Research team
Expertise
Onderzoek naar de katholieke en protestantse Reformatiebewegingen in de 16de- en 17de-eeuwse Nederlanden. Onderzoek naar de Nederlandse Opstand. Onderzoek naar het culturele leven in de steden van de Nederlanden met aandacht voor onder meer onderwijs, gedrukte boek en rederijkers. Al deze onderzoeksdomeinen focussen op de steden van de Nederlanden met een specifieke aandacht voor de steden van het oude hertogdom Brabant. Typisch is dat in die stedelijke context sociaaleconomische, politieke, religieuze en culturele factoren nauw met elkaar verbonden zijn.
Old vs. new media: handwritten newsletters in the first age of the printed newspaper
Abstract
This project investigates the co-existence of old and new media in the pre-modern age. To understand how old and new communication technology shaped societies in the past is particularly relevant given current debates on the societal impact of digital technology and new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. This project studies how and why handwritten newsletters continued to exist alongside printed newspapers in the seventeenthcentury Dutch Republic, Habsburg Netherlands and France. Before the birth of the printed newspaper, handwritten news-sheets copied by professional scribes were essential in reporting current-affairs. Scholars generally describe these handwritten newsletters as mere predecessors of the printed newspaper and assume they were quickly replaced by their printed counterparts. This project counters this persistent historical narrative by analysing the mutual influence of manuscript and printed newspaper at a moment when their impact on politics and society was not yet firmly established. It is the first in-depth study to specifically consider their role within the wider changing media landscape of the seventeenth century. The project will provide an interconnected history of communication across linguistic, technological, and political boundaries, and shed new light on the impact of new communication technologies on politics and society.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Lamal Nina
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Research about the Calvinist Republic in Antwerp (1577-1585).
Abstract
The Calvinist Republic in Antwerp (1577-1585) was a short although a crucial phase in the Dutch Revolt. In these years, Antwerp was the political and financial capital of the Revolt and at the same time a center of Protestantism of international importance. The central question we try to answer in this book project is how a Calvinist minority succeeded to dominate the city of Antwerp - a commercial metropolis harboring between 80,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. The answer to this question is complex and involves political, religious and social elements which were closely interwoven.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Miracles of the Mind. Evolutions in the representation of religious behaviour and the perception of the sacred in the Low Countries (1350-1750).
Abstract
I wish to strengthen the theoretical component that was only germinally present in the original project outline. It is my opinion that a more elaborated theoretical framework will toughen the original research question, even though it obliges me to reformulate the research question. The initial intention to investigate evolutions in the visionary perception of the supernatural by lay people can be drawn open to a broader inquiry for evolutions in perceptions of the supernatural and the sacred and in the representation of religious behavior.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Fraeters Veerle
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Van Mulder Jonas
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Church music and confessionalization in transformation. Case Antwerp, ca. 1585-1794.
Abstract
This project aims to investigate the interaction between church music and urban society during a period of multiple transformations. By mapping the use of church music as a means to establish and consolidate a confessional identity on the one hand, and by assessing the influence of the religious, political and socio-cultural changes on the production and patronage of church music on the other hand, evolutions in musical life will be interpreted in relation to the societal context and vice versa. Through this study, the layered meaning and functioning of church music in an urban environment will become apparent.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Fellow: Beghein Stefanie
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The Disordered Self: Madness, Religion and Society in early modern Brabant.
Abstract
This is a fundamental research project financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). The project was subsidized after selection by the FWO-expert panel.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: De Munck Bert
- Fellow: Deschrijver Sonja
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Dynamics of visionary lay devotion. The representation of visions, dreams and apparitions in late medieval and early modern miracle collections in the Low Countries (1350-1750).
Abstract
This project will provide insight into the nature and development of the visionary experience of ordinary lay people in the later Middle Ages and Early Modern period, a phenomenon yet to be explored. To achieve this objective, reported visions in vernacular miracle books originated in cult centres in the Low Countries from 1300 to 1700 books will be assembled. The combination of textual, contextual and comparative analysis of this corpus, will (1) shed light on the characteristics of the experience of the visionary protagonists and of cult centre register practices, (2) map chronological shifts and regional fluctuations in the nature of reported lay visions and the intensity of their occurrence. Subsequently, (3) the findings will be interpreted by correlating them with specific cult-related developments, as well as with developments in the official Church norms and regulation of lay visions. The analysis will be informed by concepts from various fields such as historical anthropology, religious philosophy and historical psychology. The project will lead to a differentiated view of the nature and role of lay visions in late medieval and early modern devotion and pilgrimage culture and will significantly contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of lay piety and popular religion.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Fraeters Veerle
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Van Mulder Jonas
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Political culture in three early modern cities: A comparative study of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg, 1650-1790.
