1417-2017: de ‘Republiek der Letteren’, oorspronkelijk
een intellectuele internationale, bestaat ... more 1417-2017: de ‘Republiek der Letteren’, oorspronkelijk een intellectuele internationale, bestaat zeshonderd jaar. De term heeft een bij uitstek transnationale geschiedenis, dus de vraag dringt zich op wat de Nederlandse rol was en waarom de term nu gebruikt wordt voor een beperkt nationaal fenomeen.
This article traces the conceptual origins of the famous Göttingen History of the Arts and Scienc... more This article traces the conceptual origins of the famous Göttingen History of the Arts and Sciences since their Renewal to the end of the eighteenth century, prepared by a company of learned men, published in 1796–1820 and overseen by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. In its overall structure and in many of its parts, it was the last representative of the tradition of historia literaria. This tradition came to an end around 1800 due to the accumulation and specialization of knowledge rather than because of a new philosophical conception of how to classify knowledge—although there were various proposals for such classifications, primarily in German territories.
In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians t... more In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians to emphasize biblical philology as a force which, together with the new philosophy and the new science of the seventeenth century, caused the erosion of universal scriptural authority from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. A case in point is Jonathan Israel's impressive account of how biblical criticism in the hands of Spinoza paved the way for the Enlightenment. Others who have argued for a post-Spinozist rise of biblical criticism include Frank Manuel, Adam Sutcliffe, and Travis Frampton. These scholars have built upon longer standing interpretations such as those of Hugh Trevor-Roper and Paul Hazard. However, scholars in the past two decades such as Anthony Grafton, Scott Mandelbrote and Jean-Louis Quantin have altered the picture of an exegetical revolution inaugurated by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), Spinoza (1632–1677), and Richard Simon (1638–1712). These heterodox philosophers in fact relied on philological research that had been largely developed in the first half of the seventeenth century. Moreover, such research was carried out by scholars who had no subversive agenda. This is to say that the importance attached to a historical and philological approach to the biblical text had a cross-confessional appeal, not just a radical-political one.
On the basis of the autobiography of the orthodox Calvinist minister Abraham Trommius (1633-1719... more On the basis of the autobiography of the orthodox Calvinist minister Abraham Trommius (1633-1719), this article argues that the Republic of Letters created its own cultures of memory. The very use of the word ‘Republic’ begs the question whether there was some kind of early modern ‘state building’ at play within the networks of learned men and women. Although sentiments of religious and political alliance cannot be ruled out in the practices of learned memories, the identity arising from these cultures aimed at stressing learning, friendship and communication. Its acts of memory were localized instances of learned identity formation across borders, serving travelling students regardless of their political and confessional affiliations. This article argues that memories of learning or learned memories present a new logical, although hitherto ignored, line of research, to complement well-studied political and confessional memories. Trommius draws particular attention to Erasmus and to Joseph Scaliger and his father Julius Caesar Scaliger. The article also discusses the broader memory of these towering figures to exemplify the study of early modern learned identity formation by means of cultures of memory.
Keywords: locations of knowledge, learned identity, material memory, Grand Tour, Erasmus, Scaliger
This article argues that Library History ought to be guided by well-contextualized questions of c... more This article argues that Library History ought to be guided by well-contextualized questions of cultural history. It proposes one such question: that which asks after the ways in which repositories of knowledge were created, organized and used in the past. The examples that are discussed in this article suggest that within the social context of the Republic of Letters an ideal of sharing knowledge was developed, which informed later, eighteenth-century, attempts at making repositories and libraries widely available. Modern ideals of collecting and sharing knowledge are not as new as they would appear to be. This is to say that the ideal of 'Open Science' has a history.
This contribution to Anthony Grafton's Festschrift pays tribute to Tony's life-long interest in S... more This contribution to Anthony Grafton's Festschrift pays tribute to Tony's life-long interest in Scaliger's correspondence and to early modern printing practices. The unclear boundaries between public and private spheres created opportunities for 17th-c. editors of letter collections and caused anxiety for their authors. How did letter writers navigate the murky waters between addressing one indidivual and writing for an unspecified public? And how did editors' attitudes towards the 'rights' of their authors change in the 17th c.?
This article provides a chronological introduction to the long history of the Republic of Letters... more This article provides a chronological introduction to the long history of the Republic of Letters, moving beyond its usual early modern time-frame into the modern age. I follow the history of the Republic of Letters through its many paradigm shifts, showing that it was a far more dynamic community than is suggested by the steady use of the term itself throughout the ages. At the end of the article, I address the still unanswered question as to how many people were involved in this network. A well corroborated answer to this question (and to many others) will only be possible once the records of all surviving letters exchanged by its participants are pooled and made digitally accessible. Steps towards reaching this goal are currently being made in a large digitization project in which more than thirty countries participate.
