Gerrit Verhoeven | University of Antwerp (original) (raw)

Books by Gerrit Verhoeven

Ooit was België een topbestemming. Toeristen stroomden van heinde en verre toe om van een streepj... more Ooit was België een topbestemming. Toeristen stroomden van heinde en verre toe om van een streepje zon aan de Belgische kust te genieten, de ruwe Ardense valleien te ontdekken of door één van onze kunststeden te struinen. Dat bruisende toerisme liet zijn sporen na in het landschap: van de luxueuze villa’s en hotels uit de Belle Époque in Westende tot de verroeste wandelwegwijzers in Wépion.

Met dat erfgoed als ankerpunt brengt Bestemming België die turbulente toeristische ontwikkeling in kaart, van het prille begin in Waterloo in 1815 tot het heden. Daarbij doet het boek recht aan de uitzonderlijke diversiteit van toerisme. Op het programma prijken (schijnbaar) tijdloze trekpleisters, maar ook meer verrassende bestemmingen zoals de slagvelden van de Eerste Wereldoorlog, het koloniale Léopoldville, pelgrimsoord Banneux, of Hofstade les Bains.

Centraal in het boek staat het wel en wee van het Belgische toerisme, dat na de hoogdagen algauw in zwaar weer terecht kwam. Kortom, Bestemming België neemt je mee op een wervelende reis door het verleden, heden en toekomst van toerisme in België.

Material Histories of Time: Objects and practices (14th-19th century)

The historiography of timekeeping is traditionally characterized by a dichotomy between research ... more The historiography of timekeeping is traditionally characterized by a dichotomy between research that investigates the evolution of technical devices on the one hand, and research that is concerned with the examination of the cultures and uses of time on the other hand.

Material Histories of Time opens a dialogue between these two approaches by taking monumental clocks, table clocks, portable watches, carriage clocks, and other forms of timekeeping as the starting point of a joint reflection of specialists of the history of horology together with scholars studying the social and cultural history of time. The contributions range from the apparition of the first timekeeping mechanical systems in the Middle Ages to the first evidence of industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Travel in early modern Europe is frequently represented as synonymous with the institution of the... more Travel in early modern Europe is frequently represented as synonymous with the institution of the Grand Tour, a journey undertaken by elite young males from northern Europe to the centres of the arts and antiquity in Italy. Taking a somewhat different perspective, this volume builds upon recent research that pushes beyond this narrow orthodoxy and which decentres Italy as the ultimate destination of European travellers. Instead, it explores a much broader pattern of travel, undertaken by people of varied backgrounds and with divergent motives for travelling. By tapping into current reactions against the reification of the Grand Tour as a unique and distinctive practice, this volume represents an important contribution to the ongoing process of resituating the Grand Tour as part of a wider context of travel and topographical writing. Focusing upon practices of travel in northern and western Europe rather than in Italy, particularly in Britain, the Low Countries and Germany, the essays in this collection highlight how itineraries continually evolved in response to changing political, economic and intellectual contexts. In so doing, the reasons for travel in northern Europe are subjected to a similar level of detailed analysis as has previously only been directed on Italy. By doing this, the volume demonstrates the variety of travel experiences, including the many shorter journeys made for pleasure, health, education and business undertaken by travellers of varying age and background across the period. In this way the volume brings to the fore the experiences of varied categories of traveller – from children to businessmen – which have traditionally been largely invisible in the historiography of travel.

In Europe within Reach Gerrit Verhoeven traces some sweeping evolutions in the early modern trave... more In Europe within Reach Gerrit Verhoeven traces some sweeping evolutions in the early modern travel behaviour of Dutch and Flemish elites (1585-1750), as the classical Grand Tour was slowly but surely overshadowed by other types of travelling.
Leisure trips to Paris, London or Berlin, a cours pittoresque along the Rhine, domestic trips in the Low Countries and a series of other destinations gained ground, while new sorts of travellers cropped up: female and middle-class travellers, domestic servants, children, youngsters and the elderly.
Verhoeven does not only trace these evolutions, but also explains why Netherlandish travellers gradually turned into art connoisseurs; why they were spellbound by sites of memory and by rugged landscapes; or why all sorts of fashionable gadgets and thingies were bought on the way.

Articles by Gerrit Verhoeven

Journal of Belgian History, 2024

During the 20th century, the marketing of tourist destinations increasingly shifted from a local ... more During the 20th century, the marketing of tourist destinations increasingly shifted from a local to a national level, as politicians became aware of the economic potential of tourism in terms of tax revenues, employment and other gains. Moreover, politicians gradually discovered that (smart) tourism branding could produce positive hetero- and auto-images, that were, not only, vital to attract moneyed, foreign tourists, but could also strengthen national identities. During the last few decades, a host of experts from Tourist Studies have tried to disentangle these links between nationalism and tourism marketing. However, a historical lens, that zeroes in on the topic in a diachronic way, remains largely missing. This paper will break new ground by looking at evolutions in tourism policy and branding strategies from a top-down and bottom-up perspective in one particular – yet highly tormented – nation. How did ideas about nationhood (re)shape the promotion of Belgium as a product for domestic and foreign tourism? What brand should be developed, by whom, and with which media? And, most importantly, what was the rationale behind these promotional activities?

Early Modern Low Countries, 2023

Several theories claim that the rhythms of daily life changed dramatically in the late eighteenth... more Several theories claim that the rhythms of daily life changed dramatically in the late eighteenth century under the influence of the advent of street lighting. New technologies made it possible to work longer hours during the evening, enjoy a dash of leisure time or otherwise stay active. People thus slowly but surely "colonized" the night. By collecting fresh empirical data from the eyewitness accounts of the local criminal court in Antwerp, we subject this theory to a thorough investigation. The findings show that there was no real increase in nocturnalization because Antwerpers – even without new street lamps – remained active for a long time anyway. They usually continued working long after sunset or had time for leisure. Sleep was limited to the biological minimum. A deviant rhythm in which people remained active until the wee hours of the morning and only got up well after sunrise was reserved for a small group of people who either belonged to the absolute cream of the crop or to the fringes of society.

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies, 2023

The current special issue brings together new empirical research on aristocratic collecting pract... more The current special issue brings together new empirical research on aristocratic collecting practices in Belgium and the Netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Museum History Journal, 2022

During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World... more During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World War and the economic slump of the Great Depression, the government launched one of the most ambitious construction projects in Belgian history. At the Parc du Cinquantenaire an impressive ensemble of buildings, halls and galleries was constructed during the 1920s and 1930s to house the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History. Drawing new evidence from the archives of the museum, newspaper articles, and parliamentary proceedings, this article will examine how the curators in chief managed to secure enough funding for these ambitious projects in times of deep economic crisis. It will be argued that this tour de force was the result of a combination of factors, including intense lobbying, putting forward convincing arguments, and deploying a pragmatic realpolitik.

Crime, History & Societies, 2022

For a long time, early modern judicial procedures have been portrayed as harsh, ad hoc, sloppy, s... more For a long time, early modern judicial procedures have been portrayed as harsh, ad hoc, sloppy, superficial, heavy-handed, and extremely brutal, with suspects threatened, bullied, and pressured to confess through every possible means. Yet, surprisingly little is known about actual interrogation techniques in early modern Europe. What kind of questions were posed? Did examining magistrates immediately press for a full confession by inflicting fear and awe on the accused or did they use more sophisticated techniques? Were these methods modified by Enlightened rationalisation or did they remain unchanged until the early nineteenth century? Drawing fresh evidence from the examinatieën en informatieën — the reports of the preliminary investigation of the Antwerp Hoge Vierschaar — this article demonstrates how interrogation techniques were slowly but surely fine-tuned in the course of the eighteenth century. Change was already well underway before the French Revolution.

Continuity & Change, 2020

According to the classic hypothesis of the Industrious Revolution of the American historian Jan d... more According to the classic hypothesis of the Industrious Revolution of the American historian Jan de Vries time became money sometime between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Dutch men and women slashed their leisure time and increased their labour input in order to boost their family-based income. Numerous strategies were used. Working hours were stretched not just by earlier start and later finish times, but also by reductions in breaks and pauses. Traditional feast-and holidays were removed from the calendar. Women and children were also increasingly put to work in order to maximize the family budget. According to de Vries, this spike in industriousness was triggered by new consumer behaviour, as the Amsterdam market was being increasingly swamped by an expanding assortment of new, exotic, and fashionable goods. Lists of chattels and goods in post-mortem inventories indeed evidence the growing abundance, as the notaries and their clerks had to spend ever more hours working their way through loads of calicoes, chintzes, and other fashionable fabrics, through collections of posh cabinets, mahogany tables, and comfy chairs longues, through chic coffee and tea sets, sophisticated snuffboxes, pocket watches, barometers, and other such newly fashionable contraptions and amenities. Moreover, this cry for the new not only appealed to upper-crust consumers (the Dutch regenten), but also trickled down to the lower rungs of society. Consumerism was clearly on the march. However, to pay for these myriad new luxuries, eighteenth-century people were forced to work significantly harder than their forebears had, as they now faced a levelling or even a decrease in their real wages. Industriousness was a viable strategy by which to row against this current.

Journal of Tourism History, 2020

Overtourism is often seen as a modern phenomenon without a history. Drawing on the parliamentary ... more Overtourism is often seen as a modern phenomenon without a history. Drawing on the parliamentary proceedings of the Belgian Chamber of representatives, this paper explores how concerns about crowding and carrying capacity already fuelled a protracted parliamentary debate about camping in Les Trente Glorieuses (1945-’75). Even though ‘tent cloth vacationing’ was seen as an important tool to democratize tourism, it was not always applauded in the Belgian hemicycle. Urged by the powerful lobby of hotel and restaurant owners, conservative representatives emphasized the many inconveniences of camping – zeroing in on the loose morals, the bad hygiene, the lack of environmental planning, the ecological threats – and pressed for more regulation. At the same time, these arguments were unmasked by social democrats as a smoke screen to curb the ‘unruly’ proliferation of campsites. In Belgium, the debate was deeply influenced by the limited carrying capacity of the North Sea coast. With barely 40 miles of coastline, Belgium was short of natural resources. It fuelled a policy whereby priority was given to hotels and holiday homes, while camping was curbed or left to its own devices.

Journal of Sleep Research, 2020

Lately, experts have turned to historical evidence to uncover the default mode of our sleep patte... more Lately, experts have turned to historical evidence to uncover the default mode of our sleep pattern. Even though there are some notable exceptions, most historians use a qualitative methodology based on scattered evidence in diaries, letters, novels, medical treatise, and other literary sources. To provide fresh perspective in the debate, the present article develops a more quantitative approach. Drawing fresh evidence from early modern criminal records-viz the eyewitness reports of the Hoge Vierschaer or the local criminal court in Antwerp-we are able to debunk some classic stereotypes about premodern sleep patterns. Data reveal that most eighteenth-century Antwerpers slept less hours than we would expect, slumbered in a monophasic way, and rarely if ever took a nap during the day. Moreover, the on-and offset of sleep was less attuned to the solar cycle than we would imagine. Last but not least, the pattern also shows some fascinating weekly and seasonal variations.

Cultural and Social History, 2020

According to the classic hypothesis of E.P. Thompson, modern timekeeping and time awareness were ... more According to the classic hypothesis of E.P. Thompson, modern
timekeeping and time awareness were born during the Industrial
Revolution. Factory horns, time clocks, and heavy fines not only
coerced labourers into a new, hectic, and relentless labour rhythm;
they also facilitated the ascendancy of clock time. Thompson’s
hypothesis has been frequently challenged in the last decades,
yet conclusive empirical evidence to substantiate, hone or refute
his claims remains scanty. Drawing on the proceedings of the Old
Bailey, this article provides some fresh perspective by tracing slow if
not glacial evolutions in everyday timekeeping and time awareness.

Journal of Family History, 2020

Drawing evidence from the letters and travel journal of Jan Teding van Berkhout – scion of a weal... more Drawing evidence from the letters and travel journal of Jan Teding van Berkhout – scion of a wealthy regenten family from Delft – this article scrutinizes how elite masculinity and wellevendheid (politeness) were constructed, perceived, experienced, and contested in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Berkhout’s correspondence not only hints at some important differences in the Netherlandish and British interpretation of polite masculinity, but also evidences that ideas about what a “true man” was and how he should behave could differ substantially within one and the same family. Differences in age, gender, and the unequally balance of power created a set of – coexisting, competing, or clashing – multiple masculinities. Whether masculinity was performed front- or backstage also mattered, as politeness was frequently put on hold and replaced by intimate bawdiness. In fact, the spectrum of masculinities available in the Berkhout family casts serious doubt on Connell’s controversial idea of hegemonic masculinity.

Low Countries, 2020

They turned up unexpectedly in Flanders and the Netherlands, too-the angry slogans in chalk and g... more They turned up unexpectedly in Flanders and the Netherlands, too-the angry slogans in chalk and graffiti, on posters and banners, and even on T-shirts, urging tourists in no uncertain terms to pack their bags and go home. It seems that tourism is increasingly becoming more of a curse than a blessing.

Journal of Contemporary History, 2019

Belgium has often been labelled as a reluctant colonizer in the past. Yet, a meticulous analysis ... more Belgium has often been labelled as a reluctant colonizer in the past. Yet, a meticulous analysis of tourist magazines, guidebooks, brochures, posters, and documentaries on colonial tourism in the Belgian Congo tells a different story. Travel literature was often teeming with pro-empire propaganda that emphasized the primitiveness of the Congo and underscored the civilizing mission. Tourism was, in this respect, not very different from the overtly positive framing of the Belgian colonial rule that was propagated by museums, monuments of colonial heroes, exhibitions, movies and schoolbooks. The aim of this article is to take the argument even further. Most research on colonial tourism is focused on the creation of pro-empire propaganda in tourist magazines and guidebooks, while the actual appropriation of this image by travellers of flesh and blood is often tacitly assumed or – even worse – taken for granted. Interviews with ex-colonials show that the reality was much more subtle, as the overly positive propaganda was not always swallowed hook, line and sinker.

Continuity and Change, 2013

Cultural and Social History, 2016

Whereas early modern migration history has been traditionally based on citizenship rolls, marriag... more Whereas early modern migration history has been traditionally based on citizenship rolls, marriage registers, censuses and myriad other sources, this research explores the value of eyewitness reports before the Antwerp criminal court in the eighteenth century. On the face of things, these proceedings of the hoogere Vierschaer corroborate earlier findings. Due to the economic slump, Antwerp merely drew an endless stream of humble, unskilled labourers from its rural fringe; immigrants who were often relegated to the most menial, dirty and low-paid jobs. Acts of xenophobic violence against these new arrivals, who spoke a (slightly) different language or had different habits, were no exception. Most migrants seemed to have left town after they had saved a penny. Yet, the files of the Vierschaer also shed light on some slow-burn processes of integration, which have been less thoroughly scrutinized in the past. Some migrants blended smoothly into their new environment, by finding a permanent job (mostly as publican, peddler, or unskilled labourer); by mastering new skills (literacy and language); by seizing opportunities for (modest) social rise; or by establishing strong bonds with their new neighbours, friends, colleagues or parishioners. Findings also suggest that this integration process eventually stroke home.

Continuity & Change, 2013

Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a... more Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a ‘modern’ awareness of time. Yet, little research is available that empirically enables signs of growing time awareness to be linked to the distribution of time-keeping devices. In this article both these phenomena are brought together using two independent sets of evidence that permit the hypothesis that clocks and watches contributed to a heightened consciousness of time to be tested. While the ownership of clocks and watches was socially skewed, highly gendered and unevenly distributed over time, time awareness – as exemplified throughout numerous court cases – was essentially none of these.

