Jeroen M.M. van de Ven - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Uploads
Website/scientific repository on Spinoza by Jeroen M.M. van de Ven
Books by Jeroen M.M. van de Ven
Documenting Spinoza. A Bio-Bibliographical History of his Time.
"Towards a New Historical Context of Spinoza" Many key questions about Spinoza’s life, family,... more "Towards a New Historical Context of Spinoza"
Many key questions about Spinoza’s life, family, intellectual networks and his occupations still remain to be answered, ranging from his early entrepreneurship, his intellectual training and his erratic expulsion from the synagogue to his work as a performer of natural experiments and his practical skills as an optician. Summarised thus, a careful, systematic reassessment of the historical Spinoza with a view to producing a truly critical reconstruction of his life, immediate family, character, intellectual development, occupations, friends and networks, writings and earliest reception is urgently needed. Serving as a backbone and an instrument for international Spinoza scholarship, the present publication seeks to break new ground in entirely focusing on the historical facts and to give a complete and critical account of Spinoza’s life and times by disclosing and rendering available the documentary sources up to 1800. The main purpose of such a survey is to offer a deeper insight into and to contribute in finding an answer to many crucial questions about the multiplicity and diversity of Spinoza’s occupations, interests, agenda and contacts, as well as in the circulation of knowledge in the United Provinces and abroad. This, in turn, will further reveal the forces and processes that influenced Spinoza’s intellectual development as an original thinker in his own time. Such an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Spinoza’s life and time, combining the history of philosophy, philology, bibliography, palaeography, historiography and cultural history, I consider a backbone and indispensable for establishing a thorough historical context of the person and philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza. This new comprehensive historical context of Spinoza is in turn vital for a greater understanding of the tumultuous effect of the Dutch Enlightenment in Europe.
The present chronology in this publication, modelled after the prominent chronologies of the lives of Leibniz, Husserl and Hobbes, aims at establishing a new comprehensive historical context of Spinoza by rendering available the documentary sources of his life, writings, intellectual networks and reception covering the time frame up to 1680.
The study is organised in the following way. The first portion comprises the chronology of Spinoza’s life and times, starting with the birth of the philosopher’s father, Michael d’Espinosa, in 1587 or 1588 and ending in early 1679 with the official condemnation by the Roman Catholic Office of the Holy Inquisition of the philosopher’s Epistolae, the Ethica, the Tractatus theologico-politicus and the Tractatus politicus (Part 1).
The documentary section of the study (Part 2) comprises the following sections: short biographies of key figures (Annex 1); a list of known business partners of the Amsterdam Espinosa trading firm, from 1627 to 1664 (Annex 2); a new critical inventory of Spinoza’s correspondence (26 August 1661–mid-October 1676), not only of the 88 surviving (published) letters, but also of 43 postulated letters that are evidently lost or dispersed (Annex 3); an annotated codicological list of surviving letters and the seventeenth and eighteenth-century manuscripts of his work (Annex 4); and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, followed by a general index of names. Since there is no authoritative bibliography of Spinoza’s writings, Part 2 also provides a detailed bibliographical catalogue of surviving copies (749) of the earlier editions and (as the case may be) translations of his work, printed between 1663 and 1796 in libraries around the world (see Annex 4 (Sources), Surviving Copies of Editions and Translations of Spinoza’s Writings). A bibliography of primary and secondary sources completes this publication.
The book, unveiling many new exciting documents and sources on Spinoza's life and times, is scheduled for 2015/2016 and will be published in English.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (eds) (London, Bloomsbury Press, 2014).
Revised and augmented edition of: The Continuum Companion to Spinoza, eds Wiep van Bunge, Henri K... more Revised and augmented edition of: The Continuum Companion to Spinoza, eds Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (London/New York, Continuum, 2011).
Also published as e-book.
