The first Dutch poet laureate
Vondel was the greatest poet of the Golden Age and one of the greatest poets ever to have written in Dutch. Over the centuries Vondel remained famous, but also controversial.
Read moreJoost van den Vondel by J.D. Bles, a drawing from 1843.
Vondel was the greatest poet of the Golden Age and one of the greatest poets ever to have written in Dutch. Over the centuries Vondel remained famous, but also controversial.
Read moreWhen we think of the Golden Age, we think of Hooft: an atypical Dutchman – cultivated, generous tolerant and courteous. His poems are still read and sung today, and his plays are performed regularly.
Read moreEveryone has heard of Michiel de Ruyter, but hardly anyone knows of Petrus Francius, shown here when he was in his forties. Yet the latter was celebrated throughout Europe. Pieter de Frans was a professor at the Athenaeum Illustre, the precursor to the University of Amsterdam.
Read moreThe old catalogues of the University Library are preserved with care – and rightly so, because each is a monument to scholarship. They show us what the library looked like at various points in its long history.
Read moreGerardus Vossius was actually an immigrant: he was born near Heidelberg. The scholarly Vossius died a citizen of Amsterdam, however; and what’s more, he was one of the founding fathers of the UvA.
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