Ooit was België een topbestemming. Toeristen stroomden van heinde en verre toe om van een streepj... more Ooit was België een topbestemming. Toeristen stroomden van heinde en verre toe om van een streepje zon aan de Belgische kust te genieten, de ruwe Ardense valleien te ontdekken of door één van onze kunststeden te struinen. Dat bruisende toerisme liet zijn sporen na in het landschap: van de luxueuze villa’s en hotels uit de Belle Époque in Westende tot de verroeste wandelwegwijzers in Wépion.

Met dat erfgoed als ankerpunt brengt Bestemming België die turbulente toeristische ontwikkeling in kaart, van het prille begin in Waterloo in 1815 tot het heden. Daarbij doet het boek recht aan de uitzonderlijke diversiteit van toerisme. Op het programma prijken (schijnbaar) tijdloze trekpleisters, maar ook meer verrassende bestemmingen zoals de slagvelden van de Eerste Wereldoorlog, het koloniale Léopoldville, pelgrimsoord Banneux, of Hofstade les Bains.

Centraal in het boek staat het wel en wee van het Belgische toerisme, dat na de hoogdagen algauw in zwaar weer terecht kwam. Kortom, Bestemming België neemt je mee op een wervelende reis door het verleden, heden en toekomst van toerisme in België.

Material Histories of Time: Objects and practices (14th-19th century)

The historiography of timekeeping is traditionally characterized by a dichotomy between research ... more The historiography of timekeeping is traditionally characterized by a dichotomy between research that investigates the evolution of technical devices on the one hand, and research that is concerned with the examination of the cultures and uses of time on the other hand.

Material Histories of Time opens a dialogue between these two approaches by taking monumental clocks, table clocks, portable watches, carriage clocks, and other forms of timekeeping as the starting point of a joint reflection of specialists of the history of horology together with scholars studying the social and cultural history of time. The contributions range from the apparition of the first timekeeping mechanical systems in the Middle Ages to the first evidence of industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Travel in early modern Europe is frequently represented as synonymous with the institution of the... more Travel in early modern Europe is frequently represented as synonymous with the institution of the Grand Tour, a journey undertaken by elite young males from northern Europe to the centres of the arts and antiquity in Italy. Taking a somewhat different perspective, this volume builds upon recent research that pushes beyond this narrow orthodoxy and which decentres Italy as the ultimate destination of European travellers. Instead, it explores a much broader pattern of travel, undertaken by people of varied backgrounds and with divergent motives for travelling. By tapping into current reactions against the reification of the Grand Tour as a unique and distinctive practice, this volume represents an important contribution to the ongoing process of resituating the Grand Tour as part of a wider context of travel and topographical writing. Focusing upon practices of travel in northern and western Europe rather than in Italy, particularly in Britain, the Low Countries and Germany, the essays in this collection highlight how itineraries continually evolved in response to changing political, economic and intellectual contexts. In so doing, the reasons for travel in northern Europe are subjected to a similar level of detailed analysis as has previously only been directed on Italy. By doing this, the volume demonstrates the variety of travel experiences, including the many shorter journeys made for pleasure, health, education and business undertaken by travellers of varying age and background across the period. In this way the volume brings to the fore the experiences of varied categories of traveller – from children to businessmen – which have traditionally been largely invisible in the historiography of travel.

In Europe within Reach Gerrit Verhoeven traces some sweeping evolutions in the early modern trave... more In Europe within Reach Gerrit Verhoeven traces some sweeping evolutions in the early modern travel behaviour of Dutch and Flemish elites (1585-1750), as the classical Grand Tour was slowly but surely overshadowed by other types of travelling.
Leisure trips to Paris, London or Berlin, a cours pittoresque along the Rhine, domestic trips in the Low Countries and a series of other destinations gained ground, while new sorts of travellers cropped up: female and middle-class travellers, domestic servants, children, youngsters and the elderly.
Verhoeven does not only trace these evolutions, but also explains why Netherlandish travellers gradually turned into art connoisseurs; why they were spellbound by sites of memory and by rugged landscapes; or why all sorts of fashionable gadgets and thingies were bought on the way.

Journal of Belgian History, 2024

During the 20th century, the marketing of tourist destinations increasingly shifted from a local ... more During the 20th century, the marketing of tourist destinations increasingly shifted from a local to a national level, as politicians became aware of the economic potential of tourism in terms of tax revenues, employment and other gains. Moreover, politicians gradually discovered that (smart) tourism branding could produce positive hetero- and auto-images, that were, not only, vital to attract moneyed, foreign tourists, but could also strengthen national identities. During the last few decades, a host of experts from Tourist Studies have tried to disentangle these links between nationalism and tourism marketing. However, a historical lens, that zeroes in on the topic in a diachronic way, remains largely missing. This paper will break new ground by looking at evolutions in tourism policy and branding strategies from a top-down and bottom-up perspective in one particular – yet highly tormented – nation. How did ideas about nationhood (re)shape the promotion of Belgium as a product for domestic and foreign tourism? What brand should be developed, by whom, and with which media? And, most importantly, what was the rationale behind these promotional activities?

Early Modern Low Countries, 2023

Several theories claim that the rhythms of daily life changed dramatically in the late eighteenth... more Several theories claim that the rhythms of daily life changed dramatically in the late eighteenth century under the influence of the advent of street lighting. New technologies made it possible to work longer hours during the evening, enjoy a dash of leisure time or otherwise stay active. People thus slowly but surely "colonized" the night. By collecting fresh empirical data from the eyewitness accounts of the local criminal court in Antwerp, we subject this theory to a thorough investigation. The findings show that there was no real increase in nocturnalization because Antwerpers – even without new street lamps – remained active for a long time anyway. They usually continued working long after sunset or had time for leisure. Sleep was limited to the biological minimum. A deviant rhythm in which people remained active until the wee hours of the morning and only got up well after sunrise was reserved for a small group of people who either belonged to the absolute cream of the crop or to the fringes of society.

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies, 2023

The current special issue brings together new empirical research on aristocratic collecting pract... more The current special issue brings together new empirical research on aristocratic collecting practices in Belgium and the Netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Museum History Journal, 2022

During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World... more During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World War and the economic slump of the Great Depression, the government launched one of the most ambitious construction projects in Belgian history. At the Parc du Cinquantenaire an impressive ensemble of buildings, halls and galleries was constructed during the 1920s and 1930s to house the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History. Drawing new evidence from the archives of the museum, newspaper articles, and parliamentary proceedings, this article will examine how the curators in chief managed to secure enough funding for these ambitious projects in times of deep economic crisis. It will be argued that this tour de force was the result of a combination of factors, including intense lobbying, putting forward convincing arguments, and deploying a pragmatic realpolitik.

Crime, History & Societies, 2022

For a long time, early modern judicial procedures have been portrayed as harsh, ad hoc, sloppy, s... more For a long time, early modern judicial procedures have been portrayed as harsh, ad hoc, sloppy, superficial, heavy-handed, and extremely brutal, with suspects threatened, bullied, and pressured to confess through every possible means. Yet, surprisingly little is known about actual interrogation techniques in early modern Europe. What kind of questions were posed? Did examining magistrates immediately press for a full confession by inflicting fear and awe on the accused or did they use more sophisticated techniques? Were these methods modified by Enlightened rationalisation or did they remain unchanged until the early nineteenth century? Drawing fresh evidence from the examinatieën en informatieën — the reports of the preliminary investigation of the Antwerp Hoge Vierschaar — this article demonstrates how interrogation techniques were slowly but surely fine-tuned in the course of the eighteenth century. Change was already well underway before the French Revolution.

Continuity & Change, 2020

According to the classic hypothesis of the Industrious Revolution of the American historian Jan d... more According to the classic hypothesis of the Industrious Revolution of the American historian Jan de Vries time became money sometime between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Dutch men and women slashed their leisure time and increased their labour input in order to boost their family-based income. Numerous strategies were used. Working hours were stretched not just by earlier start and later finish times, but also by reductions in breaks and pauses. Traditional feast-and holidays were removed from the calendar. Women and children were also increasingly put to work in order to maximize the family budget. According to de Vries, this spike in industriousness was triggered by new consumer behaviour, as the Amsterdam market was being increasingly swamped by an expanding assortment of new, exotic, and fashionable goods. Lists of chattels and goods in post-mortem inventories indeed evidence the growing abundance, as the notaries and their clerks had to spend ever more hours working their way through loads of calicoes, chintzes, and other fashionable fabrics, through collections of posh cabinets, mahogany tables, and comfy chairs longues, through chic coffee and tea sets, sophisticated snuffboxes, pocket watches, barometers, and other such newly fashionable contraptions and amenities. Moreover, this cry for the new not only appealed to upper-crust consumers (the Dutch regenten), but also trickled down to the lower rungs of society. Consumerism was clearly on the march. However, to pay for these myriad new luxuries, eighteenth-century people were forced to work significantly harder than their forebears had, as they now faced a levelling or even a decrease in their real wages. Industriousness was a viable strategy by which to row against this current.

Journal of Tourism History, 2020

Overtourism is often seen as a modern phenomenon without a history. Drawing on the parliamentary ... more Overtourism is often seen as a modern phenomenon without a history. Drawing on the parliamentary proceedings of the Belgian Chamber of representatives, this paper explores how concerns about crowding and carrying capacity already fuelled a protracted parliamentary debate about camping in Les Trente Glorieuses (1945-’75). Even though ‘tent cloth vacationing’ was seen as an important tool to democratize tourism, it was not always applauded in the Belgian hemicycle. Urged by the powerful lobby of hotel and restaurant owners, conservative representatives emphasized the many inconveniences of camping – zeroing in on the loose morals, the bad hygiene, the lack of environmental planning, the ecological threats – and pressed for more regulation. At the same time, these arguments were unmasked by social democrats as a smoke screen to curb the ‘unruly’ proliferation of campsites. In Belgium, the debate was deeply influenced by the limited carrying capacity of the North Sea coast. With barely 40 miles of coastline, Belgium was short of natural resources. It fuelled a policy whereby priority was given to hotels and holiday homes, while camping was curbed or left to its own devices.

Journal of Sleep Research, 2020

Lately, experts have turned to historical evidence to uncover the default mode of our sleep patte... more Lately, experts have turned to historical evidence to uncover the default mode of our sleep pattern. Even though there are some notable exceptions, most historians use a qualitative methodology based on scattered evidence in diaries, letters, novels, medical treatise, and other literary sources. To provide fresh perspective in the debate, the present article develops a more quantitative approach. Drawing fresh evidence from early modern criminal records-viz the eyewitness reports of the Hoge Vierschaer or the local criminal court in Antwerp-we are able to debunk some classic stereotypes about premodern sleep patterns. Data reveal that most eighteenth-century Antwerpers slept less hours than we would expect, slumbered in a monophasic way, and rarely if ever took a nap during the day. Moreover, the on-and offset of sleep was less attuned to the solar cycle than we would imagine. Last but not least, the pattern also shows some fascinating weekly and seasonal variations.

Cultural and Social History, 2020

According to the classic hypothesis of E.P. Thompson, modern timekeeping and time awareness were ... more According to the classic hypothesis of E.P. Thompson, modern
timekeeping and time awareness were born during the Industrial
Revolution. Factory horns, time clocks, and heavy fines not only
coerced labourers into a new, hectic, and relentless labour rhythm;
they also facilitated the ascendancy of clock time. Thompson’s
hypothesis has been frequently challenged in the last decades,
yet conclusive empirical evidence to substantiate, hone or refute
his claims remains scanty. Drawing on the proceedings of the Old
Bailey, this article provides some fresh perspective by tracing slow if
not glacial evolutions in everyday timekeeping and time awareness.

Journal of Family History, 2020

Drawing evidence from the letters and travel journal of Jan Teding van Berkhout – scion of a weal... more Drawing evidence from the letters and travel journal of Jan Teding van Berkhout – scion of a wealthy regenten family from Delft – this article scrutinizes how elite masculinity and wellevendheid (politeness) were constructed, perceived, experienced, and contested in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Berkhout’s correspondence not only hints at some important differences in the Netherlandish and British interpretation of polite masculinity, but also evidences that ideas about what a “true man” was and how he should behave could differ substantially within one and the same family. Differences in age, gender, and the unequally balance of power created a set of – coexisting, competing, or clashing – multiple masculinities. Whether masculinity was performed front- or backstage also mattered, as politeness was frequently put on hold and replaced by intimate bawdiness. In fact, the spectrum of masculinities available in the Berkhout family casts serious doubt on Connell’s controversial idea of hegemonic masculinity.

Low Countries, 2020

They turned up unexpectedly in Flanders and the Netherlands, too-the angry slogans in chalk and g... more They turned up unexpectedly in Flanders and the Netherlands, too-the angry slogans in chalk and graffiti, on posters and banners, and even on T-shirts, urging tourists in no uncertain terms to pack their bags and go home. It seems that tourism is increasingly becoming more of a curse than a blessing.

Journal of Contemporary History, 2019

Belgium has often been labelled as a reluctant colonizer in the past. Yet, a meticulous analysis ... more Belgium has often been labelled as a reluctant colonizer in the past. Yet, a meticulous analysis of tourist magazines, guidebooks, brochures, posters, and documentaries on colonial tourism in the Belgian Congo tells a different story. Travel literature was often teeming with pro-empire propaganda that emphasized the primitiveness of the Congo and underscored the civilizing mission. Tourism was, in this respect, not very different from the overtly positive framing of the Belgian colonial rule that was propagated by museums, monuments of colonial heroes, exhibitions, movies and schoolbooks. The aim of this article is to take the argument even further. Most research on colonial tourism is focused on the creation of pro-empire propaganda in tourist magazines and guidebooks, while the actual appropriation of this image by travellers of flesh and blood is often tacitly assumed or – even worse – taken for granted. Interviews with ex-colonials show that the reality was much more subtle, as the overly positive propaganda was not always swallowed hook, line and sinker.

Continuity and Change, 2013

Cultural and Social History, 2016

Whereas early modern migration history has been traditionally based on citizenship rolls, marriag... more Whereas early modern migration history has been traditionally based on citizenship rolls, marriage registers, censuses and myriad other sources, this research explores the value of eyewitness reports before the Antwerp criminal court in the eighteenth century. On the face of things, these proceedings of the hoogere Vierschaer corroborate earlier findings. Due to the economic slump, Antwerp merely drew an endless stream of humble, unskilled labourers from its rural fringe; immigrants who were often relegated to the most menial, dirty and low-paid jobs. Acts of xenophobic violence against these new arrivals, who spoke a (slightly) different language or had different habits, were no exception. Most migrants seemed to have left town after they had saved a penny. Yet, the files of the Vierschaer also shed light on some slow-burn processes of integration, which have been less thoroughly scrutinized in the past. Some migrants blended smoothly into their new environment, by finding a permanent job (mostly as publican, peddler, or unskilled labourer); by mastering new skills (literacy and language); by seizing opportunities for (modest) social rise; or by establishing strong bonds with their new neighbours, friends, colleagues or parishioners. Findings also suggest that this integration process eventually stroke home.

Continuity & Change, 2013

Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a... more Traditionally a large role has been attributed to the spread of clocks and watches in fostering a ‘modern’ awareness of time. Yet, little research is available that empirically enables signs of growing time awareness to be linked to the distribution of time-keeping devices. In this article both these phenomena are brought together using two independent sets of evidence that permit the hypothesis that clocks and watches contributed to a heightened consciousness of time to be tested. While the ownership of clocks and watches was socially skewed, highly gendered and unevenly distributed over time, time awareness – as exemplified throughout numerous court cases – was essentially none of these.

