Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
About the Book Series
This book series is published in collaboration with the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age, which aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. 1560-1720).
The publications provide insight into the lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom) and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting.
The series editors are international scholars specialised in seventeenth-century history, art and literature.
Editorial Board:
Frans Blom, University of Amsterdam; Michiel van Groesen, Leiden University; Geert Janssen, University of Amsterdam; Elmer Kolfin, University of Amsterdam; Nelleke Moser, VU University Amsterdam; Emile Schrijver, University of Amsterdam; Thijs Weststeijn, Utrecht University
Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia
1st Edition
Edited
By Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann, Michael North
January 15, 2026
While the socio-economic and historical aspects of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have been extensively documented and researched, the role of the VOC in visual culture and the arts has been relatively neglected. This authoritative volume addresses various aspects of cultural exchange between ...
The Universal Art of Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678): Painter, Writer, and Courtier
1st Edition
Edited
By Thijs Weststeijn
January 15, 2026
Samuel van Hoogstraten was not only one of Rembrandt’s most succesful pupils and a versatile painter. His experiments in optical illusion also attracted the interest of the natural scientists of his time. Furthermore, he wrote some of the first Dutch novels, plays, and a treatise on painting. After...
Painting and Publishing as Cultural Industries: The Fabric of Creativity in the Dutch Republic, 1580-1800
1st Edition
By Claartje Rasterhoff
January 10, 2026
The Dutch Republic was a cultural powerhouse in the modern era, producing lasting masterpieces in painting and publishing, and in the process transforming those fields from modest trades to booming industries. This book asks the question of how such a small nation could become such a major player ...
A Dutch Republican Baroque: Theatricality, Dramatization, Moment and Event
1st Edition
By Frans-Willem Korsten
December 01, 2025
In the Dutch Republic, in its Baroque forms of art, two aesthetic formal modes, theatre and drama, were dynamically related to two political concepts, event and moment. The Dutch version of the Baroque is characterised by a fascination with this world regarded as one possibility out of a plurality ...
A Selection of the Poems of Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687): Revised, Second Edition
2nd Edition
Edited
By Adriaan van der Weel, Peter Davidson
December 01, 2025
Dutch Golden Age poet Constantijn Huygens (1596—1687) was a remarkable figure: in addition to writing poetry, he composed music; was secretary to two Princes of Orange, Frederick Henry and William II; and became a friend to John Donne, Rembrandt, Descartes, and many other notable people of his time...
Arguments Against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam by Saul Levi Morteira, Spinoza's Rabbi
1st Edition
By Gregory Kaplan
December 01, 2025
This is the first book to offer a translation into English-as well as a critical study-of a Spanish treatise written around 1650 by Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira, whose most renowned congregant was Baruch Spinoza. Aimed at encouraging the practice of halachic Judaism among the Amsterdam-based ...
Art, Honor and Success in The Dutch Republic: The Life and Career of Jacob van Loo
1st Edition
By Judith Noorman
December 01, 2025
Focusing on the interrelationship between Jacob van Loo's art, honor, and career, this book argues that Van Loo's lifelong success and unblemished reputation were by no means incompatible, as art historians have long assumed, with his specialization in painting nudes and his conviction for ...
Confronting the Golden Age: Imitation and Innovation in Dutch Genre Painting 1680-1750
1st Edition
By Junko Aono
December 01, 2025
Is it possible to talk about Dutch art after 1680 outside the prevailing critical framework of the age of decline? Although an increasing number of studies are being published on the art and society of this period, genre painting of this era continues to be dismissed as an uninspired repetition of ...
Dangerous Drugs: The Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620-1695)
1st Edition
By Ronny Spaans
December 01, 2025
In the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was the centre of the world trade in exotic drugs and spices. They were sought after both as medicines, and as luxury objects for the bourgeois class, giving rise to a medical and moral anxiety in the Republic. This ambivalent view on exotic drugs is the ...
Financing Poor Relief through Charitable Collections in Dutch Towns, c. 1600-1800
1st Edition
By Daniëlle Teeuwen
December 01, 2025
In the Dutch Republic, charitable collections, which formed the financial backbone of many poor relief institutions, were regularly organised by both religious and secular authorities. This book examines both the policies of church boards and town councils in organising these charitable appeals, as...
Painted Alchemists: Early Modern Artistry and Experiment in the Work of Thomas Wijck
1st Edition
By Elisabeth Berry Drago
December 01, 2025
Thomas Wijck’s painted alchemical laboratories were celebrated in his day as artful and ingenious. They fell into obscurity along with their subject, as alchemy came to be viewed as an occult art or a fool’s errand. But these unusual pictures challenge our understanding of early modern alchemy-and ...
Rembrandt and his Circle: Insights and Discoveries
1st Edition
Edited
By Stephanie Dickey
December 01, 2025
This collection brings together art historians, museum professionals, conservators, and conservation scientists whose work involves Rembrandt van Rijn and associated artists such as Gerrit Dou, Jan Lievens, and Ferdinand Bol. The range of subjects considered is wide: from the presentation of ...