Instruments of Community: Dutch Sonnets in Alba Amicorum, 1560-1660

This article analyses the emergence and development of Dutch sonnets through Netherlandish alba amicorum from the period 1560 to 1660. It discusses the advent of the sonnet in the Renaissance literature of the Low Countries in the 1560s, showing how artists, scholars, and poets with connections to the Dutch refugee community in London became early adapters of this genre through their alba amicorum. We argue that this group used the sonnet as a form of exile literature, which communicated attachment to the fatherland and the righteous causes of the Dutch Revolt. Next, the essay explores the Dut... Mehr ...