European History Quarterly, 2014

Files of the local criminal court in Antwerp – the Hoogere Vierschaar – are used in this article ... more Files of the local criminal court in Antwerp – the Hoogere Vierschaar – are used in this article to assess the evolution of literacy and numeracy in Antwerp. Both forms of human capital are habitually seen as strongly intertwined, yet our evidence shows that they were not always geared to one another. Literacy did not grow significantly in Antwerp during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while it reached its high-water mark in other European towns. Faced by a severe economic crisis, the local government had to trim down free public education in Sunday schools, while private boarding schools (Duytsche scholen) saw their number of pupils fall abruptly as the recession impoverished a wide swath of society. Numeracy, however, followed a different course. Despite the economic crisis, people's age awareness took a huge leap forward in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as basic arithmetic skills were bound to a more informal, everyday training. Moreover, this idea, that literacy and numeracy were not always geared to each other is buttressed by marked social and gender variations.

Annals of Tourism Research

Foreshadowing Tourism aims to hone or even to upset our understanding of the genesis of tourism. ... more Foreshadowing Tourism aims to hone or even to upset our understanding of the genesis of tourism. It has long been assumed that nineteenth-century tourism was rooted in the early modern Grand Tour. However, Netherlandish travel diaries, along with some literature from England, Germany, and France, evidence a missing link in this regard. The late seventeenth century witnessed the coming of divertissante somertogjes (pleasurable summer trips) that were in fact poles apart from a classic Grand Tour. By scrutinizing modern features of this novel form of travel (such as its brief and seasonal timing, and the fact that its main motivations were leisure and cultural interests) and more obsolete traits (such as the lack of recurrence or the relatively exclusivity of such touring parties) I seek to restore these speelreysjes (pleasure trips) to their rightful place within the genealogy of travel and tourism. I will also evaluate the potential effects of a transport (r)evolution, cultural development, and a rise in living standards on early modern travel behavior.

Eighteenth-Century Studies

"During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, pioneering books on art theory— by R... more "During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, pioneering books on art theory— by Richardson, Piles, Lairesse, and many others—formulated benchmark criteria to assess the quality of paintings and shaped a canon of favorite masters, schools, and subjects. Less is known about the actual appropriation of this high-brow canon by laymen art lovers, amateurs, and connoisseurs. Flemish and Dutch travel diaries are used in this article to unveil more details about these middlebrow art observations. Was a long and expensive Grand Tour the sole vehicle for close encounters with the arts? How did laymen's interest and discourse about the arts evolve over the long run? Finally, the study attempts to reconstruct the Netherlandish "common" taste for individual masters, schools, genres, and periods.
"

Journal of Social History, Jan 1, 2010

How did Calvinist travellers behave when they ventured into the lion’s den of Catholicism? Were P... more How did Calvinist travellers behave when they ventured into the lion’s den of Catholicism? Were Protestants on Grand Tour bound to ignore Popish sanctuaries, and – so it seemed – false relics, excessive processions, obscure rituals, and foolish idolatry or superstition? Did they mock or slander French or Italian Catholicism? According to textbook wisdom, these cross-confessional encounters on Grand Tour were seldom warm-hearted. Drawing on well-known travelogues from English Grand Tour travellers these religious contacts are mainly cast in black-and-white. Anglican noblemen and officials were envisaged as merciless critics of Italian Catholicism, seizing every opportunity to denounce the foulest popish defects. Using a body of unpublished travel books from the Netherlands, this paper tries to refine (or reconsider) this traditional conflict hypothesis. Despite profuse anti-popish propaganda in pamphlets, popular songs, and weekly sermons Dutch burghers seemed to behave rather ecumenically on their journey through France, showing a lively interest, restrained respect or leniency towards Catholic ceremony, sacred objects and Popish sanctuaries. It will be argued that this broad-mindedness was triggered by practical considerations and a strong humanist imperative. Our aim, however, is to take the discussion somewhat further, as Dutch reformed travellers seemed to invent their own sort of pilgrimage in the early seventeenth century. La Rochelle, Charenton, Montauban, Geneva and other ‘hallowed’ places were soon integrated in the Dutch Grand Tour. Commemorating the Wars of Religion and Huguenot martyrdom, or personal religious deepening became part of the journey too.

Nelles P. & Salzberg R. (ed.) Connected Mobilities in the Early Modern World: The Practice and Experience of Movement (Amsterdam: AUP), 2023

An introduction to Sweet R., Verhoeven G. & Goldsmith S. (eds.), Beyond the Grand Tour. Northern ... more An introduction to Sweet R., Verhoeven G. & Goldsmith S. (eds.), Beyond the Grand Tour. Northern Metropolises and Early Modern Travel Behaviour (Abingdon: Routledge 2017)

Dewilde Brecht & Poukens Johan, Entrepreneurs, institutions & government intervention in Europe [13th-20th centuries] Essays in honour of Erik Aerts, 2018

Gender, Companionship, and Travel. Discourses in pre-modern and modern travel literature, 2018

Until recently, early modern travel was often portrayed as an all-male activity, yet a more subtl... more Until recently, early modern travel was often portrayed as an all-male activity, yet a more subtle, gendered reality was uncovered by trailblazing British research. In this chapter, Flemish and Dutch travel journals will be analysed to provide a fresh perspective. From the late seventeenth century onwards, female travellers were no longer frowned upon in the Low Countries, as they cropped up in ever growing numbers on plaisierreijsjes (leisure trips) and somertogjes (summer trips). Their elbowroom was limited, however, both literally – Netherlandish women rarely if ever travelled beyond the familiar horizon of the Northern and Southern Netherlands and the rim of nearby metropolises – and metaphorically, as male chaperones – husbands, fathers, brothers, nephews, and other relatives – held sway over these mixed parties. Most of these men also kept a firm grip on the quill and inkwell, which makes it difficult to assess whether women really travelled differently. Female companions were usually portrayed as fearful and fretful, thereby serving as the ideal set-off to emphasize masculine values of hardiness, stamina, and level-headedness. Apparently, these family trips and somertogjes were also used as an instrument to mould a male identity. Yet, travel journals written by Netherlandish women, such as Adriana de la Court, also suggest that these differences between male and female travel behaviour were all too often rather discourse than reality. Adriana engaged in all sorts of activities – sampling baroque art treasures, assessing industrial plants, and enjoying sublime landscapes – which were often deemed as exclusively male.

Les plats pays, 2020

Inopinément, ils surgirent aussi en Flandre et aux Pays-Bas: les slogans furieux à la craie et en... more Inopinément, ils surgirent aussi en Flandre et aux Pays-Bas: les slogans furieux à la craie et en graffiti, sur des affiches et des banderoles, et même sur des T-shirts. En des termes on ne peut plus clairs, ils engageaient les touristes à boucler leurs valises et à rentrer chez eux. Le tourisme semble de plus en plus souvent être un fléau plutôt qu’ une bénédiction

... Author: Verhoeven, Gerrit. Date: 2010. ... Recommended Citation. Verhoeven, Gerrit - Venise e... more ... Author: Verhoeven, Gerrit. Date: 2010. ... Recommended Citation. Verhoeven, Gerrit - Venise en automne: des voyageurs flamands et brabançons sur le Grand Tour (1600-1750) - In: Fiamminghi a Venezia: sur les traces des anciens Pays-Bas à Venise / Boone, Marc; ea . ...

Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, Jan 1, 2005

Voyager était une entreprise périlleuse au début des temps modernes. Celui qui partait pour des r... more Voyager était une entreprise périlleuse au début des temps modernes. Celui qui partait pour des régions éloignées se trouvait confronté à toutes sortes de dangers: les attaques, les accidents de la route, les animaux féroces, les épidémies, les pirates ou les persécutions ...

Vroegmoderne reisverhalen bestaan in allerlei maten en gewichten: van prachtige boekbanden vergul... more Vroegmoderne reisverhalen bestaan in allerlei maten en gewichten: van prachtige boekbanden verguld op snee en in stijlvol handschrift to slordige aantekeningen in de marge van een beduimelde almanak. Sommige reizen lieten ook hun sporen na in brieven en dagboeken, in kurkdroge kwitanties, in genealogieën of in de materiële cultuur. Op basis van deze bronnen speurde Verhoeven naar evoluties in de reiscultuur van Hollandse en Brabantse elites. Verhoeven verklaart waarom men de klassieke Grand Tour naar Italië langzaam inruilde voor kortere plezierreisjes in de Nederlanden of de buurlanden. Hij laat zien welke sociale groepen de koets namen naar Parijs, Rome of Berlijn en wat hen motiveerde om te reizen. En hij tracht te achterhalen waarom ze zich onderweg blind staarden op Italiaanse schilderijen, waarom ze veldslagen en belegeringen herdachten, door baroktuinen slenterden of een massa spulletjes kochten in de Parijse boetieks.

Meta: tijdschrift voor bibliotheek & archief, 2024

Only the first page is shown. For the full article: https://www.vvbad.be/meta

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies, 2023

Deze bijdrage richt zich op één van de topstukken in de collectie, namelijk Arenbergs reiscoupé o... more Deze bijdrage richt zich op één van de topstukken in de collectie, namelijk Arenbergs reiscoupé of dormeuse, die ook nu nog in de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis staat opgesteld. Dit unieke “object in context” biedt een inzicht in de materiële en technische vereisten waaraan een premium reiskoets, bestemd voor een steenrijke, hoogadellijke familie, moest voldoen. Daarbij gaan we zowel dieper in op de hoogtechnologische snufjes als de materialen die werden gebruikt om dit staaltje vakmanschap af te leveren. Uiteraard wordt die materiaaltechnische analyse ook gekoppeld aan de bredere context van reizen en toerisme in de negentiende eeuw. Meer duiding wordt ook gegeven over de firma Binder, terwijl ook de oorspronkelijke eigenaars, de hertogen van Arenberg, voor het voetlicht komen. Tevens zoomen we uit en wordt de genese van het Musée historique de voiture binnen de Musea van het Jubelpark besproken. Op basis van nieuw historisch onderzoek in de archieven wordt uitgezocht waarom de afdeling precies in het interbellum hoge toppen scheerde, maar vervolgens ook algauw weer aan populariteit verloor.

Jaarboek de Zeventiende Eeuw, 2021

Diverse theorieën poneren dat het traditionele ritme van het dagelijks leven radicaal veranderde ... more Diverse theorieën poneren dat het traditionele ritme van het dagelijks leven radicaal veranderde in de vroegmoderne periode. Meer dan drie decennia geleden stelde de economische historicus Jan De Vries dat Noord-Nederlanders in de late zeventiende eeuw harder en langer gingen werken. Om meer te kunnen consumeren, zetten ze de bijl in hun overvloedige vrije tijd. Later claimde zijn Amerikaanse collega Roger Ekirch dat ook het slaappatroon ingrijpend was gewijzigd: het traditionele, slaapritme – langdurig, tweefasig en aangevuld met diverse dutjes overdag – ruimde onder impuls van de Industriële Revolutie baan voor een meer modern ritme. Dat idee van een radicale breuk zit ook vervat in Craig Koslofsky’s theorie over nocturnalization. In de loop van de achttiende eeuw zou een ruimere verspreiding van artificieel licht ervoor gezorgd hebben dat mensen ook langzaam maar zeker de nacht konden koloniseren. Waar het leven van oudsher stilviel na zonsondergang, was er nu meer ruimte voor werk, vrije tijd en andere activiteiten bij kaarslicht. Hoewel dergelijke theorieën veel aanhang hebben, missen ze tot op vandaag een solide empirische basis. Bronnen die ons inzicht bieden in het dagelijkse leven in het verleden zijn en blijven namelijk moeilijk te vinden. In dit artikel gebruiken we de dagboeken van de Haagse schoolmeester David Beck (1594-1634) als lakmoesproef. Becks journalen zijn niet alleen gefundenes Fressen voor cultuur- en sociaalhistorisch onderzoek, maar leveren door de acribie waarmee de jonge leraar ze heeft opgesteld ook waardevolle gegevens op om zijn dagelijkse routine te reconstrueren. Hoe zag het alledaagse leven er in de zeventiende eeuw precies uit? Was het ritme fundamenteel anders dan in latere eeuwen zoals De Vries, Ekirch of Koslofsky hebben beweerd? En hoe bewust was Beck zelf zich eigenlijk van het vlieden van de tijd?

FARO: Tijdschrift over cultureel erfgoed, 2021

Nachttreinen zijn terug van weggeweest blokletterden tal van kranten begin 2021. Dankzij een mons... more Nachttreinen zijn terug van weggeweest blokletterden tal van kranten begin 2021. Dankzij een monsterovereenkomst tussen de Duitse, Zwitserse, Franse en Oostenrijkse spoorwegen zouden er in de toekomst terug slaaptreinen denderen over het Europese net. Duizenden toeristen zouden voortaan weer het comfort van de trein met luxueuze slaapcouchetten mogen verkiezen boven de zware ecologische voetafdruk van een vliegtuigticket. Diverse kranten verwezen ook naar de historische voorgangers, zoals de legendarische treinen van Compagnie International des Wagon-Lits, die in de late negentiende en vroege twintigste eeuw over het Europese spoorwegnet reden. Met haar luxueuze treinstellen werd de CIWL algauw het favoriete vervoersmiddel van een steenrijke bovenklasse. Venetië of Constantinopel, Nice of Chamonix, Wenen of London: de trein bracht hen in alle comfort naar elke uithoek van het continent. Maar de relatie tussen toerisme en de trein is natuurlijk nog een stuk ouder. Toeristen ontwikkelden al kort na 1835, toen de eerste trein tussen Brussel en Mechelen tufte, een bijzondere band met het nieuw vervoermiddel. Tegelijk drukten de spoorwegen een bijzondere stempel op dat ontluikende toerisme.