Early Modern Campus Novels? Academic satires as discours on knowledge ideals
On the basis of an ... more Early Modern Campus Novels? Academic satires as discours on knowledge ideals
On the basis of an analysis of academic satires from three centuries and of the conventions of this genre, this article argues that academic satire usually reflects conflicts in opinions about what good, normal science ought to be. Such ideals were influenced by changing ecclesiastical, confessional and social contexts. Apart from some examples of plays about students, of the role of pamphlets in general, and some novels from the period of German Idealism, this chapter draws on three case studies: Johannes Reuchlin's Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515), the Conspicilia Batavica (1609) and the Aristophanis Senatus Consultum (1761).
Occassional failures in reproductions on Google Books invite reflection on the materiality of the... more Occassional failures in reproductions on Google Books invite reflection on the materiality of the book and on the labour of the workers who scan the books. Their human errors, caused by working pressure, have also proved to be an inspiration for an unexpected form of book art.
This chapter was published as a contribution to a handbook about vernacular bibles in the Low Cou... more This chapter was published as a contribution to a handbook about vernacular bibles in the Low Countries in the past eleven centuries (Heerenveen, 2015), edited by a team of Dutch and Flemish scholars headed by Paul Gillaerts. The States' Translation is the best known Dutch bible translation of all times and arguably the most influential one. The chapter analyses the long gestation period of the States' Translation. Based on an important unstudied source, it reconstructs what went on behind closed doors during the discussions of the teams of translators and revisers with regard to problems in vocabulary, grammar, textual transmission and historical contextualisation. Special attention is given to the laborious process of compiling the marginal annotations. It appears that behind the monumental façade of the States' Translation, in the inner circles of the Orthodox Reformed Church, long negotations had taken place to get all the translators and revisers on the same page. Biblical philology could yield unwelcome results, but at the same time it offered a powerful instrument to bend those results into the service of a confessional agenda.
This paper discusses the application of a semantic search algorithm, “ANNH: Associative Neural Ne... more This paper discusses the application of a semantic search algorithm, “ANNH: Associative Neural Networks for the Humanities”, to the corpora of Schelling’s writings and that of other philosophers. Particular attention is paid to issues of interpretation that result from applying this search technology. The ANNH-technology is also analyzed with a view to the broader context of issues arising in the context of the Digital Humanities.
The learned letter is attracting ever more attention as a source for the pursuit of the history o... more The learned letter is attracting ever more attention as a source for the pursuit of the history of knowledge, partly because correspondences are rapidly being digitized. The letter straddles the divide between a conversation and a publication. Letters could have a confidential character, but writers could also expect letters to circulate amongst associates. Harold Love's notion of 'scribal publication', with which he describes the circulation of newsletters, appears to be also applicable, to a certain extent, to the communicational situation of the personal 'familiar' letter. In this paper, the heretical ideas of the French exegete Isaac de La Peyrère serve as a case to go beyond Love in developing the notion of 'scribal publication'. We connect it to the 'culture of discussion' which was characteristic of the Dutch Republic around 1650 (Willem Frijhoff and Marijke Spies) and to the idea of civil conversation as a tolerant setting for discussion (Steven Shapin).
Keywords
La Peyrère; Biblical criticism; men before Adam; correspondence; confidentiality; epistolary codes
Scaliger was infamous for the very rude vocabulary he often employed in his letters, when he rubi... more Scaliger was infamous for the very rude vocabulary he often employed in his letters, when he rubished his enemies. The terms often relate to excrement, homosexuality, masturbation, prostitution, animals and demons. The article gives a typology of different terms of abuse he employed, and seeks the rationale behind these showers of abuse in a moral imperative to call evil by its ugly name. Far from a lack of control or mere impetuousness, the language signifies a conscious rhetoric in the epideictic tradition of blame.
1417-2017: de ‘Republiek der Letteren’, oorspronkelijk
een intellectuele internationale, bestaat ... more 1417-2017: de ‘Republiek der Letteren’, oorspronkelijk een intellectuele internationale, bestaat zeshonderd jaar. De term heeft een bij uitstek transnationale geschiedenis, dus de vraag dringt zich op wat de Nederlandse rol was en waarom de term nu gebruikt wordt voor een beperkt nationaal fenomeen.
