As far as book titles go, The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age sounds dull. When I first saw the title, I assumed the book was academic. It is. The authors, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, are both historians based at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The book is scholarly in topic and tone. Yet somehow, it is a page-turner and one of the most interesting books I have ever read.
It is indeed a history of the book industry in Holland during the seventeenth century. From its opening paragraph, which details the inventory of Rembrandt’s possessions compiled during his bankruptcy, all the way through its final chapter, about books found in the abandoned refuge of a sea voyage that did not end well (the sixteen books found there are now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam), the story told fascinated me.
If you know Dutch history, you know that the sixteenth century was a time of struggle in Holland, as the Dutch fought to throw off the shackles of their Spanish Hapsburg rulers and establish themselves as an independent republic, which they in fact eventually did. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch transformed their new nation into an economic powerhouse which fueled a cultural explosion now known as the Dutch Golden Age. Many associate this term with art, specifically Rembrandt, Vermeer, Steen, and the many other Dutch painters who contributed to what is widely considered one of the most fertile periods in art history. While all this painting was going on, the Dutch were also making books, lots of books, in fact over two hundred million books. And they didn’t just make the books. They traded them, they sold them, they bought them, and they read them. I learned that the Golden Age Dutch owned more books per capita than any other area in Europe and dominated the European book world for decades.
Between Rembrandt’s bankruptcy and the failed sea voyage there is so much information that I had to read the book twice to really soak it all in. The reread was worth it, as it allowed me to move from the big picture to enjoying some of the underlying details along the way. I suspect though that what most interested me about this book was the picture I formed of seventeenth century Dutch culture, echoed in the marketing copy on the book: “The untold story of how the Dutch conquered the European book market and became the world’s greatest bibliophiles.” That sounds like my kind of place.
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