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Deadline: August 27, 2021

The Cultural Dimension of Dutch Overseas Expansion

Annual conference (in Dutch and English) Werkgroep Zeventiende Eeuw

Utrecht University, Friday 27 August 2021 (on-line)

Attendance is free but please register:
https://www.eventbrite.be/e/annual-conference-werkgroep-zeventiende-eeuw-tickets-162401211395

The cultural dimension of Dutch overseas expansion

“It is only money and not knowledge that our people are seeking [in the East Indies], which is to be lamented”, complained the Amsterdam mayor and VOC governor, Nicolaes Witsen, in 1712. The Dutch trading companies may have been associated with various qualities, but an interest in culture was not one of them. None of the VOC officials even noted the presence of the world’s biggest Buddhist temple, the Borobudur, on the island of Java, leaving its re-discovery to the British in 1814. No Dutch writer tried to emulate the epic celebration of the Portuguese maritime empire by Luís de Camões. Dutch expansion had an obvious impact on the sciences and medicine, as demonstrated in Harold Cook’sMatters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (2007). But what, if any, was its impact on culture and the humanities? This conference brings together historians of culture, art, books, and literature to arrive at a fuller picture ofthe cultural dimensions of Dutch overseas expansion.

De culturele dimensie van de Nederlandse expansie overzee

“Het is alleen gelt en geen wetenschap die onse luyden soeken aldaer [in Indië], ’t gunt is te beklagen”, treurde de Amsterdamse burgemeester en VOC-bestuurder Nicolaes Witsen in 1712. De Nederlandse handelscompagnieën staan om veel bekend, maar niet om hun interesse in cultuur. Zo merkte niet een van de VOC- dienaren op dat zich op Java de grootste Boeddhistische tempel ter wereld bevindt (de Borobudur), en duurde het tot 1814 voordat deze werd herontdekt (door de Engelsen). Evenmin ambieerden Nederlandse dichters een navolging van de epische lofzang door Luís de Camões op de Portugese wereldwijde zeevaart. De Nederlandse expansie had een aantoonbare invloed op natuurwetenschap en geneeskunde, zoals Harold Cook aantoonde in Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (2007). Maar wat waren de gevolgen – als die er al waren – voor cultuur en geesteswetenschappen? Dit congres brengt wetenschappers uit verschillende disciplines samen – cultuur- en kunsthistorici, boekwetenschappers en letterkundigen – om de culturele dimensie van de Nederlandse overzeese expansie in kaart te brengen.

Programme:

15:00 Opening, on behalf of the UU team: Thijs Weststeijn, Marjolijn Bol, Surekha Davies, Jaap de Haan en Cora van de Poppe

15:10-16:10 Plenary Session A (English), Chair: Thijs Weststeijn

How did the culture of print affect the introduction of Chinese medicine in early modern Europe?, Trude Dijkstra (Warburg Institute)

Dutch representations of “Barbary” piracy and captivity during the early seventeenth century, Farah Bazzi (Stanford University)

“Invenit et fecit”: Remaking the world in mother-of-pearl, Cynthia Kok (Yale University)

16:30-17:50 Parallel Sessions B (Dutch) and C (English)

Session B (Dutch), Chair: Cora van de Poppe

Banho, Sampo en Rumphius: Twee verhalen over Chinese helden in G.E. Rumphius’ D’Amboinsche Rariteitkamer (Amsterdam 1705), Charlotte Kiessling (Universität zu Köln)

De avonturen van Andras Jelky in Batavia en het Hongaarse culturele geheugen, Gábor Pusztai (Universiteit Debrecen)

Reisbeschrijvingen en tekeningen van de Haarlemse chirurgijn Wouter Schouten, Marijke Barend-van Haeften (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Linked Data en het onderzoek naar creatieve industrie en overzeese expansie in de zeventiende eeuw, Harm Nijboer (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Judith Brouwer (Huygens ING) en Marten Jan Bok (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Session C (English), Chair: Surekha Davies

Depicting the enslaved in the Dutch periodical press, Esther Braakman (Universiteit Leiden)

Afro-Hollanders Relaxing in an Inn, a previously unknown subject in 17th-century Dutch art, Joaneath Ann Spicer (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA)

Material matters: reassessing global objects in the cabinets of Amalia van Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), Princess of Orange, Lauryn Smith (Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Museum of Art)

Three recycled reincarnations: the Ten Avatars of Vishnu in Bernard and Picart’s Ceremonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, Margaret Mansfield (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Published on July 8, 2021

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