This book is the first to offer an accessible, encyclopedic account of Spinoza's life and ideas, ... more This book is the first to offer an accessible, encyclopedic account of Spinoza's life and ideas, his influences and commentators, and his lasting significance. Some of the best features include an annotated chronology of Spinoza's life, bibliographies of his major influences and critics, a substantive dictionary of key Spinozan concepts, and summaries of Spinoza's principal writings. The work concludes with an essay on Spinoza's place in modern academic scholarship.
This work is a valuable tool for anyone interested in Spinoza and the era of great change in which he lived and wrote.
Table of Contents
Introduction \ Acknowledgements \ Abbreviations \ List of Contributors \ 1. Life \ 2. Influences \ 3. Early Critics \ 4. Glossary \ 5.Short Synopses \ 6. Spinoza scholarship \ Index.
Also published as e-book.
See for a review (The British Journal for the History of Philosophy): http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09608788.2012.666848
Revised edition published as: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, 2014.
Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on... more Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on the Utrecht Crisis, the 'Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady' in 's-Hertogenbosch, and Descartes, Elizabeth and Appolonius' Problem (last essay by Henk Bos). Includes a Calendar of 1643 and a Biographical Lexicon.
PhD Diss. Tilburg University. With an abstract in English.
Codices additi. Aanwinsten in de handschriftenverzameling van de Tilburgse Universiteitsbibliotheek 1990–1996 (Tilburg, Tilburg University Press, 1997), 86 pp.
Over Brabant geschreven. Handschriften en archivalische bronnen in de Tilburgse Universiteitsbibliotheek, 2 vols (Leuven, Peeters, 1994) (Miscellanea Neerlandica 8–9), 518 pp.
Handschriften en handschriftfragmenten in het bezit van de Theologische Faculteit Tilburg (Tilburg, Tilburg University Press, 1990) (TFT-Studies 14), 259 pp.
Papers by Jeroen M.M. van de Ven
The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza
Introduction - W. van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (Erasmus Un... more Introduction - W. van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Boxtel, The Netherlands) Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Contributors 1. Life - Jeroen van de Ven (Boxtel, The Netherlands) 2. Influences Introduction - P. Steenbakkers (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Burgersdijk - H. Krop (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Descartes - P. Steenbakkers (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Enden - F. Mertens (University of Ghent, Belgium) Heereboord - H. Krop (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Jewish Philosophical Influences: Maimonides, Crescas, Abrabanel, Menasseh Ben Israel, Kabbalah, Delmedigo - T. Rudavsky (The Ohio State University, USA) Stoa - J. Miller (Queen's University, Canada) 3. Early Critics Pierre Bayle - G. Mori (Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro, ...
A Clandestine Notebook (1678-1679) on Spinoza, Beverland, Politics, the Bible and Sex
In the years 1678-1679 an Utrecht freethinker scribbled daring remarks in an unsightly jotter. Hi... more In the years 1678-1679 an Utrecht freethinker scribbled daring remarks in an unsightly jotter. His interests included sex, politics, religion and philosophy. It takes only a quick glance to see that he felt drawn towards all things radical - Spinoza figures prominently in his notebook, but even more so Adrianus Beverland, a notorious libertine known for his eroticism. Our author - as yet unidentified - was well-informed about political affairs, both local, national and international. He appears to have been connected with the well-to-do and the well-educated in Utrecht and beyond. His jottings broached any subject, as long as it was novel, exciting or juicy. Much seems to be taken down spontaneously, as gossip or alehouse bravado. The notebook, now kept in Utrecht University Library (ms. 1284) and published here for the first time, offers a rare insight into the uncensored fascinations of a member of the Dutch elite in a period in which society and ideas underwent drastic change.*
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2004
