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Papers by Rosanne Baars
Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in ... more Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in the seventeenth century. This article argues that European countries not only targeted the Ottoman Porte but also tried to reach Arabic-speaking audiences in other major Ottoman cities, such as Aleppo. It does so through an analysis of a remarkable source, an Arabic manuscript pamphlet written by a Frenchman in Aleppo in January 1673, which tells the story of the exploits of Louis XIV in the Dutch Republic during the Year of Disaster. The article will demonstrate the ways in which the French author attempted to discredit the Dutch in the eyes of the inhabitants of Aleppo. An attached Arabic translation of a Neolatin political fable in verse shows the way by which the author imported a European discourse and a European way of influencing audiences to seventeenth-century Syria. The French saw benefits in expanding their ‘image battle’ into the Ottoman Empire and made a conscious attempt to...
French History
This article analyses reactions in the Netherlands to news of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre i... more This article analyses reactions in the Netherlands to news of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572. Although historians have previously studied international reactions to the massacre, they have largely neglected the Netherlands due to the paucity of printed responses to the event in the Low Countries. Through the study of a great number of diaries and chronicles, this article demonstrates how news about the massacre spread rapidly throughout the Netherlands. Chroniclers in the Low Countries reflected on the content and credibility of the horrible news reports from France while writing them down. The ongoing religious wars had made them aware of manipulative strategies that influenced news and its media, including false reports that were spread deliberately by the enemy. This article argues that the study of transnational news reports illuminates contemporary questions on authority and trustworthiness in a rapidly polarizing religious climate.
Early Modern Low Countries
Early Modern Low Countries, 2020
Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in ... more Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in the seventeenth century. This article argues that European countries not only targeted the Ottoman Porte but also tried to reach Arabic-speaking audiences in other major Ottoman cities, such as Aleppo. It does so through an analysis of a remarkable source, an Arabic manuscript pamphlet written by a Frenchman in Aleppo in January 1673, which tells the story of the exploits of Louis XIV in the Dutch Republic during the Year of Disaster. The article will demonstrate the ways in which the French author attempted to discredit the Dutch in the eyes of the inhabitants of Aleppo. An attached Arabic translation of a Neolatin political fable in verse shows the way by which the author imported a European discourse and a European way of influencing audiences to seventeenth-century Syria. The French saw benefits in expanding their ‘image battle’ into the Ottoman Empire and made a conscious attempt to make their propaganda as effective as possible. By studying this pamphlet, we can also further our understanding of the way early modern pamphleteers considered their audiences.
Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to th... more Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to the cultural and social history of diplomacy. New Diplomatic History looks at topics such as rituals, borders, networks, and families of diplomats. For this kind of research, Ottoman-European diplomacy has been at the centre of attention. This essay aims to bring to light a unique source, which has never been studied extensively. Jean-Louis Rigo, secretary of the Dutch embassy, kept for a period of nearly thirty years (1727-1744 and 1747-1756) a diary about life and diplomacy in Istanbul. The value of the diary lies in the description of the author's dealings with news and information. In this essay, I will argue that instead of relying on standard sources for diplomacy such as foreign correspondence, nouvelles and newspapers, the Dutch embassy depended mainly on the local Levantine community and Rigo's extended patronage networks for diplomatic news
Lias, 2014
Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to th... more Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to the cultural and social history of diplomacy. New Diplomatic History looks at topics such as rituals, borders, networks and families of diplomats. For this kind of research, Ottoman-European diplomacy has been at the centre of attention. This essay aims to bring to light a unique source, which has never been studied extensively. Jean-Louis Rigo, secretary of the Dutch embassy, kept for a period of nearly thirty years (1727-1744 and 1747-1756) a diary about life and diplomacy in Istanbul. The value of the diary lies in the description of the author’s dealings with news and information. In this essay, I will argue that instead of relying on standard sources for diplomacy such as foreign correspondence, nouvelles and newspapers, the Dutch embassy depended mainly on the local Levantine community and Rigo’s extended patronage networks for diplomatic news.
Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon k... more Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon komen. De stad was een centrum van culturele bedrijvigheid waar uitgevers, drukkers, schilders, graveurs, kunsthandelaren en schrijvers elkaar stimuleerden. Aangemoedigd door de consumptie van cultuurproducten ontstond er een dynamiek die het beste kan worden omschreven als 'culturele industrie'. Als eigenaars van boeken waren kunstenaars behalve producenten ook consumenten van cultuurproducten. Dit artikel beschouwt kunstenaars in deze laatste rol: welke boeken bezaten kunstenaars in de tweede helft van de zestiende eeuw?
