The Republic of Letters: A Brief Survey of Printing in the Dutch Republic
Santian Vatic
Social Studies Department
Bronx High School of Business
Bronx, NY
NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers, 2011
The Dutch Republic and Britain
“Whoever reads or studies it
May spread the word to Another
That he may see and hear”
Adriaen Coenensz, ‘Vis booc’ 1577.
In 1568 the Dutch claimed to have invented the first printing press with moveable
parts1. The claim, which rests on little evidence, has a Haarlem printer by the name of Laurens
Janszoon Coster using moveable parts in his press decades before Guttenberg. A statue of the
mysterious figure [very little is actually known about him] even stands in the main square in
Haarlem. While Coster’s accomplishment is suspect, there is no denying that the society
which he inhabited would go on to achieve an unprecedented level of literacy and produce a
large quantity of printed materials and books which we tend to associate with a modern
society.
Prior to the Dutch revolt in 1576, the center of publishing and print in the Netherlands,
if not all of Europe, was Antwerp2. Between 1500 and 1540 the city’s fifty-six printers
produced some 2,480 books with nearly that many more being made in the rest of the
Netherlands during the same time period3. Chief among Antwerp’s printers was Christopher
Plantijn who was best known for an eight-volume bible in five languages. Plantijn’s work
garnered the patronage of Philip II who subsequently awarded him lucrative contracts to
1
Dane, An Example of Netherlands Prototypography in the Huntington
Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 p.81
3
Ibid
2
2
produce liturgical books in Spain4. Another major project was the first high quality Dutch
dictionary produced by Plantijn in 1573- a remarkable feat considering Dutch was not his first
language5.
Antwerp was not of course the sole center of printing in the Netherlands. A strong
intellectual culture existed north of the rivers prior to the revolt and subsequent decline of
Antwerp. The Northern provinces were, after all, an important center of early Humanism.
Aside from vernacular bibles like the Dutch Old Testament, printed in Delft (1477), the works
of Humanist figures, such as Erasmus and his contemporaries, were widely available. Dutch
translations (he wrote in Latin) of Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly and especially his earlier work
Enchiridion were printed in large numbers6. While Erasmus and other humanists advocated
reform within the Catholic Church the Protestant reformation was already well underway.
Considering its location and large printing centers it’s hardly a surprise that the reformation
took root in the Spanish Netherlands. In fact, it’s hard to imagine the Dutch revolt or
reformation succeeding without the printing network in place. Lutheran and other Protestant
denominations’ emphasis on independent biblical study require a literate society and access to
books -namely bibles in the vernacular. Protestant texts proved to be a major frustration to the
Spanish-Catholic authorities. In the 1520’s book burnings took place throughout the
Netherlands. Hundreds of volumes were burned on separate occasions in Antwerp, Bruges,
Ghent, Leiden and Amsterdam7. To illustrate just how fundamental books were as a vehicle
for societal change, consider that the Spanish Inquisitors targeted intellectuals (consumers of
books) and booksellers with great zeal. This strategy actually proved effective in slowing and
curtailing the reformation in the Low Countries8. There can be little doubt of the role that the
Dutch printing presses played in the reformation and later revolt. Aside from the availability
4
W.P. Blockmans, History of the Low Countries: The Formation of a Political Union, 1300-1600, pp. 124-125.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Volume I. pp.99-100.
6
Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 p. 46.
7
Ibid, 79-80
8
Ibid, 83.
5
3
of books there existed thousands of pamphlets that could be produced cheaply and discreetly
containing, among other things, anti-Catholic and Hapsburg propaganda.
