E. Stronks

Negotiating differences : word, image and religion in the Dutch Republic

This book explores the dynamics of peaceful coexistence in the Dutch Republic by tracing the literary responses to one of the key controversies between Protestants and Catholics - the role of religious imagery in worship. Why and to what extent were people in the Republic willing to reconcile theological differences and combine elements from their own religious cultural practices with those of another? The intermingling of practices, the author shows, was unexpectedly complicated in the Republic. Restraints were imposed on the use of images in religious literature of all denominations till 1650. Evidence of negotiations appears after 1650, however, as Dutch Protestants absorbed significant aspects of Catholic visual traditions into their own. Religious toleration had clearly become a matter of sharing rather than enduring for the Protestants, but retained features of a monologue since Dutch Catholics were then developing a new, idiosyncratic identity of their own.

Identiteiten van adolescenten in de vroegmoderne liedcultuur: het studentenlied als casus

Songs aimed at the Dutch youth became a booming business in the Dutch Republic. In contemporary Western culture, such popular songs constitute an important vehicle for expressing youth identities. With regard to the Low Countries, it is this article’s hypothesis that in the booming business of songs composed by and for youngsters – loosely defined here as ‘unmarried young people’ – early stages of these modern processes of identity formation are visible. By exploring this vast and unique corpus and its functionality in the context of the NWO research project ‘Dutch Songs On Line’, this article aims to contribute to the international debate on youth identities, more specifically to the much debated question when ‘adolescence’ as a category was discovered: in the 19th century, or in the early modern era? Building on several trends in the existing literature the first part of this article will offer a framework for the analysis of the identity formation function of the songs for the early modern Dutch youth. The second part is dedicated to a case study: focusing on songs about and for students the potential of this type of research is explored.

German Religious Emblems As Stimuli of Visual Culture in the Dutch Republic

The existing studies into Dutch translations of German religious texts suggest that literaryreligious culture in the Dutch Republic did not undergo significant transformation during the course of the seventeenth century as a result of German-Dutch exchange. There is even more reason to assume that German illustrated religious literature remained out of the focus of Dutch audiences: visual additions to religious texts, popular in German publications as a result of the Lutheran approach to word-image interaction, encountered resistance in the Dutch Republic where the development of illustrated religious literature was restricted and delayed compared to the Republics neighbouring countries. A closer look at two cases of German-Dutch literary exchange in the field of religious emblematics suggests that the restrictive Dutch visual practices were at times stimulated and innovated by the import of German models. The two cases discussed in this article give us reason to advance the very tentative hypothesis that the German-Dutch contact was at times critical to the growth of the use of religious imagery in Dutch religious literature. Finally, a case is made in favour of attending more to the international exchange of religious imagery in order to chart the impact of the Reformation in Northern Europe.

Young Agents : Jonge auteurs op de vroegmoderne boekenmarkt

Young Agents: the Young Author’s Role on the Dutch Republic’s Book Market１ In this article, we investigate the role of young authors on the upcoming and flourishing book market of the Dutch Republic (1550-1800), focusing in particular on their ‘agency’. By investigating the specific contribution of young authors to this market and by discriminating between roles of young adults and adults, we introduce a new approach to early modern authorship. Combining quantitative digital experiments and qualitative textual analyses, we seek to tease out the dynamic relationship between the young authors’ independence, competences, and behaviour on the one hand, and representations, self-images and production figures on the other. The first results of our research reveal that young authors frequently showed themselves indebted to their masters, but also created their own voice, often selfconfident and engaged, by appropriating specific genres and topics in new ways. Contrary to what contemporary poetics and well-known forms of (self) reflection suggest, young authors appear to have had a clear, outspoken presence in the Dutch book market which became ever more prominent in both the consumption and production of Dutch books.

The Diffusion of Illustrated Religious Texts and Ideological Restraints

Focusing on the subordinate role assigned to Bible illustrations in Dutch religious literature, the chapter explores the difference between practices in the Republic and its neighbouring countries in order to advance the tentative hypothesis that these practices were motivated by theological and ideological considerations rather than by commerce. The restrictive mechanisms in the printing practices of the Dutch Republic were discussed in detail in the authors monograph Negotiating Differences: Word, Image and Religion in the Dutch Republic . The chapter concentrates on the illustrations that were added to the most prestigious Bible translation published in the Republic, the Dutch Reformed States Bible of 1637. The chapter outlines the developments in various applications of Bible illustrations in the Republic. In order to determine the specifics of the Dutch situation it focuses on what was produced during which period and compares this with the production in neighbouring countries. Keywords: Bible illustrations; Dutch religious literature; Protestants

Vanity He Fears: Self-Imaging and the Dutch Minister-Poet

ABSTRACTThe minister-poet, a once admired and beloved figure, has lost almost all of his authority in Dutch society. Nowadays, it is widely believed that poetry and ministry do not go well together. The talent to preach does not imply the talent to write. We owe this view to the Tachtigers, or so it seems. The Tachtigers, a group of poets and artists from the 1880s who were dedicated to change the face of Dutch literature and art, were very strongly opposed to the minister-poets. In their minds, poetry made by ministers could never be more than nursery rhyme.In this article it is claimed that the ministers themselves are partly to blame for their defeat. They weakened their position by belittling themselves for centuries. From the seventeenth century onwards, ministers hid their talents, and diminished the value of their work. As is argued here, they were forced to do so by the Dutch Reformed Church. The Church demanded modesty, and defeat was thus inevitable. The ministers were never allowed to rule thei...