“I’ve got a blank space, baby”: Untangling Organizational Strategies in Early Modern Manuscript Compilations

How do you organize the texts you copy into blank notebooks? In this blog, Holly Riach reflects on the manuscripts she consulted at the Huntington Library, California, and explores what a blank page can tell us about the production and organization of textual collections in early modern England.

Holly Riach • May 25, 2023

LUCAS Explains #1: Where would you bring your Tinder date on 3 May 1646?

On 14 February, it will be Valentine's Day! When choosing what to do, you might decide to bring your Tinder date to the movies. But were would people have brought their date in the 17th century? Tim Vergeer explains that this would have been a Spanish play.

Tim Vergeer • February 11, 2020 • 1 comment

A Theatrical Whodunit II: Was this Sherlock mistaken?

In the second instalment in the hunt for the source of the Dutch translation of Calderón’s ‘La vida es sueño’, I will consider an alternative source that might have been used by Schouwenbergh for his Dutch translation made in Brussels in 1647.

Tim Vergeer • January 23, 2020 • 1 comment

A Theatrical Whodunit

How did Calderón’s popular play 'La vida es sueño' come to the Low Countries? It seems that the Flemish-Portuguese printer Paulo Craesbeeck is responsible for this. In 1647, he published an anthology of Spanish plays, including Calderón's masterpiece.

Tim Vergeer • January 09, 2020

“Whatever Will Be Will Be” in Spanish Plays

When you are fluent in a language, you can still make mistakes. This is what happened to the Dutch playwright Theodore Rodenburgh when he adopted his life’s motto “Chi sara sara”.

Tim Vergeer • November 28, 2019

Sex in Leiden’s Student Culture since the Golden Age

How different were students during the Dutch Golden Age? Not that much actually. Tim Vergeer discusses some historical and literary examples of the sexual adventures of some of Leiden’s students in the seventeenth century (and after).

Tim Vergeer • November 07, 2019

MOM 1: In Love with Your Stepmother

23 to 31 March is the Dutch National Week of the Book. For this reason, the month March will be devoted to this year's theme ‘de moeder de vrouw’, as the Month of the Mother (MOM). This week's blog explores a son's problematic love for his stepmother.

Tim Vergeer • March 07, 2019

Strange Strophes: Rebellious Singing in Heynck’s Veranderlyk geval

In this blog post, Tim Vergeer tries to discover the melody of one of the songs in Veranderlyk geval, which was the most popular adaptation of a Spanish play in the Dutch Republic.

Tim Vergeer • November 25, 2018

Emotional Contrast: Spanish Repertoire in the 1640s-1660s

In this second blog, I discuss why Spanish plays were so eagerly translated and adapted by Dutch authors. It seems that Spanish repertoire formed a reaction of sorts to the staid plots of Vondel, Hooft, Coster, and Bredero.

Tim Vergeer • February 01, 2018

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