The “most noble of the Poles”. In search for Stanislas Kostka in the seventeenth-century literature of the Southern Netherlands ; De “Eelsten der Polacken”. Op zoek naar Stanislas Kostka in de Zuid-Nederlandse literatuur van de zeventiende eeuw

This essay provides a first comprehensive overview of the presence of the Polish saint Stanislas Kostka (1550–1568) in the Dutch-language literature from the Southern Netherlands of the 17th century. The frequent stressing of his Polish origins serves to make the venerated Jesuit novice look like a miraculous denial of the patterns of thought of the time about the relationship between the location of countries and the nature of their inhabitants. Although the first biography of the young Jesuit hero in Dutch appeared rather late, many a song about him is included in catholic songbooks in Dutch... Mehr ...