HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND SCHOLARSHIP IN THE NETHERLANDS HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND SCHOLARSHIP IN THE NETHERLANDS Edited by Van Kalmthout & Zuidervaart Van by Edited This volume offers a new perspective on the development of philology in Dutch scholarly culture of the nineteenth century. Until that period, this field of the humanities had far reaching implications on disciplines such as theology, chronology, astronomy, history, law and other domains of knowledge. Several fundamental changes occurred during the nineteenth century. Texts in the vernacular and national perspectives attracted attention; comparative approaches were introduced and several subfields grew into more-or-less independent (sub)disciplines in the humanities. This complex, but fascinating process of differentiation, specialization and professionalization redesigned the landscape of philology radically. Ton van Kalmthout and Huib Zuidervaart are senior researchers at the Huygens Institute of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Science in The Hague. Nineteenth-Century Netherlands in the of Philology Practice The Edited by Ton van Kalmthout & Huib Zuidervaart The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands ISBN: 978-90-8964-591-3 AUP.nl 9 789089 645913 The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands, volume 14 The series History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands presents studies on a variety of subjects in the history of science, scholarship and academic institutions in the Netherlands. Titles in this series 1. Rienk Vermij, The Calvinist Copernicans. The reception of the new astronomy in the Dutch Republic, 1575-1750, 2002, isbn 90-6984-340-4 2. Gerhard Wiesenfeldt, Leerer Raum in Minervas Haus. Experimentelle Naturlehre an der Universität Leiden, 1675-1715, 2002, isbn 90-6984-339-0 3. Rina Knoeff, Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738). Calvinist chemist and physician, 2002, isbn 90-6984-342-0 4. Johanna Levelt Sengers, How fluids unmix. Discoveries by the School of Van der Waals and Kamerlingh Onnes, 2002, isbn 90-6984-357-9 5. Jacques L.R. Touret and Robert P.W. Visser, editors, Dutch pioneers of the earth sciences, 2004, isbn 90-6984-389-7 6. Renée E. Kistemaker, Natalya P. Kopaneva, Debora J. Meijers and Georgy Vilinbakhov, editors, The Paper Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St Peter- burg (c. 1725-1760), Introduction and Interpretation. 2005, isbn 90-6984-424-9, isbn dvd 90-6984-425-7, isbn book and dvd 90-6984-426-5 7. Charles van den Heuvel, ‘De Huysbou.’ A reconstruction of an unfinished treatise on architecture, town planning and civil engineering by Simon Stevin, 2005, isbn 90-6984-432-x 8. Florike Egmond, Paul Hoftijzer and Robert P.W. Visser, editors, Carolus Clusius. Towards a cultural history of a Renaissance naturalist, 2007, isbn 978-90-6984-506-7 9. Lissa Roberts, Simon Schaffer, Peter Dear, editors, The mindful hand: inquiry and invention from the late Renaissance to early industrialization, 2007, isbn 978-90-6984-483-1 10. Dirk van Delft, Freezing physics. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the quest for cold, 2007, isbn 978-90-6984-519-7 11. Patricia E. Faasse, In splendid isolation. A history of the Willie Commelin Scholten Phytopathology Laboratory 1894-1992, 2008, isbn 978-90-6984-541-8 12. Albert van Helden, Sven Dupré, Rob van Gent and Huib Zuidervaart, editors, The origins of the telescope, 2010, isbn 978-90-6984-615-6 13. Christoph Lüthy, David Gorlaeus (1591-1612). An Enigmatic Figure in the History of Philosophy and Science, 2012, isbn 978-90-8964-438-1 14. Ton van Kalmthout and Huib Zuidervaart, editors, The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands, 2015, isbn 978-90-8964-591-3 The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands Ton van Kalmthout and Huib Zuidervaart (editors) Amsterdam University Press Series editors Klaas van Berkel, University of Groningen, Groningen Huib Zuidervaart, Huygens ING (KNAW), The Hague Editorial Board Klaas van Berkel, University of Groningen Karel Davids, VU University Amsterdam Dirk van Delft, Leiden University / Museum Boerhaave Jan van Gijn, University Medical Center, Utrecht Harm Habing, Leiden Observatory Johan Heilbron, Erasmus University Rotterdam / Sorbonne (CESSP) Paris Wessel Krul, University of Groningen Wijnand Mijnhardt, Utrecht University Lissa Roberts, University of Twente, Enschede Huib Zuidervaart, Huygens ING, The Hague The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the Kattendijke/Drucker Stichting. