This volume illuminates how philology and its focus on the critical examination of classical texts began an accelerated process of specialization in Dutch scholarship of the 1800s.

When David Gorlaeus (1591-1612) passed away at 21 years of age, he left behind two highly innovative manuscripts. Once they were published, his work had a remarkable impact on the evolution of seventeenth-century thought. However, as his identity was unknown, divergent interpretations of their meaning quickly sprang up. Seventeenth-century readers understood him as an anti-Aristotelian thinker and as a precursor of Descartes. Twentieth-century historians depicted him as an atomist, natural scientist and even as a chemist. And yet, when Gorlaeus died, he was a beginning student in theology. His thought must in fact be placed at the intersection between philosophy, the nascent natural sciences, and theology. The aim of this book is to shed light on Gorlaeus’ family circumstances, his education at Franeker and Leiden, and on the virulent Arminian crisis which provided the context within which his work was written. It also attempts to define Gorlaeus’ place in the history of Dutch philosophy and to assess the influence that it exercised in the evolution of philosophy and science, and notably in early Cartesian circles. Christoph Lüthy is professor of the history of philosophy and science at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Simon Stevin (1548-1620) was one of the leading scholars of his day. As a scientist and engineer, he carved a career for himself in the breakaway Dutch Republic of the Northern Low Countries, developing theoretical innovations in mathematics and physics as well as practical innovations in civil engineering and military technology. Less well known is the project that Stevin worked on during the last twenty years of his life, a treatise on architecture and town planning. The earliest mention of Huysbou occurs in the first volume of Stevin’s work on mathematics and other natural sciences, Wisconstighe Ghedachtenissen (‘Mathematical Memoirs’), published in 1605. This book deals with Stevin’s unfinished, and until now only partly revealed architectural treatise. The discussion of the Huysbou opens by exploring Stevin’s visions on science and methods to explain the origins of the ideas contained in the work. The following chapters examine Stevin’s notions of symmetry and order in architecture, his views on building methods, the role of water and the use of visual presentations of architecture. Finally the commentary surveys Stevin’s contribution to architectural theory and the reputation enjoyed by Huysbou in the Low Countries and in the broader European context. The second section of the book presents Stevin’s work on architecture and town planning. A first attempt has made to recreate the envisaged Huysbou as accurately as possible. The third section contains the appendices: fragments of Stevin’s texts on architecture and town planning, a glossary and an extensive bibliography.

For almost a hundred years, the Willie Commelin Scholten laboratory was the hub of phytopathology research in the Netherlands, where generations of students learned the principles of plant pathology. In Splendid Isolation reconstructs the history of this unique institution, from its beginnings as a small private laboratory in the late nineteenth century to its final days as a renowned university research center. This unique volume chronicles how the laboratory’s scientific reputation spread far beyond the country’s borders as it diagnosed and researched thousands of plant diseases.

This volume contains ten papers selected from among those presented at the annual Free University Stemmatological Colloquia 1990-93. Current issues in (automated) stemmatology, paleography and codicology are addressed from contemporary theoretical perspectives. All papers focus on new directions in textuology and manuscript affiliation, and especially on the use of computer science in this field.The theoretical implications of computer-assisted stemma construction are explored. In combination with achievements in codicology and paleography, these investigations allow for dealing with the major problems in textuology: extreme complex and entangled manuscript traditions. Following an introductory chapter, part 1 presents six theoretical contributions on stemmatology, and part 2 deals with auxiliary fields in textuology, such as codicology and paleography. In part 3 applications of the previously developed fields are presented.

A comprehensive interpretation of the "Scienza Nuova" and of the ways in which Vico managed to present his essentially naturalistic philosophy in a form acceptable within the ecclesiastical climate of 18th century Italy.

The origins of the telescope have been discussed and debated since shortly after the instrument's appearance in The Hague in 1608. Civic and national pride have led local dignitaries, popular writers, and numerous scholars to search the archives and to construct sharply divergent histories. Did the honor of the invention belong to the Dutch, to the Italians, to the English, or to the Spanish? And if the city of Middelburg in the Netherlands was, in fact, the cradle of the instrument, was the "true inventor" Hans Lipperhey or his rival Zacharias Jansen? Or was the instrument there before anyone knew it? Over the past several decades, a group of historians and scientists have sought out new documents, re-examined familiar ones, and tested early lenses and telescopes. This volume contains the proceedings of a symposium held in Middelburg in September 2008 to mark 400 years of the telescope. The essays in it, taken as a whole, present a new and convincing account of the origins of the instrument that changed mankind's vision of the universe.