Jan Steen, 'As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young', c. 1665

Den Haag, Mauritshuis, 742

Image here via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Steen_022_colour_version_01.jpg

By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had survived a long era of war, threat, and uncertainty. But perhaps that last word is inappropriate, because the Dutch were in fact certain – very certain – that they were exceptional. Perhaps the most exceptional people there had ever been!

Not usually a good sign. But there were benefits, and lots of them… not least a trading empire, which eclipsed that of all former sea powers; an intense civic life; and a rumbunctious love of all good things. The Dutch knew how to live large and still maintain their appearance as respectable members of the Reformed Church.

There was a freedom in the air, which liberal democracies the world over still reference. Jews and Catholics could live and prosper in this Protestant country. Books banned elsewhere were printed widely. Everyone and his uncle seemed to be an art dealer, and the universities placed no bounds on enquiry. Astronomers, engineers, and natural philosophers were free to pursue their callings. The very landscape, with its dikes and polders, is testament to this remarkable era of innovation and change. And as the Dutch engineers delved in to the very earth to change the shape of the country, its astronomers gazed into the night sky, to better understand the revolution of the heavenly spheres.

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RJW F2511 Online course (via Zoom)

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