Exploring the World from Zeeland A D M T (.)
Table of contents P Arjan van Dixhoorn and Marijn Tijs N I Arjan van Dixhoorn Zeeland and the World T S N V , - Emily Hulsmann T I M C E E - E C Z Anna den Hollander T VO C ’ C C R K M C T Tom Leijnse R N T C D E I C ( V O C ) E C Tess Schijvenaars T P’ K : M I D P , - Puck Halkes C T : C C S M ( MC C ) Tim Beele n
Z N ’ G A - : N M H’ P Emma de Graaf T M R M : L D S D - B W , - Hannah ten Have L P : F R N - C Z Aron van Willigen T K M : N - C B M E M A M Marijke van Selm C K : E B , M M H M W’ M L - N Rayke van Lent T L , N I W’ M I : N M W - B B H M Rayke van Lent A J L J: E T M Clarissa Frascadore Exploring the World from Zeeland: Academies in the History of Knowledge T I B R C A I R S B - L B Zoé van Ysseldijk
T F E I ’E : E P S E Hana Shamaa T R A C Q L : C S H K Lucia Bertoldini I
Preface A D M T I n , the Familiefonds Hurgronje (a charity foundation on the island of Walcheren), established a special chair in the History of Zeeland in the World, at Utrecht University. In , the special chair was prolonged with another ve years. Te holder of the chair was charged to teach a course on the history of Zeeland at University College Roosevelt in Middelburg and engage in outreach activities in the area. In , a rst edited volume with student papers was published. Tis second volume presents sixteen papers written by students of the research seminar (taught since ) between and . A few papers were written as bachelor papers or during a research internship. In line with the aim of the course, all papers are based on primary sources either from archives or libraries. Te edited volumes have two aims: disseminating the most interesting results in the history of Zeeland achieved by students of the special chair, and showing the type of work that bachelor students at UCR can produce. Like the rst volume, this second volume has two sections. Te papers in the rst part study aspects of Zeeland’s history, with most of them focusing on the region’s position in world-wide networks of knowledge and informa- tion. A few papers were inspired by the history of tourism and new military history (both topics also taught at UCR). Te papers in the rst part have been organized in a chronological order. Tey discuss the history of the Scottish Nation in early modern Veere (Hulsmann), cultures of experimentation in ear- ly-eighteenth-century Zeeland (Den Hollander), the eighteenth-century tea- trade with China (Leijnse and Schijvenaars), the information networks of the Pensionary of Zeeland around (Halkes), the transition of the Commer- cie Compagnie of Middelburg (MCC) from a trading to an industrial company around (Beelen), the experiences of soldiers in the Napoleonic War and the Dutch-Belgian War (De Graaf and Ten Have), lobbying for a railway from
mid-nineteenth-century Zeeland (Van Willigen) the making of a museum in late nineteenth-century Middelburg (Van Selm), the rise of a women’s move- ment in Zeeland (Van Lent), and the role of the medieval Lange Jan tower in the early-twentieth-century tourism of Middelburg (Frascadore). Most papers are based on archival material preserved in the Zeeuws Archief. Te papers in the second section of the volume focus on three institutions of learning in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Tey were writ- ten during the research seminar of . Tis seminar focused on the role of learned societies in the history of knowledge, in the eighteenth century, in the context of the commemoration of the th anniversary of the Zeeuws Genoot- schap der Wetenschappen (the Society of the Arts and Sciences of Zeeland), established in the city of Flushing in . One of the papers from this edition of the course, on the international network surrounding the Zeeland society in the eighteenth-century, was separately published in the journal of this so- ciety. Te papers published here provide an international context to the role of learned societies in the history of knowledge around : the rst paper discusses the learned academy of Brussels during French rule around (Van Ysseldijk), the second investigates the Institut d’Egypt founded during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt (Shamaa), and the nal paper delves into the discussions on the Italian language in the Accademia della Crusca of Florence in the Napoleonic era (Bertoldini). Te papers in this volume bring together the various approaches in academic history writing that are also taught at UCR: social and economic history, politi- cal and military history, cultural history and more specically also the history of tourism and the history of knowledge. In the introduction to this volume, the holder of the special chair in the History of Zeeland in the World discusses a series of cases from Zeeland’s world-entangled history engaging with these various subelds; with particular attention to the shaping of the county of Zee- land in the s (and its legacy both in Zeeland, but also, for example, in early modern Genoa). Since, in a -level (or third-year bachelor-level) research seminar the work by students should (ideally) be grounded in the expertise of the teacher, since , the framework within which most papers were written 1 Judith Brouwer, “Te Zeeuwsch Genootschap and the Formation of its Correspondence Net- work, -,” Archief KZGW, , -.
was the new historical eld of the history of knowledge and information. Tis eld grew out of the earlier social history of science, using many approaches from social and cultural history. Te history of knowledge and information can also be seen as the result of a reection (both philosophically, historically and politically) of the recognition that modern society had developed into a knowl- edge and information society; in which more than ever before, knowledge and information have become productive forces, alongside labor, capital and nat- ural resources. Te premise of the history of knowledge and information is that, although our society is certainly unique in its integration of explicit and theoretical knowledge in the everyday world of practice, all societies have been based on knowledge and information. Many papers in this volume investigate how trading, lobbying and other forms of human action are always intertwined with the use and making of knowledge and information. Te papers are presented here largely as they were submitted for grading at the end of their production process (be it in a course, during an internship, or as an individual project). Tey have been redacted only on language, stylistic aspects and formatting. Te content of the papers, the interpretation of sources and argumentation, has not been altered. Te editing process was coordinated by the holder of the special chair, Arjan van Dixhoorn, and Marijn Tijs, a professional journalist and editor, alumnus of UCR with a degree in journalism from the University of Groningen (and editor and contributor to volume one). A group of (former) UCR-students has assisted in the redaction of the papers. As a result of this redaction and peer-review-process, the readers will get a good sense of papers written by history students at UCR, bearing in mind that only the best papers have been selected. Tey were selected based on quality of interpretation, argumentation and originality of topic and thought. Obviously, then, the papers in this volume should be read as work-in-progress. Tey are certainly meant to inform, but also, in particular, to inspire future work. Tis volume would never have come into existence without the support of the Familiefonds Hurgronje for the special chair in general and for the pub- lication in particular. At the end of the special chair, with the inevitable ten- year-limit in sight, the holder of the special chair wishes to thank the members of the Familiefonds , the administrators and their representative on the chair’s curatorium (supervisory board), Matthijs Snouck Hurgronje, for their generos- ity and support in the decade between and . Special thanks also to colleagues at UCR for their support of the chair, and for making teaching at
our college such a pleasure. Te students who took courses with the holder of the chair, in particular the students that took the research seminar or did indi- vidual research work, made teaching a great experience. Teir critical but also curious attitude, their creative ideas and insights, their knowledge developed in the course of their education, have turned teaching at the university into what it should be: the students become the teachers, with the teacher learning just as much (or more) from the students than vice versa. Many of the papers present- ed here could not have been written without the support and advice from the sta at the Zeeuws Archief , the Zeeuws Museum , and the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek . Te editors also wish to thank the students of the editorial board for their time and eort: Tim Beelen, Lucia Bertoldini, Clarissa Frascadore, Rayke van Lent, Tess Schijvenaars and Zoé van Ysseldijk. Together with the early subscribers (family and friends of the authors), the following organizations and institutions have nancially made possible the publication of this volume through their generosity: the Familiefonds Hurgron- je , UCR, the municipalities of Veere and Middelburg. Middelburg and Utrecht, November