Books by Rosanne Baars
This book explores the reception of foreign news during the late sixteenth-century civil wars in ... more This book explores the reception of foreign news during the late sixteenth-century civil wars in France and the Netherlands. Analysing a large body of French and Dutch chronicles, Rosanne Baars innovatively demonstrates that the wider public was well aware of events abroad, though interest in foreign conflicts was far from constant. She sheds new light on the connections between the Dutch Revolt and the French Wars of Religion: contemporaries were gradually more inclined to see these wars as part of an international struggle. Baars argues that these times of civil war made inhabitants of both countries more apt at distinguishing rumour from reliable reports, thus contributing to the emergence of a public of critical news consumers.
De uit Zwolle afkomstige scheepschirurgijn Joannes Veltkamp (1733–1818) maakte tussen 1759 en 176... more De uit Zwolle afkomstige scheepschirurgijn Joannes Veltkamp (1733–1818) maakte tussen 1759 en 1764 vier reizen naar de Middellandse Zee en het Caraïbisch gebied. Van zijn belevenissen hield Veltkamp een journaal bij, voorzien van kleurrijke en gedetailleerde tekeningen. Dit reisverslag geeft een bijzonder beeld van leven en werk aan boord van een achttiende-eeuws oorlogsschip.
Veltkamp maakte onder meer enkele uiterst zeldzame tekeningen van werkende christenslaven in Algiers, een suikerrietplantage op Sint-Eustatius en het kielhalen van een bemanningslid. Met veel humor en oog voor detail beschrijft en tekent hij de omgeving, de ‘hemelse gebouwen en lieftallige vrouwen’. Juist deze combinatie van tekst en beeld maken het journaal zo bijzonder.
Deze moderne hertaling, voorzien van een uitgebreide inleiding waarin het journaal in de context van zijn tijd wordt geplaatst, is de eerste integrale uitgave van het reisverslag van Joannes Veltkamp.
Book Reviews by Rosanne Baars
Early Modern Low Countries 4 (2020) 1, pp. 139-143 - eISSN: 2543-1587
Conference Presentations by Rosanne Baars
On 22 June 1598 Pieter Panne, a cooper from Ypres, was executed in Leiden after being convicted o... more On 22 June 1598 Pieter Panne, a cooper from Ypres, was executed in Leiden after being convicted of planning a murder assault on stadtholder Maurice of Nassau. The Jesuits at Douai had supposedly been the brains behind the plot. The trial spurred a heated polemic between Jesuits in the Southern Netherlands and pamphleteers in the United Provinces. Hawks among the Dutch political elite used the murder conspiracy to demonstrate why peace with the Southern Netherlands was undesirable. In turn, Jesuit pamphleteer Frans Coster attempted to exonerate his confraternity. He carried out his own investigations in the matter, checking alibis and questioning witnesses, and published the results of his research for a wide audience.
This paper focuses on the polemical exchange following the murder assault, studying both the Dutch allegations and the Jesuit defence against the murder accusations. Recently, Counter-Reformation’s use of polemical print has received a great deal of attention from historians. While the initial Catholic response in the Netherlands was one of passivity, from the 1580s onwards Catholics, and especially Jesuits, started to engage in pamphlet debates. The broader aim of this paper is to study the discursive strategies used by the pamphleteers. What arguments did Frans Coster use to defend his order? In what way did the Dutch pamphlets play on contemporary prejudices surrounding the Jesuits? How did both parties use print to engage an audience in the Low Countries?
The controversy spread further as Dutch pamphlets were translated into French and disseminated in Paris. As I will argue, these French language translations were made to appeal to the French public, using tropes the public would recognize. Jesuits subsequently translated their defence and made it also available for sale in Paris. Thus, this paper shows the use of polemic and its transnational potential.
Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in ... more Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in the seventeenth century. This article argues that European countries not only targeted the Ottoman Porte but also tried to reach Arabic-speaking audiences in other major Ottoman cities, such as Aleppo. It does so through an analysis of a remarkable source, an Arabic manuscript pamphlet written by a Frenchman in Aleppo in January 1673, which tells the story of the exploits of Louis XIV in the Dutch Republic during the Year of Disaster. The article will demonstrate the ways in which the French author attempted to discredit the Dutch in the eyes of the inhabitants of Aleppo. An attached Arabic translation of a Neolatin political fable in verse shows the way by which the author imported a European discourse and a European way of influencing audiences to seventeenth-century Syria. The French saw benefits in expanding their ‘image battle’ into the Ottoman Empire and made a conscious attempt to...