Abstract
Cooperation at a scientific research project "Political culture in Three Early Modern Cities: A Comparative Study of Amsterdam Antwerp and Hamburg, 1650-1790" in the context of a VLAC-fellowship with Prof. M. Lindemann (University of Miami, USA).Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Church music and confessionalization in transformation. Casus Antwerp, ca. 1585-1794.
Abstract
This project aims to investigate the interaction between church music and urban society during a period of multiple transformations. By mapping the use of church music as a means to establish and consolidate a confessional identity on the one hand, and by assessing the influence of the religious, political and socio-cultural changes on the production and patronage of church music on the other hand, evolutions in musical life will be interpreted in relation to the societal context and vice versa. Through this study, the layered meaning and functioning of church music in an urban environment will become apparent.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Fellow: Beghein Stefanie
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The dynamics of visionary lay devotion. Visions and apparitions in late medieval and early modern miracle books from the Low Countries (1300-1700).
Abstract
This project will provide insight into the nature and development of the visionary experience of ordinary lay people in the later Middle Ages and Early Modern period, a phenomenon yet to be explored. To achieve this objective, reported visions in vernacular miracle books originated in cult centres in the Low Countries from 1300 to 1700 books will be assembled. The combination of textual, contextual and comparative analysis of this corpus, will (1) shed light on the characteristics of the experience of the visionary protagonists and of cult centre register practices, (2) map chronological shifts and regional fluctuations in the nature of reported lay visions and the intensity of their occurrence. Subsequently, (3) the findings will be interpreted by correlating them with specific cult-related developments, as well as with developments in the official Church norms and regulation of lay visions. The analysis will be informed by concepts from various fields such as historical anthropology, religious philosophy and historical psychology. The project will lead to a differentiated view of the nature and role of lay visions in late medieval and early modern devotion and pilgrimage culture and will significantly contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of lay piety and popular religion.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Fraeters Veerle
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Van Mulder Jonas
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The church in the middle. An inquiry into the urban parish and parish church in the Southern Low Countries(ca.1450-1700).
Abstract
This is a fundamental research project financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). The project was subsidized after selection by the FWO-expert panel.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Religion, memory and identity in the seventeenth century.
Abstract
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europa suffered a series of religious wars. One of these was the Dutch Revolt, a civil war that tore the seventeen Netherlands apart. This project examines the role of war memories in the subsequent creation of new religious and political cultures in Northern and Southern Netherlands, and compares the memory cultures of the Netherlands with those of other territories that had been marked by religious strife.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Madness, religion and society in seventeenth-century Brabant.
Abstract
This is a fundamental research project financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). The project was subsidized after selection by the FWO-expert panel.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: De Munck Bert
- Fellow: Deschrijver Sonja
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
From bishop to witch: the religious and mental world of ordinary people in the diocese of Antwerp, 16th-17th century.