Like other industries, printing would move north of the great rivers following the
Dutch revolt and it wasn’t long before cities like Amsterdam and Leiden, flush with refugees
from the south, eclipsed Antwerp as centers of printing. The United Provinces would
dominate European printing and publishing by the early 1600’s. By 1660 there existed some
700 established booksellers-publishers in the Dutch Republic9. Considering that most of the
population lived in towns and cities or in very close proximity to them, citizens were never far
from books. Those who lived in rural areas were serviced by a legion of peddlers that did
business in every corner of the country. Peddlers, traveling salesmen essentially, filled their
baskets, carts and mules with a variety of wares, which they traded throughout the
provinces10. While they carried a great variety of consumer products these peddlers could also
be counted on to carry printed materials, such as cheap reprints of expensive books,
pamphlets, not to mention lewd or even prohibited books11. And unlike in France and England
where peddling was regulated or even restricted, the practice was generally tolerated in the
Netherlands ensuring an effective distribution system of printed materials.
The fact that the Dutch were more literate than just about any other European nation
helps to explain their preeminence in the printing and publishing world. According to Robert
C. Allen, one indicator of literacy is looking at how many adults could sign their name on
official documents12. Using this criteria, by 1500 10% of adults in the Netherlands were
literate (tied with Belgium for first place). By 1800 68% of adults in the Netherlands were
literate, a figure far higher than existed in any other European country13. In Holland there
existed institutions, like Leiden’s University, capable of attracting students from many
9
Salman, Jeroen. Peddling in the Past: Dutch Itinerant Bookselling in a European Perspective.
Ibid
11
Ibid
12
Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective.
13
Ibid, 52-53.
10
4
different parts of Europe. Leiden competed with other prominent universities in attracting
brilliant professors and theologians, making it the biggest university in Protestant Europe in
the mid 1600’s14. The university not only turned Leiden into a center of learning but it also
developed into an important book publishing center.
The Dutch were apt at exploiting commercial opportunities. This quality was evident
in the printing and publishing industry as well. When Rome compiled indexes of banned
books following the Council of Trent, Protestant and especially Dutch printers served as the
primary supplier to the black market demand for such banned books15. The task was generally
too risky for Catholic printers to attempt. In this way the Dutch made financial gain while
frustrating the Catholic powers at the same time. The Dutch also came to dominate the field of
cartography. A breakthrough came in 1596 with the publication of Jan Huygen van
Linschoten’s Itinerario16. Linschoten, who previously worked in Portugal and was involved in
the east indie trade, managed to steal important information concerning routes and valuable
information on the East Indies trade. His book sparked interest in a trade that the Dutch would
come to dominate. The Dutch would become some of the first to apply cartography
systematically, without its Ptolemaic limitations, to serve its international trade and military
power. In her history of printing, Elizabeth Eisenstein puts it this way: “It was not until the
late sixteenth century that the work of Ortelius, Mercator and a new school of Dutch
geographers finally emancipated printed cartography from archaic conventions”
17
While Dutch cartographers developed relatively accurate projections of the world’s
geography, political thinkers like Grotius, the great philosopher and theologian spelled out the
Dutch right to the seas and to international trade in his The Freedom of the Seas, or the Right
which belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in East India Trade: ”It is little wonder then, that the
14
Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 p.572
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Volume I. p. 145
16
Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 pp. 319-320
17
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Volume I. p. 514
15
5
Dutch Republic came to dominate European and international trade for the better part of the
seventeenth century, especially in the lucrative Far East “rich trades”.
It is hard to imagine a “modern” nation without a body of scientific, philosophical and
literary work. Books and their production, study and exchange are a true mark of modernity, a
characteristic that the Dutch certainly possessed. What follows is a brief annotated
bibliography charting some of the major works in Dutch print from 1500 (Hapsburg or
Spanish rule) to early 18th (the end of the Dutch Golden Age):
Annotated Bibliography of Notable Works Produced in the Netherlands (by year
and genre)
Period
Philosophical and
Social and Natural
Literary
Religious
Sciences
Jacob Jacobszoon
Jan Huygen van
van der Meer and
Linschoten,
Mauricius
“Itinerario,” (1596)
Hugo
Grotius, “Delft Thomas
Pieter Cornelisz
Yemantszoon,
ImportantErpenius,
book to
“Parallela
“Grammatica
Hooft, “Geeraerdt
Bible” (1477), First
Dutch trade as it
Arabica”
(1613),
van Velson” (1613), a
1500-1550 Rerumpublicarum”
Old Testament in
included stolen
secret
(1602),
Arabic
studies,
master; play about tyranny and
Dutch language.
routes used
by the
remained
until danger of rebelling
Portugesein
inprint
the West
1771.
against it.
