From artless to artful: Illustrated histories of the eighty years' war in the seventeenth-century Dutch republic

The interplay between text and image was a central part of history writing on the Eighty Years' War, known as the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648). Already during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the still ongoing Revolt became the subject of numerous extensively illustrated history books printed in the Dutch Republic. Initially, all major illustrated Dutch history works relied heavily on copies of older news prints produced by the Cologne-based print maker Frans Hogenberg and his workshop. In the second half of the seventeenth century, however, enterprising Dutch publishers reissued these histories and made significant investments to furnish them with new printed images. Rather than focusing on the Revolt as a news event or as the subject of political propaganda, as had been the case in the Hogenberg illustrations, these new printed images paid particular attention to personal and dramatic aspects of the history of the Dutch Revolt. Moreover, Dutch publishers accentuated the luxurious character of these history books and their high-quality images. In this article, I argue that these new printed images, guided by a commercial drive of mainly Amsterdam printers for the production of appealing illustrated books, marked a significant turning point in the visualisation of the Dutch Revolt.