Leiden University

A collections of readings on the works, networks and reception of the versatile humanist Bonaventura Vulcanius, whose life and career are intertwined with the history of the Dutch revolt and of the University of Leiden.
Bonaventura Vulcanius, (Bruges 1538- Leiden 1614), Works and Networks (dir., ed., introductory essay), Leiden, 2010, Brill Publishers, p. XII-XIII, 1-4, 5-43.

In the twelfth century travelogue of ibn Jubayr, he described how the Kurds 'cut off the paths and seek only corruption in this world - They live in impregnable mountains in the regions we quoted'.  In his 'Mu'djam al-Buldan', Yaqut al-Hamawi described the Kurds of the Şarezûr region in a similar way: 'the Kurds remain in the surrounding mountains terrorizing the travellers, stealing, looting, intimidations, attacks and arrests by no means stop them, because it is inherent to the nature of the Kurds.  Also in his ‘Shahnameh’, Ferdowsi describes how 'Ardashir led a huge army out from Estakhr, to fight against the Kurds - He sought aid from God in his expedition to spill the blood of these thieves.  Ferdowsi based this passage on an older manuscript called ‘Kar namagî Ardashîrî pabagan’, which describes this story of Ardashir in the context of conquest, rather than a anachronistic punitive campaign against merely Kurdish ‘thieves’.

In this paper I will probe into Herman Boerhaave’s (1668–1738) appropriation of Isaac Newton’s natural philosophy. It will be shown that Newton’s work served multiple purposes in Boerhaave’s oeuvre for he appropriated Newton’s work differently in different context and in different episodes in his career. Three important episodes in and contexts of Boerhaave’s appropriation of Newton’s natural-philosophical ideas and methods will be considered: 1710–11, the time at which he gave his often neglected lectures on the place of physics in medicine, 1715, at which point he delivered his most famous rectorial address, and, finally, 1731/2, the moment in which his Elementa chemiae was published. Along the way, I will spell out the implications of Boerhaave’s case for the reception of Newton’s ideas more generally.

English translation of Theses ethicae, de vita beata et virtute (1594).

Pierre Du Moulin (1568–1658) was a famous Huguenot minister. This is an ethical disputation over which Du Moulin presided during his early period at Leiden university. Du Moulin discusses the topics of happiness and virtue. The disputation is of interest since Du Moulin later produced successful systems of ethics in French and Latin: Les elements de la philosophie morale (Sedan, 1624); and Ethicorum seu doctrinae moralis libri undecim (Amsterdam, 1645).

Dr Rudolf Steiner (1865-1925) attracted a host of talented and educated women to his Anthroposophy movement. Elisabeth Vreede (16 July, 1879 - 31 August, 1943) was prominent among such devotees. At the Christmas Conference of 1923, Elisabeth Vreede was appointed by Rudolf Steiner as the head of Mathematics and Astronomy Section at the School of Spiritual Science of the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.

University rankings have gradually become an issue for concern in the academic
community worldwide. Several mechanisms with different methodologies have been
developed to rank the universities appropriately. However, some ranking tools have
notable issues, especially with the indicators adopted. Some are based merely on research
performance, whilst others have focused solely on specific fields, such as science and
technology – which could have deprived those in the arts and social sciences. This paper
uses a narrative review to highlight a number of inconsistencies in the methodologies
applied to rank universities. Five main ranking tools commonly applied to the world's
universities are reviewed, namely Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE),
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Leiden University ranking and Webometrics
ranking. We found that several flaws in the rankings caused inconsistencies in university
placings in different rankings. Suggestions for integrating multiple criteria and indicators
for better ranking exercises are proposed.

"Embracing an Inner World in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting," in An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, edited by Heather Moqtaderi and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 18-33. Exh. Cat., Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021.

Op de boekenmarkt deden opeens de grote namen Han Baudet en Henk Wesseling dit jaar weer van zich horen. Van Baudet verscheen postuum een heruitgave van 'Het paradijs op aarde', Wesseling publiceerde zijn langverwachte 'Scheffer - Renan - Psichari'. Voor de Nederlandse Boekengids/The Dutch Review of Books jaargang 2,
nummer 4 (www.nederlandseboekengids.com) schreef ik een essayistische dubbelrecensie.

According to a dominant view in the scholarly literature, Musschenbroek is to be considered a follower of Newton’s methodology, i.e. as a natural philosopher who, although he occasionally departed from Newton’s doctrines, aligned himself to Newton’s methodological views. Few scholars have, however, explained in full detail what it means to claim that Musschenbroek followed Newton’s method. The purpose of this essay is to get more grip on this matter.

