Martin van Gelderen, born in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, in 1959. Ph.D. from the European University Institute, Florence. Research assistant at the Technische Universität Berlin.
Fellow (1 September 1994 – 30 June 1995)
My stay at NIAS has been highly successful. The collective activities of the nucleus “The History of Dutch Concepts” have produced a number of important new research initiatives such as the European Science Foundation Network Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, and the new research group “Republiek, Republikein, Republikanisme” and will lead to the publication of “The History of Concepts: Comparative Perspectives”, a volume which promises to become the first systematic study of the unity and variety of conceptual history from a comparative perspective. As such the collective enterprises of the conceptual historians reaffirm and strenghten the value of the NIAS philosophy of research groups.
The context of the research nucleus was also highly beneficial to my individual research. During my stay at NIAS significant progress has been made with the monograph “Grotius in context. The political thought of the early Dutch Republic (1590-1625)”. The research for the chapters on the intellectual context of young Hugo Grotius during the 1590s, the debates on matters of war, peace and colonialism and the construction of Dutch republican identity has made substantial headway. In terms of immediate output the result are publications such as “The Challenge of Colonialism: Grotius and Vitoria on Natural Law and International Relations”, Grotiana, forthcoming; “Holland und das Preussentum: Justus Lipsius zwischen Niederländischem Aufstand und Brandenburg preussischem Absolutismus”, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, forthcoming; (with Wim Blockmans) “Het erfgoed der late middeleeuwen: Vrijheid in de Bourgondische Nederlanden” in Wyger Velema, Eco Haitsma Mulier (eds.), Het Vrijheidsbegrip in Nederland (forthcoming); “De Nederlandse Opstand (1555-1610): Van ‘vrijheden’ naar ‘oude vrijheid’ en de `vrijheid der conscientien” in Velema, Haitsma Mulier (eds.), Het Vrijheidsbegrip in Nederland, and “Epilogue. The horizon of conceptual history: unity and variety” in Karin Tilmans, Frank van Vree (eds.), The History of Concepts: Comparative Perspectives (forthcoming).