Abstract
This is a fundamental research project financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). The project was subsidized after selection by the FWO-expert panel.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Vanderheyden Bhumi
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Multiple identities in a late medieval and early modern city: Mechelen in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Abstract
This project aims at analysing multiple identities that town dwellers adopt and (re)produce and in doing so it will try to present a more nuanced image of pre-modern urban society than traditional social and cultural history usually permits. For the case-study of Mechelen in the late medieval and early modern period, it wants to identify how identities are constructed (by the participation of different groups in civil society), how they are performed in the public arena and how identities are perceived in collective memory (rituals, historiography, literature).Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Stabel Peter
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: Meeus Hubert
- Co-promoter: Van Dijck Maarten
- Co-promoter: Willaert Frank
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Civil society in late medieval and early modern Mechelen. The development and function of urban club life, 1400-1800
Abstract
This research projects wants to examine the field of independent citizens, free of traditional societal powers such as the economic market and the central state. Recent studies indicate that this development of the European civil society can only be understood from a historical perspective, but most historians of the early modern period still believe that the club life of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment was the cradle of this civil society. The consequences of this new chronology are important. It means that not the secular associations of the Enlightenment but the Christian corporations of the middle ages were crucial in the existence of a civil society. Needless to say, that this new perspective dramatically changes our understanding of the importance and evolution of the civil society in Europe. The political culture ¿ which flourished in this civil society according to several studies ¿ will be at the heart of our analysis. Indeed, several sociologists have claimed that a dense associational life ¿ which is more or less the same as a dynamic civil society ¿ goes hand in glove with the rise of a democratic political culture. This contradicts with traditional visions on the political elites of the late medieval and the early modern times. Numerous studies have pointed at the oligarchic and closed character of most urban governments in the Low Countries. Next tot this, historical research showed that the craft guilds did not promote political participation. These conclusions suggest that the influence of late medieval and early modern civil society was rather small. Therefore, this research project will investigate how the long tradition of civil society and associational life in early modern Europe influenced political participation and democratization. We will look at the evolution of the civil society in a particular city in the Netherlands, namely Mechelen. This was a middle-size city situated in the heart of the Low Countries which could be representative for other towns in the Southern Netherlands. Mechelen did not fundamentally differ from other neighbouring cities in the Antwerp hinterland. The population of the city rose from 15.000 inhabitants during the middle of the fourteenth century to 30.000 inhabitants two centuries later. The demographic evolution changed completely after 1530. This was due to the departure of the Court of Margaret of Austria, the economic reversion and the Dutch Revolt (1566-1609). The population recovered during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it never exceeded 20.000 inhabitants until the end of the Ancien Regime. The investigation of one city should enable us to formulate more precise conclusions about the long term developments and to investigate different aspects of our subject. Of course, we will also make comparisons with other well studied cities in the Low Countries (i.e. Antwerp, Amsterdam, Gent, 's-Hertogenbosch and Zwolle) and look at the developments in other European regions.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: De Munck Bert
- Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Van Dijck Maarten
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Madness, religion and society in seventeenth-century Brabant.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: De Munck Bert
- Fellow: Deschrijver Sonja
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Female networking in Antwerp during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, "hidden" social capital?
Abstract
The research project that Ellen Decraene is currently working on is entitled "Female networking in Antwerp during the 17th and 18th centuries" and has as main aim is to integrate the gender perspective in studies of social capital. It will try to trace the impact of social, economic and religious evolutions on the normative and practical access to women's networks, both formal and informal. More specifically, the way female social relations responded to changes in women's labour possibilities, changes in social status and the supposed rise of the ideal of domesticity, will be examined. Until recently, historians often tended to maintain the dichotomy of the female private sphere as opposed to the male public sphere. In contrast, this research covers female as well as male networks. By incorporating questions about the role of marriage on female networks and about the boundaries between male and female networks the male-female dichotomy is transcended, which opens the way for new insights into the role of gender in the production of social capital.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: De Munck Bert
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Decraene Ellen
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Partition, Change and Continuity in 17th century chorographies in the Netherlands.
Abstract
The project analyses the development of different historiographical conventions in the writings of chorographies in the Netherlands in the 17th century. It discusses the different representations of the past in urban and regional chorographical studies in the light of the war and partition in a synchronic and diachronic way highlighting changes within different regions and towns as well as across the newly established border.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Esser Raingard
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Hollandus's tracks. The alchemical textual body of Hollandus and it reception in the Low Countries and in Europe up to 1600.
Abstract
Among the fascinating and up till now neglected alchemical texts that were produced in our regions in the 16th century, the so-called 'Hollandus-corpus' stands out the most. In spite of its obvious relevance for European alchemical and cultural history, this influential body of texts under the name of Isaac and/or Johannes Isaaci Hollandus has hardly been studied because of its obscure origin and its complex transmission. Because of the vastness of the material and its longlasting popularity the present research is focussed on textual material earlier than ca. 1600. The study of the origins (sources, date, authorship) and transmission (copyists, translations, collectors, possessors, editors, publishers) of these manuscripts and books will shed more light on the (so far unidentified) author(s) of the Hollandus texts and the way in which these texts travelled and multiplied throughout Europe.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Fraeters Veerle
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Consumer changes and church music in Antwerp, 1650-1750.
