Jestbooks in the Spanish Netherlands

Abstract

To reconstruct the mixed culture of the Spanish or Southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century from the perspective of jestbooks is unusual for several reasons. From around 1585 with the recapture of Antwerp by the Spanish troops headed by Alexander Farnese, the Netherlands split up in two parts. The Southern territories remained loyal to the Spanish king and quickly developed into a bastion of the counter reformation, especially under the archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598–1621). The impact of the Roman Catholic clergy on nearly all aspects of life increased steadily and also the aristocracy retained much of its importance. In comparison with the booming early Dutch Republic the urban culture in the South stagnated if not declined. Hence the implicit assumption that, whereas in the North a truly comic culture arose, the South by contrast must have experienced only tears of repentance.¹ Secondly, according to a recent bibliography, Dutch jestbooks were hardly found in the Southern Netherlands.² Indeed, in comparison with the Dutch Republic and the German territories, where many jestbooks were printed from the middle of the seventeenth century onward, the South clearly lagged behind.