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 90 8964 591 3 e-isbn 978 90 4852 203 3 nur 680 ǀ 685 © The authors / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2015 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 7 Ton van Kalmthout and Huib Zuidervaart 2. The Importance of the History of Philology , or the Unprecedented Impact of the Study of Texts 17 Rens Bod 3. ‘Dutch Language and Literature’ (and other ‘national philologies’) as an example of discipline formation in the humanities 37 Gert-Jan Johannes 4. Between academic discipline and societal relevance 53 Professionalizing foreign language education in the Netherlands, 1881-1921 Marie-Christine Kok Escalle 5. Fruin’s Aristocracy 79 Historiographical Practices in the Late Nineteenth Century Jo Tollebeek 6. Biblical Philology and Theology 103 Johannes Magliano-Tromp 7. Linguistics as a profession: 115 Diverging opinions in the nineteenth century Jan Noordegraaf 8. ‘Remember Dousa!’ 147 Literary historicism and scholarly traditions in Dutch philology before 1860 Jan Rock 9. Beam of a many-coloured spectrum 179 Comparative literature in the second half of the nineteenth century Ton van Kalmthout 10. Trifles for ‘Unflemings’ 209 Teaching Dutch literary history in nineteenth-century Wallonia Kris Steyaert 11. The Relations of Jacob Grimm with the ‘Koninklijk- Nederlandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten’ 231 Old and new documents for the history of the humanities Rita M. Schlusemann Acknowledgements 253 Index 255 1. Introduction Ton van Kalmthout and Huib Zuidervaart* Abstract This introduction discusses modifications in the field of ‘philology’ in the nineteenth century and the discipline’s previous history since the late six- teenth century. Save in classical philology, the methods of this domain were also applied to other languages and periods. In the nineteenth century, the practice of philology passed through a crucial phase. In both the subject of study as the methods, fundamental changes occurred. Texts in the vernacular and national philologies attracted attention, and ‘neo-philology’ succeeded to take over the central position traditionally held by classical philology. Sub- fields such as ‘linguistics’, ‘edition technique’ and ‘historiography’ grew into new, more or less independent (sub)disciplines, whereas scientific methods such as stemmatology and comparative approaches were introduced in the humanities. The studies collected in this volume are devoted to a diversity of developments related to this fascinating process of professionalization and the search for new frontiers in Dutch philology of the nineteenth century. The Netherlands can boast of a long and important tradition in schol- arly philology. In the early days of Leiden University (1575) for instance, ‘philology’ or the critical examination of classical texts was regarded as a ‘cutting-edge science’. This field of scholarship had far-reaching implica- tions on disciplines such as theology, chronology, astronomy, history, law, and other ‘demarcated bodies of knowledge identified as a separate science’.1 Scholars like Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) attracted students from all over Europe. But over the years, philology – both taken as written heritage and as the technique of preserving, restoring, and interpreting it – changed dramatically in content and scope. Next to classical philology, the tools of the trade were also implemented towards other languages and periods. In 1777, a Dutch manual defined the discipline as that part of scholarship that covers the knowledge of languages and their proper use. Its components are grammar, rhetoric, declamation, metrics * Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (KNAW), The Hague. E-mail: [email protected] & [email protected] 1 Cf. Olesko, ‘Disciplines’, p. 213. 8 TON VAN KALMTHOUT AND HUIB ZUIDERVAART and criticism. A philologist is someone who is a lover of languages and of the origin of words.2 But regardless of the exact field of inquiry, philologists as protectors and teachers of the written heritage always played a pivotal role in the formation of the cultural repertoire of the educated public. As men of learning and high esteem, philologists also exerted influence outside the cultural sphere, especially in politics and religion. The ever-changing composition of the philological frame of reference made no difference in this respect. A good philologist