Elzevirian Republics, wise merchants, and new perspectives on Spain and Portugal in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic
Between 1625 and 1649, the Leiden publishing house Elzevir issued a series of thirty-five descriptions of all European, a selection of non-European, and three ancient states, that became known as the ‘Elzevirian Republics’. This essay focuses on two of these ‘Republics’, Johannes de Laet’s descriptions of Spain and Portugal. I argue that these books convey an attitude towards geopolitics that is best understood in the light of Caspar Barlaeus’s ideal of the ‘wise merchant’ (mercator sapiens) and the historical regent-merchant culture in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. The essay draws on recent... Mehr ...
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Dokumenttyp: | Artikel |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2013 |
Schlagwörter: | Geschiedenis / Elzevirian Republics / mercator sapiens / knowledge and commerce / descriptions of Spain and Portugal / seventeenth-century Amsterdam / Dutch merchant-regents / pre-history of objectivity |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26680157 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/276812 |
Between 1625 and 1649, the Leiden publishing house Elzevir issued a series of thirty-five descriptions of all European, a selection of non-European, and three ancient states, that became known as the ‘Elzevirian Republics’. This essay focuses on two of these ‘Republics’, Johannes de Laet’s descriptions of Spain and Portugal. I argue that these books convey an attitude towards geopolitics that is best understood in the light of Caspar Barlaeus’s ideal of the ‘wise merchant’ (mercator sapiens) and the historical regent-merchant culture in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. The essay draws on recent scholarship in the history of knowledge, commerce, and the pre-history of objectivity.