book Fair, this practice continued to flourish in the Low Countries during the seventeenth century as the fair’s popularity declined. This article examines the bartering practices between the Officina Plantiniana in the city of Antwerp, the best-documented print business of the handpress era, and merchants and booksellers in its northern neighbour Amsterdam. While the output of the Plantin presses is well studied, its input, including maps, lottery tickets, reams of high-quality French and Dutch paper, and even luxury objects such as sugar and globes, has gone unrecognised. Ultimately, I argue that Dutch sellers were motivated to barter with the Officina by their superior access to books, paper, and other luxury goods, and their robust professional and personal networks.

Abstract This paper delves into language differentiation in the 16th and 17th-century Low Countries, focusing on how vernacular languages were labeled and framed in grammatical descriptions. We examine both monolingual grammars as well as grammatical descriptions in multilingual textbooks for foreign language learners. By comparing these two corpora, we gain insights into the differences between monolingual and multilingual approaches to language differentiation and uncover language ideologies that shaped the Language-Making process during this early stage of standard languages. An example of language differentiation is the evolving relation between ‘Dutch’ and ‘German’. In the monolingual grammars, Dutch is explicitly positioned along the lines of an ‘ours’ versus a ‘theirs’, but what is considered ‘ours’ differs between the grammars and changes over time. In the multilingual textbooks, the direct juxtaposition between Dutch and German on the title page leads to distinct labels (‘Nederduits’ vs. ‘Hoogduits’) whereas there is no consistent distinction in the body of these textbooks until the late 17th century. Overall, we conclude that a ‘Dutch language’ was certainly being ‘made’ during this period, in name and in reference to other vernacular languages. However, its boundaries were still fuzzy, reflecting the multilingual reality of the early modern Low Countries.

Introduction to the special issue 'Time and Temporality in the Early Modern Low Countries'.

In the early modern Low Countries, narrative cartography was a thriving new medium aimed at disseminating information about events concerning the Dutch Revolt. News maps combined spatial and narrative information in order to tell the story of a recent event to a large audience, representing actions, moments, and (spatial) change. They were in essence temporal products. To keep the maps topical, map publishers released new map states by modifying their copperplates and adding the latest news, sometimes multiple times. This article analyses the ‘updated’ map series by the Amsterdam publisher Claes Jansz Visscher that reported on events in the Scheldt river area between Bergen op Zoom and Antwerp (such as the 1631 Battle of the Slaak). The central question is how and why Visscher incorporated temporal information into his news maps. First, it shows the tools and strategies how Visscher, in comparison to other Northern and Southern Netherlandish news map publishers, added temporal information to his maps. Then, the rhythm of mapping and the map narratives are put in the context of real-time events and news culture, and the circulation and use of the maps are interpreted in the context of memory culture and historical consciousness. The article shows how news maps imply specific narratives of events and invite contemporary and later users to engage with and ‘navigate’ the past, present, and future in ways that transcend the limiting idea of time as a linear progress.

Producing Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ in the Early Modern Low Countries, written by John Tholen

This article investigates ‘nose books’ (neusboekjes) and their social functions in the Early Modern Low Countries. Nose books are short literary texts written in the form of joyful ordinances that can be found in bound volumes (Sammelbände). These volumes contain a number of separately printed works, such as almanacs, prognostications and popular texts, which were subsequently bound together. Unlike previous studies, which have largely considered nose books as purely entertaining, this article demonstrates that nose books were initially sold as a form of political satire. As such, they encouraged societal engagement. However, over the course of the eighteenth century, the political undertone of nose books was no longer part of people’s reading experiences. These later readers appreciated the parody of the official ordinance instead.

Abstract The manuscript B 78741 held in the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience in Antwerp contains the liturgy for the last rites, death and burial of a religious sister. Copied in the late fifteenth century, this small paper book hides its origins well. However, its Dutch rubrics and Latin texts make clear that the book is for the use of a community of sisters, led by a prioress, with the assistance of a priest. The rituals have aspects in common with those from other communities – the Dominicans, in particular – but they also have some striking differences. In the following article, I compare the music, texts and rituals held in the manuscript with those from known traditions. I argue that the manuscript was made for a community of Augustinian canonesses from the Windesheim congregation, most likely Beata Maria de Galilea in Ghent.

Abstract The early modern Low Countries formed a multilingual region where Latin and several vernaculars lived in symbiosis. It is often forgotten, however, that Ancient Greek was also cultivated among the cultural and intellectual elite, so intensely that a vast corpus of Greek texts was produced in this region. This article offers a first exploration of the reasons behind this cultural phenomenon. It starts with a general introduction, including a state of research in the field and a first survey of the source materials. The main body of the article is divided into two parts. The first situates the so-called New Ancient Greek literature of the early modern Low Countries in historical perspective by introducing first Greek studies and then Greek composition in this region. Against this background, the second part explores what motivated and inspired this Greek literary production in four sections, each discussing an important aspect of the phenomenon under study: language learning, cultural distinction, networks and communities, and aesthetic appreciation. The article thus demonstrates that writing in Greek in the early modern era had uses far beyond showing off one’s literary talent and erudition.

In the first volume of Nederlandse letterkunde, two prominent literary scholars in the field of early modern Dutch literature reflected on their monumental, innovative books, which were both published the year after (1997). Piet Buijnsters, first of all, presents his Bibliografie van Nederlandse school- en kinderboeken 1700-1800 (BNK), an extensive bibliography of all known children’s and school books published in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Riet Schenkeveld-van der Dussen, secondly, refers to Met en zonder Lauwerkrans, a sizeable anthology of women’s writing in the early modern Low Countries. In this essay, I discuss the impact of the Lauwerkrans and the BNK on 25 years of scholarship on early modern Dutch literature written by women as well as books addressed to young readers. I will argue that Buijnsters’s and Schenkeveld-van der Dussen’s call for text-analytical research on women’s and children’s literature is still urgent, as the abundance of recent scholarship was dedicated to the book market and the cultural-historical context of literature. I will also suggest a new line of research, in which the generally isolated dimensions of gender and age will be analysed in their continuous interaction.