The municipal archives of The Hague hold a small collection with personal papers of the Leiden ph... more The municipal archives of The Hague hold a small collection with personal papers of the Leiden physician Cornelis van Hogelande (1590-1662). Among Van Hogelande's papers we found the copies of two letters by his close friend Rene´Descartes. The first letter is without question the most important discovery: the letter was completely unknown and contains Descartes's unpublished judgement on a work by the Czech reformer Jan Amos Comenius. 1 Both copies lack an address, but there can be no doubt that the original letters were sent to Van Hogelande, because the second of the two letters was-for the greater part-already known and can be found in the standard edition of the correspondence by Adam and Tannery (AT III, 721-4). Addressed to Van Hogelande on 8 February 1640, it contains Descartes's judgement on a broadsheet by the English mathematician John Pell. 2 However, compared to the text published in AT, the copy in The Hague has an additional paragraph. Moreover, in it Descartes refers to the *We wish to thank the Gemeentearchief in The Hague for the kind permission to publish the letters of Descartes. We are much obliged to John Cottingham who readily agreed to translate the Latin letters into English. We also thank Theo Verbeek for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The edition of Descartes's works by Charles Adam and Paul Tannery (Paris: Vrin, 1964-74) is abbreviated AT. The Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne
Se Nihil Daturum – Descartes's Unpublished Judgement of Comenius's Pansophiae Prodromus (1639)
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2004
The continuum companion to Spinoza
![Research paper thumbnail of ‘Van bittere galle by een gebonden’. Over de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse vertalingen van Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus (Hamburg [Amsterdam], 1670). Working draft, final version.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/61544639/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Mededelingen vanwege het Spinozahuis., 2019
Paper on the seventeenth-century Dutch translations of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (... more Paper on the seventeenth-century Dutch translations of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670). On a new, hitherto unknown Dutch translation.
'Spinoza’s Voorburg Investigation of the Dynamics of Fluid Mechanics: His Untypical Letter 41 to Jarig Jelles of 5 September 1669 on Fluid Motion'. Research article, in preparation.
In 1672, Dutch political equilibrium collapsed when the United Provinces entered the FrancoDutch ... more In 1672, Dutch political equilibrium collapsed when the United Provinces entered the FrancoDutch War (1672–1678/9) of Louis XIV (1638–1715). That war was fully focused on the Dutch Republic and also involved orchestrated hostilities by England, Münster and Cologne. In early April, France made a quick advance on the United Provinces and two months later the French army already controlled the Provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht. An assault on the Province of Holland, though, was stopped by the inundated HollandWater Line (a line of fortresses to be linked by flooding), leaving the French only a one day’s march from Amsterdam. In early 1673, the Sun King charged an officer residing in the French headquarters in Utrecht, the Swiss lieutenant colonel Jean Baptiste Stouppe (1624–92/1700), to write a text to justify the occupation. In that broadsheet, entitled La Religion des hollandois (The Religion of the Dutch; hereafter La Religion), he declares the “True Liberty” and Calvinist Dutch state religion to be a complete delusion. In his argument, he especially points to two seditious books printed anonymously in Amsterdam that were then still sold openly without official prohibition: Philosophia S. Scripturae interpres (Philosophy as Interpreter of Holy Scripture), very probably written by Lodewijk Meyer (1629/30–81), and Tractatus theologico-politicus (Theological-Political Treatise), a passionate plea for the liberty to philosophise against the encroachments of organised religion, by Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–77). Stouppe, a well-informed libertine, is highly critical of Spinoza’s seminal treatise in La Religion, but he can also hardly conceal his admiration for the erudition of its anonymous author. Whilst preparing La Religion for printing, Stouppe became the linchpin in a secret plan to bring Spinoza to Utrecht. Wild rumours later circulating about this mysterious trip have long intrigued early authors writing on Spinoza’s life and works. They all agree that he went to Utrecht at the invitation of the celebrated Prince of Condé, General Louis II de Bourbon (1621–86), but the evidence they provide is speculative and some of their stories are illfounded or simply untrue. Yet, many modern historians, who mostly reiterate these accounts, continue that same reading but without adding new details or evidence. I recently spotted two older publications on two contemporary letters regarding the philosopher’s trip to Utrecht. These intriguing letters have hardly been noticed in Spinoza scholarship
‘Spinoza’s Life and Time. An Annotated Chronology Based upon Historical Documents’, in Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (eds), The Continuum Companion to Spinoza (Londen, Continuum, 2011), pp. 1–57.
