Rederijkers, Kannenkijkers : drinking and drunkenness in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Low Countries

This article discusses drinking practices and conceptions of drunkenness in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Low Countries from the perspective of the rederijkers or guildsmen who would regularly gather together to practice the vernacular art of rhetoric. The essay surveys the regulations and accounts of the chambers of rhetoric in which these gatherings took place, as well as the literary texts the rederijkers produced (including poetry, songs and theatre plays). It also examines the intersections with contemporary genre painting. The central argument of this paper is that drinking, and even drunkenness, was an essential aspect of rederijker culture and the urban middling groups represented by this culture. This argument nuances the influential thesis of the pervasiveness of a Dutch burgermoraal or bourgeois morality. Even though they created comical caricatures of drunkards, rederijkers indulged in heavy drinking themselves. These guildsmen were well aware of the need for moderation, but their regulations and literary texts go beyond moral didacticism and often reveal double layers and self-parody

City portrait, civic body, and commercial printing in sixteenth-century Ghent

This article discusses a woodcut series with an elaborate iconographic representation of the Flemish city of Ghent, printed in 1524 by Pieter de Keysere. The three-sheet composition consists of a city view, an image of the allegorical Maiden of Ghent, and an extensive heraldic program with the coat of arms of prominent Ghent families and of the Ghent craft guilds. The print series’ production and consumption are unraveled and framed within the wider debate on civic religion in Renaissance Europe. The main argument is that while in this region of Northern Europe civic ideology was equally strong as in Italy, it was not the exclusive playground of the ruling elites. Pieter de Keysere’s woodcut series was aimed at a socially broad, local audience, most particularly Ghent’s corporate middle groups

Embodied piety sacrament houses and iconoclasm in the sixteenth-century Low countries

On the eve of the Beeldenstorm, a great number of churches in the Low Countries had a sacrament house, a shrine for the Corpus Christi, often metres high. These monstrance-like tabernacles were nearly all destroyed by iconoclasts between 1566 and 1585. This essay discusses the dialectics between the construction and destruction of sacrament houses before and after the Beeldenstorm. It argues against a strict divide between material devotion and spiritual belief by highlighting the intertwining of Catholic and Calvinist embodied pieties. Fuelled by their opposing conceptions of the Eucharist, Catholic devotees and Protestant iconoclasts both engaged with sacrament houses and other expressions of the Corpus Christi devotion (processions, miracle cults et cetera) in a deliberate and intensely physical manner

Historical television productions

In ‘Dat is wel eens anders geweest!’ reiken Paul Knevel en Jouke Turpijn handvatten aan om geschiedenis op televisie in een breed histori(ografi)sch perspectief te duiden. Vertrekkend vanaf de eerste producties bespreken zij het wonderbaarlijke succes van geschiedenisseries in de eenentwintigste eeuw. Zij staan stil bij de moeizame relatie in Nederland tussen academische geschiedenis engeschiedenis op televisie en vergelijken dit met andere landen. Hans Boers, Jelena Dobbels en Ingrid Leonard werpen een kritische blik op het populaire televisieprogramma Ten Oorlog en gaat daarbij in op het spanningsveld tussen geschiedenis en entertainment, tussen historici en ‘het publiek’. Geschiedenis kan via verschillende formats zoals een historische documentaire of een reisprogramma aan bod komen op televisie. Deze introductie maakt deel uit van het forum 'Historische televisieproducties'.History on Dutch TelevisionIn ‘Dat is wel eens anders geweest!’ [It was different then!] Paul Knevel and Jouke Turpijn attempt to provide tools for historians to analyse history on the television in a broad historiographical perspective. They cover the first history productions in the Netherlands and the remarkable success of major series in the twentyfirst century. The difficult relation between academic and public history on the television in the Netherlands is placed in an international context. A Critical Look at Ten Oorlog [To War] reflects critically on the popular television programme Ten Oorlog,thereby examining the field of tension between history and entertainment, between historians and ‘the public’. This introduction is part of the forum 'History on Dutch Television'.</p

Twelve-year follow-up study after endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis

Abstract Background Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) is a therapeutic challenge because of the high recurrence rate. Surgical intervention should be considered in patients who fail to improve after medical treatment. We monitored recurrence and revision surgery over 12 years after endoscopic sinus surgery in CRSwNP patients. Methods In this prospective cohort study, 47 patients with CRSwNP, who underwent primary or revision extended endoscopic sinus surgery, were followed. Clinical symptoms and total nasal endoscopic polyp score were evaluated before, 6 years and 12 years after surgery. Results Twelve years after surgery, 38 out of 47 patients (80.9%) were available for examination. There still was a significantly better symptom score and total nasal endoscopic polyp score compared to before surgery (P < 0.001). Within the 12-year follow-up period, 30 out of 38 patients developed recurrent nasal polyps, of which 14 patients underwent additional revision surgery. Comorbid allergic sensitization and tissue IL-5 levels were found to be significant predictors for the need of revision surgery. Conclusions This long-term cohort study, investigating the outcome after surgery in CRSwNP, showed that, despite the low number of patients, 78.9% of patients with CRSwNP were subject to recurrence of the disease and 36.8% to revision surgery over a 12-year period