This article traces the conceptual origins of the famous Göttingen History of the Arts and Scienc... more This article traces the conceptual origins of the famous Göttingen History of the Arts and Sciences since their Renewal to the end of the eighteenth century, prepared by a company of learned men, published in 1796–1820 and overseen by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. In its overall structure and in many of its parts, it was the last representative of the tradition of historia literaria. This tradition came to an end around 1800 due to the accumulation and specialization of knowledge rather than because of a new philosophical conception of how to classify knowledge—although there were various proposals for such classifications, primarily in German territories.
In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians t... more In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians to emphasize biblical philology as a force which, together with the new philosophy and the new science of the seventeenth century, caused the erosion of universal scriptural authority from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. A case in point is Jonathan Israel's impressive account of how biblical criticism in the hands of Spinoza paved the way for the Enlightenment. Others who have argued for a post-Spinozist rise of biblical criticism include Frank Manuel, Adam Sutcliffe, and Travis Frampton. These scholars have built upon longer standing interpretations such as those of Hugh Trevor-Roper and Paul Hazard. However, scholars in the past two decades such as Anthony Grafton, Scott Mandelbrote and Jean-Louis Quantin have altered the picture of an exegetical revolution inaugurated by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), Spinoza (1632–1677), and Richard Simon (1638–1712). These heterodox philosophers in fact relied on philological research that had been largely developed in the first half of the seventeenth century. Moreover, such research was carried out by scholars who had no subversive agenda. This is to say that the importance attached to a historical and philological approach to the biblical text had a cross-confessional appeal, not just a radical-political one.
On the basis of the autobiography of the orthodox Calvinist minister Abraham Trommius (1633-1719... more On the basis of the autobiography of the orthodox Calvinist minister Abraham Trommius (1633-1719), this article argues that the Republic of Letters created its own cultures of memory. The very use of the word ‘Republic’ begs the question whether there was some kind of early modern ‘state building’ at play within the networks of learned men and women. Although sentiments of religious and political alliance cannot be ruled out in the practices of learned memories, the identity arising from these cultures aimed at stressing learning, friendship and communication. Its acts of memory were localized instances of learned identity formation across borders, serving travelling students regardless of their political and confessional affiliations. This article argues that memories of learning or learned memories present a new logical, although hitherto ignored, line of research, to complement well-studied political and confessional memories. Trommius draws particular attention to Erasmus and to Joseph Scaliger and his father Julius Caesar Scaliger. The article also discusses the broader memory of these towering figures to exemplify the study of early modern learned identity formation by means of cultures of memory.
Keywords: locations of knowledge, learned identity, material memory, Grand Tour, Erasmus, Scaliger
This article argues that Library History ought to be guided by well-contextualized questions of c... more This article argues that Library History ought to be guided by well-contextualized questions of cultural history. It proposes one such question: that which asks after the ways in which repositories of knowledge were created, organized and used in the past. The examples that are discussed in this article suggest that within the social context of the Republic of Letters an ideal of sharing knowledge was developed, which informed later, eighteenth-century, attempts at making repositories and libraries widely available. Modern ideals of collecting and sharing knowledge are not as new as they would appear to be. This is to say that the ideal of 'Open Science' has a history.
This contribution to Anthony Grafton's Festschrift pays tribute to Tony's life-long interest in S... more This contribution to Anthony Grafton's Festschrift pays tribute to Tony's life-long interest in Scaliger's correspondence and to early modern printing practices. The unclear boundaries between public and private spheres created opportunities for 17th-c. editors of letter collections and caused anxiety for their authors. How did letter writers navigate the murky waters between addressing one indidivual and writing for an unspecified public? And how did editors' attitudes towards the 'rights' of their authors change in the 17th c.?
This article provides a chronological introduction to the long history of the Republic of Letters... more This article provides a chronological introduction to the long history of the Republic of Letters, moving beyond its usual early modern time-frame into the modern age. I follow the history of the Republic of Letters through its many paradigm shifts, showing that it was a far more dynamic community than is suggested by the steady use of the term itself throughout the ages. At the end of the article, I address the still unanswered question as to how many people were involved in this network. A well corroborated answer to this question (and to many others) will only be possible once the records of all surviving letters exchanged by its participants are pooled and made digitally accessible. Steps towards reaching this goal are currently being made in a large digitization project in which more than thirty countries participate.
Early Modern Campus Novels? Academic satires as discours on knowledge ideals
On the basis of an ... more Early Modern Campus Novels? Academic satires as discours on knowledge ideals
On the basis of an analysis of academic satires from three centuries and of the conventions of this genre, this article argues that academic satire usually reflects conflicts in opinions about what good, normal science ought to be. Such ideals were influenced by changing ecclesiastical, confessional and social contexts. Apart from some examples of plays about students, of the role of pamphlets in general, and some novels from the period of German Idealism, this chapter draws on three case studies: Johannes Reuchlin's Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515), the Conspicilia Batavica (1609) and the Aristophanis Senatus Consultum (1761).