Revised text published in: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, (eds) Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop,... more Revised text published in: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, (eds) Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen van de Ven, Londen: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Also published as e-book.
Documenting Spinoza. A Bio-Bibliographical History of his Time.
"Towards a New Historical Context of Spinoza" Many key questions about Spinoza’s life, family,... more "Towards a New Historical Context of Spinoza"
Many key questions about Spinoza’s life, family, intellectual networks and his occupations still remain to be answered, ranging from his early entrepreneurship, his intellectual training and his erratic expulsion from the synagogue to his work as a performer of natural experiments and his practical skills as an optician. Summarised thus, a careful, systematic reassessment of the historical Spinoza with a view to producing a truly critical reconstruction of his life, immediate family, character, intellectual development, occupations, friends and networks, writings and earliest reception is urgently needed. Serving as a backbone and an instrument for international Spinoza scholarship, the present publication seeks to break new ground in entirely focusing on the historical facts and to give a complete and critical account of Spinoza’s life and times by disclosing and rendering available the documentary sources up to 1800. The main purpose of such a survey is to offer a deeper insight into and to contribute in finding an answer to many crucial questions about the multiplicity and diversity of Spinoza’s occupations, interests, agenda and contacts, as well as in the circulation of knowledge in the United Provinces and abroad. This, in turn, will further reveal the forces and processes that influenced Spinoza’s intellectual development as an original thinker in his own time. Such an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Spinoza’s life and time, combining the history of philosophy, philology, bibliography, palaeography, historiography and cultural history, I consider a backbone and indispensable for establishing a thorough historical context of the person and philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza. This new comprehensive historical context of Spinoza is in turn vital for a greater understanding of the tumultuous effect of the Dutch Enlightenment in Europe.
The present chronology in this publication, modelled after the prominent chronologies of the lives of Leibniz, Husserl and Hobbes, aims at establishing a new comprehensive historical context of Spinoza by rendering available the documentary sources of his life, writings, intellectual networks and reception covering the time frame up to 1680.
The study is organised in the following way. The first portion comprises the chronology of Spinoza’s life and times, starting with the birth of the philosopher’s father, Michael d’Espinosa, in 1587 or 1588 and ending in early 1679 with the official condemnation by the Roman Catholic Office of the Holy Inquisition of the philosopher’s Epistolae, the Ethica, the Tractatus theologico-politicus and the Tractatus politicus (Part 1).
The documentary section of the study (Part 2) comprises the following sections: short biographies of key figures (Annex 1); a list of known business partners of the Amsterdam Espinosa trading firm, from 1627 to 1664 (Annex 2); a new critical inventory of Spinoza’s correspondence (26 August 1661–mid-October 1676), not only of the 88 surviving (published) letters, but also of 43 postulated letters that are evidently lost or dispersed (Annex 3); an annotated codicological list of surviving letters and the seventeenth and eighteenth-century manuscripts of his work (Annex 4); and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, followed by a general index of names. Since there is no authoritative bibliography of Spinoza’s writings, Part 2 also provides a detailed bibliographical catalogue of surviving copies (749) of the earlier editions and (as the case may be) translations of his work, printed between 1663 and 1796 in libraries around the world (see Annex 4 (Sources), Surviving Copies of Editions and Translations of Spinoza’s Writings). A bibliography of primary and secondary sources completes this publication.
The book, unveiling many new exciting documents and sources on Spinoza's life and times, is scheduled for 2015/2016 and will be published in English.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (eds) (London, Bloomsbury Press, 2014).
Revised and augmented edition of: The Continuum Companion to Spinoza, eds Wiep van Bunge, Henri K... more Revised and augmented edition of: The Continuum Companion to Spinoza, eds Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (London/New York, Continuum, 2011).
Also published as e-book.
