Early Modern Low Countries

Time and Temporality in the Early Modern Low Countries

Gerrit Verhoeven, Marije Osnabrugge, Brecht Deseure — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

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

Reasoning with Turbulence

Femke Gordijn — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

In the historiography on the relation between early modern crisis events and the perception of time, autobiographical sources have been studied extensively. Times of crises were a major reason why people began documenting unfolding events, often with the goal of remembering and learning from what happened. Administrative sources, however, have been largely neglected in this line of research. This article explores how expressions of extraordinary time conditions were articulated in the digitised resolutions of the Dutch States-General between 1705 and 1796. Using a combination of text mining methods and close-reading, this essay establishes a correlation between increases in temporal references in the resolutions and moments of crisis that broke with the ordinary throughout the eighteenth century. Furthermore, the article examines the political context of the resolutions, who used such references, when they used them, and what goals they had while doing so. As such, this administrative source corpus forces us to reconsider the different functions that writing about extraordinary time conditions could have.

A Delta of Time

Anne-Rieke van Schaik — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

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.

Revisiting Presentism

Jan Blanc, Thalia Brero, Elodie Lecuppre-Desjardin , Marije Osnabrugge — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This essay explores the pertinence of the present as a temporal category in the late medieval and early modern period. After a historiographical overview of scholarship on presentism and reflections on the complex notion of ‘present’, we present three case studies to explore how the experience of the present could be discerned and studied in literature, visual arts, and news media. The first case study focuses on the increasing emphasis on the present in the Gruuthuse manuscript and rederijker plays. Secondly, an examination of depictions of the breach of the Sint Anthonisdijk in 1651 shows different ways in which Dutch landscape painters engaged with the present. The final case study discusses how the spread of the northern invention of printed newsletters stimulated a wider interest in the present ‘elsewhere’ in apparent peripheric locations like Geneva. Drawing on these cases, we reflect on the relation between crises and presentism and suggest that the manner in which time, and the present in particular, was experienced in north-western Europe seems to be distinctly different from the relation to time of people in Renaissance Italy.

Shared Futures in Times of Rupture

Sanne Hermans — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This article examines future thinking within the mercantile bourgeoisie of the late sixteenth-century Low Countries. Through letters, it explores the marriage story of Daniel van der Meulen and Hester della Faille, scions of two prominent Antwerp merchant families. Daniel and Hester took their vows in Haarlem during the siege of Antwerp (1584-1585), bringing controversy, uncertainty, and fear into the present timespace. This essay aims to contribute to a better understanding of temporal experiences in the past by showing how rupture affected social expectations and envisioned futures within the mercantile family regime. By analysing futural orientations and future-oriented actions related to the occasion of marriage, this article highlights the role of the future – near and far – in the daily life of historical actors, the ways these people shaped their imagined future, and, of course, for what underlying reasons. I argue that aspects such as lifecycle expectations, patrimonial culture, and opportunities for social mobility played an essential role in choices regarding investments of time. Since decisions on the allocation of time were made by those managing the nuclear family, this essay illustrates how the distribution of power – at the micro level – impacted individual lives and subsequently shared futures.

The Remains of the Night

Gerrit Verhoeven — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Several theories claim that the rhythms of daily life changed dramatically in the late eighteenth century, as a result of the advent of street lighting. New technologies made it possible to work longer hours, enjoy a dash of leisure time, or otherwise stay active during the evening. People thus slowly but surely ‘colonized’ the night. Drawing on new empirical data from the eyewitness accounts of the local criminal court in Antwerp, this article subjects this theory to a thorough investigation. The findings show that there was no real increase in nocturnalization because Antwerpers – even without new street lamps – remained active for a long time anyway. They usually continued working long after sunset or had time for leisure. Sleep was limited to the biological minimum. A deviant rhythm in which people remained active until the wee hours of the morning and only got up well after sunrise was reserved for a small group of people who belonged either to the absolute cream of the crop or to the fringes of society.

Wim van Anrooij en Paul Hoftijzer (eds.), Tot publijcque dienst der studie. Boeken uit de Bibliotheca Thysiana

Pierre Delsaerdt — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Stuart Jenks and Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, Message in a Bottle. Merchants’ letters, merchants’ marks and conflict management in 1533-34. A source edition

Lucas Haasis — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Michael North, Das Goldene Zeitalter global. Die Niederlande im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert

Hendrik Holzmüller — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Hugo Soly, Capital at Work in Antwerp’s Golden Age

Christophe Schellekens — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100