This paper traces how the virtues of impartiality, love of truth and industriousness function inside and outside the scholarly world in the second half of the nineteenth century in the Netherlands by way of their perception in written necrologies about Robert Fruin and Johannes Gerardus Rijk Acquoy. What ideal images of Fruin and Acquoy their virtues, epistemic, moral, political and otherwise, can be found in the necrologies written by their colleagues and apprentices shortly after they passed away, and what does this say about the way we perceive the function of virtues, epistemic and otherwise, within the scholarly world of the humanities in the second half of the nineteenth century? This paper tries to make a small contribution to the history of the humanities by stating that the virtues of impartiality, industriousness and love of truth functioned outside the scholarly world as well as inside and were in fact intensely intertwined.

Ceramics are among the most commonly found materials recovered from the archaeological record. Ceramic objects can provide a variety of information about the life of people in the past. Therefore, archaeologists have at their disposal a variety of (traditional) techniques to study pottery, in order to make inferences about the communities that used the pottery. Recently, analytical methods in the field of ceramic studies, such as residue analysis and microscopic use-wear analysis have developed. In this research, the applicability of use-wear analysis for ceramics is addressed.

The methodology applied to this research integrates both use-wear analysis and experimental archaeology. The archaeological dataset consisted of ceramics from the Iron Age settlements of Mont Lassois and the Heuneburg and experimental vessels. The aim of this study was to create a reference collection for use-wear traces on ceramics and to study whether use-wear observed on the experimental vessels could be related to traces on the archaeological ceramics, in order to infer about ceramic function in the past. Unlike other archaeological materials, use-wear analyses on ceramics has not been widely applied yet (Skibo 2015). Replicas of vessels from Mont Lassois and the Heuneburg have been created at the Material Culture Studies Laboratory at the University of Leiden. A series of experiments was carried out in order to replicate various domestic activities such as food preparation, the storing of pots and cooking. The use-wear traces created during the experiments as well as observed on the archaeological ceramics were analyzed by means of a stereomicroscope. Microscopic pictures were taken of the use-wear traces, and the vessels have been drawn to record the traces, in order to establish a vast reference collection.

In order to get a better understanding of pottery use and the accumulation of wear on vessels, the use-wear traces on the experimental vessels were compared to the archaeological material from Mont Lassois and the Heuneburg. It was determined that similar use-wear traces could be observed both on the experimental as well as on the archaeological material.

Use-wear analysis can provide more detailed information about the actual use of pottery in the past. Therefore, an important step in the chaîne opératoire, or life biography, of pottery can be studied. To conclude, in a multidisciplinary research use-wear analysis can greatly add to existing analytical methods, providing specific information on the handling of vessels and their corresponding gestures.

This article focuses on the close relationship between the university of Leiden (founded in 1575) and the government of the province of Holland, especially in the first few decades years after the university’s foundation.  Over and above these very close connections (which are well known), this paper argues that in its very early years the university of Leiden might in some aspects be seen as a kind of court near the seat of the government, especially with respect to ‘cultural’, ‘networking’ and ‘patronage’ functions fulfilled by royal courts elsewhere, at a time when these were less available at the seat of Holland’s de facto government itself.

Eeuwenlang was Nederland betrokken bij slavenhandel en slavernij, een geschiedenis van uitbuiting en onverholen racisme. Dat verleden speelde zich niet alleen ver weg af, in Afrika en de Cariben, ook dichtbij zijn er sporen van terug te vinden. Zo ook in Leiden zoals deze gids in een vierluik laat zien. ‘Zwart en wit’ biedt vignetten van zwarte mensen, al dan niet slaaf, die ooit in Leiden woonden, en van witte Leidenaren die iets met hen te maken hadden. In ‘Bestuurders en Ondernemers’ passeren prominente stadsgenoten die betrokken waren bij de Atlantische slavenhandel en slavernij de revue. Onder de noemer ‘Universiteit en intellectuelen’ wordt besproken hoe de universiteit en haar studenten, docenten en andere intellectuelen in Leiden zich al dan niet – vooral dat laatste – uitspraken over de slavernij. Tenslotte biedt ‘Collecties en schilders’ een rondgang langs Leidse musea en bibliotheken waar nu nog sporen van het slavenverleden zijn te vinden.