French History
This article analyses reactions in the Netherlands to news of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre i... more This article analyses reactions in the Netherlands to news of the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572. Although historians have previously studied international reactions to the massacre, they have largely neglected the Netherlands due to the paucity of printed responses to the event in the Low Countries. Through the study of a great number of diaries and chronicles, this article demonstrates how news about the massacre spread rapidly throughout the Netherlands. Chroniclers in the Low Countries reflected on the content and credibility of the horrible news reports from France while writing them down. The ongoing religious wars had made them aware of manipulative strategies that influenced news and its media, including false reports that were spread deliberately by the enemy. This article argues that the study of transnational news reports illuminates contemporary questions on authority and trustworthiness in a rapidly polarizing religious climate.
Early Modern Low Countries
Early Modern Low Countries, 2020
Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in ... more Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in the seventeenth century. This article argues that European countries not only targeted the Ottoman Porte but also tried to reach Arabic-speaking audiences in other major Ottoman cities, such as Aleppo. It does so through an analysis of a remarkable source, an Arabic manuscript pamphlet written by a Frenchman in Aleppo in January 1673, which tells the story of the exploits of Louis XIV in the Dutch Republic during the Year of Disaster. The article will demonstrate the ways in which the French author attempted to discredit the Dutch in the eyes of the inhabitants of Aleppo. An attached Arabic translation of a Neolatin political fable in verse shows the way by which the author imported a European discourse and a European way of influencing audiences to seventeenth-century Syria. The French saw benefits in expanding their ‘image battle’ into the Ottoman Empire and made a conscious attempt to make their propaganda as effective as possible. By studying this pamphlet, we can also further our understanding of the way early modern pamphleteers considered their audiences.
Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to th... more Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to the cultural and social history of diplomacy. New Diplomatic History looks at topics such as rituals, borders, networks, and families of diplomats. For this kind of research, Ottoman-European diplomacy has been at the centre of attention. This essay aims to bring to light a unique source, which has never been studied extensively. Jean-Louis Rigo, secretary of the Dutch embassy, kept for a period of nearly thirty years (1727-1744 and 1747-1756) a diary about life and diplomacy in Istanbul. The value of the diary lies in the description of the author's dealings with news and information. In this essay, I will argue that instead of relying on standard sources for diplomacy such as foreign correspondence, nouvelles and newspapers, the Dutch embassy depended mainly on the local Levantine community and Rigo's extended patronage networks for diplomatic news
Lias, 2014
Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to th... more Over the last decades, the focus of diplomatic history has shifted from political relations to the cultural and social history of diplomacy. New Diplomatic History looks at topics such as rituals, borders, networks and families of diplomats. For this kind of research, Ottoman-European diplomacy has been at the centre of attention. This essay aims to bring to light a unique source, which has never been studied extensively. Jean-Louis Rigo, secretary of the Dutch embassy, kept for a period of nearly thirty years (1727-1744 and 1747-1756) a diary about life and diplomacy in Istanbul. The value of the diary lies in the description of the author’s dealings with news and information. In this essay, I will argue that instead of relying on standard sources for diplomacy such as foreign correspondence, nouvelles and newspapers, the Dutch embassy depended mainly on the local Levantine community and Rigo’s extended patronage networks for diplomatic news.
Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon k... more Het zeventiende-eeuwse Amsterdam was bij uitstek een plaats waar men gemakkelijk aan boeken kon komen. De stad was een centrum van culturele bedrijvigheid waar uitgevers, drukkers, schilders, graveurs, kunsthandelaren en schrijvers elkaar stimuleerden. Aangemoedigd door de consumptie van cultuurproducten ontstond er een dynamiek die het beste kan worden omschreven als 'culturele industrie'. Als eigenaars van boeken waren kunstenaars behalve producenten ook consumenten van cultuurproducten. Dit artikel beschouwt kunstenaars in deze laatste rol: welke boeken bezaten kunstenaars in de tweede helft van de zestiende eeuw?
This book explores the reception of foreign news during the late sixteenth-century civil wars in ... more This book explores the reception of foreign news during the late sixteenth-century civil wars in France and the Netherlands. Analysing a large body of French and Dutch chronicles, Rosanne Baars innovatively demonstrates that the wider public was well aware of events abroad, though interest in foreign conflicts was far from constant. She sheds new light on the connections between the Dutch Revolt and the French Wars of Religion: contemporaries were gradually more inclined to see these wars as part of an international struggle. Baars argues that these times of civil war made inhabitants of both countries more apt at distinguishing rumour from reliable reports, thus contributing to the emergence of a public of critical news consumers.
