Wim Blockmans, born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1945. Ph.D. from the University of Ghent. Professor of Medieval History at Leiden University.
Fellow (1 September 1997 – 31 January 1998)
The first aim of my term at NIAS was the launching of a new research project on the government of Emperor Charles V. I could work through the existing literature, focus on my questionnaire and study the listing of Charles’s correspondence, produced at the University of Konstanz. This helped me well underway with my ambition to write a new book on Charles V before September 1999, for which contracts have been signed with a Dutch and an English publisher. Furthermore, I was involved in the preparation of four exhibitions devoted to Charles V, to be held in the year 2000 in Ghent, Bonn, Vienna and Madrid. The list of items and the editorial plan for the catalogues were designed and agreed upon in November.
Furthermore, I finished the editorial work on a collective volume Showing Status, containing eighteen contributions by art historians, literary historians and historians, on the perception of social relations in fictional and ‘realistic’ sources. I elaborated on two contributions and wrote the Introduction nearly entirely at NIAS, making full use of the Institute’s facilities. The volume of 476 pages will be published by Brepols in October 1998.
The Index of another book, De Bourgondiërs, published in October 1997, was made at NIAS in September, while the American translation of this book, to be published as The Promised Lands by Pennsylvania University Press in October 1998, was to be almost finished by the end of my term.