In the seventeenth century, the discrepancy between the taste of some drugs and their effects on the body was used to criticize Galenic medicine. In this paper, I argue that such contradictions were brought to light by the sixteenth-century study of drug properties within the Galenic tradition itself. Investigating how the taste of a drug corresponded to the effects it had on the body became a core problem for maintaining a medical practice that was both rational and effective. I discuss four physicians, connected to the University of Leiden, who attempted to understand drug properties, including taste, within a Galenic framework. The sixteenth-century discussions about the relationship between the senses, reason and experience, will help us understand the seventeenth-century criticism of Galenic medicine and the importance of discussions about materia medica for ideas regarding the properties of matter proposed in this period.

Summary
Antonius Walaeus, one of the leading Dutch orthodox Reformed theologians of the seventeenth century, shared an interest in the promotion of piety with the main representatives
of the Dutch Further Reformation, such as his former Middelburg colleague Willem Teellinck.
This becomes especially clear from his orations for the Leiden students, from his academic defence of the continuity between the Sabbath and the Sunday, and from his passion for Christian mission. In the present debate regarding the Further Reformation, the life and work of Walaeus show that it is difficult to define who did and did not belong to this movement,
and that it is a mistake to presuppose that the Further Reformation was opposed to Reformed orthodoxy because of an assumed lack of true spiritual life.

The need for practical theology as a distinct discipline within the field of theology was recognized long before this discipline actually became established as a regular part of training for the ministry. This chapter focuses on one significant moment in the early history of this discipline, an attempt by the Dutch Reformed churches to establish a chair in practical theology at Leiden University, their main training school for ministers. The concept of "practical theology" at this time first of all meant study of the cases of conscience, but it also signified training in the practical aspects of the pastoral ministry, such as application-oriented preaching, visitation of the sick and troubled, and pastoral leadership in church administration, church polity, and church discipline.

Numismatics in the 19th century, the early history of Teylers Numismatic Cabinet, the life of Theodorus Marinus Roest (1832-1898), first president of the (Royal) Dutch Numismatic Society, director of the Numismatic Cabinet of Leiden University, first curator of the Numismatic Collection at Teylers Museum

In this essay, I will bring several hitherto neglected sources, which pertain to Petrus van Musschenbroek’s (1692-1762) unpublished manuscripts, to the fore. The folios at hand show that Musschenbroek read and actively engaged with Spinoza’s (1632-1677) Ethica. More precisely, it will be shown that Musschenbroek held clear-cut anti-Spinozistic convictions.

[This is a pre-print of a forthcoming paper in Lias, Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and its Sources, vol. 42(2), pp. 173-197.]

‘Boeroeboedoer der bourgeoisie’ was een frase die in Leiden meer dan eens ironisch geciteerd of zelfs als geuzennaam werd toegeëigend – eerst door Karel van het Reve,  die met vrienden om tien flessen sterke drank had gewed dat hij de zinsnede in zijn oratie zou durven te gebruiken,  en later ook door Willem Otterspeer in diverse publicaties over de Leidse universiteit.  Hoe valt dit te verklaren? Wat maakt dit beeld voor Willem zo aantrekkelijk (over Van het Reve zal ik zwijgen)?

The mathematician, physicist and philosopher W. J. ’s Gravesande is particularly known for his adherence to ‘Newtonian philosophy’. Currently, it is widely held that ’s Gravesande got his main inspiration for his scholarly calling from Newton himself, whom he met in 1715 during a first career as a lawyer; and that it was mainly Newton’s own intervention that ensured the appointment of the unqualified ’s Gravesande at Leiden University. I challenge these views by bringing together all currently known information about ’s Gravesande, including a number of as yet unused documents. I show that ’s Gravesande’s appointment resulted from a very carefully built up reputation in scholarly circles rather than from accidental meetings and patronage. ’s Gravesande had written several innovative papers and was in contact with both leading mathematicians and local political and patrician figures already before 1715. This article therefore explains the rationale behind his appointment in Leiden.

A discussion on Turkish Studies and late Ottoman history from Tanzimat (reform) and Second Constitutional Reforms to Young Ottoman and Young Turk with Dr. Zürcher. In this interview, Dr. Zürcher will be sharing his views on issues related to late Ottoman and Turkish modern history from Tanzimat (reform) and Second Constitutional Reforms to Young Ottoman and Young Turk, the role of the press in both periods, how this important field shall be understood and taught, and the position of the Turkish studies in today’s academia.