'News from the Republick of Letters'

‘News from the Republick of Letters’ Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions Edited by Andrew Colin Gow Edmonton, Alberta In cooperation with Sylvia Brown, Edmonton, Alberta Falk Eisermann, Berlin Berndt Hamm, Erlangen Johannes Heil, Heidelberg Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Tucson, Arizona Martin Kaufhold, Augsburg Erik Kwakkel, Leiden Jürgen Miethke, Heidelberg Christopher Ocker, San Anselmo and Berkeley, California Founding Editor Heiko A. Oberman † VOLUME 161 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/smrt ‘News from the Republick of Letters’ Scottish Students, Charles Mackie and the United Provinces, 1650–1750 By Esther Mijers LEIDen • boston 2012 Cover illustration: Lugduni Batavorum vulgo Leyden sic ultimo amplificam delineatio (fragment). Map, ca. 1690. Source: 1049B11_089 (copper engraving), Atlas Van der Hagen, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, The Netherlands. Courtesy National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mijers, Esther. “News from the Republick of Letters” : Scottish students, Charles Mackie, and the United Provinces, 1650–1750 / by Esther Mijers. p. cm. — (Studies in Medieval and Reformation traditions ; v. 161) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-21068-4 (hardback :alk. paper) 1. Scottish students—Netherlands— History—17th century. 2. Scottish students—Netherlands—History—18th century. 3. Education, Higher—Netherlands—History—17th century. 4. Education, Higher— Netherlands—History—18th century. 5. Scotland—Emigration and immigration— History—17th century. 6. Scotland—Emigration and immigration—History— 18th century. 7. Mackie, Charles, 1688–1770. I. Title. LA651.5.M55 2012 378.4110903—dc23 2012004208 ISSN 1573-4188 ISBN 978 90 04 21068 4 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22816 0 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Voor Pienie, in dierbare herinnering CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................ ix Map, the United Provinces .............................................................. x Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Historiography ............................................................................... 11 Approach, Outline and Sources .................................................. 18 Sources and Terminology ............................................................ 22 1. Context and Numbers ................................................................. 25 Scots in the United Provinces .................................................... 25 Students .......................................................................................... 33 2. A Dutch Education ...................................................................... 49 The Scottish Infrastructure ......................................................... 49 Institutions and Universities ...................................................... 57 The Curriculum ............................................................................ 67 The Grand Tour ............................................................................ 99 3. Going Dutch .................................................................................. 107 Scotland and the Scottish Universities ..................................... 107 The Book Trade ............................................................................ 120 4. Charles Mackie and the Limits of Dutch Learning ................ 143 Mackie As Agent in the Republic of Letters ........................... 143 The Polyhistor ............................................................................... 157 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 185 Appendix: Scottish Students at Dutch Universities 1650–1750 ....................................................................................... 193 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 197 Index of Names .................................................................................. 215 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book began its life as a Ph.D. thesis many years ago and there were times when I did not think it would ever get done. The fact that it reached completion has much to do with my many friends and colleagues who convinced and badgered me until it was finished. My colleagues and friends in Aberdeen, in particular Nick Evans and Allan Macinnes, as well as those in Reading, made writing this book bearable. Over the years, I have benefited from the erudition of a great number of people. Parts of the original thesis were discussed in con- versations with David Allan, John Cairns, James Moore, Nicholas T. Phillipson, Will Storrar, Georgina Gardner, Geoff Grundy, Clare Jackson and Daniella Proegler. Otto Lankhorst, Andrew Mackillop, David Onnekink, Anne Skozcylas, Marja Smolenaars, Erik Swart, Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart and Jochem Miggelbrink generously provided specific references. Since then, many more colleagues have given their advice. I am grateful to Roger Mason, my Ph.D. supervisor, John Robertson and Rab Houston who examined the thesis, and Thomas Ahnert, William Kelly, Colin Kidd, Thomas Munck, Paul Wood and the many others who I am undoubtedly forgetting. I also wish to thank Brill’s anonymous reader and the series editor, Andrew Gow. My big- gest debt is to the splendid Roger Emerson, who read through the entire manuscript and all my other scribblings over the years, and without whose support and friendship this certainly would have been a lesser piece of work and its author a lesser scholar. Any mistakes are entirely my own. I also want to thank the staff of theD epartments of Special Collections at the University Libraries of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen, the National Library of Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland, and the Koninlijke Bibliotheek and the Koninklijk Huis Archief in The Hague. On a personal note, I wish to thank all my friends in Scotland and abroad for their support and patience, in particular Martine de Haan and Gabor Oolthuis, and Marion Ralls and David Carver, for their hospitality during my many research-related trips and especially my beloved Jonathan for putting up with me and my Scots. Lastly, my mother and Pienie deserve special mention for their generous support, financial and otherwise. The dedication speaks for itself. Franeker Groningen Amsterdam Harderwijk Leiden Utrecht Gravenhage Del Rotterdam Dordrecht Veere Bergen Middelburg Vlissingen op Zoom The United Provinces, c. 1700. INTRODUCTION On the second of January 1733, following his arrival at the University of Groningen, the Scottish student Robert Duncan (1699–1729) wrote to Charles Mackie (1688–1770), Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh: ‘As for news from the Republick of letters you can- not expect much from me yet’. Duncan needed time to settle into the University, a recent favorite of Scottish students, but soon the letters began flooding in with details of the latest publications, ideas and learned discussions, and information and gossip about fellow students and professors at Groningen and elsewhere in the United Provinces. Duncan’s letters were among the vast number written by Scottish students attending Dutch universities in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. That Scots in the later early modern period were educated in large numbers in the United Provinces is well-known to scholars of Scotland’s intellectual and educational history. The Dutch universities had a reputation for excellence and Protestant yet relatively latitudinarian views, which appealed to Scottish students who wanted to continue their education abroad for a variety of reasons. While studying on the Continent had been part of the academic pilgrimage since medieval times, by the middle of the seventeenth century the popularity of the Dutch universities had taken off exponentially, insti- gating a century of virtual monopoly of the United Provinces on the further education of young Scottish men of aristocratic, professional and merchant backgrounds. Although certainly not the only European universities frequented by Scots, they became the starting point for their academic overseas education, often followed by a Grand Tour, and the universities where Scots would spend most of their time. For these students, the United Provinces became the center of the world of learning, or the ‘Republic of Letters’, as well as the gateway to Europe, although the latter was not a new continent, intellectually or otherwise. Before we come to the story of Scottish students in the United Provinces, the wider historical context

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