This book is the first to offer an accessible, encyclopedic account of Spinoza's life and ideas, ... more This book is the first to offer an accessible, encyclopedic account of Spinoza's life and ideas, his influences and commentators, and his lasting significance. Some of the best features include an annotated chronology of Spinoza's life, bibliographies of his major influences and critics, a substantive dictionary of key Spinozan concepts, and summaries of Spinoza's principal writings. The work concludes with an essay on Spinoza's place in modern academic scholarship.
This work is a valuable tool for anyone interested in Spinoza and the era of great change in which he lived and wrote.
Table of Contents
Introduction \ Acknowledgements \ Abbreviations \ List of Contributors \ 1. Life \ 2. Influences \ 3. Early Critics \ 4. Glossary \ 5.Short Synopses \ 6. Spinoza scholarship \ Index.
Also published as e-book.
See for a review (The British Journal for the History of Philosophy): http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09608788.2012.666848
Revised edition published as: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, 2014.
Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on... more Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on the Utrecht Crisis, the 'Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady' in 's-Hertogenbosch, and Descartes, Elizabeth and Appolonius' Problem (last essay by Henk Bos). Includes a Calendar of 1643 and a Biographical Lexicon.
PhD Diss. Tilburg University. With an abstract in English.
Codices additi. Aanwinsten in de handschriftenverzameling van de Tilburgse Universiteitsbibliotheek 1990–1996 (Tilburg, Tilburg University Press, 1997), 86 pp.
Over Brabant geschreven. Handschriften en archivalische bronnen in de Tilburgse Universiteitsbibliotheek, 2 vols (Leuven, Peeters, 1994) (Miscellanea Neerlandica 8–9), 518 pp.
Handschriften en handschriftfragmenten in het bezit van de Theologische Faculteit Tilburg (Tilburg, Tilburg University Press, 1990) (TFT-Studies 14), 259 pp.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza
Introduction - W. van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (Erasmus Un... more Introduction - W. van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Boxtel, The Netherlands) Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Contributors 1. Life - Jeroen van de Ven (Boxtel, The Netherlands) 2. Influences Introduction - P. Steenbakkers (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Burgersdijk - H. Krop (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Descartes - P. Steenbakkers (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Enden - F. Mertens (University of Ghent, Belgium) Heereboord - H. Krop (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Jewish Philosophical Influences: Maimonides, Crescas, Abrabanel, Menasseh Ben Israel, Kabbalah, Delmedigo - T. Rudavsky (The Ohio State University, USA) Stoa - J. Miller (Queen's University, Canada) 3. Early Critics Pierre Bayle - G. Mori (Universita degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro, ...
A Clandestine Notebook (1678-1679) on Spinoza, Beverland, Politics, the Bible and Sex
In the years 1678-1679 an Utrecht freethinker scribbled daring remarks in an unsightly jotter. Hi... more In the years 1678-1679 an Utrecht freethinker scribbled daring remarks in an unsightly jotter. His interests included sex, politics, religion and philosophy. It takes only a quick glance to see that he felt drawn towards all things radical - Spinoza figures prominently in his notebook, but even more so Adrianus Beverland, a notorious libertine known for his eroticism. Our author - as yet unidentified - was well-informed about political affairs, both local, national and international. He appears to have been connected with the well-to-do and the well-educated in Utrecht and beyond. His jottings broached any subject, as long as it was novel, exciting or juicy. Much seems to be taken down spontaneously, as gossip or alehouse bravado. The notebook, now kept in Utrecht University Library (ms. 1284) and published here for the first time, offers a rare insight into the uncensored fascinations of a member of the Dutch elite in a period in which society and ideas underwent drastic change.*
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2004
The municipal archives of The Hague hold a small collection with personal papers of the Leiden ph... more The municipal archives of The Hague hold a small collection with personal papers of the Leiden physician Cornelis van Hogelande (1590-1662). Among Van Hogelande's papers we found the copies of two letters by his close friend Rene´Descartes. The first letter is without question the most important discovery: the letter was completely unknown and contains Descartes's unpublished judgement on a work by the Czech reformer Jan Amos Comenius. 1 Both copies lack an address, but there can be no doubt that the original letters were sent to Van Hogelande, because the second of the two letters was-for the greater part-already known and can be found in the standard edition of the correspondence by Adam and Tannery (AT III, 721-4). Addressed to Van Hogelande on 8 February 1640, it contains Descartes's judgement on a broadsheet by the English mathematician John Pell. 2 However, compared to the text published in AT, the copy in The Hague has an additional paragraph. Moreover, in it Descartes refers to the *We wish to thank the Gemeentearchief in The Hague for the kind permission to publish the letters of Descartes. We are much obliged to John Cottingham who readily agreed to translate the Latin letters into English. We also thank Theo Verbeek for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The edition of Descartes's works by Charles Adam and Paul Tannery (Paris: Vrin, 1964-74) is abbreviated AT. The Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne
Se Nihil Daturum – Descartes's Unpublished Judgement of Comenius's Pansophiae Prodromus (1639)
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2004
The continuum companion to Spinoza
Mededelingen vanwege het Spinozahuis., 2019
Paper on the seventeenth-century Dutch translations of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (... more Paper on the seventeenth-century Dutch translations of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670). On a new, hitherto unknown Dutch translation.
