Paul Hoftijzer, born in Voorburg, the Netherlands, in 1954. Ph.D. from the Radboud University Nijmegen. Professor of History of the Dutch Book during the Early-Modern Period at Leiden University.
Fellow (1 September 2007 – 30 June 2008)
THE LEIDEN BOOK TRADE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
During my year at NIAS I worked on one project, consisting of two parts. During the first half I was involved in a major exhibition in the Leiden Municipal Museum De Lakenhal on Leiden as a ‘City of Books’ from the Middle Ages to the present, the first of its kind to be held in The Netherlands. The exhibition, which was held from 21 February to 1 June 2008, was accompanied by a richly illustrated book, entitled Stad van boeken. Handschrift en druk in Leiden, 1260-2000, of which I wrote the middle section on Leiden books in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The second part of my project was writing an English language monograph on Leiden as a centre of book production and distribution during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (1575-1723), with an emphasis on the role of the printed book in scholarly and scientific communication. I have made significant progress and the book is planned for publication in 2009.