Literaire levensaders : Internationale uitwisseling van woord, beeld en religie in de Republiek

Literary Lifelines deals with the practice of interconfessional exchange in the literary domain of the Dutch Republic. In this study the degree of interconfessional exchange is measured by the production of illustrated religious literature, more specifically in the reception history of the Antwerp Jesuit emblem book Pia desideria(Pious Desires, 1624) in the Northern Netherlands during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The Piadesideriais a typical product of the Catholic literary culture of the Southern Netherlands, which made use of visual components to stimulate meditative processes. With the Reformation this practice had become controversial. The introduction of the Piadesideriain the predominantly Protestant Republic offers insight into the possibilities, limitations and sensitivities faced by Catholics and Protestants when it came to the exchange of literary and visual models. The central question of Literary Lifelinesis whether interconfessional exchange in the literary domain of the Dutch Republic was the result of social interaction between producers of books (authors, printers, publishers, engravers) from various confessions. The conclusion of this research is that literary and visual material was transmitted between confessions without direct contact between Catholic and Protestant book producers in the Dutch Republic. Protestants acquired Catholic material thanks to international networks of likeminded Protestants who in their home countries interacted with Catholics and thus came to produce English, German and French illustrated religious literature. Catholics in the Northern Netherlands likewise looked beyond the borders of the Republic and were inspired by fellow Catholics elsewhere in Northern Europe. Interconfessional exchange in the literary domain of the Northern Netherlands was therefore more often the result of the international rather than interconfessionalcontacts of book producers. Because there was no existing term for the indirect exchange mechanism described here, I use ‘religious transfusion’ as a concept for literary research. This concept is loosely modelled on ‘cultural transfusion’ – a term used to describe a step-by-step cultural mingling – but here acquires a new dimension of meaning: religious transfusions are transfer processes based on religious agreement. The conclusions about the practices of interconfessional exchange lead to a sharper and richer picture of the book market in the Northern Netherlands than was current till now. We were familiar with the Republic as a centre of international literature: the absence of a state church and a relatively ineffective censorship policy made it an important refuge for foreign writers and printers of literature with a dissenting religious message. It thus functioned as a disseminator of new religious, philosophical and scientific ideas throughout Europe. This study presents another facet of the book market of the Northern Netherlands: as receiver of religious and literary innovations from abroad. Foreign literature printed or circulated in the Republic proved a significant influence on literary developments within the country. The role of the Dutch Republic as an international meeting place for literature appears to have been of fundamental importance for the production of illustrated religious literature in the Northern Netherlands