'Spinoza’s Voorburg Investigation of the Dynamics of Fluid Mechanics: His Untypical Letter 41 to Jarig Jelles of 5 September 1669 on Fluid Motion'. Research article, in preparation.
In 1672, Dutch political equilibrium collapsed when the United Provinces entered the FrancoDutch ... more In 1672, Dutch political equilibrium collapsed when the United Provinces entered the FrancoDutch War (1672–1678/9) of Louis XIV (1638–1715). That war was fully focused on the Dutch Republic and also involved orchestrated hostilities by England, Münster and Cologne. In early April, France made a quick advance on the United Provinces and two months later the French army already controlled the Provinces of Gelderland and Utrecht. An assault on the Province of Holland, though, was stopped by the inundated HollandWater Line (a line of fortresses to be linked by flooding), leaving the French only a one day’s march from Amsterdam. In early 1673, the Sun King charged an officer residing in the French headquarters in Utrecht, the Swiss lieutenant colonel Jean Baptiste Stouppe (1624–92/1700), to write a text to justify the occupation. In that broadsheet, entitled La Religion des hollandois (The Religion of the Dutch; hereafter La Religion), he declares the “True Liberty” and Calvinist Dutch state religion to be a complete delusion. In his argument, he especially points to two seditious books printed anonymously in Amsterdam that were then still sold openly without official prohibition: Philosophia S. Scripturae interpres (Philosophy as Interpreter of Holy Scripture), very probably written by Lodewijk Meyer (1629/30–81), and Tractatus theologico-politicus (Theological-Political Treatise), a passionate plea for the liberty to philosophise against the encroachments of organised religion, by Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–77). Stouppe, a well-informed libertine, is highly critical of Spinoza’s seminal treatise in La Religion, but he can also hardly conceal his admiration for the erudition of its anonymous author. Whilst preparing La Religion for printing, Stouppe became the linchpin in a secret plan to bring Spinoza to Utrecht. Wild rumours later circulating about this mysterious trip have long intrigued early authors writing on Spinoza’s life and works. They all agree that he went to Utrecht at the invitation of the celebrated Prince of Condé, General Louis II de Bourbon (1621–86), but the evidence they provide is speculative and some of their stories are illfounded or simply untrue. Yet, many modern historians, who mostly reiterate these accounts, continue that same reading but without adding new details or evidence. I recently spotted two older publications on two contemporary letters regarding the philosopher’s trip to Utrecht. These intriguing letters have hardly been noticed in Spinoza scholarship
‘Spinoza’s Life and Time. An Annotated Chronology Based upon Historical Documents’, in Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen M.M. van de Ven (eds), The Continuum Companion to Spinoza (Londen, Continuum, 2011), pp. 1–57.
Revised text published in: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, (eds) Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop,... more Revised text published in: The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza, (eds) Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Piet Steenbakkers and Jeroen van de Ven, Londen: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Also published as e-book.
