Michiel van Groesen
Professor Maritime History
- Name
- Prof.dr. M. van Groesen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2765
- m.van.groesen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-6421-6033
Michiel van Groesen is Professor of Maritime History at the Leiden University Institute for History.
More information about Michiel van Groesen
News
Books
-
Far From the Truth: Distance, Information, and Credibility in the Early Modern World -
Maps That Made History: 1000 Years of World History in 100 Old Maps -
Imagining the Americas in Print: Books, Maps, and Encounters in the Atlantic World -
Theodore de Bry - America: The Complete Plates 1590-1602 -
Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil -
Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800 -
The Legacy of Dutch Brazil -
Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages, 1590-1634
Michiel van Groesen is Professor of Maritime History at the Leiden University Institute for History.
The chair in Maritime History is established at Leiden’s Institute for History since 1978. In close cooperation with maritime heritage institutions in the Netherlands, most importantly Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam and the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, scholars in Leiden challenge students to ask new questions and find new answers for global and local developments in maritime history. For more information about the MA-programme in Maritime History, click here.
Research
My interest in maritime history is embedded in the culture of the early modern Dutch Republic and the Atlantic world. Broadly speaking my research is interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on the culture of imperial expansion and the politics of global interactions. My current book project, provisionally entitled An Ocean of Rumours: News and Information in the Atlantic World, explores the circulation of transoceanic news, focusing on the tension between distance and credibility in the early modern world. The book is under contract with Cambridge University Press.
In prior research I examined early modern printed travel accounts, more specifically the monumental De Bry collection of voyages that disseminated very influential textual and visual images of the non-European world. I argued that the De Brys manipulated the original accounts for a confessionally divided readership. The German editions were aimed at a Protestant audience, the Latin translations were sold in Catholic Europe. Both versions - despite their differences - helped to legitimate European colonialism in the next two centuries.
Since then I have worked on the rise and fall of Dutch Brazil as seen through the eyes of the Amsterdam print media. In 2014 I edited a volume of essays entitled The Legacy of Dutch Brazil (Cambridge), which discusses the impact the short-lived colony had on the Atlantic world from the seventeenth century until today. My second book, Amsterdam's Atlantic, came out with Penn Press in 2017. Using newspapers, prints, maps, paintings, pamphlets, and diaries, I demonstrate that Dutch Brazil transformed (and was transformed by) the early modern media landscape at home, and marked the emergence of a 'public' Atlantic world.
Curriculum vitae
- 2019 Visiting Fellow, Princeton University
- 2014-2019 NWO-Vidi Research Fellow
- 2013 Queen Wilhelmina Visiting Professor, Columbia University
- 2011 Honorary Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London
- 2008 - 2015 Assistant/Associate Professor of Early Modern History, University of Amsterdam
- 2008 - 2012 NWO-Veni Research Fellow
Key Publications
Professor Maritime History
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Nederlandse geschiedenis
- Groesen M. van & Müller J.M. (2024), Far from the truth: distance, information, and credibility in the Early Modern World. London: Routledge.
- Müller J.M. & Groesen M. van (2024), Introduction: distance, credibility, and European geographies of information, 1450–1750. In: Müller J.M. & Groesen M. van (Eds.), Far from the truth : distance, information, and credibility in the Early Modern World. London: Routledge.
- Groesen M. van & Müller J.M. (Eds.) (2024), Far from the truth: distance, information, and credibility in the Early Modern World. Londen: Routledge.
- Groesen M. van (2024), 'I am giving you as much as I have': news, distance, and credibility in Théophraste Renaudot's Gazette. In: Groesen M. van & Müller J.M. (Eds.), Far from the truth: distance, information, and credibility in the Early Modern World. Londen: Routledge. 146-64.
- Groesen M. van (2022), Maps and the market: the Amsterdam book trade and the rise of the pocket atlas. In: Weduwen A. der & Walsby M. (Eds.), The book world of early modern Europe: essays in Honour of Andrew Pettegree. Library of the Written Word no. 107. Leiden: Brill.
- Groesen M. van, Ommen K. van, Richard A.I., Schrikker A.F., Storms M. & Verhoeven G. (2022), Maps that made history: 1000 Years of World History in 100 Old Maps. Tielt: Lannoo.
- Groesen M. van, Ommen K. van, Richard A.I., Schrikker A.F., Storms M. & Verhoeven G. (2022), Kaarten die geschiedenis schreven: 1000 jaar wereldgeschiedenis in 100 oude kaarten. Tielt: Lannoo.
- Groesen M. van (2022), The Anglo-Dutch lake? Johannes de Laet and the ideological origins of the Dutch and English West Indies, International Journal of Maritime History 34(4): 561-575.