Nottebohmkrant, 2020

Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Capitool en Michelin-het is maar een kleine greep uit het haast einde... more Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Capitool en Michelin-het is maar een kleine greep uit het haast eindeloze aanbod aan reisgidsen dat vandaag op de markt is. Die reisliteratuur komt in allerlei maten en gewichten: van bondige en blitse boekjes die vooral op hippe, onontdekte en authentieke plekjes inzoomen tot de meer uitvoerige en stijlvolle exemplaren die vooral exhaustief willen zijn. Natuurlijk bieden die informatie op maat voor de rasechte cultuurliefhebber of meerwaardezoeker, maar ze bevatten vaak ook meer gespecialiseerde katernen voor wandelaars en fietsfanaten, culinaire lekkerbekken, modebewuste koopjesjagers en tal van andere groepen. Dat was ooit anders. Moderne reisgidsen zijn immers het eindproduct van een lange, historische evolutie die enkele eeuwen geleden begon. De (digitale) collectie van de Erfgoedbilbiotheek werpt een bijzonder licht op de langzame genese van het genre. Een klassieker is bijvoorbeeld de Ulysses Belgico-Gallicus van Abraham Gölnitz (Goelnitzius). Na de oorspronkelijke Latijnse versie die in 1631 bij Elzevier in Leiden van de persen rolde, volgde een reeks vertalingen en bewerkingen. Eigenlijk gaat het strikt genomen om een reisverhaal door Frankrijk en delen van Italië, de Lage Landen, en het Heilige Roomse Rijk. Maar het boek verstrekte zoveel praktische informatie over wegen, herbergen, voedsel en andere beslommeringen dat het ook vaak als reisgids gebruikt werd. Gölnitz voegde zelfs een modelcontract voor de Veturino toe, zodat argeloze noorderlingen niet al te snel in hun hemd werden gezet door sluwe-en vooral inhalige-Italiaanse koetsiers. Bovendien gaf het boek heel wat informatie over bezienswaardigheden onderweg, waarbij tientallen steden van naaldje tot draadje werden beschreven. Antwerpen wordt in de Franse vertaling door Louis Coulon bijvoorbeeld omschreven als een juweel-"Als Vlaanderen de ring is, is Antwerpen de diamant."-met veel aandacht voor de kolossale Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, de onneembare citadel, de prachtige Jezuïetenkerk en-het achtste wereldwonder-de drukkerij van Plantijn. Samen met een resem andere reisgidsen stond Göllnitz zowat aan de wieg van de klassieke Grand Tour; een lange, educatiereis door Frankrijk en Italië die vooral onder edellieden en welgestelde burgers populair was. Meer dan halve eeuw later verscheen bij Jan ten Hoorn-een ambitieuze uitgever uit Amsterdam-het Reis-boek door de Vereenigde Nederlandsche Proviciën en der zelver aangrenzende landschappen en koningrijken. Ten Hoorn's reisgids bleek een schot in de roos. Na de oorspronkelijke editie van 1689 verschenen er immers nog verschillende herdrukken. Dat succes was te wijten aan het baanbrekende opzet van het boek. Eerst en vooral zette ten Hoorn de Nederlanden-vooral Noord, maar ook Zuid-nadrukkelijk in de kijker. Uiteraard beschreef hij ook Frankrijk, Italië, Zwitserland, het Heilig Roomse Rijk, het Iberisch schiereiland en zelfs het hoge Noorden ter wille van reizigers die zich aan een klassieke Grand Tour door Europa wilden wagen, maar het gros van de tekst zoomt in op binnenlandse reisjes door Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Groningen of Gelderland of-iets avontuurlijker-over de grens naar Vlaanderen, Brabant of het Prinsbisdom Luik. Dergelijke informatie was gesneden koek voor Nederlandse topambtenaren, regenten en zakenlui, maar ook voor predikanten, advocaten, en andere leden van de middengroepen die in hun vrije tijd ook wel eens een reisje door eigen land of de buurlanden wilden maken. Daarnaast is de reisgids van Jan-en later Nicolaas-ten Hoorn ook heel vernieuwend wat praktische informatie betreft. Naast een beschrijving van bezienswaardigheden onderweg bevatte het boek immers een handzaam overzicht van transport-koetsen, trekschuiten, postpaarden, pakketboten, en andere vervoersmodi-inclusief vertrekuren en prijzen. Logies-herbergen en hotels-worden ook vermeld. In Brussel varieerde het aanbod bijvoorbeeld van peperduur (onder meer de Keizerin en de Rooden Arend) tot-min of meer-betaalbaar (De Spaansche Kroon en In den Graeve van Egmond). Daarnaast bevatte ten Hoorns gidsje ook een medicijn-boek-remedies tegen reuma, zee-en wagenziekte, kolieken en andere kwaaltjes-een

Tijd-Schrift, 2020

Slaap. Hoewel slapen en sluimeren belangrijk aspecten waren van het dagdagelijkse leven in vroegm... more Slaap. Hoewel slapen en sluimeren belangrijk aspecten waren van het dagdagelijkse leven in vroegmodern Europa, weten we er omzeggens niets over. Diverse cruciale vragen (zie hieronder) blijven daarbij onbeantwoord. Roger Ekirch is zowat de enige onderzoeker die over het onderwerp letterlijk artikelen en boeken vol heeft geschreven, hoewel het thema nu ook zijdelings tussen andere onderwerpen opduikt. Door enkele van Ekirch’s uitgangspunten nog eens kritisch onder de loep te nemen – pre-industriële mensen sliepen langer, maar minder continu, tot de opkomst van artificieel licht onze slaapcultuur voorgoed veranderde – willen we het debat weer aanwakkeren. Door in te zoomen op een lokaal bronnentype (namelijk juridische verslagen) kunnen we meteen ook de publieke belangstelling voor die lokale archieven weer een duwtje in de rug geven. Het zijn immers onvermoede schatkamers om het dagelijks leven in het verleden te reconstrueren.

Het pleit is in den zak! Procesdossiers uit het ancien régime en hun perspectieven voor historisch onderzoek, 2014

Brecht Deseure, Guido Marnef and Gerrit Verhoeven, ‘Een pot vol mosselen: de Schelde en de stedel... more Brecht Deseure, Guido Marnef and Gerrit Verhoeven, ‘Een pot vol mosselen: de Schelde en de stedelijke identiteit van Antwerpen (zestiende-twintigste eeuw)’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 123 (2010/4) 480-485.

Geschiedenis Magazine, 2018

Nederlandse reizigers die in de achttiende eeuw door het zuiden zwierven, hadden vaak een bijzond... more Nederlandse reizigers die in de achttiende eeuw door het zuiden zwierven, hadden vaak een bijzondere belangstelling voor de talloze forten en slagvelden onderweg. Waarom waren Hollandse burgers eigenlijk zo tuk op dat martiale verleden? Welke heldendaden werden levendig herdacht, waar andere in vergetelheid raakten? Hoe hardnekkig bleken die herinneringen, toen de kanonnen eindelijk zwegen en de laatste kruiddampen optrokken?

Enkele jaren geleden werd ik poppenspeler. Een virtuele poppenspeler om precies te zijn. In het k... more Enkele jaren geleden werd ik poppenspeler. Een virtuele poppenspeler om precies te zijn. In het kader van een tentoonstellingsproject voor de Musea Mechelen kroop ik in de huid van een achttiende-eeuwse edelman. Corneille-Jean-Marie van den Branden – of Corneel, zoals hij algauw bij de vele Facebookvrienden door het leven ging – was in zijn tijd een nieuwbakken lid van de noblesse de robe. Zijn vader maakte namelijk een blitzcarrière bij de Grote Raad van Mechelen en werd in 1692 omwille van algemene verdienste in de adelstand verheven. Bij de adelsbrief zat ook de kleine heerlijkheid Reet (ten noorden van Mechelen), inclusief een snoezig kasteeltje. Corneille studeerde rechten aan de universiteit van Leuven om later in vaders voetsporen te kunnen treden als advocaat, of wie weet als conseiller, bij de Grote Raad.1 Maar eerst lonkte de wijde wereld. Een klassieke grand tour naar Italië, Frankrijk en Zwitserland was in de achttiende eeuw nog steeds een waarmerk voor exclusiviteit en savoir-vivre. Dat gold voor adellijke parvenus, zoals de familie van den Branden de Reeth, uit het zuiden, maar evengoed voor steenrijke, burgerlijke elites – regenten, kooplui en topambtenaren – uit het noorden van de Lage Landen.2 Met een cum laude uit Leuven op zak kreeg Corneille dan ook groen licht. Op 20 mei 1713 pakte hij zijn spullen en nam de postkoets naar Brussel. Dat was het eerste traject van een lange reis die hem in de volgende jaren dwars door Europa zou voeren. Driehonderd jaar later begon Corneilles virtuele avatar aan zijn reisverslag op Facebook.

Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis, Jan 1, 1994

Uit economisch oogpunt was de late zeventiende en begin achttiende eeuw een bijzonder turbulente ... more Uit economisch oogpunt was de late zeventiende en begin achttiende eeuw een bijzonder turbulente periode in de Zuid-Nederlandse geschiedenis. Vanaf de Vrede van Münster (1648) raakte het economische leven in Vlaanderen en Brabant immers steeds sterker ...

Red Star Line Cruises, 2016

Economische Geschiedenis van West-Europa, 2015

Het stadhuis van Antwerpen. 450 jaar geschiedenis, 2015

In dit essay willen we nagaan hoe Sinjoren en buitenstaanders, inwoners en reizigers naar het Ant... more In dit essay willen we nagaan hoe Sinjoren en buitenstaanders, inwoners en reizigers naar het Antwerpse stadhuis keken. Over de waarde ervan hielde kroniekschrijvers, (amateur-)historici, romanschrijvers en toeristen er soms verschillende meningen op na. Bovendien evolueerde de visie op de stad aan de stroom - en het stadhuis - in de loop der eeuwen ook ingrijpend, onder invloed van economische, politieke en culturele ontwikkelingen. We proberen een rode draad te ontdekken in die veelheid van opinies en beelden. Eerst wordt de visie van reizigers onder de loep genomen, om vervolgens de stadsbewoners zelf aan het woord te laten. Hoe ervoeren en beschreven ze het stadhuis? Waarin verschilde hun blik? Waren er ook overeenkomsten?

De Standaard, Dec 15, 2016

Het lijkt de droom van zowat elke cultuurhistoricus: een bron vinden waarmee je het leven van men... more Het lijkt de droom van zowat elke cultuurhistoricus: een bron vinden waarmee je het leven van mensen uit een ver verleden van naaldje tot draadje kan reconstrueren. Waarmee je hun dagelijkse zorgen en beslommeringen kan herbeleven en waarmee je de maat kan nemen van hun onbehagen en verdriet, maar ook hun vreugde, passie en andere emoties kan voelen. Kortom, een bron waarmee je de historische actoren als het ware op de huid zit. Bovendien wil je als cultuurhistoricus natuurlijk niet alleen de ervaringen van steenrijke kooplui, regenten, notarissen, predikanten en ambachtsmees-ters onderzoeken, maar zou je ook doodgraag een bron vinden die het 'kopergeld van de gouden eeuw' in beeld brengt: de matrozen op de voc-en wic-schepen, de scheepsjongens, zeemansvrouwen en andere leden uit de onderbuik van de samen-leving. Judith Brouwer had het zeldzame geluk om zo'n bron te vinden en er haar proefschrift over te schrijven. In de archieven van de High Court of Admirality (in Kew) dook ze in talloze dozen met – ogenschijnlijk banale – brieven die door de Engelse admiraliteit waren buit gemaakt. Natuurlijk was de bron al langer bekend als de Sailing Letters, een bestand van meer dan 38.000 brieven uit drie eeuwen Nederlandse geschie-denis die door Roelof van Gelder geïnventariseerd werden. Het bijzondere is echter dat Brouwer inzoomt op één belangrijk momentum uit dat vaderlandse verleden, namelijk 1672. Hoe ervoeren Nederlanders het beruchte rampjaar, toen de Republiek zowel ter land als ter zee werd aangevallen? Op welke manier boden ze het hoofd aan onheilspellende berichten, aan de toenemende armoede en schaarste, aan epide-mieën en hongersnood? Waar haalden ze hun informatie over de militaire campagnes vandaan? Dat soort spannende vragen ligt aan Levenstekens ten grondslag.

Fabelhaft! Uiteraard zijn er massa's andere boeken die de geschiedenis van toerisme en reizen in ... more Fabelhaft! Uiteraard zijn er massa's andere boeken die de geschiedenis van toerisme en reizen in beeld brengen: van dikke pillen over de klassieke Grand Tour tot glossy bijdragen over kust-en kuuroorden. Maar deze bundel van Alison Martin, Lut Missinne en Beatrix van Dam gooit het voor één keer over een andere boeg en het resultaat is – zonder overdrijven – prachtig. Niet alleen door de ietwat eigenzinnige chronologische keuze, waarbij de ogenschijnlijk minder spannende era van de lange negentiende eeuw – tot voor kort het miskende broertje in reisgeschiedenis – van onder een dikke stoflaag wordt gehaald, noch door de tegendraadse keuze voor Duitsland, Oostenrijk, Nederland en Vlaanderen – niet bepaald de meest spannende reisbestemmingen, en dat is een understatement – maar wel door een uitgelezen selectie van auteurs, die het boek met hun excentrieke onderwerpen, frisse inzichten, nieuwe methoden en onvermoede bronnen tot een onverwachte pageturner maken.

In recent years, there is a surge of studies on disasters. Plague, poverty, dearth, and other cal... more In recent years, there is a surge of studies on disasters. Plague, poverty, dearth, and other calamities have been meticulously scrutinized, yet less paper and ink has been spent on fire. Drawing on the classic Gazetteer of Urban Fire Disasters and a series of new sources John Morgan analyses how small English market towns coped with such infernos (see 'The Representation and Experience of English Urban Fire Disasters, 1580-1640', Historical Research, 89 (2016) 268-263). First, Morgan analyses how the urban administration tried to raise emergency funds from other towns, noblemen, the Privy Council or even the King by launching a media campaign. Broadsheets and ballads shared several discursive strategies, whereby the former beauty, elegance, and stately nature of the town was craftily juxtaposed by a grim image of wreck and ruins, illustrated with gloomy figures on the scale of the devastation. Next, Morgan moves on to analyse how the emergency funds were actually spent to rebuild the town. As a rule, the financial relief was barely more than a drop in the ocean, as the collection rarely covered more than 10% to 15% of the actual damage. Therefore, urban administrations had to be picky where to invest the money. In the first weeks after the blaze, funds were used to alleviate the most stricken victims, yet in the following months most of the emergency aid went to merchants and master craftsmen, who could fuel and finance the rebuilding of the town. Yet, even in their case the refunding of the loss was partial and paltry. Most of the victims of the blaze were – also literally – left out in the cold, which may have caused a spike in the mortality rates on a longer term.

Met negen zijn ze. Kort en lang. Soms in keurig Frans, dan weer in alledaags Nederlands. Met pen ... more Met negen zijn ze. Kort en lang. Soms in keurig Frans, dan weer in alledaags Nederlands. Met pen en inkt zorgvuldig op schrift gesteld of in de haast met potlood neergekrabbeld op kreukelig papier. Het zijn de achttiende-eeuwse reisverslagen van Sigismund Pieter Alexander van Heiden Reinestein, die door Jan van der Meer in deze bronuitgave uitstekend getranscribeerd, bewerkt en geannoteerd werden. Dat lijkt, op het eerste zicht, een wat vreemde keuze. Als drost van Drenthe en Coevoorden lijkt Sigismund allesbehalve een spetterend figuur, maar schijn kan bedriegen. Dankzij het betere ellebogenwerk weet Sigismund zich immers al snel op te werken tot de hoogste regionen van de Republiek. Als kamerheer en vertrouweling van Willem V is hij een bevoorrechte getuige – en soms ook een belangrijke pion – in staatszaken. Dat bijzondere profiel zorgt in combinatie met het tijdsgewricht voor vuurwerk. Dankzij Sigismunds schrijfsels maak je immers van nabij kennis met de turbulente late achttiende eeuw en de talloze omwentelingen: het beleid van Willem V dat steeds vaker en scherper in vraag wordt gesteld; de patriottenbeweging die langzaam maar zeker aan kracht wint, kort triomfeert en vervolgens weer als een kaartenhuisje in elkaar stuikt; de Franse revolutionaire legers die het voortbestaan van de Republiek bedreigen,… Daarbij fungeren de negen reisverhalen, die uit de periode 1764 tot 1794 dateren, als een soort historische stop-motion film, waarbij je als lezer en cours de route onwillekeurig gebiologeerd, maar ook verbijsterd wordt.

... Author: Verhoeven, Gerrit. Date: 2008. ... Recommended Citation. Verhoeven, Gerrit - Recensie... more ... Author: Verhoeven, Gerrit. Date: 2008. ... Recommended Citation. Verhoeven, Gerrit - Recensie: KV von Bonstetten: Schriften über Italien (1800-1808) - In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 86(2008), p. 958-959. http://hdl.handle.net/10067/834460151162165141 ...

Hoewel slaap ook in het verleden een belangrijke dimensie van het dagelijks leven was, weten we e... more Hoewel slaap ook in het verleden een belangrijke dimensie van het dagelijks leven was, weten we er omzeggens niets over. Hoe lang pitten mensen in de achttiende eeuw? Sluimerde men in één ruk door van schemer tot dagenraad of schrok men regelmatig wakker in het holst van de nacht? Wie waren de nachtraven en vroege vogels? Welke invloed hadden de seizoenen op het slaapvolume? Dergelijke eenvoudige vragen blijven moeilijk te beantwoorden omdat betrouwbare historische bronnen lijken te ontbreken. Daardoor blijft de nacht een duistere pagina uit het verleden. Toch willen we in deze lezing alvast een tipje van de sluier oplichten. Daarvoor boren we een weinig voor de hand liggende bron aan. Paperassen van lokale strafrechtbanken-meer bepaald de examinatieën en informatieën-leveren immers heel wat onverwachte details op over het slaappatroon in een grijs verleden. Was slapen en sluimeren in de achttiende (g)eeuw werkelijk zo anders dan in onze eenentwintigste eeuw?