The Correspondence of René Descartes: 1643
Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on... more Critical edition of Descartes' correspondence from the year 1643, with three additional essays on the Utrecht Crisis, the 'Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady' in 's-Hertogenbosch, and Descartes, Elizabeth and Appolonius' Problem (last essay by Henk Bos). Includes a Calendar of 1643 and a Biographical Lexicon.
Jeroen van de Ven & Erik-Jan Bos, 'Se Nihil Daturum - Descartes's Unpublished Judgement of Comenius's Pansophiae Prodromus (1639)', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, no. 12 (3), 2004, pp. 369–86.
‘Vijfbladig rozet, vijfpuntige ster, lelie, maansikkel met wafel, kroon en een spartelend visje. Notities over een onbekende laatmiddeleeuwse Groenendaalse stempelband in de bibliotheek van de Theologische Faculteit Tilburg’, in: Boeken als bron. (Tilburg, TFT, 2001), pp. 43–55.
‘The Roman Catholic Rite of Betrothal and Marriage in the Low Countries, from the 13th Century until the End of the Ancien Régime’, Jaarboek voor liturgieonderzoek, vol. 17, 2001, pp. 307–313.
‘Het boekbedrijf van de Broeders van het Gemene Leven te ’s-Hertogenbosch in de zestiende eeuw’, in Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, et al. (eds), Cultuur in het laat-middeleeuwse Noord-Brabant (’s-Hertogenbosch, BRG, 1998), pp. 55–63.
43 (about) articles in: Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland, Peter Jan Margry and Charles Caspers (eds), 3 vols (Amsterdam/Hilversum, Verloren, 1997-98, 2000).
‘De “Megense” fragmenten herontdekt’, Noordbrabants historisch jaarboek, no. 12, 1991, pp. 41–81.
Brabant te Boek. Bijzondere handschriften en drukken in de bibliotheek van de Katholieke Universiteit Brabant (22 mei–3 juli 1992), n. pl. (Tilburg), 1992).
[entries 75–76], in Jos Koldeweij (ed.), In Buscoducis 1450–1629. Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ’s Hertogenbosch. De cultuur van Late Middeleeuwen en Renaissance, Maarssen/’s Hertogenbosch, Gary Schwartz/SDU, 1990, vol. 1, pp. 140–1.
Two entries on two 16th-century antiphonaries from Boxtel, Brabant, The Netherlands
‘Studieuze Gruwelen’. Over de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse vertalingen van Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus (Hamburg [Amsterdam], 1670)
Paper delivered at the occasion of the inauguration of Prof dr Henri Krop at Erasmus University R... more Paper delivered at the occasion of the inauguration of Prof dr Henri Krop at Erasmus University Rotterdam, 21 September 2018
Rev. of: K. Stooker and T. Verbeij, Collecties op orde. Middelnederlandse handschriften uit kloosters en semi-religieuze gemeenschappen in de Nederlanden (Leuven, Peeters, 1997), in: Signum, no. 11, 1999, pp. 38-44.
Rev. of: J.W.J. Burgers, De paleografie van de documentaire bronnen in Holland en Zeeland in de dertiende eeuw, 3 vols (Leuven, Peeters, 1995), in: Signum, no. 10, 1998, pp. 20-24.
Rev. of: Charters of Foundation and Early Documents of the Universities of the Coimbra Group, J.M.M. Hermans and M. Nelissen (eds), (Groningen, 1994), in: Signum, no. 7, 1995, pp. 52-52.
Rev. of: E. van Mingroot, Sapientia immarcessibilis. A Diplomatic and Comparative Study of the Bull of Foundation of the University of Louvain (December 9, 1425) (Leuven, Leuven University Press, 1994), in: Signum, no. 6, 1995, pp. 83-86.
Het rijk van Paap Jan: een onderzoek naar de oorsprong en betekenis van de middeleeuwse presbyter Johanneslegende, alsmede een kritische uitgave van de laatmiddelnederlandse brief van c. 1506
Master thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, 1987