Tekst achterflap

How did Amsterdam acquire its tolerant image? Why did this provincial city in the north of the Netherlands become so important in the 17th century? Who were the people who settled here, traded and fought for freedom of conscience?

At the end of the 16th century, a big bang took place in the Low Countries. Events followed each other in rapid succession; like falling dominoes, they caused upheavals in all areas of society: politics, science, culture, religion an society.

The Renaissance, which began in Italy in cities such as Florence, gained a foothold in the north; cities such as Bruges, Antwerp and later Amsterdam grew to become the world's leading trading centres.

It was a time of bloody wars, but also of unprecedented cultural and commercial prosperity, of discoveries and of the struggle for freedom. Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of the press.

With essays on key figures of free thinking, such as Coornhert and Comenius, the growth and prosperity of Amsterdam, the flourishing of the arts, the immigrants who made the city great, and the explosive increase in printing houses, this richly illustrated book brings a turbulent period to life band offers a colourful perspective on a time when the Europe we know today took shape.

Inhoudsopgave

INTRODUCTION

Jozef Ritman - Amsterdam and the Eternal Stream of Freedom

Ernst Veen - A Monument of Freedom and Tolerance

Emile Schrijver - Joost Ritman and Jewish Amsterdam

I THE BIG BANG IN THE LOW COUNTRIES

Carlos Gilly - Antwerp Keizerstraat | Basel Nadelberg | Amsterdam Keizersgracht. Three Monuments of Freedom of Conscience

Paul Dijstelberge - The Murder of Egmont and Horne

Zanna van Loon - Many Hands Make Printing Work: The Success of the Plantin Printing and Publishing House

Paul Dijstelberge - Mercator Sapiens, creating the Ideal City

Maarten Prak - Amsterdam at the Centre of the World

Koen Ottenheym - The Architecture of the House with the Heads and the De Keyser family

Paul Dijstelberge - The Kwab Ornament, the Dutch Contribution to the Baroque

Mireille Ploegaert - An Italian Court in Amsterdam. Nicolaes Sohier and his Art Collection

José Bouman and Natalie Koch - How the Renaissance Reached the North

John Exalto - Faith and Fortune in the Dutch Golden Age. The Last Will of Louis de Geer (1587-1652)

Corey Andrews - “Shedding Light" on Amsterdam and The House with the Heads

Natalie Koch - Bulbs and Flowers - Tulip Mania in the Netherlands

Arthur der Weduwen & Andrew Pettegree - A City of Books Known to the Limits of the World. Printing and Publishing in the 17th Century Amsterdam

Frans Smit - The Zuiderkerk and Rembrandt

Willem Heijting - Hendrick Beets, his Amsterdam Circle and his Trade in Esoteric Books

Kyra Gerber - Amsterdam, Antwerp, and the Art of Printing. Following the Footsteps of Five Hebrew Books at the BPH

II THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM

Jan Amos Comenius - Amsterdam, Fair Star among the Cities, Bright Jewel of the Netherlands. Wonder and Pride of Europe

Frans Smit - Michel Le Blon. The Spider in the Web

Dick van Niekerk- Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert (1522-1590). A Passionate Ambassador of the Free Mind

Dick van Niekerk - The Old and the New Human. A Song by Coornhert on Rebirth

Joost R. Ritman - Coornhert, Light in Europe, A Sower Went out to Sow

Craig Atwood - Jan Amos Comenius. Citizen of the World and Teacher for All Humanity

Carlos Gilly - Comenius and the Rosicrucians

Corey Andrews - Comenius, Amsterdam, and the House with the Heads. Correspondence, Patronage, Legacy

Govert Snoek and José Bouman - Abraham Willemsz. van Beyerland. Disseminator of Böhme's Thought

Frans Smit -Gerard Thibault and his Fencing Academy

Pieta van Beek - A House full of Love. Anna Maria van Schurman spreads her Wings in Amsterdam

Govert Snoek - Tanneke de Nijs. Mystic and Witness of Truth

Christian Rijnberg - Johannes Fridericus Helvetius and the Philosopher's Stone. Uproar over an Alchemical Eyewitness Account in the Late Seventeenth Century

Govert Snoek - Johannes Torrentius: Painter and Rosicrucian?

Paul Dijstelberge - Rembrandt at the Rozengracht

III A CALL FOR EUROPE

Joost R. Ritman - The World of Ideas at the Basis of the BPH. Under the Sign of the Brotherhood CRC / The Universal Community of the Rose / The Tabula Smaragdina / The Prelude to Gnosis

José Bouman - The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: Exploring the Collection - a Curator's View

J. C. Klautz - Our Spiritual Heritage in Amsterdam

Jozef Ritman - A Look Ahead. The Embassy of the Free Mind as a Monument to Free Thinking

APPENDICES

Books Exhibited

50 Years of Research. A Time-Table

Publications of In de Pelikaan. A Time-Table

Index

Illustrations

Details