Mostly remembered for his library and for his biblical criticism, Isaac Vossius (1618-1689) played a central role in the early modern European world of learning. Taking his cue from the unlikely bedfellows Joseph Scaliger and Rene Descartes, Vossius published on chronology, biblical criticism, optics, African geography and Chinese civilization, while collecting, annotating and selling one of the century's most precious libraries. He was appointed an early Fellow of the Royal Society, and moved in the circles which later gave rise to the Academie Royale des Sciences. Together with Christiaan...

Art and science are commonly considered to be two distinct expressions of human culture. This volume of the Netherlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek is devoted to the extremely rich and complex relationship between these two in the early modern Netherlands, a relationship which went much further than the use of linear perspective in painting. Both in theory and in everyday practice, the distinction between 'art' and 'science' was hard to sustain, and often proved to be not that relevant at all. Artists perfected the portrayal of human anatomy, natural historians reflected on the visual...

Netherlandish art testifies in various ways to the interconnectedness of the Early Modern world. New trade routes, the international Catholic mission, and a thriving publishing industry turned Antwerp and Amsterdam into capitals of global exchange. Netherlandish prints found a worldwide public. At home, everyday lives changed as foreign luxuries, and local copies, became widely available. Eventually, Dutch imitations of Chinese porcelain found their way to colonists in Surinam. This volume of the Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art breaks new ground in applying the aims and...