Dutch scholarship has played an important role in philology since the early days of Leiden University. This volume illuminates how philology and its focus on the critical examination of classical textsa tradition that had previously exerted considerable influence across fields as diverse as theology, astronomy, law, and politicsbegan an accelerated process of specialization in the 1800s. As former subareas like linguistics and history branched off into independent fields with their own methodologies, philology found its authority narrowing in scope within newly defined boundaries. Providing a...

This book integrates nationalism studies with iterary and linguistic history by highlighting scholarly study of the Dutch language as a factor in the creation of the national identity.