Occassional failures in reproductions on Google Books invite reflection on the materiality of the... more Occassional failures in reproductions on Google Books invite reflection on the materiality of the book and on the labour of the workers who scan the books. Their human errors, caused by working pressure, have also proved to be an inspiration for an unexpected form of book art.
This chapter was published as a contribution to a handbook about vernacular bibles in the Low Cou... more This chapter was published as a contribution to a handbook about vernacular bibles in the Low Countries in the past eleven centuries (Heerenveen, 2015), edited by a team of Dutch and Flemish scholars headed by Paul Gillaerts. The States' Translation is the best known Dutch bible translation of all times and arguably the most influential one. The chapter analyses the long gestation period of the States' Translation. Based on an important unstudied source, it reconstructs what went on behind closed doors during the discussions of the teams of translators and revisers with regard to problems in vocabulary, grammar, textual transmission and historical contextualisation. Special attention is given to the laborious process of compiling the marginal annotations. It appears that behind the monumental façade of the States' Translation, in the inner circles of the Orthodox Reformed Church, long negotations had taken place to get all the translators and revisers on the same page. Biblical philology could yield unwelcome results, but at the same time it offered a powerful instrument to bend those results into the service of a confessional agenda.
This paper discusses the application of a semantic search algorithm, “ANNH: Associative Neural Ne... more This paper discusses the application of a semantic search algorithm, “ANNH: Associative Neural Networks for the Humanities”, to the corpora of Schelling’s writings and that of other philosophers. Particular attention is paid to issues of interpretation that result from applying this search technology. The ANNH-technology is also analyzed with a view to the broader context of issues arising in the context of the Digital Humanities.
The learned letter is attracting ever more attention as a source for the pursuit of the history o... more The learned letter is attracting ever more attention as a source for the pursuit of the history of knowledge, partly because correspondences are rapidly being digitized. The letter straddles the divide between a conversation and a publication. Letters could have a confidential character, but writers could also expect letters to circulate amongst associates. Harold Love's notion of 'scribal publication', with which he describes the circulation of newsletters, appears to be also applicable, to a certain extent, to the communicational situation of the personal 'familiar' letter. In this paper, the heretical ideas of the French exegete Isaac de La Peyrère serve as a case to go beyond Love in developing the notion of 'scribal publication'. We connect it to the 'culture of discussion' which was characteristic of the Dutch Republic around 1650 (Willem Frijhoff and Marijke Spies) and to the idea of civil conversation as a tolerant setting for discussion (Steven Shapin).
Keywords
La Peyrère; Biblical criticism; men before Adam; correspondence; confidentiality; epistolary codes
Scaliger was infamous for the very rude vocabulary he often employed in his letters, when he rubi... more Scaliger was infamous for the very rude vocabulary he often employed in his letters, when he rubished his enemies. The terms often relate to excrement, homosexuality, masturbation, prostitution, animals and demons. The article gives a typology of different terms of abuse he employed, and seeks the rationale behind these showers of abuse in a moral imperative to call evil by its ugly name. Far from a lack of control or mere impetuousness, the language signifies a conscious rhetoric in the epideictic tradition of blame.
Between 2014 and 2018, an EU networking grant assembled an interdisciplinary community of over 20... more Between 2014 and 2018, an EU networking grant assembled an interdisciplinary community of over 200 experts from 33 different countries and many different fields for four years of structured discussion. The aim was to envisage transnational digital infrastructure for facilitating the radically multilateral collaboration needed to reassemble the scattered documentation of the early modern Republic of Letters and to support a new generation of scholarly work and public dissemination. The framework emerging from those discussions – potentially applicable also to other forms of intellectual, cultural and economic exchange in other periods and regions – is documented in this book.
The Emancipation of Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1590–1670 argues that the applicati... more The Emancipation of Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1590–1670 argues that the application of tools, developed in the study of ancient Greek and Latin authors, to the Bible was aimed at stabilizing the biblical text but had the unintentional effect that the text grew more and more unstable. Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) capitalized on this tradition in his notorious Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670). However, the foundations on which his radical biblical scholarship is built were laid by Reformed philologists who started from the hermeneutical assumption that philology was the servant of reformed dogma. On the basis of this principle, they pushed biblical scholarship to the centre of historical studies during the first half of the seventeenth century.