Presentation of the book G. Bernasconi, S. Thürigen (ed.), Material Histories of Time: Objects an... more Presentation of the book G. Bernasconi, S. Thürigen (ed.), Material Histories of Time: Objects and Practices (14th-19th Century), Berlin 2020.

Hoe zag een werkdag er precies uit in de achttiende eeuw? Wanneer was de kans het grootst om iema... more Hoe zag een werkdag er precies uit in de achttiende eeuw? Wanneer was de kans het grootst om iemand aan tafel, in de kerk of in de herberg te vinden? Hoe lang sliepen en sluimerden vroegmoderne mensen? Hadden ze voldoende vrije tijd? Dergelijke eenvoudige vragen lijken moeilijk te beantwoorden. Nochtans is het dagelijkse ritme van onze moderne samenleving al jaar en dag een belangrijk onderzoekstopic in de sociologie. Vooralsnog blijkt een historisch blik die de (dis)continuïteiten op lange termijn in kaart brengt te ontbreken. In deze lezing wil ik vooral de mogelijkheden van een dergelijke historische tijdsanalyse verkennen. Welke bronnen-en datareeksen-kunnen we gebruiken om de ritmes van de vroegmoderne samenleving te traceren? Met welke methodologische problemen heeft zo'n historische ritmeanalyse te kampen? En wat levert het uiteindelijk op?

From the Interwar Years onwards, camping became increasingly popular among Belgian middle- and lo... more From the Interwar Years onwards, camping became increasingly popular among Belgian middle- and lower-class tourists. What had seemed a harmless trickle at first, soon turned into an uncontrollable flood, that threatened to wash away the exclusive hallmark of Ostend, Blankenberge, Knokke or other traditional seaside resorts. Local policymakers saw the influx of campers with their loose moral (including provocative dress), bad hygiene and their total disrespect for the environment as a slur on their resort’s luxurious escutcheon and reacted with a battery of bans, regulations, and fines, as they feared that the coming of mass-tourism would drive the posh clientele of the hotels, palaces and restaurants away. Their campaign not only left a paper trail in the local archives at the coast, but also lead to some heated discussions in parliament. Moreover, the debates spilled into the popular media, whereby adversaries crossed swords with advocates. Drawing on these sources, we aim to shed more light on these puppeteers behind the scene and their motivation to restrict or contain camping. Particular attention will be paid to the discursive strategies that were used to label campers as unwanted tourists, as well as active regulation to dam their influx.

Tijdsgebrek is de kwaal van onze eenentwintigste eeuw. We moeten met zijn allen rennen, springen,... more Tijdsgebrek is de kwaal van onze eenentwintigste eeuw. We moeten met zijn allen rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan om werk, vrije tijd en sociale verplichtingen te combineren en-als het even kan-ook nog voldoende te slapen. Maar hoe zat dat eigenlijk in het verleden. Hoeveel vrije tijd hadden onze voorouders in de achttiende eeuw? Waren lange werkuren de norm? Hoe veel tijd restte er voor God? Wanneer kroop men precies onder de wol? In deze lezing trachten we een antwoord op deze vragen te vinden door vroegmoderne getuigenissen uit te pluizen. Wat leren die gerechtelijke bronnen ons over dagindeling en tijdsbesteding in het verleden? Hoe besteedden mannen en vrouwen, jong en oud, rijk en arm hun (al dan niet schaarse) tijd?

How important was the issue of time in early modern criminal investigation? Did examining magistr... more How important was the issue of time in early modern criminal investigation? Did examining magistrates check for alibi’s, chronological inconsistencies, and other time-related evidence? How much pressure did they put on eyewitnesses to come up with a reliable time frame? In answering these questions, my lecture ties in with two major debates. First of all, there is a strand of research that advocates some important evolutions in early modern time consciousness. According to Thompson, Landes, Glennie, and many others, everyday time perception changed profoundly in the early modern period, although there is little if any consensus about the speed (abruptly versus slow-burn), the timing (late 18th century versus from the Middle Ages onwards), and the impact (upper-crust or trickling-down) of the phenomenon. On the other hand, experts on crime/legal history have hinted at a steady process of professionalization and bureaucratization, whereby the modus operandi of early modern courts slowly but surely changed. New research has shown how investigation techniques were constantly honed, improved, and finalized. In this lecture, I want to explore the best practices of early modern benches in handling time-related evidence. How important was this temporal proof? What kind of precision was expected? How did legal theory and advice books influence this quest for accuracy? These and other questions will be tackled by delving into the examinatiën en informatiën of the Hoogere Vierschaer, viz. the highly detailed proceedings of the Antwerp criminal court.

Under the influence of Cesara Beccaria’s Dei delitti e delle pene (1764) and a range of other pro... more Under the influence of Cesara Beccaria’s Dei delitti e delle pene (1764) and a range of other progressive jurists, legal practice evolved dramatically in the late eighteenth century, as capital punishments, torture, and other obsolete practices were hotly debated and less frequently utilized. Even before Emperor Jozef II launched his ambitious and highly controversial reform plans, legal practice had already radically evolved in the Austrian Netherlands. For the judges of the local benches, the decline in torture was quite a challenge, as they were forced to explore and develop other strategies to worm a confession out of the suspect. In Antwerp, the examining magistrates tried and tested a battery of new procedures, whereby suspects were confronted with inconsistencies in their earlier statements, incriminating material evidence, faulty alibi’s, testimonies of eyewitnesses, CSI reports, and other tools. Emotional strategies were also used to elicit a confession. In this lecture, I want to trace these evolutions in examination techniques in eighteenth-century Antwerp in detail. Moreover, I will look at the links with legal theory and advisory literature to measure their impact on legal practice and vice versa. Crime investigation has been a topical theme in criminal history ever since experts such as King, Porret, or Schwerhoff put it on research agenda in the ’90s and ‘00s, yet less attention has been paid to slow-burn evolutions in interrogation and examination techniques. Delving into the rich proceedings of the Antwerp Hoogere Vierschaer – the so-called examinatiën en informatiën – I aim to provide fresh perspective.

Even though there is a growing body of literature on investigation techniques, that early modern ... more Even though there is a growing body of literature on investigation techniques, that early modern judges, examining magistrates, bailiffs, and other actors deployed to solve all sorts of criminal cases, literature has largely failed to link these procedures to the social profile of victims. Were criminal courts prepared to invest the same time and energy when a penniless greengrocer was murdered as when a merchant was slain? Did burglary in a modest middle-class house generate the same hue and cry as a housebreaking in a luxurious mansion? These questions remain hard to answer, as most literature on criminal justice zooms in on the social bias of suspects – foreigners were one of the favourite targets – but largely ignore the victims. Textbook-wisdom suggests, that these social differences really mattered in civil courts. Middle-class and poor defendants stood less chance to win their case, as their financial reserves were more quickly depleted by the substantial legal costs, stamp taxes, and other court fees. Even though pro deo was in theory available, their chances on legal aid advice were slim. In this lecture, I will focus on the extensiveness of investigation techniques in criminal courts, and more especially on the link with the social profile of victims. The research is based on the informatieën en examinatieën of the Antwerp Hoogere Vierschaer, the local court of criminal justice. These dossiers include eyewitness reports, cross-examinations, forensic reports, testimonies of material experts, minutes of the bailiff and his lads, as well as full biographical information of the victim – including occupation, place of birth, sex, and age. Together these reports shed a new light on the link between investigation techniques and social profile in more detail.

How did early modern travellers feel at home when they visited Rome, Paris, London or any other f... more How did early modern travellers feel at home when they visited Rome, Paris, London or any other foreign metropolis? What was the importance of apartments, furniture, food, servants, and souvenirs to create a feeling of domesticity? Which level of comfort did these travellers expect? In classic textbook-wisdom, the material life of the Grand Tour has often been scrutinized through the lens of luxuriousness and conspicuous consumption. This leads to a cliché-ridden image of young noblemen, who – literally – spend fortunes on hotel rooms, meals, clothes, and a train of servants. Yet, other dimensions of this material culture remain virtually unexplored. Flemish and Dutch travel journals, personal letters, receipt books, and a range of other sources will be analysed in this lecture to provide fresh perspective. Especially, the emotional strategies of homemaking abroad will be examined by zooming in on the importance of housing, food, and servants on the Grand Tour. How did these travellers create a makeshift home in a foreign metropolis? What material and physical needs had to be fulfilled before travellers could feel at ease?

In the classic works of Landes, Thompson, Cipolla, and others, evolutions in time awareness have ... more In the classic works of Landes, Thompson, Cipolla, and others, evolutions in time awareness have been firmly linked to new horological technology. It has been argued, that the insidious spread of pocket watches in late eighteenth-century Britain fuelled a new, modern, and clock-based time awareness, while more traditional ways to keep track of time – the stations of the sun, religious and social activities – fell into oblivion. New research has challenged this black-and-white opposition between industrial and pre-industrial time awareness as an oversimplified piece of technological determinism. Some experts have argued that clock-based time awareness was much older than the late eighteenth century, while others have emphasized the resilience/hardiness of more traditional ways to measure time. Despite all these bold claims, empirical research into early modern time awareness remains scarce. In this lecture, I will turn to the proceedings of the Old Bailey court in London to paint a more subtle image of slow-burn evolutions in time awareness. Literally thousands of depositions were analysed to recover how ordinary people kept track of time and how their time consciousness was shaped by tower bells, grandfather clocks, and pocket watches.

In the late seventeenth century, short trips – labelled as speelreisje, somertogje or even vacanc... more In the late seventeenth century, short trips – labelled as speelreisje, somertogje or even vacance by contemporaries – to the Southern Netherlands were the latest vogue among Dutch upper-crust burghers. Literally hundreds over travel journals bear witness of the snowballing attraction of this type of travelling, which proved more popular than the classic Grand Tour to Rome, but also eclipsed London, Paris, Berlin and other fashionable destinations. Obviously, the Southern Netherlands had some attractions, as the baroque masterpieces of Rubens and Van Dijck drew a throng of passionate connoisseurs and art buffs. Martial lieux de mémoire – Malplaquet, Ramillies, Namur and other places, which had been famous hotspots in the endless wars of Louis XIV – were also frequently visited. Lace shopping was a popular activity too. Yet, even with these boons in mind, it remains a mystery why throngs of Dutch travellers were drawn to the south every year. What did the southern provinces have that their own fatherland lacked? In this lecture, I want to argue that the attraction of the Southern Netherlands was boosted by an (un)conscious process of Othering. Dutch travellers framed the southern provinces as a popish bulwark, a backward economy, and a rugged wilderness. These stereotypes not only fuelled the attraction of the south – envisioned as an exotic and exciting destination within easy reach – but they also strengthened the Dutch self-image of modernity and superiority. Therefore, these plaisierreijsjes and somertogjes became an essential element in the spread of nationalism.

Food had become a serious issue in eighteenth century Antwerp. Knives and forks, spoons, cups, gl... more Food had become a serious issue in eighteenth century Antwerp. Knives and forks, spoons, cups, glasses, napkins, salt & pepper cellars, coffee sets, and a wide range of other tableware were increasingly listed by notaries in post-mortem inventories. Notarial deeds not only bear witness of the snowballing quantity, variety and fashionable appeal of cutlery, earthen- and glassware, but also seems to hint at a slow but sure domestication – or even individualization – of food culture. However, these inventories only shed light on one part of the story, as they fail to illustrate other – less tangible – eating habits. In fact, the act of wolfing down some cheese and bread in the street, the nibbling on a smoked plaice, freshly bought from a stall, or the ordering of some salted meat in an inn hardly left any trace at all. In this lecture, a more comprehensive picture of early modern food culture is painted, by a meticulous analysis of the eyewitness reports before the Antwerp criminal court. Files of the Hoogere Vierschaer enable to resuscitate early modern food culture in detail and help to answer some moot questions. Was street and finger food gradually substituted by meals at home? Did fast food only appeal to the seamy side of society? Was there a particular timing for snacking?

How did early modern migrants settle down in their new hometown? How successful were they in find... more How did early modern migrants settle down in their new hometown? How successful were they in finding new job opportunities, in enhancing their own human capital, or in forging new social ties? Despite the prolific literature on migration in early modern Europe, little is known about the actual assimilation of local and foreign migrants. My paper aims to tackle some of these issues by delving into the examinitieën en informatieën – the extensive witness reports of the local criminal court in Antwerp. Job hopping, human capital, and social relations will be scrutinized in detail.

For ages, Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence, and myriad other Italian towns drew new generations of ... more For ages, Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence, and myriad other Italian towns drew new generations of European travellers, especially as the Grand Tour through the peninsula and southern France gradually became the final chapter of a genteel education. Young noblemen were sent southwards, where they were expected to acquire a taste for renaissance painting, music, and architecture; to survey sights of Roman Antiquity; to learn a smattering of Italian; to visit the humanist centres of learning; and to master an entirely new set of cultivated postures and behavioural protocols for such activities as dancing, fencing, horsemanship, and conversation. The Grand Tour, which so enticed generations of young traveller in its day, similarly inspires academic research today. Most historians – including Black and Sweet, among others – continue to gaze southwards; recent trailblazing research, however, has argued that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the focus of European travellers was shifting northwards. According to this view, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and other European metropolises were now vying to become the new, cultural hotspots and threatened to eclipse Rome as Europe’s preeminent travel destination. Clearly, this process reshaped early modern travel behaviour, as the Grand Tour was gradually superseded by shorter, more regular, and less expensive trips and tours through Western Europe. During the eighteenth century, these metropolises of the north began to draw marked numbers of foreign and native travellers.
Individual researchers from England, Germany, and the Netherlands have sought to map these novel trends in travel behaviour, yet a broad survey, which ties these various threads together, remains missing. This article delves into the literature and endeavours to link the elements of this puzzle: major changes in destinations and travel itineraries (performances) will be meticulously (re)considered, and travellers’ opinions and judgements (discourse) will be analysed. Was the magnetism of London, Paris, Amsterdam and other thriving metropolises indeed growing in the eighteenth century, and the attraction of Rome, Naples and Venice fading? Were travellers of the opinion that Europe’s cultural meccas were henceforth to be found in North-Western Europe and no longer on the Italian peninsula? If so, were they thus creating a new cultural hub?
The objective is not merely to uncover trends and evolutions, but also to pinpoint underlying explanations. The phenomenon of place branding must be kept in mind, for slick, eighteenth-century publishers were robustly disseminating handy-sized guidebooks to Paris, London and Amsterdam which presented visions of modern, creative metropolises bustling with life and culture. Likewise, materiality should not to be disregarded. Stone-slab paved roads and regular stagecoaches rendered London, Paris, and Brussels easily accessible in the late early modern age and thus facilitated their newly obtained status as cultural hubs. Politics also played a central role, with kings, ministers, and citizens vigorously seeking to boost the cultural renown of their metropolises, especially through efforts to foster urban renewal, architectural landmarks, museums, music and the arts. Finally, yet not least, this article seeks to scrutinise the gradual but definite evolutions in the conceptualization of culture. Foreign travellers to sixteenth-century Rome seemed to restrict the concept to renaissance art, humanist acumen, and Roman antiquity, whereas the eighteenth-century notion of a cultural hub evolved to embrace fashion, science, sports, youth culture, and various other elements.

