Prefatory note

Although this study was first designed as an attempt to trace a pattern in the general picture presented by the literary connexions between Elizabethan England and the Low Countries in the sixteenth century, the material itself soon suggested a focal point in the relations between Britain and the University of Leiden in the early years after its foundation. This latter relationship has been analyzed in greater detail, both, it is hoped, as a contribution to our knowledge of sixteenth-century literary traffic and for the special cultural-historical information of interest to students of the literatures concerned. In order to do justice to these themes it seemed proper to quote generous selections from some of the documents that have come to light and to supply ample reference material. As a rule no source is given for facts that can be found in the established biographical reference books.

In the course of collecting my data I have invariably met with much interest and generosity. I am deeply grateful to the Right Hon. the Marquess of Hertford for allowing repeated inspections of a manuscript of poems by Daniel Rogers in his library. Curators, Keepers, Librarians, and staff-members of the British Museum Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the Public Record Office, the Leiden Town Archives, Bibliotheca Thysiana, Print Room, and Archives of the Senate and Curators, the Royal Library at The Hague, and the University Libraries of Leiden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam I wish to thank for many courtesies; and for permission to reproduce materials in their possession the directors of the Bodleian Library, the Royal Library, the Boymans Museum at Rotterdam, and the Leiden Town Archives, Lakenhal Museum, Academical Historical Museum, University Library, and Print Room.

I am much obliged to the Netherlands Organization for

the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) and the ‘Leidsch Universiteits Fonds’ for their aid on some occasions when visits to English libraries and archives were requisite, and the former more particularly for subsidizing the publication of the results. I have also every reason to be grateful to the publishers and the printer of this book for their unsparing co-operation.

While acknowledging a general debt to all those who have given me the benefit of their advice, I should like to express my special gratitude to Professor A.G.H. Bachrach for so much encouragement and invaluable criticism, and for inviting me to appear in the Publications of the Institute; to Professor J.H. Waszink for very kindly correcting many of the translations; to Dr. R.B.C. Huygens for reading some of the Rogers poems with me; and to Mr. R.C. Strong of the National Portrait Gallery for his stimulating comment.

I should like to record my obligations to Mr. C.D.L. Engelbach for editorial advice. Finally, I owe a debt to my wife for much more than compiling the index.

 

J.A.v.D.