Dirk van Miert shows how Jacob Arminius, Franciscus Gomarus, the translators and revisers of the States’ Translation, Daniel Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, Claude Saumaise, Isaac de La Peyrère, and Isaac Vossius all drew on techniques developed by classical scholars of Renaissance humanism, notably Joseph Scaliger, who devoted themselves to the study of manuscripts, (oriental) languages, and ancient history. Van Miert assesses and compares the accomplishments of these scholars in textual criticism, the analysis of languages, and the reconstruction of political and cultural historical contexts, highlighting that their methods were closely linked.
During the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic was transformed into a leading political power... more During the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic was transformed into a leading political power in Europe, with global trading interests. It nurtured some of the period's greatest luminaries, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Descartes and Spinoza. Long celebrated for its religious tolerance, artistic innovation and economic modernity, the United Provinces of the Netherlands also became known for their involvement with slavery and military repression in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. This Companion provides a compelling overview of the best scholarship on this much debated era, written by a wide range of experts in the field. Unique in its balanced treatment of global, political, socio-economic, literary, artistic, religious, and intellectual history, its nineteen chapters offer an indispensable guide for anyone interested in the world of the Dutch Golden Age.
Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Golden Age explores the hypothesis that ... more Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Golden Age explores the hypothesis that in the long seventeenth century humanist-inspired biblical criticism contributed significantly to the decline of ecclesiastical truth claims. Historiography pictures this era as one in which the dominant position of religion and church began to show signs of erosion under the influence of vehement debates on the sacrosanct status of the Bible. Until quite recently, this gradual but decisive shift has been attributed to the rise of the sciences, in particular astronomy and physics. This authoritative volume looks at biblical criticism as an innovative force and as the outcome of developments in philology that had started much earlier than scientific experimentalism or the New Philosophy. Scholars began to situate the Bible in its historical context. The contributors
The case studies in this volume juxtapose instances of knowledge exchange across a variety of fie... more The case studies in this volume juxtapose instances of knowledge exchange across a variety of fields usually studied in isolation: anthropology, medicine, botany, epigraphy, astronomy, geography, philosophy and chronology. In their letters, scientists and scholars tried to come to grips with the often unclear epistemological status of an ‘observation’, a term which covered a wide semantic field, ranging from acts of perceiving to generalized remarks on knowledge. Observations were associated with descriptions, transcriptions, copies, drawings, casts and coordinates, and they frequently took into account the natural, material, linguistic, historical, religious and social contexts. Early modern scholars were well aware of the transformations which knowledge could undergo in the process of being communicated and therefore stressed the need for autopsy, implying faithfulness (fides) and diligence (diligentia), to enhance the authority of observations. It was the specific character of Renaissance epistolography, more than the individual subjects discussed, which shaped the way information circulated. In the course of a correspondence, the narrative in which observations were communicated could be modified by adding implicit or explicit considerations and by relegating lists, drawings or tables containing ‘raw material’ to appendices, which recipients more often than not detached and filed separately. While letters were the prime medium for exchanging information, they have to be studied in relation to notebooks, drafts, attachments and printed works in order to appreciate fully how observations were communicated within the learned networks of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Historians commonly classify Petrus Camper (1722–1789) as the most important Dutch medical schola... more Historians commonly classify Petrus Camper (1722–1789) as the most important Dutch medical scholar after Boerhaave. This superbly edited and beautifully produced volume shows that he was much more besides.
Failing to acknowledge the importance of Heumann in the history of learning and focusing solely o... more Failing to acknowledge the importance of Heumann in the history of learning and focusing solely on canonical scholars is like attempting to understand the history of politics by ignoring the role of the aristocracy and writing exclusively about monarchs. The result is a less revolutionary picture of the Enlightenment. This important volume confirms the Enlightenment as standing in strong continuity with the humanist tradition of engaging critically with texts, history, and books.
