Letters, art, artifacts, and printed materials. Databases and other collections of primary and contemporary sources relevant to Renaissance-era Dutch and Flemish studies.

Legal Documents & Records

• 1581 Act of Abjuration English-Language Translation: The Act has come to be colloquially known as the “Dutch Declaration of Independence.” From Fordham University’s extensive History Sourcebooks Project.
• 1621 Charter of the Dutch West India Company: An English-language translation of a seminal document.
• Alba Amicorum voor 1800: Catalog of the alba amicorum in private or public collections in the Netherlands
• Early Modern Letters Online: A search engine for letters from the 1500s through 1700s.
• EuroDocs Netherlands – Burgundian and Habsburg (1433-1567): Collection of primary sources and links to other relevant academic projects. EuroDocs is a project of BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library.
• EuroDocs Netherlands – Independence, Empire and Decline (1567-1815): Collection of primary sources and links to other relevant academic projects.
• Official letters of the United East India Company (VOC), 1610-1795 (NL): A collection of  reports  with details of the company’s activities and messages from different outposts. In this way, the letters provide a continuous flow of information about the territories where the VOC was established.
• Resolutions of the Dutch States General, 1576-1795 (NL): A collection of both the ordinary and secret resolutions of the States General and a gateway to additional, extensive archive material from and about the States General.

Letters & Correspondence

• Correspondence of Daniel van der Meulen (NL): Van der Meulen left over 6,000 documents relating to his mercantile and governmental business (both with Habsburg and later Dutch governments). His correspondence has been digitized and is searchable.
• Correspondence of Hugo Grotius: Digitized collection of the seminal, seventeen-volume Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius.
• Correspondence of William of Orange (NL): The preserved correspondence to or from William of Orange – letters, commissions, complaints, instructions and speeches – enabling research into his vast network of contacts.
• Joseph Justus Scaliger’s Life and Correspondence: Scaliger’s work as a historian at Leiden University earned him a reputation as one of the greatest scholars of his age. His surviving correspondence comes with English synopsis and commentary.
• Letters of Philip II, King of Spain, 1592–1597: These letters are mostly written to the Royal Governor of Spain’s northern coast during 1592–1597.
• Private Correspondence between Flemish Strangers in England and their families and contacts in Flanders: Largely letters written by Ieper refugees who had taken fled to Norwich after prosecution by Alba’s government.

Literature, Manuscripts, & Print Media

• Almanacs in the Northern-Netherlands 1570-1705 (NL): Information on 856 Almanacs, which were published all across the Low Countries. Bibliographic information on the almanacs, and information on publishers, authors and editors of almanacs is included.
• Ambrosius Magirus, Jr.’s 1580 Almanac (NL): This almanac by a Deventer physician contains both astrological and meteorological forecasts and empty space for notes.
• Atlas of Dutch Literature (NL): A searchable database of authors, works, and related locations across the Low Countries
• CENETON: Census of Dutch plays, 1500-1803 (NL): Descriptions, bibliographical data (including original author and place of publishing) on Dutch plays through 1803.
• Collections from the Dutch National Library (EN/NL): The KB hosts a vast collection of manuscripts and early printed books from or about the Netherlands, supplemented by those works relevant for studying Dutch history and culture in an international perspective.
• Dutch Pamphlets Online (EN/NL): Descriptions and texts of pamphlets dating from 1486 to 1853 from The Netherlands, Germany, and other countries. Requires a KB library card / membership.
• Ursicula – Early Modern Scanned Texts (NL): Digitized Dutch-language books, pamphlets, and more from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Note the website is old; the scans are not high-resolution.

Painted, Printed, & Other Art

Collections of art and architecture from across the Renaissance-era Low Countries.

• CODART – Dutch & Flemish Art in Museums Worldwide: Curators of the world’s major collections of Dutch and Flemish art are working to make that art more visible, accessible, and relevant to the public.
• Emblem Project Utrecht: Numerous Dutch love emblem books (religious and profane) with transcriptions, facsimiles, and indexes.
• Montias Database of 17th Century Dutch Art Inventories: Database of paintings, prints, sculpture, furniture, etc. owned by people in Amsterdam, drawn from 1,280 inventories from 1597-1681.
• Old Netherlandish Drawings (and Other Art Forms) from the RKD: An immense collection from the Netherlands Institute for Art History of drawings, sculpture, tapestries, and more.
• Old Netherlandish Paintings from the RKD: Literally hundreds of thousands of paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists from 1400 to 1800.
• Rembrandt Database from the RKD:  Information and documentation on paintings by Rembrandt or attributed to him, along with overviews of the paintings’ conservation and research histories.

Taxes & Inventories

• 1581 Dordrecht 50th Penny Tax Records: A collection of taxes owed by renters and landowners in the South Holland town, compiled from the city archives by Andre den Haan. Three pages: Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3.
• 1553 Dordrecht 10th Penny Tax Records: Another compilation by Andre den Haan, given tax owed, names, occupations, addresses, and occasional house names.