Abstract
This innovative and discipline-transcending research project, combining urban history, musicology and performance practice, aims to track down the interaction between shifting consumers patterns and the Antwerp mass compositions from the (High) Baroque. The interdisciplinary approach will generate new findings regarding processes of composition, performance, consumption and reception of music, in the context of European music history.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
From bishop to witch: the religious and mental world of ordinary people in the diocese of Antwerp, 16th-17th century.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Fellow: Vanderheyden Bhumi
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The nerve of the war? Money and logistics in the Revolt of the Low Countries (1567-1590).
Abstract
The aim of this project is to shed light on the manner the authorities in the rebel provinces attempted to meet the enormous cost of the war against King Philip II. Most money raised was intended to pay for their troops, professional soldiers who also required large amounts of food, ammunition, horses etc. Research into these matters can help to explain why the Revolt succeeded in the northern provinces, whilst Flanders and Brabant were retaken by the King's army. The finance of the war by the loyal provinces will function as a frame of reference where possible.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Travel culture of the Netherlands (1650-1750). A research into the dialectical relation between travel literature and travel practices and the effect on the rise and dynamics of the European touristic field.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Fellow: Verhoeven Gerrit
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Revising the Dutch Revolt: Antwerp and the Netherlands.
From bishop to witch: the religious and mental world of ordinary people in the diocese of Antwerp, 16th-17th century.
Abstract
This project ¿ a case study on the diocese of Antwerp - focuses upon the processes of religious change in the early modern period. Important research questions deal with the religious and mental world of ordinary people and with the impact of the Catholic Tridentine reform program. At the methodological level, a dynamic communication perspective will be used.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Religious Wars at Home? The Advent and Challenge of Confessionally Mixed Families.
Abstract
The project deals with the theme of religious division, conversion and tolerance by analysing a casestudy from the 17th-century Low Countries. The papers left by Jacob Roelants, son of a Dutch Reformed minister, Catholic convert and eventually a Jesuit, allow to study this complex problem at the level of a concrete family.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Towards a new symbiosis of space, light, color and perspective in architecture and fine arts during the seventeenth century: the early Jesuit Churches in the Duchy of Brabant (1613-70).
Abstract
This research project deals with a confrontation between sciences (optics, perspective theory) and arts (architecture, paintings and sculpture) during the first half of the seventeenth century in the Southern Netherlands. The central question is how Jesuits (as scientists and as architects) have contributed to a new interpretation of architectural space, thanks to their collaboration with very famous artists as P.P. Rubens and several others.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Early Modern Public Opinion. Patterns, mechanisms and actors in processes of opinion- and decision-making in the Northern and Southern Netherlands in the early modern period.
Abstract
This project examines the interaction between public opinion and the political decision making process in the Low Countries of the late 16th century. The focus will be on two comparative casestudies on Antwerp and Amsterdam. These cities were important commercial centers and were touched by a number of questions caused by the Dutch Revolt: the religious problem, the issue of souvereignty and the problem of migration.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Travel culture of the Netherlands (1650-1750). A research into the dialectical relation between travel literature and travel practices and the effect on the rise and dynamics of the European touristic field.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
- Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Fellow: Verhoeven Gerrit
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Guide-books published in the Netherlands (1600-1800). Research into the dialectical relation between travel literature and travel practises and its influence on the genesis and the dynamics of the European tourist area.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Urban society in the Low Countries (late Middle Ages - 16th century)
Abstract
The project aims at expanding the historical study of urban society in the Low Countries in both a chronological sense (by pushing the investigations further into the 16th century) and a geographical sense (by engaging a Dutch team). Research will cover the most urbanised core regions of the Low Countries (Flanders, Brabant, Hoilland and Hainaut) and will stress the comparative study of these regions (comparing them with other regions in the Low Countries and Europe)Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Blondé Bruno
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The Calvinist Republics in Brabant and Flanders (1577-1585)
Abstract
The project aims to examine aspects of state formationn religious change and social policy in early modern Europe. The rebellious regimes which were set up, will be situated in a long term perspective (15th-16th century).Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The Calvinist Republics in Brabant and Flanders (1577-1585). A study on state formation, religious change and social policy in early modern Europe.
Abstract
This project on the Calvinist Republics will focus on the process of political, religious and social change in the 16-th century. These developments manifested themselves drastically in periods of political crisis and revolt. Therefore, we will situate the phenomenon of the Calvinist Republics in a long term perspective which implies a specific attention for continuity and discontinuity with the late medieval situation.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Van Uytven Raymond
- Co-promoter: Marnef Guido
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project