About this Event
Decoding Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt
Organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands in France and Atelier Néerlandais and Huygens Institute/NL-Lab (Amsterdam/The Netherlands)
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Johan de Witt Correspondence Project, this workshop brings together researchers who have contributed to the project over the years. A collaboration between the Huygens Institute, the National Archives of the Netherlands and the Johan de Witt Foundation, the project has brought together guest researchers, interns, former interns and other scholars to work with the rich correspondence of Dutch Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt (1625-1672).
A central feature of the workshop is the work of a new generation of researchers. Most of the papers will be presented by young scholars who have been closely involved in the project and who approach De Witt’s correspondence from very different angles. Their contributions range from diplomacy, espionage, gossip and reputation to the circulation of news, print culture, ciphers, material letter practices and new digital methods for studying correspondence. Particular attention will be paid to Franco-Dutch relations , especially exchanges between Paris and The Hague and to the wider world of seventeenth-century international diplomacy.
The workshop is open to everyone with an interest in Johan de Witt, the seventeenth century, diplomacy, letters, political culture or simply in how historians work with sources.
PROGRAMME
09.45–10.15 Arrival and coffee
10.15–11.20 The De Witt correspondence: sources and methods
Ineke Huysman – The Johan de Witt Correspondence Project: Diplomacy, Rumour and Reputation
Tamarah de Groot – Automatic Handwriting Recognition and the De Witt Correspondence
Ingmar Vroomen – Ciphers in the De Witt Correspondence
11.20–11.40 Coffee break
11.40–12.45 Letters, paper and the circulation of information
Jirre Wijnholds – The Making of a Letter by Johan de Witt
Jurriaan Wink – Letter Folding in the De Witt Correspondence
Hanna de Lange – Damage control. Complaints about the Dutch Press in 1670
12.45–14.00 Lunch
14.00–15.05 Diplomacy, intelligence and reputation
Anna Baak – Grandmaison: A Spy for Johan de Witt
Lydia Boer – Abraham de Wicquefort: French Diplomacy, Double Espionage and Gossip
Noortje Alderlieste – Johan de Witt and Diplomatic Relations with Cosimo de’ Medici
15.05–15.25 Coffee break
15.25–16.30 De Witt: news, power and representation
Jet Kleine Schaars – News from Italy: A Comet Reported to Johan de Witt
Jaap de Haan – Johan de Witt as ‘Premier Ministre’
Jean-Marc van Tol – Writing a Novel about Johan de Witt: Fact and Fiction
16.30–16.45 Concluding discussion
From 16.45 Drinks reception
Event venue & nearby stays
Atelier Néerlandais, 22 Avenue Victoria, Paris, France
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