Netherlands Archive
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Elite and government in medieval Leiden
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsThe development of Leiden's 61ite is traced up to 1420. The siege of the city in that year and the assumption of power by Jan van Beieren resulted in important changes in the urban government: the faction of the Hoeken finally lost ascendancy and the viscount of Leiden ceased to have control over the city's administration. -
Tales of tricks and greed and big surprises: Laymen’s views of the law in Dutch oral narrative
Posted on February 3, 2013 | No CommentsI will be looking at folktales, i.e. popular, international, and (mostly) orally transmitted narratives, varying from traditional genres like fairy tales, fables, and legends to modern genres like jokes, funny riddles and urban legends. -
Bawdy badges and the Black Death : late medieval apotropaic devices against the spread of the plague
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsOwing to the fact that historians generally view the late medieval period as an "age of faith," the existence ofthese remarkable objects raises some fundamental questions about the exact socio-religious nature ofmedieval culture. The primary questions, however, that need answering are: when, where, and for whom were the badges produced, and perhaps most importantly, why. -
Adventures far from home: Hanseatic trade with the Faroe Islands
Posted on December 3, 2012 | No Commentshe voyage to Iceland, now a major destina- tion, took about four weeks (gardiner & mehler 2007, 403; Krause 2010, 150). The Faroe Islands are situated more or less in the middle of that distance and provided a fine stop-over. The islands were an additional market for their trade business and in case of storms offered a safe and most welcome shelter. -
Tasting Histories Lecture: “Seasonal and Local Dining in the Middle Ages”
Posted on November 30, 2012 | No CommentsThis was a paper given at the University of Toronto by Yale Professor, Paul freedman, on food during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. -
Kissing Images, Unfurling Rolls, Measuring Wounds, Sewing Badges and Carrying Talismans: Considering Some Harley Manuscripts through the Physical Rituals they Reveal
Posted on August 13, 2012 | No CommentsChristianity as practised in the late Middle Ages demanded physical rituals. These rituals encompassed great public displays, such as processions around town walls and through churches, led by clergy dressed in ceremonial garb; smaller public displays, such as priests’ performances of Mass; and actions by the laity, including small private rituals involving a votary with his book and perhaps an image. -
The Art of the Science of Renaissance Painting
Posted on July 22, 2012 | No CommentsDuring this study we began to examine paintings for the presence of optical artifacts that could serve as supporting scientific evidence for these visual observations. Here we briefly describe some of the scientific evidence contained within three paintings that demonstrate lenses were in use by certain artists to project images as early as c1425. We present only a general discussion here, and refer interested readers to previous publications for details. -
The Elusive Netherlands. The question of national identity in the Early Modern Low Countries on the Eve of the Revolt
Posted on June 13, 2012 | No CommentsThe identity of the Low Countries was also muddied by contemporary debates about the correspondence between ‘Gallia’ and France and between ‘Germania’ and ‘Deutschland’. -
The Medieval Origins of Capitalism in the Netherlands
Posted on June 12, 2012 | No CommentsOne of the fiercest and most productive historical debates – and one of the most ideology-laden – has been that on the transition from feudalism to capitalism.1 Although interest in this specific debate and its ideological implications seems to be waning now, the importance of reconstructing and explaining long-term changes in economy and society is still clear. -
Guilds in late medieval Flanders: myths and realities of guild life in an export-oriented environment
Posted on March 11, 2012 | No CommentsThe opinion of historians on the social and economic role played by guilds in late medieval and early modern cities has changed considerably throughout the last century. -
The German Reformation and Medieval Thought and Culture
Posted on February 9, 2012 | No CommentsAfter Luther’s death in 1546, it was said, the seeds mostly fell dormant in Germany, where leaders failed to rally around the philosophical core of Luther’s message, retreating into political division and older authoritarian patterns of thought. -
Symbol and Meaning in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance
Posted on December 19, 2011 | No CommentsWe all know that twentieth-century scholars have recovered forgotten elements of meaning from selected works of fifteenth-century northern art. -
The Manuscript Context of the Middle Dutch Fabliaux
Posted on December 6, 2011 | No CommentsBusby’s conclusion with regard to Old French fabliaux might just as well apply to Middle Dutch tales: “Reading fabliaux in their manuscript context reveals an important aspect of their significance for early readers or listeners which would otherwise remain concealed." -
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
Posted on October 2, 2011 | No CommentsModernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland Jansen, H.J.H Bijdragen en mededelingen betreffende de geschiedenis der Nederlanden, Vol.95 (1980) Abstract On the sixth of January 1425... -
A Quest for Reynard the Fox
Posted on August 19, 2011 | No CommentsA Quest for Reynard the Fox By Rik Van Daele The Profane Arts of the Middle Ages/Les arts profanes du moyen-âge, Misericordia International, Vol. 5:2 (1996) Introduction: The Middle-Dutch Van den... -
Reflections on praxis and facture in a devotional portrait diptych: A computer analysis of the mirror in Hans Memling’s Virgin and Child and Maarten van Nieuwenhove
Posted on June 19, 2011 | No CommentsReflections on praxis and facture in a devotional portrait diptych: A computer analysis of the mirror in Hans Memling’s Virgin and Child and Maarten van Nieuwenhove By Silvio Savarese, Ron... -
The Resolution of Commercial Conflicts in Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam (1250-1650)
Posted on May 29, 2011 | No CommentsThe Resolution of Commercial Conflicts in Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam (1250-1650) Gelderblom, Oscar (Utrecht University) Merchants in the Low Countries: The Organization of Long-Distance Trade in Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam (1250-1650) (2008)... -
Geometers at Brou: Architecture and ornament in Spain, Brabant and Western Europe around 1500
Posted on April 10, 2011 | No CommentsGeometers at Brou: Architecture and ornament in Spain, Brabant and Western Europe around 1500 Kavaler, Ethan Matt (University of Toronto) Brou, a European Monument in the early Renaissance (2009) Abstract In... -
Physical Sight and Spiritual Light in Three Sixteenth-Century Plays of the Low Countries
Posted on February 25, 2011 | No CommentsPhysical Sight and Spiritual Light in Three Sixteenth-Century Plays of the Low Countries Steenbrugge, Charlotte Marginalia, Vol.3 (2006) Abstract I shall investigate the representation of physical blindness as spiritual blindness... -
Sandpipers as grave gifts in the Early Middle Ages
Posted on January 23, 2011 | No CommentsSandpipers as grave gifts in the Early Middle Ages Prumtnel, Wietske Pierstna, Theunis INTERNATIONAL WADER STUDY GROUP BULLETIN , Bulletin 92, August (2000) Abstract Most of us may think that... -
Self-Representation of Court and City in Flanders and Brabant in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries
Posted on January 16, 2011 | No CommentsSelf-Representation of Court and City in Flanders and Brabant in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries BLOCKMANS, WIM DONCKERS, ESTHER Leiden University (1999) Abstract Medieval society was characterized by a... -
Holy Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and the Eschatological in Late Medieval Art
Posted on January 13, 2011 | No CommentsHoly Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and the Eschatological in Late Medieval Art Mandabach, Marisa (Harvard University) Marginalia, Vol. 11, October (2010) Abstract In the Hell... -
Virtus sermonis and the Trinity: Marsilius of Inghen and the Semantics of Late Fourteenth-Century Theology
Posted on November 9, 2010 | No CommentsVirtus sermonis and the Trinity: Marsilius of Inghen and the Semantics of Late Fourteenth-Century Theology J. F. M. Hoenen, Maarten Medieval Philosophy and Theology 10 (2001) Abstract The normative use...
