DUTCH NEWSPAPERS
DUTCH AND FLEMISH NEWSPAPERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 1618-1700 (2 VOLS., LEIDEN: BRILL, 2017).
In 2017, I published the first complete survey of newspaper publishing in the seventeenth-century Low Countries, composed of two volumes. This survey provides detailed introductions and bibliographical descriptions of 49 newspapers, surviving in over 16,000 issues in 84 archives and libraries. This work presents a crucial overview of the first fledgling century of newspaper publishing and reading in one of the most advanced political cultures of early modern Europe.
Seventy years after Folke Dahl’s Dutch Corantos first documented early Dutch newspapers, I offer a brand-new approach to the bibliography of the early modern periodical press. This includes, amongst others, a description of places of correspondence listed in each surviving newspaper. The bibliography is accompanied by an extensive introduction of the Dutch and Flemish press in the seventeenth century. What emerges is a picture of a highly competitive and dynamic market for news, in which innovative publishers constantly adapt to the changing tastes of customers and pressures from authorities at home and abroad.
Available from Brill here.
Reviews
David McKitterick, Library & Information History 35 (2018): “The bibliography of newspapers, long the poor relation, is taking a while to find its feet. These two vast volumes mark a great step forward. They offer on the one hand an account of the newspaper trade in the Dutch Republic and in the Hapsburg Southern Netherlands, and on the other a detailed bibliography of these publications down to 1700. […] [The] long introduction, a book in itself, will be essential reading for people whose interests lie far beyond newspapers or the Low Countries.” Read the full review here.
Joad Raymond, Renaissance Quarterly 71 (2018): “an astonishing achievement” […] “an invaluable reference work for anyone working on the history of newspapers in seventeenth-century Europe, or on the book trade in the early modern Netherlands.” […] “These two volumes are immensely welcome, both as an intervention in scholarship on news in early modern Europe, and as a contribution to bibliography that will be invaluable for decades to come.” Read the full review here.
Annemieke Romein, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 132 (2017): “This excellent work is an exposé of perseverance, dedication and precision. […] Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century is essential for anyone studying news and newspapers, whether in chronological perspective, or diachronically. It could also be an aid for urban historians as it provides wonderful insights into the information about the networks people had access to during the Golden Age.” Read the full review here.
Jaap Harskamp, The Library 19 (2018), pp. 87-89: "In paying tribute to this painstaking effort, I can only think of one Dutch word for which there is no English equivalent: monnikenwerk." Read the full review here.
Rindert Jagersma, Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman 40 (2017), pp. 191-194: "“In onderzoeksinstellingen […] mag dit boek, dat tot de standaardwerken over de Nederlandse krant in de zeventiende eeuw mag worden gerekend, absoluut niet ontbreken.”
(This book, which may be considered one of the standard works about the Dutch newspaper in the seventeenth century, should be available in every research institute).
Steven Van Impe, De Gulden Passer 97 (2019), pp. 71-72: “The term milestone is often casually used, but in the case of Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century it is absolutely appropriate. … One thing is certain: all research into news and newspapers of the coming decades will have to depart from this reference work.”
Dutch and Flemish Newspapers awarded prestigious book history prize
On Thursday 21 March 2019, Dutch and Flemish Newspapers of the Seventeenth Century was awarded the sixth Menno Hertzberger Aanmoedigingsprijs. This prize, presented by the Menno Hertzbergerstichting and the Dutch Association of Antiquarians, is awarded every three or four years to a young scholar who has made an important contribution to Dutch book history.
The jury commented that ‘Dutch and Flemish Newspapers, with its two volumes and more than 1,500 pages, is an amazing achievement, one that many researchers would have been proud to produce at the end of their working life; Arthur has done so at the start of his career. Thanks to his Herculean efforts, research into early modern newspapers has come alive again, and thanks to which new questions can be asked concerning the context, nature and dissemination of the periodical press in the Netherlands.’
Read more about the prize ceremony.
on display at the ceremony
The Royal Library copies of Dutch and Flemish Newspapers, and of The Bookshop of the World
launch of dutch and flemish newspapers
On 11 May 2017, Dutch and Flemish Newspapers was launched at the University of Amsterdam. The following day a symposiun was held to reflect on the history of the Dutch press in the Golden Age in a broader context. The proceedings of the symposium were published in a special issue of The Early Modern Low Countries in 2018 (available here).