Dark tourism is a buzzword in academia today. Literature is primarily focused on how present-day ... more Dark tourism is a buzzword in academia today. Literature is primarily focused on how present-day societies remember epic battles and sieges from the past, ranging from the National Wallace Monument in Stirling to the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. Due to this focus, dark tourism is usually envisaged as a modern phenomenon, brought about by modern mass media (documentary films, travel guides, brochures, and guides tours) and triggered by an unprecedented aggression in modern warfare. However, this contemporary lens obscures the idea that the historical roots of dark tourism go much deeper. In this lecture, I aim to explore one illustrative example in more detail. During the early eighteenth century, a brief playsierreis (pleasure trip) through the Austrian Netherlands became all the vogue, among Dutch, English, French, and German travellers. Clearly, their attention was not only focused on the superb canvasses of Peter-Paul Rubens, the baroque churches and monasteries, or the high-priced lace, yet these foreigners were also drawn to the Southern Netherlands by its recent bellicose past. Fortresses, battlefields, and other places of interest, bound to the recent wars of Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance, became popular destinations. First, we want to analyze how this terre de mémoire arose. Which towns and battlegrounds were included? How did these ‘new’ destinations fit into the traditional tour through the Southern Netherlands? Then, we will try to shed some light on the various media, in which the southern Netherlands were branded as Europe’s principal theatre of war. How did early modern guide-books, prints, newspapers, broadsheets, and a hodgepodge of other media created the brand of a tormented region?

In 1815 – op het beroemde congres van Wenen – werd een nieuwe natie boven de doopvont gehouden. H... more In 1815 – op het beroemde congres van Wenen – werd een nieuwe natie boven de doopvont gehouden. Het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden kreeg gestalte. Nederlanders, Belgen en Luxemburgers werden verenigd onder één vorst, één vlag en één vaderland. Nauwelijks enkele jaren later, in 1830, spatte die prille natie alweer uit elkaar toen de Belgische revolutie uitbrak. Dat verhaal van het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden komt nooit echt uit de verf in klassieke geschiedenisboeken. Het blijft een wat kleurloze periode tussen de laatste oprispingen van Napoleon en de komst van Leopold I. Nochtans doet dat cliché de realiteit onrecht aan, want onder Nederlands vlag woei er wel degelijk een nieuwe wind. Nieuwe liberale ideeën beïnvloedden het politieke bedrijf, terwijl de ontluikende industriële revolutie de kwakkelende economie nieuw leven inblies. Een schare schilders, beeldhouwers en architecten timmerde mee aan een baanbrekend cultuurbeleid. Men trachtte ook een nieuwe armen- en gezondheidszorg op poten te zetten. In deze lezing willen we dat verhaal van het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden opnieuw vertellen. Mechelen wordt daarbij de vaste uitvalsbasis. Met sappige kronieken en kranten, vlijmscherpe pamfletten, kurkdroge rekwesten en tal van andere bronnen willen we de Mechelaars van toen opnieuw een stem geven. Wat vonden ze van hun “Hollandse maatjes” uit het Noorden? Hoe veranderde de stad tussen 1815 en 1830?

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies, 2025

Virtus. Journal for Nobility Studies dedicates its 2025 volume to the mobility of the nobility an... more Virtus. Journal for Nobility Studies dedicates its 2025 volume to the mobility of the nobility and invites articles addressing this topic. Embracing a broad definition of mobility, this thematic number aims to cover a wide range of experiences and dimensions of noble men, women, and their households while they were on the move.

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies, 2022

The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening... more The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening collecting practices. Besides the boom of public museums, the general understanding of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century collecting is dominated by the rise of the bourgeois collectionneur as new social type. Within the broader historiography much attention has been paid to the new industrial tycoons and businessmen, as well as the (higher) middling sort of collectors, all eager to tap into a growing 'collection mania'. Less well studied for this period, however, remain the blue-blooded collectors or collectionneurs nobles. This comes as quite a surprise since the practice of collecting itself has deep and long running roots, intimately tied to endeavours of early-modern royal houses and noblemen, amassing Wunderkammern full of Fine and Decorative Arts, precious manuscripts and books, naturalia, and myriad other collectables. While some, less fortunate noblemen, were forced to sell their prized family collections during the age of political, industrial, and cultural revolutions, others retained their titles and fortunes, and continued to collect for economic reasons (as investment), or for reasons tied to their specific, albeit changing, social and cultural status in modern societies.

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies

The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening... more The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening collecting practices. Besides the boom of public museums, the general understanding of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century collecting is dominated by the rise of the bourgeois collectioneur as new social type. Within the broader historiography much attention has been paid to the new industrial tycoons and businessmen, as well as the (higher) middling sort of collectors, all eager to tap into a growing 'collection mania'. Less well studied for this period, however, remain the blue-blooded collectors or collectioneurs nobles. This comes as quite a surprise since the practice of collecting itself has deep and long running roots, intimately tied to endeavours of early-modern royal houses and noblemen, amassing Wunderkammern full of Fine and Decorative Arts, precious manuscripts and books, naturalia, and myriad other collectables. While some, less fortunate noblemen, were forced to sell their prized family collections during the age of political, industrial, and cultural revolutions, others retained their titles and fortunes, and continued to collect for economic reasons (as investment), or for reasons tied to their specific, albeit changing, social and cultural status in modern societies.

Jaarboek De Zeventiende Eeuw

We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken... more We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan om werk en vrije tijd te combineren, de kinderen naar school te brengen, ons potje te koken en-als het even kan-ook nog voldoende te slapen. Nieuwe en alsmaar snellere transport-en communicatiemiddelen versterken het gevoel van een tomeloze acceleratie van het dagelijkse leven. Elke minuut-elke seconde-wordt afgemeten met polshorloges, mobiele telefoons, chronometers, prik-en stationsklokken, schoolbellen, kookwekkers en andere tijdsmeters. Yoga, meditatie en mindfulness, workshops voor slow cooking, wellnessweekendjes en tal van andere middeltjes moeten ons helpen om stoom af te blazen en een beetje te onthaasten. Die wurgende tijdsdruk wordt door tal van psychologen aangevinkt als de kwaal van onze eeuw. Dat roept uiteraard allerlei vragen op over het verleden. Hoe belangrijk waren kerk-en torenklokken, zakhorloges, zandlopers en zonnewijzers in de zeventiende eeuw? Welk effect hadden nieuwe transport-en communicatiemiddelen-van trekschuiten en jaagkoetsen tot brieven en kranten-op het tijdsbesef? Hoe beïnvloedde technologie het tijdsbewustzijn van mannen en vrouwen, arm en rijk, jong en oud, stads-en plattelandsbewoners, locals, migranten en reizigers? Naast evoluties in tijdsbewustzijn wil dit themadossier ook op zoek naar breuken in het dagelijkse tijdsgebruik. Hoeveel tijd besteedden zeventiende-eeuwers aan werk, huishoudelijke klusjes, vrije tijd, religie, sociale participatie, persoonlijke hygiëne of slaap? Hoe beïnvloedden maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen zoals de Vries' industrious revolution of Burkes invention of leisure de balans tussen al die activiteiten? Welke morele normen, beelden en discoursen bestonden er rond ijver en luiheid? Tenslotte wil dit themanummer ook op zoek naar tijdsgebonden emoties. Kampten zeventiende-eeuwers ook met moordende tijdsdruk of eerder met tomeloze verveling? Hadden ze het gevoel dat ze in een tijd van ongeziene acceleratie leefden? Of ging het leven zijn gezapige gangetje? O

Even though ageing in the past has become a topical theme in the last few decades, many dimension... more Even though ageing in the past has become a topical theme in the last few decades, many dimensions of the everyday life of the elderly still remain in the dark. Work is, for instance, still heavily debated. Numerous clauses in testaments and rents, ledgers of the craft-guilds, commercial contracts of old people's homes, and other references evidence that the concept of retirement was not completely unknown in early modern Europe. Meanwhile, other sources seem to suggest that a large swath of society struggled and toiled on well into their old age. In this respect, even the most basic questions remain hard to answer. How active were the elderly on the labour market? When were certain professions, and especially the most arduous, exchanged for less demanding jobs? To what extent was wage labour considered a welcome (and perhaps even vital) addition to retirement pensions from craft-guilds, commercial rents, and other sources of income? Although these issues are of key importance, the aim of the conference is also to look beyond the classic work/retirement debate in order to uncover other dimensions of everyday time-use during old age. Did the elderly engage in different leisure activities than their younger family members, neighbours, and friends? Was their sleeping pattern atypical? What about religion, domestic experiences and chores or personal hygiene?

We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken... more We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan om werk en vrije tijd te combineren, de kinderen naar school te brengen, ons potje te koken en-als het even kan-ook nog voldoende te slapen. Nieuwe en alsmaar snellere transport-en communicatiemiddelen versterken het gevoel van een tomeloze acceleratie van het dagelijkse leven. Elke minuut-elke seconde-wordt afgemeten met polshorloges, mobiele telefoons, chronometers, prik-en stationsklokken, schoolbellen, kookwekkers en andere tijdsmeters. Yoga, meditatie en mindfulness, workshops voor slow cooking, wellnessweekendjes en tal van andere middeltjes moeten ons helpen om stoom af te blazen en een beetje te onthaasten. Die wurgende tijdsdruk wordt door tal van psychologen aangevinkt als de kwaal van onze eeuw. Dat roept uiteraard allerlei vragen op over het verleden. Hoe belangrijk waren kerk-en torenklokken, zakhorloges, zandlopers en zonnewijzers in de zeventiende eeuw? Welk effect hadden nieuwe transport-en communicatiemiddelen-van trekschuiten en jaagkoetsen tot brieven en kranten-op het tijdsbesef? Hoe beïnvloedde technologie het tijdsbewustzijn van mannen en vrouwen, arm en rijk, jong en oud, stads-en plattelandsbewoners, locals, migranten en reizigers? Naast evoluties in tijdsbewustzijn wil dit themadossier ook op zoek naar breuken in het dagelijkse tijdsgebruik. Hoeveel tijd besteedden zeventiende-eeuwers aan werk, huishoudelijke klusjes, vrije tijd, religie, sociale participatie, persoonlijke hygiëne of slaap? Hoe beïnvloedden maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen zoals de Vries' industrious revolution of Burkes invention of leisure de balans tussen al die activiteiten? Welke morele normen, beelden en discoursen bestonden er rond ijver en luiheid? Tenslotte wil dit themanummer ook op zoek naar tijdsgebonden emoties. Kampten zeventiende-eeuwers ook met moordende tijdsdruk of eerder met tomeloze verveling? Hadden ze het gevoel dat ze in een tijd van ongeziene acceleratie leefden? Of ging het leven zijn gezapige gangetje? Om zoveel mogelijk facetten van tijd in de zeventiende eeuw te exploreren, willen we graag een breed pallet aan bronnen aanboren: persoonlijke brieven, memoires en dagboeken, kronieken, juridische dossiers, boedelinventarissen, schoolreglementen en ordonnantiën, maar ook preken, pamfletten, moppen, liedjes, toneelstukken, lijkdichten, prenten en schilderijen, enzovoort. Daarnaast nemen we ook de lange zeventiende eeuw in ogenschouw. Tenslotte willen we de Nederlanden ook zo ruim

Even though ageing in the past has become a topical theme in the last few decades, many dimension... more Even though ageing in the past has become a topical theme in the last few decades, many dimensions of the everyday life of the elderly still remain in the dark. Work is, for instance, still heavily debated. Numerous clauses in testaments and rents, ledgers of the craft-guilds, commercial contracts of old people's homes, and other references evidence that the concept of retirement was not completely unknown in early modern Europe. Meanwhile, other sources seem to suggest that a large swath of society struggled and toiled on well into their old age. In this respect, even the most basic questions remain hard to answer. How active were the elderly on the labour market? When were certain professions, and especially the most arduous, exchanged for less demanding jobs? To what extent was wage labour considered a welcome (and perhaps even vital) addition to retirement pensions from craft-guilds, commercial rents, and other sources of income? Although these issues are of key importance, the aim of the conference is also to look beyond the classic work/retirement debate in order to uncover other dimensions of everyday time-use during old age. Did the elderly engage in different leisure activities than their younger family members, neighbours, and friends? Was their sleeping pattern atypical? What about religion, domestic experiences and chores or personal hygiene? Participants will be asked to reflect on the central theme of everyday time-use of the elderly by delving into new sources (testaments, legislation, court proceedings, ego-documents…) or by developing new methodologies. Hence, this conference wants to give fresh impetus to research on the daily lives and survival strategies of an important social category which has, all too often, been largely ignored in mainstream historical research. To further understand the links between peoples' lifecycle stages and their labour and leisure activities, as well as their religious and domestic experiences, this conference welcomes papers addressing: SESSION 1 (Work)-the labour activities of ageing men and women; the interplay between peoples' agency and the ways they could/ tried to provide for their own livelihood during old ages. Did physical and mental decline reduce labour input once people entered into old age? If so, at what age did this happen? Did it cause a severe decline in earnings, so that old age came with a high risk of poverty and vulnerability? Was ageing synonymous for poverty? Or could a younger spouse, (resident) children, and other family members remedy income losses, and, if so, what did this mean for the participation of women and children in labour markets? …

Jaarboek De Zeventiende Eeuw, 2021

We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken... more We leven onder een verschroeiende tijdsdruk. Elke dag moeten we rennen, springen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan om werk en vrije tijd te combineren, de kinderen naar school te brengen, ons potje te koken en-als het even kan-ook nog voldoende te slapen. Nieuwe en alsmaar snellere transport-en communicatiemiddelen versterken het gevoel van een tomeloze acceleratie van het dagelijkse leven. Elke minuut-elke seconde-wordt afgemeten met polshorloges, mobiele telefoons, chronometers, prik-en stationsklokken, schoolbellen, kookwekkers en andere tijdsmeters. Yoga, meditatie en mindfulness, workshops voor slow cooking, wellnessweekendjes en tal van andere middeltjes moeten ons helpen om stoom af te blazen en een beetje te onthaasten. Die wurgende tijdsdruk wordt door tal van psychologen aangevinkt als de kwaal van onze eeuw. Dat roept uiteraard allerlei vragen op over het verleden. Hoe belangrijk waren kerk-en torenklokken, zakhorloges, zandlopers en zonnewijzers in de zeventiende eeuw? Welk effect hadden nieuwe transport-en communicatiemiddelen-van trekschuiten en jaagkoetsen tot brieven en kranten-op het tijdsbesef? Hoe beïnvloedde technologie het tijdsbewustzijn van mannen en vrouwen, arm en rijk, jong en oud, stads-en plattelandsbewoners, locals, migranten en reizigers? Naast evoluties in tijdsbewustzijn wil dit themadossier ook op zoek naar breuken in het dagelijkse tijdsgebruik. Hoeveel tijd besteedden zeventiende-eeuwers aan werk, huishoudelijke klusjes, vrije tijd, religie, sociale participatie, persoonlijke hygiëne of slaap? Hoe beïnvloedden maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen zoals de Vries' industrious revolution of Burkes invention of leisure de balans tussen al die activiteiten? Welke morele normen, beelden en discoursen bestonden er rond ijver en luiheid? Tenslotte wil dit themanummer ook op zoek naar tijdsgebonden emoties. Kampten zeventiende-eeuwers ook met moordende tijdsdruk of eerder met tomeloze verveling? Hadden ze het gevoel dat ze in een tijd van ongeziene acceleratie leefden? Of ging het leven zijn gezapige gangetje? Om zoveel mogelijk facetten van tijd in de zeventiende eeuw te exploreren, willen we graag een breed pallet aan bronnen aanboren: persoonlijke brieven, memoires en dagboeken, kronieken, juridische dossiers, boedelinventarissen, schoolreglementen en ordonnantiën, maar ook preken, pamfletten, moppen, liedjes, toneelstukken, lijkdichten, prenten en schilderijen, enzovoort. Daarnaast nemen we ook de lange zeventiende eeuw in ogenschouw. Tenslotte willen we de Nederlanden ook zo ruim mogelijk inkleuren. Naast bijdragen over de Nederlandse Republiek en de Spaanse Nederlanden is ook onderzoek naar tijd in een koloniale context meer dan welkom. Wil je graag een bijdrage leveren aan dit themadossier? Stuur dan een kort abstract (ca. 500 woorden) en een kort CV (ca. 50 woorden) naar gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be. Deadline voor het inleveren CFP Themanummer DZE 2021 1

Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other... more Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other political, cultural, economic, and other stakeholders have tried to (re)brand cities in Europe and beyond to become attractive tourist destinations. They did so by creating new urban icons (Guggenheim in Bilbao!), new slogans and narratives (I love NY!), and new marketing techniques (for instance in its use of social media). Due to worldwide imitation and-from place to place-relative successes in boosting urban tourism, these urban marketing phenomena are often seen as a contemporary invention; an idea which is fuelled by the surprising scarcity of in-depth historical research on the topic. This session, however, aims to develop a comparative and transnational agenda towards a better understanding of the long-term history of urban tourism promotion. In this session, we invite paper givers to explore five main issues on the basis of original research. First of all, we want to achieve a better understanding of the main actors involved in urban tourist promotion, and, especially, study their motives and interaction. Which stakeholders (from urban administrations, over tourism promoting associations, to hotel and restaurant managers, etc.) took the lead in urban tourism promotion and why? How did they negotiate their sometimes conflicting goals, interests and visions of the city as tourist destination? Was tourist attraction always the main driver behind urban promotion, or part of a wider and more diverse set of motives, strategies and activities to 'boost' cities? Which media-from newspaper adds, brochures and posters, to cinema, radio and other 'new' media-did actors use to put their city in the spotlight? In what way were different media technologies mobilised to address socially different tourists? Which main attractions and urban experiences did actors stress in tourist promotion? How did they, for instance, strike a balance between selling urban heritage and modernity? And were certain types of urban tourists more welcome as others (for instance wealthy ones, or those looking for culture)? Last but not least, how did local stakeholders develop their urban brands and marketing strategies by a local, national and international transfer of expertise? Which cities in Europe and beyond took the lead in urban tourism promotion? And how was knowledge on urban tourism promotion internationally disseminated, studied and imitated from place to place? To address these types of questions, we accept proposals written from different urban disciplinary perspectives. We particularly welcome proposals which offer a wider comparative and/or long-term historical perspective. European as well as non-European case studies will be taken into consideration.

Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoordig in de zeventiende eeuw. Morele lessen zaten verpakt in de... more Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoordig in de zeventiende eeuw. Morele lessen zaten verpakt in de literatuur van Jacob Cats, in Bredero’s toneel, in Arnout van Overbeke’s moppen, in de beelden van Artus Quellinus en in de schilderijen van Jan Steen. Normen over zedelijk gedrag werden ook vrolijk rondgebazuind in schuine liedjes en stuiverromans, in vertrouwelijke brieven, roddel en achterklap. Katholieke priesters uit het zuiden ontketenden een nieuw zedelijkheidsoffensief doormiddel van donderpreken, biecht en catechese, terwijl predikanten in het noorden hun schaapjes vanuit de kerkenraad op koers probeerden te houden. Daarbij werd het doel lang niet altijd bereikt. Deugd en ondeugd waren eveneens belangrijke thema’s in de ordonnanties van stad en staat, in de reglementen van ambachten, gilden en schutterijen, en in humanistisch geïnspireerde etiquetteboekjes. Doormiddel van exemplae uit de Klassieke Oudheid, religieuze of vaderlandse geschiedenis probeerden biografen en hagiografen hun lezers een spiegel met voorbeelden van deugdzaam gedrag voor te houden.
Met het jaarcongres willen we niet alleen een staat opmaken van deugd en ondeugd in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden, maar ook inzicht verkrijgen in de complexe werking tussen norm en praktijk. Moraal was zelden of nooit statisch, maar werd op een bijzonder persoonlijke wijze toegeëigend, geaccommodeerd of gecontesteerd. Daarnaast wil het congres nieuw licht werpen op de verschillende moral communities. Naargelang van iemands sociale positie, gender, leeftijd, herkomst, religie en andere eigenschappen konden waardenpatronen immers fel van elkaar verschillen. Op het congres willen we dus zoveel mogelijk opvattingen over deugd en ondeugd in de Lage Landen aan bod laten komen en bediscussiëren.
We nodigen iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het congres, graag uit om een kort abstract (maximaal 300 woorden) en CV (max. 100 woorden) in te dienen voor 1 april 2019. Eveneens welkom zijn voorstellen voor een complete sessie. Op het congres bedraagt de maximale spreektijd 20 minuten. Abstracts inleveren bij gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be

Tourism fuels nationalism. At least, that is the impression one gets from a – fairly short – list... more Tourism fuels nationalism. At least, that is the impression one gets from a – fairly short – list of books and articles on the topic. Through their excursions to national monuments, heritage sites and landscapes in their own country, tourists are unconsciously turned into proud patriots. Nationhood is all too often presented as the prime motivation and inevitable outcome of (domestic) travel and tourism, while recent theories in nationalism have cast some serious doubt on such assumptions. Drawing on these new insights, our session aims to challenge the idea that tourism automatically – as a sort of deus ex machina – feeds nationalism. We’ll look at three levels to gain a better understanding of the complex interaction between both phenomena.
First of all, the session zeroes in on the production of national imagery from above in the policy of Tourist Information Office’s [TIO] in posters, brochures, guide books, promotional films, and other material. Secondly, we will look at the meso-level of commercial stakeholders (travel agencies, touring operators, hotels,…), associations (touring clubs, youth associations, camera clubs,…) and other initiatives. Last but not least, the session aims to uncover nationalism from below. Innovative concepts, including theories on banal nationalism and national indifference, have challenged the idea that top-down initiatives were swallowed hook, line and sinker by ordinary citizens. National identities rather refracted in fifty shades of grey, as people had the agency to appropriate nationhood idiosyncratically, haphazardly, or selectively – not to mention the option to deflect or even to reject it.
We invite participants to reflect on the interaction between grassroots and top-down initiatives in a variety of countries (Europe and beyond), periods (from the 18th to the 21st century), and angles. Drawing on the insights from the performative, spatial, and other “turns” we also encourage participants to move beyond a traditional focus on discursive practices. Nationhood is not only constructed in what tourists say or write, but also in images (photos & films), objects (souvenirs), (everyday) rituals/performances, space (destinations & itineraries), emotions and corporality (pride, shame, reverence,…).
Abstracts (max. 500 words) and a short CV should be sent to andreas.stynen@kuleuven.be or gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be before 13 April 2019.

Organisers:
Andreas Stynen (KULeuven)
Gerrit Verhoeven (UAntwerpen)

CLOCKWISE Technologies of time in early modern Europe (c. 1530-1830) During the early modern peri... more CLOCKWISE Technologies of time in early modern Europe (c. 1530-1830) During the early modern period horological technology took a quantum leap forward. While sixteenth-century clocks could easily loose several minutes a day, their inaccuracy had been, by the late eighteenth century, brought back to mere seconds. At the same time, clocks evolved from expensive, unwieldy machines into nifty, miniaturised, and (relatively) cheap versions, that could be taken along in the pockets of vests, coats or breeches. Last but not least, time was slowly but surely democratised, as longcase clocks, alarms, and pocket-watches percolated through the lower strata of society. These three evolutions are key ingredients in one of the classical master narratives in the history of past time awareness and timekeeping: David Landes' horological revolution. Even though experts have challenged its teleological baseline, its technological determinism, and its Eurocentric lens, it still remains a moot question how time technology (re)shaped everyday life in early modern Europe and beyond. Was time technology really key to some sweeping (r)evolutions? Did clocks, pocket watches and other timepieces power the progress of science, administration, astronomy, business, justice, medicine, navigation, and other societal change? Or was their use rather a discursive strategy-a superficial kind of window-dressing or scientific swagger that physicians, chemists, cooks, judges, bankers, civil servants, and other professionals used to give their trade a modern touch? Was horological technology perceived as more efficient, accurate, or practical than the classic implements-sundials and hourglasses, heartbeats, knots, and prayers-that were traditionally used to time events? How resilient were these non-mechanical ways to measure time? Or, in sum, did clocks really matter? Therefore, our book aims to decentre, hone, or at least challenge the traditional role of clocks as agents of change in classic historiography. We would like to invite papers that address these questions from a variety of perspectives-be it cultural, socioeconomic, or political history, history of science, medicine, consumption, mobility, and so on-and broach a series of new sources (including scientific manuals, criminal proceedings, trade registers, travel journals, letters and life-writing) from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth

Clocks, science and society in Europe and beyond (16 th-19 th century) How long does it take to b... more Clocks, science and society in Europe and beyond (16 th-19 th century) How long does it take to boil an egg, roast a chicken or to steam vegetables? How fast does an object fall in proportion to its mass? How to compute latitude and longitude? How to regulate the departure and arrival of stage coaches smoothly? From the Middle Ages onwards, clocks, hourglasses, sun dials, and other horological devices have been used to answer such questions. Especially in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the urge to time and measure all sorts of scientific and societal phenomena gained ground quickly. The craze for chronology honed theory and praxis in various fields such as cooking, chemistry, physics, geography, transport, criminal investigation, labour and business, and numerous other domains. Our session not only aims to map out these evolutions, but also scrutinizes its (potential) effects. Did the desire to time phenomena more accurately lead to scientific progress and social innovation? Or was it merely a smart way of window-dressing, which did not really alter long-standing paradigms? How did clocks, pocket watches and other devices shape new practices in science, transport, cooking, administration, industry and other domains? We invite papers that tackle such questions from a broad perspective (both in time, place, and source material) Abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short CV should be send to gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be or gianenrico.bernasconi@unine.ch before 1 December 2018. Gianenrico Bernasconi (Université de Neuchâtel) Gerrit Verhoeven (University of Antwerp)

Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other... more Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other political, cultural, economic, and other stakeholders have tried to (re)brand cities in Europe and beyond to become attractive tourist destinations. They did so by creating new urban icons (Guggenheim in Bilbao!), new slogans and narratives (I love NY!), and new marketing techniques (for instance in its use of social media). Due to worldwide imitation and – from place to place – relative successes in boosting urban tourism, these urban marketing phenomena are often seen as a contemporary invention; an idea which is fuelled by the surprising scarcity of in-depth historical research on the topic. This session, however, aims to develop a comparative and transnational agenda towards a better understanding of the long-term history of urban tourism promotion.

In this session, we invite paper givers to explore five main issues on the basis of original research. First of all, we want to achieve a better understanding of the main actors involved in urban tourist promotion, and, especially, study their motives and interaction. Which stakeholders (from urban administrations, over tourism promoting associations, to hotel and restaurant managers, etc.) took the lead in urban tourism promotion and why? How did they negotiate their sometimes conflicting goals, interests and visions of the city as tourist destination? Was tourist attraction always the main driver behind urban promotion, or part of a wider and more diverse set of motives, strategies and activities to ‘boost’ cities? Which media – from newspaper adds, brochures and posters, to cinema, radio and other ‘new’ media – did actors use to put their city in the spotlight? In what way were different media technologies mobilised to address socially different tourists? Which main attractions and urban experiences did actors stress in tourist promotion? How did they, for instance, strike a balance between selling urban heritage and modernity? And were certain types of urban tourists more welcome as others (for instance wealthy ones, or those looking for culture)? Last but not least, how did local stakeholders develop their urban brands and marketing strategies by a local, national and international transfer of expertise? Which cities in Europe and beyond took the lead in urban tourism promotion? And how was knowledge on urban tourism promotion internationally disseminated, studied and imitated from place to place?

To address these types of questions, we accept proposals written from different urban disciplinary perspectives. We particularly welcome proposals which offer a wider comparative and/or long-term historical perspective. European as well as non-European case studies will be taken into consideration.

Jan-Hein Furnée (RUNijmegen)
Ilja Van Damme (UAntwerpen)
Gerrit Verhoeven (UAntwerpen)

Proposals have to be submitted through the website before 4 October 2019: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/eauh2020/papers/call-for-papers/

During the early modern period horological technology took a quantum leap forward. While sixteent... more During the early modern period horological technology took a quantum leap forward. While sixteenth-century clocks could easily loose several minutes a day, their inaccuracy had been, by the late eighteenth century, brought back to mere seconds. At the same time, clocks evolved from expensive, unwieldy machines into nifty, miniaturised, and (relatively) cheap versions, that could be taken along in the pockets of vests, coats or breeches. Last but not least, time was slowly but surely democratised, as longcase clocks, alarms, and pocket-watches percolated through the lower strata of society. These three evolutions are key ingredients in one of the classical master narratives in the history of past time awareness and timekeeping: David Landes' horological revolution. Even though experts have challenged its teleological baseline, its technological determinism, and its Eurocentric lens, it still remains a moot question how time technology (re)shaped everyday life in early modern Europe and beyond. Was time technology really key to some sweeping (r)evolutions? Did clocks, pocket watches and other timepieces power the progress of science, administration, astronomy, business, justice, medicine, navigation, and other societal change? Or was their use rather a discursive strategy-a superficial kind of window-dressing or scientific swagger that physicians, chemists, cooks, judges, bankers, civil servants, and other professionals used to give their trade a modern touch? Was horological technology perceived as more efficient, accurate, or practical than the classic implements-sundials and hourglasses, heartbeats, knots, and prayers-that were traditionally used to time events? How resilient were these non-mechanical ways to measure time? Or, in sum, did clocks really matter? Therefore, our book aims to decentre, hone, or at least challenge the traditional role of clocks as agents of change in classic historiography.

We would like to invite papers that address these questions from a variety of perspectives-be it cultural, socioeconomic, or political history, history of science, medicine, consumption, mobility, and so on-and broach a series of new sources (including scientific manuals, criminal proceedings, trade registers, travel journals, letters and life-writing) from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Moreover, we encourage papers with a comparative European or even global scope. After a first round of feedback, the papers will be included in a book proposal to be submitted at Routledge.

