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Vreemde Ogen - Een kijk op de Zuidelijke Nederlanden
Meekijkend over de schouder van unieke getuigen biedt Vreemde ogen een onthullende kijk op twee cruciale eeuwen die de val van Antwerpen (1585) voorafgingen. Een panorama van de Zuid-Nederlandse samenleving ontrolt zich.
We leven in een tijd van immense veranderingen. De mondialisering maakt onze wereld kleiner en brengt ons voortdurend in contact met het vreemde. Onze ervaring is echter niet uniek. Ook op de grens tussen de middeleeuwen en de vroegmoderne tijd behoorden de Zuidelijke Nederlanden tot de economisch meest geavanceerde en verstedelijkte gebieden van Europa. Deze wereldreputatie bracht heel wat nieuwsgierigen, gelukzoekers en handelaren op de been. Enkelen onder hen hadden er de tijd en de inkt voor over om hun impressies in geschriften na te laten. Zo"n verblijf in den vreemde stond borg voor een uitzonderlijke ervaring. De collectie hardnekkige stereotypes en wonderlijke inzichten is zonder meer verbazend.
Vreemde ogen toont alleszins hoe anno 2010 de mens niet fundamenteel is veranderd. Ook vandaag wordt de perceptie van het vreemde sterk gekleurd door clichés en emoties. Vijfhonderd jaar geleden was dat niet anders.
We leven in een tijd van immense veranderingen. De mondialisering maakt onze wereld kleiner en brengt ons voortdurend in contact met het vreemde. Onze ervaring is echter niet uniek. Ook op de grens tussen de middeleeuwen en de vroegmoderne tijd behoorden de Zuidelijke Nederlanden tot de economisch meest geavanceerde en verstedelijkte gebieden van Europa. Deze wereldreputatie bracht heel wat nieuwsgierigen, gelukzoekers en handelaren op de been. Enkelen onder hen hadden er de tijd en de inkt voor over om hun impressies in geschriften na te laten. Zo"n verblijf in den vreemde stond borg voor een uitzonderlijke ervaring. De collectie hardnekkige stereotypes en wonderlijke inzichten is zonder meer verbazend.
Vreemde ogen toont alleszins hoe anno 2010 de mens niet fundamenteel is veranderd. Ook vandaag wordt de perceptie van het vreemde sterk gekleurd door clichés en emoties. Vijfhonderd jaar geleden was dat niet anders.
350 pages
First published January 1, 2010
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August 2, 2021Not what I expected.
I imagined that this would be more a collection of excerpts from accounts by travellers to the Burgundian Netherlands between circa 1400 and 1600, perhaps not quite as extreme as J.R. Lander's book about The Wars of the Roses (which is virtually all primary source material with just a few pieces of bridging text), but something like that. In fact it turned out to be something more like a social history of the Southern Netherlands in the above mentioned period, occasionally decorated with brief quotes from foreign travellers to illustrate what the author was saying, if you are a teacher and are looking for source material for your lessons then this book won't provide it, but it lists where you might find it. This was fine, but it was not what I had expected. I worried that the eight years war between the Dutch and the Spanish Hapsburgs might overshadow the text, but on the whole it did not and emphasis was given to the deeper history of rebellion and conflict in the Burgundian period too.
Now I am beginning a third paragraph when I thought that this might be a one paragraph review, sigh. Looking at what the various foreign witnesses find remarkable one notices in their attitudes some familiar stereotypes, the lecherous Italian, the permissive French, the drunken Dutch, and the reserved Spaniard, as it happened some of the foreigners were Humanists and like good Humanists they had read their Julius Caesar and so saw whenever possible that the southern Netherlanders of their own day were the same as the ancient Belgae.
The social History that de Keyser presents here is familiar, but still interesting, a busy, commercial, and urbanised society with wide ranging international connections, the landscape was marshy, the sea had tides, the people were big and blond(e), women were frightfully independent and visible earning money and reading books, the diet rich in dairy products, quite a lot of citrus fruits were imported from Spain and I wonder if this had any lasting impact on the cuisine, drunkenness among men was rife - but the water was considered by travellers to be both undrinkable and not suitable for cooking either(or at least from the perspective of people from wine drinking cultures) . The Italian Vincenzo Quirini wrote that the quattro elementi di Fiandrawere beer, butter, herring and peat. The calories in other words were what made the Southern Netherlands distinctive, the last mentioned was the fuel of choice, though coal and the more traditional wood were also available. There is a rich selection of illustrations at the end of the book - of which the most interesting I thought was a fanciful 15th century picture of the interior of a brothel, but fear not the participants were not naked because they all wore hats (and nothing else) what struck me about it was how slender all of the people were even in a very prosperous region relatively wealthy people looked almost malnourished by contemporary European standards once more it is all about the calories, there are also a couple of maps and a bibliography listing published and unpublished primary sources.
I imagined that this would be more a collection of excerpts from accounts by travellers to the Burgundian Netherlands between circa 1400 and 1600, perhaps not quite as extreme as J.R. Lander's book about The Wars of the Roses (which is virtually all primary source material with just a few pieces of bridging text), but something like that. In fact it turned out to be something more like a social history of the Southern Netherlands in the above mentioned period, occasionally decorated with brief quotes from foreign travellers to illustrate what the author was saying, if you are a teacher and are looking for source material for your lessons then this book won't provide it, but it lists where you might find it. This was fine, but it was not what I had expected. I worried that the eight years war between the Dutch and the Spanish Hapsburgs might overshadow the text, but on the whole it did not and emphasis was given to the deeper history of rebellion and conflict in the Burgundian period too.
Now I am beginning a third paragraph when I thought that this might be a one paragraph review, sigh. Looking at what the various foreign witnesses find remarkable one notices in their attitudes some familiar stereotypes, the lecherous Italian, the permissive French, the drunken Dutch, and the reserved Spaniard, as it happened some of the foreigners were Humanists and like good Humanists they had read their Julius Caesar and so saw whenever possible that the southern Netherlanders of their own day were the same as the ancient Belgae.
The social History that de Keyser presents here is familiar, but still interesting, a busy, commercial, and urbanised society with wide ranging international connections, the landscape was marshy, the sea had tides, the people were big and blond(e), women were frightfully independent and visible earning money and reading books, the diet rich in dairy products, quite a lot of citrus fruits were imported from Spain and I wonder if this had any lasting impact on the cuisine, drunkenness among men was rife - but the water was considered by travellers to be both undrinkable and not suitable for cooking either(or at least from the perspective of people from wine drinking cultures) . The Italian Vincenzo Quirini wrote that the quattro elementi di Fiandrawere beer, butter, herring and peat. The calories in other words were what made the Southern Netherlands distinctive, the last mentioned was the fuel of choice, though coal and the more traditional wood were also available. There is a rich selection of illustrations at the end of the book - of which the most interesting I thought was a fanciful 15th century picture of the interior of a brothel, but fear not the participants were not naked because they all wore hats (and nothing else) what struck me about it was how slender all of the people were even in a very prosperous region relatively wealthy people looked almost malnourished by contemporary European standards once more it is all about the calories, there are also a couple of maps and a bibliography listing published and unpublished primary sources.
Displaying 1 of 1 review