tion presented here, we can gain a closer understanding of his scientific and academic life, in p... more tion presented here, we can gain a closer understanding of his scientific and academic life, in particular his relationship with Michael Faraday. The letters that Avogadro wrote to his editor, Antonio Lombardi, give evidence of the care he applied in the publication of his manuscripts. Here, as in the book on the academic reports, Ciardi and Di Matteo are able to pinpoint specific material to show Avogadro's role in the society of the time. For instance, we find a letter that he wrote to the Secretary of Public Instruction that sheds light on his commitment as a teacher. In this letter Avogadro complains about the fact that the duration of the physics course was reduced from three years to two. Reading the two books edited by Ciardi and Di Matteo shows us that many aspects of the life of a scholar in the first half of the nineteenth century resemble those of our present-day academic life. These books are essential for anyone who is studying Avogado's life. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, who holds a Ph.D. in physics, is a professor at Turin Polytechnic. Her research is on subjects in condensed matter physics. She is skilled in image processing and interested in history of science. Marion Gindhart; Hanspeter Marti; Robert Seidel (Editors). Frühneuzeitliche Disputationen: Polyvalente Produktionsapparate gelehrten Wissens. 364 pp., figs., index. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2016. €50 (cloth). Disputations were the daily bread of early modern academic life. They constitute a rich historical source for both the organization of teaching and the content of what was being taught. In addition, the dedication preceding a disputation can teach us much about the social background of the student, about his (former) men-tors, and about his network. Congratulatory poems at the end tell us more about the students' networks—in particular, their student networks. Disputations, moreover, carry specific dates, which can supplement the scarce evidence of curricula. The shelves of libraries still testify to the Disputierfreude of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century universities. Historians of universities are increasingly turning to these disputations, and they are being supported by ever more bibliographical tools that facilitate the identification and location of the usually quite ephemeral pamphlet-like printed disputations. Laurence Brockliss for France and Rienk Vermij, Keith Stanglin, and I for the Netherlands have all based monographs primarily on the study of disputations. But the most fruitful territory, and the area hitherto explored best, is no doubt the German realm. Dis-putations from the German realm led Robert Evans to conclude that in the second half of the seventeenth century, generally thought to be a time in which the German universities were in a dismal state, these schools were actually thriving. Sari Kivistö's wonderful recent study of learned moral conduct is largely based on disputations from German territories. It is somewhat disappointing that none of the authors and studies listed above are mentioned in the volume under review. The geographical scope is German, but so is the historiographical positioning—as is evidenced by the historiographical survey in the volume's introduction (for example, only a small catalogue from a Leiden exhibition is mentioned). Margaret Ahsmann's study of juridical disputations is given some attention only in a fine contribution by Ulrich Schlegelmilch on dis-putations about physiology and pathology at Leiden University—an important essay that analyzes handwritten sources that give us a clear idea of what went on in organizing unpublished disputations during private lessons. A volume of this magnitude is what it is: a collection of articles by authors who each have their own take on the subject. Most of them use disputations as a source for exploring a variety of subjects in the history of knowledge (Cartesianism, Rudbeckianism, witchcraft, theories of sovereignty or of rhetoric and poetry, the teaching of historia literaria), while offering relatively little theory about the genre itself. Often the generalizing observations on disputations are underdeveloped and appear tangential to the content-driven research.
Van pionierswerk tot publieksinleidingen: de vruchten van twee generaties studie van vergeten vro... more Van pionierswerk tot publieksinleidingen: de vruchten van twee generaties studie van vergeten vroegmodern erfgoed [From pionering work to popular introductions: the fruits of two generations' studies of forgotten early modern heritage].
In this impressive book, Dmitri Levitin examines the ways in which seventeenth-century English th... more In this impressive book, Dmitri Levitin examines the ways in which seventeenth-century English theologians, clerics, philosophers, scholars, and scientists looked at Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman thought. Without engaging with these historical debates, one is sure to misunderstand exactly what scientists of the period thought they were doing. Levitin has taken up the challenge of plowing through an incredibly rich body of rebarbative primary Latin sources from all those fields. Levitin is clearly the product of what we might start calling a " school " : a type of historiographical analysis practiced to varying extents by
The classic ‘Life & Letters’ setup of this timeless and elegantly written
book is bound to outliv... more The classic ‘Life & Letters’ setup of this timeless and elegantly written book is bound to outlive a succession of fashionable paradigms and will remain relevant to scholars of the learned world around 1600 for a very, very long time.