Jaarboek de Zeventiende Eeuw, 2020

Morele scherpslijperij in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoor... more Morele scherpslijperij in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden
Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoordig in de zeventiende eeuw. Morele lessen zaten verpakt in de literatuur van Jacob Cats, in Bredero's toneel, in Arnout van Overbeke's moppen, in de beelden van Artus Quellinus en in de schilderijen van Jan Steen. Normen over zedelijk gedrag werden ook vrolijk rondgebazuind in schuine liedjes en stuiverromans, in vertrouwelijke brieven, roddel en achterklap. Katholieke priesters uit het zuiden ontketenden een nieuw zedelijkheidsoffensief doormiddel van donderpreken, biecht en catechese, terwijl predikanten in het noorden hun schaapjes vanuit de kerkenraad op koers probeerden te houden. Daarbij werd het doel lang niet altijd bereikt. Deugd en ondeugd waren eveneens belangrijke thema's in de ordonnanties van stad en staat, in de reglementen van ambachten, gilden en schutterijen, en in humanistisch geïnspireerde etiquetteboekjes. Doormiddel van exemplae uit de Klassieke Oudheid, religieuze of vaderlandse geschiedenis probeerden biografen en hagiografen hun lezers een spiegel met voorbeelden van deugdzaam gedrag voor te houden. Met dit themadossier wil het Jaarboek de Zeventiende Eeuw niet alleen een staat opmaken van deugd en ondeugd in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden, maar ook inzicht verkrijgen in de complexe werking tussen norm en praktijk. Moraal was zelden of nooit statisch, maar werd op een bijzonder persoonlijke wijze toegeëigend, geaccommodeerd of gecontesteerd. Daarnaast wil het dossier nieuw licht werpen op de verschillende moral communities. Naargelang van iemands sociale positie, gender, leeftijd, herkomst, religie en andere eigenschappen konden waardenpatronen immers fel van elkaar verschillen. In het themadossier willen we dus zoveel mogelijk opvattingen over deugd en ondeugd in de Lage Landen aan bod laten komen en bediscussiëren. We nodigen iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het Jaarboek graag uit om een kort abstract (maximaal 500 woorden) en CV (max. 100 woorden) in te dienen voor 25 september 2019. Deadline voor het inleveren van de artikelen is 1 december 2019. Abstracts graag inleveren bij gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be CFP-Themadossier Jaarboek de Zeventiende Eeuw CFP-Themadossier Jaarboek de Zeventiende Eeuw

Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other... more Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other political, cultural, economic, and other stakeholders have tried to (re)brand cities in Europe and beyond to become attractive tourist destinations. They did so by creating new urban icons (Guggenheim in Bilbao!), new slogans and narratives (I love NY!), and new marketing techniques (for instance in its use of social media). Due to worldwide imitation and-from place to place-relative successes in boosting urban tourism, these urban marketing phenomena are often seen as a contemporary invention; an idea which is fuelled by the surprising scarcity of in-depth historical research on the topic. This session, however, aims to develop a comparative and transnational agenda towards a better understanding of the long-term history of urban tourism promotion. In this session, we invite paper givers to explore five main issues on the basis of original research. First of all, we want to achieve a better understanding of the main actors involved in urban tourist promotion, and, especially, study their motives and interaction. Which stakeholders (from urban administrations, over tourism promoting associations, to hotel and restaurant managers, etc.) took the lead in urban tourism promotion and why? How did they negotiate their sometimes conflicting goals, interests and visions of the city as tourist destination? Was tourist attraction always the main driver behind urban promotion, or part of a wider and more diverse set of motives, strategies and activities to 'boost' cities? Which media-from newspaper adds, brochures and posters, to cinema, radio and other 'new' media-did actors use to put their city in the spotlight? In what way were different media technologies mobilised to address socially different tourists? Which main attractions and urban experiences did actors stress in tourist promotion? How did they, for instance, strike a balance between selling urban heritage and modernity? And were certain types of urban tourists more welcome as others (for instance wealthy ones, or those looking for culture)? Last but not least, how did local stakeholders develop their urban brands and marketing strategies by a local, national and international transfer of expertise? Which cities in Europe and beyond took the lead in urban tourism promotion? And how was knowledge on urban tourism promotion internationally disseminated, studied and imitated from place to place? To address these types of questions, we accept proposals written from different urban disciplinary perspectives. We particularly welcome proposals which offer a wider comparative and/or long-term historical perspective. European as well as non-European case studies will be taken into consideration.

Jan-Hein Furnée (RUNijmegen) Ilja Van Damme (UAntwerpen) Gerrit Verhoeven (UAntwerpen).

Proposals have to be submitted through the website before 4 October 2019: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/eauh2020/papers/call-for-papers/

Tourism fuels nationalism. At least, that is the impression one gets from a – fairly short – list... more Tourism fuels nationalism. At least, that is the impression one gets from a – fairly short – list of books and articles on the topic. Through their excursions to national monuments, heritage sites and landscapes in their own country, tourists are unconsciously turned into proud patriots. Nationhood is all too often presented as the prime motivation and inevitable outcome of (domestic) travel and tourism, while recent theories in nationalism have cast some serious doubt on such assumptions. Drawing on these new insights, our session aims to challenge the idea that tourism automatically – as a sort of deus ex machina – feeds nationalism. We’ll look at three levels to gain a better understanding of the complex interaction between both phenomena.
First of all, the session zeroes in on the production of national imagery from above in the policy of Tourist Information Office’s [TIO] in posters, brochures, guide books, promotional films, and other material. Secondly, we will look at the meso-level of commercial stakeholders (travel agencies, touring operators, hotels,…), associations (touring clubs, youth associations, camera clubs,…) and other initiatives. Last but not least, the session aims to uncover nationalism from below. Innovative concepts, including theories on banal nationalism and national indifference, have challenged the idea that top-down initiatives were swallowed hook, line and sinker by ordinary citizens. National identities rather refracted in fifty shades of grey, as people had the agency to appropriate nationhood idiosyncratically, haphazardly, or selectively – not to mention the option to deflect or even to reject it.
We invite participants to reflect on the interaction between grassroots and top-down initiatives in a variety of countries (Europe and beyond), periods (from the 18th to the 21st century), and angles. Drawing on the insights from the performative, spatial, and other “turns” we also encourage participants to move beyond a traditional focus on discursive practices. Nationhood is not only constructed in what tourists say or write, but also in images (photos & films), objects (souvenirs), (everyday) rituals/performances, space (destinations & itineraries), emotions and corporality (pride, shame, reverence,…).
Abstracts (max. 500 words) and a short CV should be sent to andreas.stynen@kuleuven.be or gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be before 13 April 2019.

Organisers:
Andreas Stynen (KULeuven)
Gerrit Verhoeven (UAntwerpen)

Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoordig in de zeventiende eeuw. Morele lessen zaten verpakt in de... more Deugd en ondeugd waren alomtegenwoordig in de zeventiende eeuw. Morele lessen zaten verpakt in de literatuur van Jacob Cats, in Bredero's toneel, in Arnout van Overbeke's moppen, in de beelden van Artus Quellinus en in de schilderijen van Jan Steen. Normen over zedelijk gedrag werden ook vrolijk rondgebazuind in schuine liedjes en stuiverromans, in vertrouwelijke brieven, roddel en achterklap. Katholieke priesters uit het zuiden ontketenden een nieuw zedelijkheidsoffensief doormiddel van donderpreken, biecht en catechese, terwijl predikanten in het noorden hun schaapjes vanuit de kerkenraad op koers probeerden te houden. Daarbij werd het doel lang niet altijd bereikt. Deugd en ondeugd waren eveneens belangrijke thema's in de ordonnanties van stad en staat, in de reglementen van ambachten, gilden en schutterijen, en in humanistisch geïnspireerde etiquetteboekjes. Doormiddel van exemplae uit de Klassieke Oudheid, religieuze of vaderlandse geschiedenis probeerden biografen en hagiografen hun lezers een spiegel met voorbeelden van deugdzaam gedrag voor te houden. Met het jaarcongres willen we niet alleen een staat opmaken van deugd en ondeugd in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden, maar ook inzicht verkrijgen in de complexe werking tussen norm en praktijk. Moraal was zelden of nooit statisch, maar werd op een bijzonder persoonlijke wijze toegeëigend, geaccommodeerd of gecontesteerd. Daarnaast wil het congres nieuw licht werpen op de verschillende moral communities. Naargelang van iemands sociale positie, gender, leeftijd, herkomst, religie en andere eigenschappen konden waardenpatronen immers fel van elkaar verschillen. Op het congres willen we dus zoveel mogelijk opvattingen over deugd en ondeugd in de Lage Landen aan bod laten komen en bediscussiëren.

We nodigen iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het congres, graag uit om een kort abstract (maximaal 300 woorden) en CV (max. 100 woorden) in te dienen voor 1 maart 2019. Eveneens welkom zijn voorstellen voor een complete sessie. Op het congres bedraagt de maximale spreektijd 20 minuten. Abstracts inleveren bij gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be

A two-day conference exploring the diverse methods and theoretical approaches with which scholars... more A two-day conference exploring the diverse methods and theoretical approaches with which scholars are currently transforming the study of seventeenth and eighteenth-century travel.

Panels for the second international conference in food history and culture Street food significa... more Panels for the second international conference in food history and culture

Street food significantly developed over the last decade and cannot anymore be assimilated to junk and fast food -that would be the result of the frenetic pace of modern urban life- nor even to something new. From the take-away fried fish of ancient Alexandria to the present fancy food trucks in New York, London or Paris, through the Aztec tortilla sellers, the Ottoman şerbetçi or the allegedly immemorial Japanese Yaki Imo vendors, numerous practices have already been observed -and some of them are well-known- in different times and places.
This workshop doesn’t aim to resume a lost world but to examine urban cultures in practice, into which street food provides and exceptional insight able to shed a new light on our present foodways.
Street food deals with formal and informal economy, with urban popular sociability and leisure, with the emergence of public sphere and its correlated policy of social control. Street food can support practices that partially or totally define a group or a community. It encompasses both the environmental and emotional dimensions of the urban history. It sits at the crossroad of the economic, social, and cultural histories of consumption. Street food could also be a consequence of a specific urban planning that generates it when it doesn’t try to eradicate it, in the name of modernity and food safety. However, most of the time, street food is an appropriation of the public space, and gets out of the municipal control.

Today old age is often represented with senior citizens working up a sweat on a treadmill or out ... more Today old age is often represented with senior citizens working up a sweat on a treadmill or out hiking in nature. Contemporary elderly are often characterized as active and enjoying life with all their leisure time. However, the boundaries how modern society defines old age are not clear, and there is a trend to describe the life phase with words like 'hip', 'vital', and 'active'. The conference 'Old Age in the Seventeenth Century' will focus on the senior life phase in the long seventeenth century. There is remarkably little known about old age in the past and important questions remain unanswered. What were the positive associations (wisdom, advanced in age, venerable) or negative connotations (distance, old-fashioned, worn-out) attached to the life phase? How flexible was the term 'old' and 'old age' as a notion in seventeenth-century society?

In the field of social and economic history, old age has been addressed in research about retirement, diminishing family ties, and old folks homes. However, there are still many issues that we are in the dark about. For one, what was the life expectancy in the seventeenth century and how did lifestyle, gender, and social components influence longevity. Did aging parents rely on their children for support or did they prefer to remain independent and take care of themselves? In recent years, art history, literature, and cultural history have focused on the topic, including examples of the very elderly senior citizens found in paintings, curiosity cabinets; recollections about elderly found in memoirs, diaries and other documents. Nevertheless, the history of old age is very young. Moreover, the topic has a complicated component. In the seventeenth century old age also had an ambiguous status. The elderly were also portrayed as foolish, ugly or in some cases old women as witches. Old age has been on the international research radar for some time but the theme has hardly been addressed in the Northern and Southern Netherlands.

Programma van het jaarcongres van de Werkgroep de Zeventiende Eeuw (Antwerpen - 30 augustus 2019)

Recent research has stressed the highly mobile nature of late Medieval and Early Modern European ... more Recent research has stressed the highly mobile nature of late Medieval and Early Modern European life. All kinds of people were on the move for a huge variety of reasons, encouraged by longer-term processes such as urbanization, colonization and improvements in transport and communications infrastructures. This mobility was absolutely fundamental to the cultural, political, economic and religious changes that characterized the Renaissance period.

However, there is still much to know about the practical experience – the physicality and materiality - of mobility in this period; for instance, about the spaces through which mobile people passed (which became important sites of encounter and exchange), the forms of transport they used, the physical, mental and emotional ‘baggage’ that they carried with them. How was access to and experience of mobility shaped by the traveller’s class, gender, religion and age? How did Renaissance authorities, both at city and state level, respond to this mobility, attempting to enable, harness or control it? How, exactly, did mobility facilitate communication and cultural exchange, across and beyond the continent? And how does studying people’s movements shed new light on the great changes of the period, from the transmission of Renaissance culture to Europe’s contact with the rest of the world?

Journal of Sleep Research

Europe within Reach, 2015

Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was t... more Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was the impact of local museums of the urban fabric? How did the city shape the collections, management, and storytelling of the museum? And how did museums reproduces (or question) the social boundaries in the city?

Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was t... more Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was the impact of local museums of the urban fabric? How did the city shape the collections, management, and storytelling of the museum? And how did museums reproduces (or question) the social boundaries in the city?

Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was t... more Our session will radically historicize the relation between cities and "their" museum. What was the impact of local museums of the urban fabric? How did the city shape the collections, management, and storytelling of the museum? And how did museums reproduces (or question) the social boundaries in the city?

Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other... more Over the last few decades, Tourist Information Offices, city administrations and a range of other political, cultural, economic, and other stakeholders have tried to (re)brand cities in Europe and beyond to become attractive tourist destinations. They did so by creating new urban icons (Guggenheim in Bilbao!), new slogans and narratives (I love NY!), and new marketing techniques (for instance in its use of social media). Due to worldwide imitation and – from place to place – relative successes in boosting urban tourism, these urban marketing phenomena are often seen as a contemporary invention; an idea which is fuelled by the surprising scarcity of in-depth historical research on the topic. Building upon a session at the EAUH-conference 2022, we want to explore this theme further through an edited volume for an academic publisher (e.g. Routledge Advances in Urban History, Bloomsbury Academic, etc). The aim is to develop a comparative, interdisciplinary and transnational agenda towards a better understanding of the long-term history of urban tourism promotion.

Jaarboek De Zeventiende Eeuw

is alleen gelt en geen wetenschap die onse luyden soeken aldaer [in Indië], 't gunt is te beklage... more 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 themadossier brengt wetenschappers uit verschillende disciplines samen-cultuur-en kunsthistorici, boekwetenschappers en letterkundigenom de culturele dimensie van de Nederlandse overzeese expansie in kaart te brengen. Naar aanleiding van het jaarcongres van de vereniging lanceert de redactie van Jaarboek De Zeventiende Eeuw een extra oproep voor bijdragen over het thema. Artikelen van max. 5000 woorden (inclusief voetnoten) worden verwacht voor 1 maart 2022. Inleveren via

Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies

The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening... more The long nineteenth and early twentieth century is often considered a period of socially widening collecting practices. Besides the boom of public museums, the general understanding of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collecting is dominated by the rise of the bourgeois collectioneur as new social type. Within the broader historiography much attention has been paid to the new industrial tycoons and businessmen, as well as the (higher) middling sort of collectors, all eager to tap into a growing ‘collection mania’. Less well studied for this period, however, remain the blue-blooded collectors or collectioneurs nobles. This comes as quite a surprise since the practice of collecting itself has deep and long running roots, intimately tied to endeavours of early-modern royal houses and noblemen, amassing Wunderkammern full of Fine and Decorative Arts, precious manuscripts and books, naturalia, and myriad other collectables. While some, less fortunate noblemen, were forced to sell their prized family collections during the age of political, industrial, and cultural revolutions, others retained their titles and fortunes, and continued to collect for economic reasons (as investment), or for reasons tied to their specific, albeit changing, social and cultural status in modern societies.

In spite of the recent upsurge in books and articles on collectors and collecting practices in Belgium and the Netherlands, research on this blue blood collecting in the Low Countries after 1750 remains thin on the ground. Who were these highborn collectors? What did they collect? And why? In this special issue we aim to draw a detailed portrait of these collectioneurs nobles, their changing social profile, and their motivations. How different were their motives and aims from their emerging bourgeois counterparts? What were the norms and values that fuelled aristocratic collecting? Did they, for instance, pay more attention to noble pedigree and patina in the selection of objects? And in what way were older, Humanist and Enlightenment values carried over in modern times with these collectors? Tying in with a recent strand, we also want to pay attention to the links between gender and collecting. To what extent were the collection profile and practices of noble ladies and lords different? We also aim to shed more light on the presentation, musealisation, and afterlife of these noble collections. To what extent became noble collections more accessible for a wider public in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and how were they received by noble, bourgeois or lower class visitors? How were these aristocratic ensembles eventually integrated into public museums? Last but not least, we also try to identify local, regional or even national differences between well-bred collectors in Belgium and the Netherlands, in the industrial cities and in the countryside, and so on.

We aim to provide some answers to these questions by sampling the latest research on noble collectors and collections in the Low Countries. The special issue will be published in Virtus: Journal of Nobility Studies. [WoS A1- journal] Abstracts – ca. 350 words, including a short bio-sketch – should be send to gerrit.verhoeven@uantwerpen.be before 1 February 2022. Full chapters (5000 words, including footnotes) should be submitted in the same way before 1 October 2022.