The World Within Reach

This book traces the history of translation in the Early Modern Low Countries (roughly the modern-day Netherlands and Belgium), from around 1550 to around 1700. It focuses on the various roles played by translation in different contexts.

In the latter half of the sixteenth century translation stoked religious conflict and the civil war that eventually divided the territory into two, ideologically opposed political entities. After 1600 it buttressed the economic wealth and overseas expansion of the Dutch Republic and assisted in transforming the southern Netherlands into a Counter-Reformation bastion. Throughout the period translation fostered new knowledge and artistic innovation, fuelled political propaganda and stimulated personal piety and commercial publishing. It enabled some of the cultural monuments of the age and helped lay the groundwork of the Radical Enlightenment. The book pays attention to both interpreting and written translation, to material as well as intellectual aspects, to social and regional divisions, and to the area’s linguistic complexity – covering translation not just into Dutch but also into Latin, French and Spanish.

It will appeal to researchers and advanced students interested in Early Modern Europe, multilingualism and the history of culture and translation.