The past ten years have witnessed a surge in literature about the German intellectual world durin... more The past ten years have witnessed a surge in literature about the German intellectual world during and after the Thirty Years War. Earlier work on German universities by Notker Hammerstein, a stream of publications on historia literaria and polymathy, the articles flowing from the pen of Martin Mulsow, and the attention for disputations in the work of scholars such as Hanspeter Marti and Sari Kivistö have all shown that the institutions and networks of learning suffered less from the Thirty Years War than its gruel destruction would lead us to assume. Scholars, teachers, and the learned book trade proved remarkably resilient. Individual German states might have attempted to exert rigid control over their educational system, but from a bird's-eye view, the patchy territories of Germany show not only a large number of schools and universities but also a highly diverse and incredibly competitive market. Political fragmentation did not cripple the educational system, but actually enriched it. The recent historiography has also shown how much the German Republic of Letters (the Gelehrtenrepublik) was institutionalized in these schools and universities. A scholar in Germany did not have to feel isolated in the countryside: if there was no university close by, there was at least a Latin School or Territorial School. All the more surprising, therefore, is the dearth of attention for the secondary system of education. This neglect is largely due to a lack of sources. Whereas research into universities and their students is facilitated by relatively well-kept archives of curators and professorial senates, by serial sources such as registers of enrollments and of doctoral dissertations, there is very little material available on the life of Latin Schools. Historians have a myopic view of them for their reliance on state archives and law-givers; their many stipulations, as Alan Ross repeatedly argues, disclose little about their enforcement. It appears that Latin Schools were, in fact, tremendously flexible and independent in attending to local needs and regional competition. Perhaps the lack of historians' interests in Latin Schools can also be explained because of the lack of intellectual excitement the daily routine of a Latin School raises: despite the constant adaptations in pedagogical method, little was taught or discovered that was truly innovative. And yet Latin Schools were often centers of learning outside courts and academia, and not the receptacle for would-be Republicans of Letters with stalled careers. A strong point of the book under review is its stress that German Latin schools played a crucial double role in education: their lowest forms tailored to a German-speaking market of artisan families, and the higher forms targeted aspiring students.
Many early sixteenth-century French scholars were attached as teachers, and sometimes regents, to... more Many early sixteenth-century French scholars were attached as teachers, and sometimes regents, to one (and often several) of France's coll eges. These colleges focused on instruction in the liberal arts, primarily the teaching of Latin. Originally set up by religious orders, they were associated, until far into the twentieth century, with rigid Scholastic teaching. The adoption of Italian-style Renaissance humanism took place outside of these conservative schools of small-time masters and regents — or so historiography has long assumed. A particularly influential condemnation of these professeurs came from the pen of Lucien Febvre in 1942. In an attempt to expose as slanderous the sixteenth-century accusations of atheism and irreligion leveled at Rabelais presumably from within these colleges, Febvre brought to light for the first time the biotope of these colleges, peopled by second-and third-rate Neo-Latin poets, and frustrated and narrow-minded teachers of Latin, but self-proclaimed standard-bearers of learning and culture. He wrote them off with the disastrously ironic label of " Apollos of the colleges. " This volume explores many of these forgotten or half-forgotten linguists and philologists, and rehabilitates them as the infantry of French humanism. Writing occasional Latin poetry was for them not only a network strategy of gaining patronage or obtaining a teaching position. These articles show that they were genuinely inspired by Politian and Erasmus. The apologetic character of the volume is consistent throughout: Febvre is referenced by all contributors with reverent dismissal, and the proof lies in the biographies and bibliographies of single professors. The volume is exemplarily edited: the many Latin quotations (a feast for Neo-Latinists) are immaculate; almost all of the contributions are equipped with fresh bibliographies of early modern sources that would otherwise remain difficult to navigate due to their disparity, rareness, and intricate publishing histories; and a helpful triple index of names, works, and colleges testifies to the editors' ambitions to make this volume a coherent collection of essays. And yet the editors have not entirely convinced this reader that they succeeded in rehabilitating the Apollos. The volume presents the current state of knowledge about individuals and their works, and occasionally about their networks, clearly and usefully. Yet, although the articles describe much, they problematize little. They vindicate the professors against a condemnation from a historian who should by now be the object, not the subject, of cultural history. There are geographical and methodological drawbacks in the focus on Febvre. First of all, the fallout of his condemnation seems to me to have been primarily limited to France and francophone literature. Comparisons with sixteenth-century humanist professors outside of France would have helped to grasp the uniqueness, if any, of the French college professors. Apart from a few comparative 227 REVIEWS This content downloaded from 087.212.043.252 on March 07, 2016 11:30:09 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).
Review of: Sari Kivistö, The Vices of Learning. Morality and knowledge at early modern universiti... more Review of: Sari Kivistö, The Vices of Learning. Morality and knowledge at early modern universities (2014), in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 128:2 (2015), 326-328.
The ERC Consolidator Project SKILLNET (Sharing Knowledge In Learned and Literary Networks) based ... more The ERC Consolidator Project SKILLNET (Sharing Knowledge In Learned and Literary Networks) based at Utrecht Univ., is hiring 2 PostDocs (3 yr) to study the Republic of Letters (1400-1800); one for a sociological project (the Rep. of Letters as an Institution for Collective Action) and one for text mining (conceptual history (synchronic/diachronic) of the "Republic of Letters" and its knowledge ideals).
