Montaigne and the Low Countries (1580–1700) (review)

Michel Montaigne (1533–92) is one of those towering figures in literary and intellectual history who continues to be a major object of scholarly research and debate. Known as the inventor of the essay, a literary form designed for self-analysis and self-description, Montaigne has provoked various reactions in the course of time. In the ever-expanding field of Montaigne studies, considerable attention has already been paid to the various ways in which the Essays were received in countries like France, England, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Surprisingly enough, this has not yet been the case with the Netherlands. Although Montaigne devotes disappointingly little attention to this country (as shown by Anton van der Lem) and had few direct contacts with intellectuals from there (with the notable exception of Justus Lipsius), he nonetheless attracted a fair amount of interest there, which continued well into the eighteenth century (as demonstrated by Paul J. Smith on the basis of quantitative research). The time is ripe, then, to devote a substantial study to the various ties that connected Montaigne to the Netherlands in early modern times.

Although the main part of the volume deals with the reception of Montaigne in the (northern) Netherlands, its scope is somewhat broader. Thus, the book opens with a comprehensive study of Montaigne’s intellectual background. Michel Magnien convincingly argues that, while Montaigne’s literary achievements cannot be understood without taking into account his humanist education and his (selective) reading of Erasmus, it is altogether clear that he appropriated this legacy in a highly personal way. Montaigne’s ambiguous attitude toward humanism is also revealed in his relationship with Lipsius, who played a vital role in introducing his work in the Netherlands. As is shown by Jeanine De Landtsheer, Lipsius admired Montaigne but distanced himself from Marie de Gournay and her relentless efforts to act as her spiritual father’s posthumous literary agent. That the diffusion of Montaigne’s work went far beyond her control is confirmed by Philippe Desan’s detailed analysis of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pirated editions from France and Geneva; interestingly and typically, many of them contained Netherlandish addresses.

The humanist circles around Lipsius in the northern Netherlands proved to be a fertile soil for Montaigne’s Essays, as is illuminated in a series of penetrating case studies focusing on Bonaventure Vulcanius (1538–1614) by Kees Meerhoff, Dominicus Baudius (1561–1613) by Olivier Millet, and Jan van Hout (1542–1609) and Dirk Volckertsz Coornhert (1520–90) by Johan Koppenol. As is stressed by various contributors, their reading and imitating of Montaigne cannot be disconnected from their vivid interest in contemporary French literature at large. Jan van Hout occupies a special position, as he was arguably the very first translator of Montaigne’s Essays in Europe and was an important intermediary between humanists and Dutch literators, among whom P. C. Hooft (1547–1626) and Jacob Cats (1577–1659) were particularly interested in Montaigne’s oeuvre. Frans R. E. Blom’s study of Montaigne’s presence in the prolific work of Cats opens a series of fascinating contributions on the reception of the French author in emblematic works by Jan de Brune the Younger (1616–49) by Ton Harmsen, and the female translator-author Maria Heyns (d. 1647), analyzed in a gender-sensitive way by Alicia C. Montoya.

Time and again, the contributions to this volume reveal how multifarious the reception and appropriation of Montaigne’s work has been. In some cases, the literary form and tonality of the Essays provoked a creative response, whereas in other cases, the reception appears to have focused on Montaignes ideas. Unsurprisingly, the author was often read through the humanistic lens shaped by Erasmus and Lipsius, and neutralized in such a way as to become more palatable to a specifically Calvinist readership. However, this was not always the case. Thus Alicia Montoya convincingly argues that Montaigne’s...