De uit Zwolle afkomstige scheepschirurgijn Joannes Veltkamp (1733–1818) maakte tussen 1759 en 176... more De uit Zwolle afkomstige scheepschirurgijn Joannes Veltkamp (1733–1818) maakte tussen 1759 en 1764 vier reizen naar de Middellandse Zee en het Caraïbisch gebied. Van zijn belevenissen hield Veltkamp een journaal bij, voorzien van kleurrijke en gedetailleerde tekeningen. Dit reisverslag geeft een bijzonder beeld van leven en werk aan boord van een achttiende-eeuws oorlogsschip.
Veltkamp maakte onder meer enkele uiterst zeldzame tekeningen van werkende christenslaven in Algiers, een suikerrietplantage op Sint-Eustatius en het kielhalen van een bemanningslid. Met veel humor en oog voor detail beschrijft en tekent hij de omgeving, de ‘hemelse gebouwen en lieftallige vrouwen’. Juist deze combinatie van tekst en beeld maken het journaal zo bijzonder.
Deze moderne hertaling, voorzien van een uitgebreide inleiding waarin het journaal in de context van zijn tijd wordt geplaatst, is de eerste integrale uitgave van het reisverslag van Joannes Veltkamp.
Early Modern Low Countries 4 (2020) 1, pp. 139-143 - eISSN: 2543-1587
On 22 June 1598 Pieter Panne, a cooper from Ypres, was executed in Leiden after being convicted o... more On 22 June 1598 Pieter Panne, a cooper from Ypres, was executed in Leiden after being convicted of planning a murder assault on stadtholder Maurice of Nassau. The Jesuits at Douai had supposedly been the brains behind the plot. The trial spurred a heated polemic between Jesuits in the Southern Netherlands and pamphleteers in the United Provinces. Hawks among the Dutch political elite used the murder conspiracy to demonstrate why peace with the Southern Netherlands was undesirable. In turn, Jesuit pamphleteer Frans Coster attempted to exonerate his confraternity. He carried out his own investigations in the matter, checking alibis and questioning witnesses, and published the results of his research for a wide audience.
This paper focuses on the polemical exchange following the murder assault, studying both the Dutch allegations and the Jesuit defence against the murder accusations. Recently, Counter-Reformation’s use of polemical print has received a great deal of attention from historians. While the initial Catholic response in the Netherlands was one of passivity, from the 1580s onwards Catholics, and especially Jesuits, started to engage in pamphlet debates. The broader aim of this paper is to study the discursive strategies used by the pamphleteers. What arguments did Frans Coster use to defend his order? In what way did the Dutch pamphlets play on contemporary prejudices surrounding the Jesuits? How did both parties use print to engage an audience in the Low Countries?
The controversy spread further as Dutch pamphlets were translated into French and disseminated in Paris. As I will argue, these French language translations were made to appeal to the French public, using tropes the public would recognize. Jesuits subsequently translated their defence and made it also available for sale in Paris. Thus, this paper shows the use of polemic and its transnational potential.
From the beginning of the Dutch Revolt onwards, the Dutch were interested in news from France. Th... more From the beginning of the Dutch Revolt onwards, the Dutch were interested in news from France. They noticed how the French experienced similar problems on issues such as religious toleration, peace negotiations and conflicts between nobles. In the vast historiography on the Wars of Religion, historians tend to focus on pamphlets and other printed sources. However, pamphlets often constituted merely an official confirmation of oral news, which almost always was the first to reach a town or village. Diaries and correspondences show the problems contemporaries experienced with interpreting and assessing oral news. Netherlandish Protestant soldiers for example refused to believe Spanish reports on the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre until it was confirmed orally by a French Reformed minister. In this paper, I will argue how the interplay between various news media illuminates contemporary questions on authority and trustworthiness in a rapidly polarizing religious climate.
From the beginning of the Dutch Revolt onwards, the Dutch were interested in news from France. Th... more From the beginning of the Dutch Revolt onwards, the Dutch were interested in news from France. They noticed how the French experienced similar problems on issues such as religious toleration, peace negotiations and conflicts between nobles. This paper analyses reactions in the Netherlands to the news about the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. More specifically, the case of the Parisian news event allows us to examine the problem of news credibility. Whose authority was deemed credible in confirming rumours? Diaries and correspondences show the problems contemporaries experienced with interpreting and assessing oral news from France.