PhD vacancies at Utrecht University: fully salaried for 4 years
(subjects: social network analysi... more PhD vacancies at Utrecht University: fully salaried for 4 years (subjects: social network analysis/early modern history/digital discours analysis/memory and identity).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyAQvmu_M8s
This video describes the past and future of catalogui... more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyAQvmu_M8s This video describes the past and future of cataloguing premodern letters (dating from before 1800) in Dutch collections (Catalogus Epistularum Neerlandicarum), lists the major collections (The Hague, Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Middelburg, Leeuwarden) and the number of letters they hold, and gives samples of network visualisations of metadata of a discrete collection of ms copies.
Hotson, Howard, and Thomas Wallnig, eds. Reassembling the Republic of Letters in the Digital Age. Standards, Systems, Scholarship. Göttingen:Göttingen University Press, 2019
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Papers by Dirk van Miert
een intellectuele internationale, bestaat zeshonderd jaar.
De term heeft een bij uitstek transnationale geschiedenis,
dus de vraag dringt zich op wat de Nederlandse rol was
en waarom de term nu gebruikt wordt voor
een beperkt nationaal fenomeen.
of the tradition of historia literaria. This tradition came to an end around 1800 due to the accumulation and specialization of knowledge rather than because of a new philosophical conception of how to classify knowledge—although there were various proposals for such classifications, primarily in German territories.
Keywords: locations of knowledge, learned identity, material memory, Grand Tour, Erasmus, Scaliger
On the basis of an analysis of academic satires from three centuries and of the conventions of this genre, this article argues that academic satire usually reflects conflicts in opinions about what good, normal science ought to be. Such ideals were influenced by changing ecclesiastical, confessional and social contexts. Apart from some examples of plays about students, of the role of pamphlets in general, and some novels from the period of German Idealism, this chapter draws on three case studies: Johannes Reuchlin's Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515), the Conspicilia Batavica (1609) and the Aristophanis Senatus Consultum (1761).
Keywords
La Peyrère; Biblical criticism; men before Adam; correspondence; confidentiality; epistolary codes
een intellectuele internationale, bestaat zeshonderd jaar.
De term heeft een bij uitstek transnationale geschiedenis,
dus de vraag dringt zich op wat de Nederlandse rol was
en waarom de term nu gebruikt wordt voor
een beperkt nationaal fenomeen.
of the tradition of historia literaria. This tradition came to an end around 1800 due to the accumulation and specialization of knowledge rather than because of a new philosophical conception of how to classify knowledge—although there were various proposals for such classifications, primarily in German territories.
Keywords: locations of knowledge, learned identity, material memory, Grand Tour, Erasmus, Scaliger
On the basis of an analysis of academic satires from three centuries and of the conventions of this genre, this article argues that academic satire usually reflects conflicts in opinions about what good, normal science ought to be. Such ideals were influenced by changing ecclesiastical, confessional and social contexts. Apart from some examples of plays about students, of the role of pamphlets in general, and some novels from the period of German Idealism, this chapter draws on three case studies: Johannes Reuchlin's Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515), the Conspicilia Batavica (1609) and the Aristophanis Senatus Consultum (1761).
Keywords
La Peyrère; Biblical criticism; men before Adam; correspondence; confidentiality; epistolary codes
is documented in this book.
Dirk van Miert shows how Jacob Arminius, Franciscus Gomarus, the translators and revisers of the States’ Translation, Daniel Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, Claude Saumaise, Isaac de La Peyrère, and Isaac Vossius all drew on techniques developed by classical scholars of Renaissance humanism, notably Joseph Scaliger, who devoted themselves to the study of manuscripts, (oriental) languages, and ancient history. Van Miert assesses and compares the accomplishments of these scholars in textual criticism, the analysis of languages, and the reconstruction of political and cultural historical contexts, highlighting that their methods were closely linked.
[From pionering work to popular introductions: the fruits of two generations' studies of forgotten early modern heritage].
book is bound to outlive a succession of fashionable paradigms and will
remain relevant to scholars of the learned world around 1600 for a very, very
long time.
(subjects: social network analysis/early modern history/digital discours analysis/memory and identity).
This video describes the past and future of cataloguing premodern letters (dating from before 1800) in Dutch collections (Catalogus Epistularum Neerlandicarum), lists the major collections (The Hague, Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Middelburg, Leeuwarden) and the number of letters they hold, and gives samples of network visualisations of metadata of a discrete collection of ms copies.
http://www.uu.nl/en/news/dirk-van-miert-receives-2-million-euros-for-research-into-the-open-science-ideals-of-early-modern