Indies.
Erasmus,
“Enchiridion” (1503),
Hugo Grotius, “De
Joseph Justus
Hendrik Lawensz
Antiquitate
Scaliger, “The Sarus
Spiege, “Hertspiegel”
Erasmus, “Praise of
Republica
Batavicae” Temporum” (1614)
(1614), moral heroic
Folly” (1511),
(1610),
poem in Dutch
Advocated
an
Justus Lispisius,
“De Simon Stevin, “De
oligarchy
in promoting
Constantia”
(1584), a Thinde” (1585), laid
prosperity
and liberty.
spiritual guide
along
down the importance
1600-1650 “State’s
Bible”
Pieter Cornelisz
non-sectarian
lines
of the decimal in
(1637),
calculations. Important Hooft, “Granida”
Important in that it
(1615),
uses in surveying and
provided the basis for
hydraulics.
standard
Dutch.
De Christelyke
“The Practice of
Menasseh
Pieter Cornelisz
Coonhert, ben Israel, Surveying” (1600),
“Concilidor”
(1632).
Hooft, “Baeto”
“Zedekunst” (1587),
Reconciled
(1617), a play that
A Christian, ethical
contradictions
with
portrayed civil strife as
system
Hebrew
bible. “Het
the worst possible evil
Simon Stevin,
Carolus Clusius,
Burgherlick Leven”
“Raviorum
Uriel
(1590)da Costa,
Plantarum Historia”
“Examination of
(1601), A book of
plants by one of the
European experts on
them.
6
Uriel da Costa,
“Examination of
Pharisaic Traditions”
Controvertial book by
Jewish scholar denying
immortality of the
soul. Jewish backlash
drove Costa to suicide.
Adam Boreel, “Ad
Legem et
testimonium (1645)
claimed that no church
could claim to be the
“true” one. They all
had fragments of truth.
1650-1700
Isaac de la Peyrere,
“Prae-Adamitae”
(1655). The extremely
controversial book
claimed that men were
on Earth before Adam
and that the current
bible was flawed.
Spinoza, “Tractus
Theologico-Politicus”
(1670). A landmark
book by celebrated
philosopher criticizing
the church and regentstyle republicanism.
Adriaan van
Beverland “De
Peccato Originale”
(1678). Book on
original sin claimed
Adam and Eve were
guilty only of sex. He
was later exiled.
Vondel, “Palamedes”
(1625). Play which
made a disguised
reference to the killing
of Oldenbarnevelt by
Maurits.
Rene Descartes
“Discours de la
methode” (1637), put
forth scientific
methods
Rene Descartes
“Principia” (1644),
manual on physics
principals.
Constantyin Huygen
Hofwyck (1651), a
lyrical poem.
Vondel, “Lucifer’’
(1654). Play that was
banned after only two
shows because it
depicted heaven and
angels.
Jacobus Golius,
“Lexicon Arabicum”
(1654), orientalists
used it until the 17th
century.
Frederik Ruysch,
“Thesaurus
Anatomicus” (170115) Study on human
anatomy.
Works Cited
Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge UK:
Cambridge University Press. 2009
Blockman. W. P. History of the Low Countries: The Formation of a Political Union, 13001600.
7
Dane, Joseph A. An Example of Netherlands Prototypography in the Huntington. Huntington
Library Quarterly: Vol. 61, No. 3/4, 1998.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and
Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 1979.
Israel, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.
Salman, Jeroen. “Peddling in the Past: Dutch Itinerant Bookselling in a European
Perspective,” Publishing History 53, 2003, pp. 2-26.