8 Extraordinaris Courante Amsterdam, 1631

The final years of the 1620s saw a reversal of fortunes in Hilten and Broer Jansz (dated largely from 1626 to 1635), the Eighty Years’ War. Under the military leadership of contains one issue of the Extraordinaris Courante, pub- Stadhouder Frederick Henry, Dutch armies gained succes- lished by Vander Plasse. sive victories against Habsburg forces at Grol, Wesel, Den Dated from 6 November 1631, its full title reads Extraor- Bosch, the Slaak, Venlo, Roermond and Maastricht.1 The dinaris Courante of seckere schryven uyt Ceulen, Den 30. momentum of the Spanish advance of the early 1620s was October. 1631 (Extraordinary newspaper, or particular writ- at an end. At the same time, the tide was turning in the ings from Cologne, 30 October, 1631). This issue is unnum- Thirty Years’ War across the Holy Roman Empire.2 The bered, and is printed on the recto of a half-sheet folio only. entry of Sweden in 1630 would lead to a series of Protestant The news is presented in two columns, as was the case successes, inspiring celebrations and improving morale with the Amsterdam weeklies, but the black letter typeface throughout Protestant Europe. used is much larger than that of the established newspa- The shifting fortunes of Europe’s great conflicts were pers of Van Hilten and Jansz. In total, the issue contains reflected by the contrasting fortunes of newspapermen in around 500 words, meagre in comparison to the double- Amsterdam and Antwerp. Abraham Verhoeven’s business sided Saturday weeklies featuring circa 1,800 words. The entered a downward spiral from 1629 onwards, and the title and content of the publication suggest that this is a Antwerp newsman faded away by the end of 1634.3 In the special issue; the question remains whether this is a one- north, matters were wholly different. Although the rapid off publication, an “extraordinary” without an overarching growth of the Amsterdam news market was still several periodical venture. years away, it was clear that change was on the horizon. In The Extraordinaris Courante contains one report, from the first years of the 1630s, the two established Amsterdam Cologne. It details the state of war in the Holy Roman weeklies diversified and expanded their sources of news. Empire, describing the extraordinary success of Gus- Undoubtedly spurred on by the rising success of the Dutch tavus Adolphus following the battle of Breitenfeld, fought Republic, the publishers of the Courante uyt Italien and against a superior Habsburg force on 17 September 1631. the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren, Jan van Hilten The report, dated a month and a half after this momen- (c. 1602–1655) and Broer Jansz (1579–1652), entered a pros- tous engagement, narrates how the Swedish king has con- perous period, leaving behind the more testing, uncertain quered “all of Württemberg and Bamberg”. He has also time of their early years as courantiers in the 1610s and taken Würzburg, where he has found grain for his troops, 1620s.4 and taken forty-two pieces of ordnance. The city paid the Around 1631 the two established ventures were joined Swedes 400,000 florins, and they gathered up further sums in the news market by a third Amsterdam proprietor. of 200,000 and 150,000 florins in other unspecified places. This was Cornelis Lodewijksz vander Plasse (1585–1641), a The report describes how the Habsburg forces had bookseller and publisher living at the bourse, in the “Ital- regrouped after Breitenfeld: generals Tilly, Aldringen and iaensche bybel” (Italian bible).5 The Koninklijke Biblio- Fugger retained 25,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry under theek in The Hague contains the only surviving record of their command, and they caused “great damage to villages his new enterprise. Classmark KW 341 A 1, a volume com- and cities, which they burn to ashes and where they mur- posed of over 400 issues of the newspapers of Jan van der and burn.” The Swedish army brought swift retribu- tion: when the two armies met in the field, the Imperial 1 Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606– army experienced a second crushing defeat. According to 1661 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 162–196. the report, the Imperial Habsburg forces lost 9,000 men 2 For a good overview, see Peter H. Wilson, The Thirty Years War: in this new battle, including many officers, the comman- Europe’s Tragedy (Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press, 2009). der Count Tserclaes of Tilly and the Duke of Lorraine; the 3 See chapter 9. 4 See chapters 1–2. Swedes also captured 132 cannon and more than 100 field 5 ‘Cornelis Lodewijksz vander Plasse, Uitgever te Amsterdam, 1612– artillery pieces, as well as 365 wagons and 600 horses. 1641’, in Verkruijsse (ed.), Project Amsterdamse drukkers. See also This second battle never took place. While the Swedes Kleerkooper and Van Stockum, Boekhandel, p. 565. did advance further into the German heartland, taking 440 8. extraordinaris courante

Frankfurt and Mainz before the end of the year, the Impe- printed by numerous printers: these included Broer Jansz, rial troops retreated through Westphalia, regrouping with- publisher of the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren, and out suffering another major defeat.6 Tilly’s death was fre- Joris Veseler (c. 1589–1624), the printer of the Courante uyt quently reported in 1631, and Dutch readers had already Italien until 1624.9 learned of his death at the battle of Breitenfeld at the end It is these connections with the Amsterdam newspa- of September.7 In fact, Tilly was not to die until 1632; but permen which is key to deciphering the publication of with the extraordinary success of the Swedish forces in the Extraordinaris Courante. While Vander Plasse was not 1631, rumours of Tilly’s demise were all too plausible in a true newsman himself, the heightened news demand these months. in the Protestant Dutch Republic and endless rumours While the news content and the political context of the and reports emanating from the German front combined Extraordinaris Courante may suggest that this was indeed to create a tempting market for a flourishing publisher a one-off publication designed to target the burgeoning like Vander Plasse. It is likely that the Extraordinaris news market, the publishing career of Vander Plasse would Courante was printed by Broer Jansz, in association with suggest the contrary. Cornelis Lodewijksz vander Plasse and financed by Vander Plasse. Such a partnership could was a prolific publisher, active since 1611, established at the rely on Broer Jansz’s established distribution network, and heart of Amsterdam’s information centre, the bourse.8 He allow Vander Plasse to make a decent profit in a part of was a specialist in literary publications, responsible for the the book trade in which he had not previously been much publications of many plays by contemporary Dutch play- involved. I consider it probable that the Extraordinaris wrights Samuel Coster and Gerbrand Bredero, as well as Courante was not the only issue published in this manner more traditional bestsellers, such as the works of Amadis by Vander Plasse in 1631. It therefore deserves a place in of Gaul. Vander Plasse also published various works of this bibliography; both as a likely temporary news serial, music, and engaged himself in the almanac and Bible and as evidence of the dynamism of the Protestant news trade—both profitable markets. Vander Plasse enjoyed sphere dominated by Amsterdam in the first half of the extensive connections in Amsterdam, and his works were seventeenth century.

6 Wilson, Thirty Years War, p. 476. 7 Copie van een Brief uyt Francfort, geschreven op den xxv. September Nieuwen-stijl, aen een gheloofweerdigh Koopman tot Wesel, per Poste ghesonden (s.l., s.n., 1631), USTC 1515802. 9 ‘Cornelis Lodewijksz vander Plasse’, in Project Amsterdamse druk- 8 Kleerkooper and Van Stockum Boekhandel, p. 565. kers.