Negotiating Differences ─ Word, Image and Religion in the Dutch Republic

Puzzled at why 17th-century Dutch devotional literature did not have the simple illustrations that abound in English analogues, Stronks (early modern Dutch literature, Utrecht U.) explores the production of illustrated religious literature in the Dutch Republic. Not only were members of the Reformed Church hesitant to add imagery to their religious texts, she finds, but authors, publishers, and engravers of all denominations were reluctant to mix the Word with images. Digging deeper, she finds an impermeable barrier between Catholic visual practices and Protestant textual traditions, and uses the presence or absence of illustration to trace the contours of that boundary. Her topics include literature as reflection of religious identities, diverging roads 1630-53, and annexation 1725-95. Only names are indexed. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Els Stronks, dr. (1965) in Dutch Early Modern Literature, is Professor of Early Modern Dutch Literature at Utrecht University. She has published extensively on Dutch religious literature and its images, and on Dutch emblematics (see http://emblems.let.uu.nl)