Visiting fellow Andrew Pettegree sheds new light on 17th-century Dutch book trade

Gerard Dou, Old woman reading (portrait of Rembrandt’s mother), c. 1631-32. Bron: Rijksmuseum.nl
Gerard Dou, Old woman reading (portrait of Rembrandt’s mother), c. 1631-32. Bron: Rijksmuseum.nl

From 18 March till 1 April 2018, historian Andrew Pettegree will be in Utrecht as a visiting fellow of the Centre for the Humanities. Pettegree is one of the leading experts on book history in the Early Modern period, the Reformation, and the history of the beginnings of news. His latest research project draws on new material offering an unprecedented, panoramic view of Dutch book culture in the 17th century. Through innovative research, he has been able to reconstruct the existence of thousands of books and broadsheets that are now lost. In a public lecture and a masterclass in Utrecht, Pettegree will share some of the exciting results from this project.

His visit to Utrecht University is jointly hosted by the Centre for the Humanities, the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies (UCMS), and the Utrecht Centre for Early Modern Studies (UCEMS).

Prof. Andrew Pettegree
Prof. Andrew Pettegree

Andrew Pettegree

Andrew Pettegree is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). An internationally acclaimed scholar, he has recently published several books that have attracted equal attention and praise from the scientific community and from the general media and public, among which The Book in the Renaissance (2010), The Invention of News (2014), and Brand Luther (2015; translated in Dutch as Het merk Luther, 2016). Pettegree is project director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue, a collective database of all books published in Europe up to 1600. His latest research project is specifically focused on the book culture of the Dutch Republic: it will lead to the publication of a book in 2019, Trading Books in the Age of Rembrandt, co-authored with Arthur Der Weduwen (Yale University Press; Dutch edition, Atlas Contact).

Scheduled events with Andrew Pettegree

  • 20 March: Public lecture ‘Trading Books in the Age of Rembrandt’ (University Hall).
  • 29 March: Masterclass for Research Master and PhD students: ‘How to make money in the business of books’, with Andrew Pettegree and Arthur Der Weduwen (Special Collections of the University Library).

Details about these events will follow soon.

Dutch-French dictionary salvaged from the Behouden Huys at Nova Zembla as a remnant of the Barentsz expedition of 1596-1597. Bron: Rijksmuseum.nl
Dutch-French dictionary salvaged from the Behouden Huys at Nova Zembla as a remnant of the Barentsz expedition of 1596-1597. Source: Rijksmuseum.nl