- Groesen M. van (2022), Arguin: een vergeten kolonie van Nederland, Kijk 2022(2): .
- Groesen M. van (2021), "Wereldhandel". In: Helmers H.J., Janssen G.H. & Noorman J. (Eds.), De zeventiende eeuw. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
- Groesen M. van (2020), De wereld op zee: De maritieme cultuur van de Gouden Eeuw. In: Heijer H.J. den (Ed.), Nieuwe Maritieme Geschiedenis van Nederland no. 2.
- Groesen M. van (2020), De zeemens te boek gesteld, of: Over Marinus en Polylector. In: Anrooij W. van, Dlabacova A., Geleijns E., Schaeps J., Warnar G. & Zanen S. van (Eds.), Om het boek: Cultuurhistorische bespiegelingen over boeken en mensen. Hilversum: Verloren. 78-83.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Una finestre sul mondo: I mezzi d’informazione di Amsterdam e le cronache della guerra nelle Americhe, Rivista storica Italiana 130(3): 1012-1040.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Dierick Ruiters's Manuscript Maps and the Birth of the Dutch Atlantic, Imago Mundi 71(1): 34-50.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Patagonian giants in West Africa?: Two versions of the first Dutch attempt to circumnavigate the world. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 32-52.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Beyond law and order: encounters at Arguin and the beginnings of the Dutch slave trade, 1633-1634. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 144-163.
- Groesen M. van (2019), The printed book in the Dutch Atlantic world. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 164-180.
- Groesen M. van (2019), The Atlantic world in paperback: Amsterdam publisher Jan ten Hoorn and his catalogue of popular Americana. In: Groesen M. van (Ed.), Imagining the Americas in print: books, maps, and encounters in the Atlantic world. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 205-230.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Imagining the Americas in Print: Books, Maps, and Encounters in the Atlantic World. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Groesen M. van (2019), Abraham Willaerts: marine painter in Dutch Brazil and the Atlantic world, Oud Holland 132(2-3): 65-78.
- Baakman E.J. & Groesen M. van (2019), Kranten in de Gouden Eeuw. In: Wijfjes H. & Harbers F. (Eds.), De krant. Een cultuurgeschiedenis. Amsterdam: Boom. 21-45.
- Groesen M. van (2018), Dutch Brazil, Oxford Bibliographies. Classics : .
- Groesen M. van (2018), Global trade. In: Helmers H.J. & Janssen G.H. (Eds.), Cambridge Companion to the Dutch Golden Age. Cambridge Companions to Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 166-185.
- Groesen M. van (2018), Dierick Ruiters's Manuscript Maps and the Birth of the Dutch Atlantic, Imago Mundi 71(1): 34-50.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Amsterdam's Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Visualizing the News: The Amsterdam Spin-Doctor Claes Jansz Visscher and the West India Company. In: Beck L. & Ionescu C. (Eds.), Visualizing the Text: From Manuscript Culture to the Age of Caricature. Newark: University of Delaware Press. 95-116.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Renaissance Studies.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Maps, Spaces, Cultures.
- Groesen M. van (Ed.) (2017), Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age.
- Groesen M. van & Fatah-Black K.J. (Eds.) (2017), Zeven Provinciën Reeks. Zeven Provinciën Reeks: Uitgeverij Verloren.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Review of: Schilder Günter (2017), Early Dutch Maritime Cartography: The North Holland School of Cartography (c. 1580- c. 1620). Leiden & Boston: Brill. International Journal of Maritime History 29(4): 973-75.
- Groesen M. van (2017), Review of: Schmidt Dorothee, Reisen in das Orientalische Indien. Wissen über fremde Welten um 1600. Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences 108(4): 895-96.
- Groesen M. van & Helmers H.J. (2016), Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800, Media History 22(3-4): 261-266.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Reading Newspapers in the Dutch Golden Age, Media History 22(3-4): 334-352.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Review of: Berry Stephen R., A Path in the Mighty Waters: Shipboard Life & Atlantic Crossings to the New World. Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 35(1): 128-30.
- Groesen M. van & Helmers H.J. (Eds.) (2016), Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 [special issue Media History 22-3/4]: Taylor and Francis.
- Groesen M. van (2016), Review of: Sutton Elizabeth, Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age. Imago Mundi 68(2): 249-250.
- Groesen M. van (2015), Arnoldus Montanus, Dutch Brazil, and the Re-Emergence of Cannibalism. In: Friedrich S., Brendecke A. & Ehrenpreis S. (Eds.), Transformations of Knowledge in Dutch Expansion. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. 93-120.
- Groesen M. van (2015), Digital Gatekeeper of the Past: Delpher and the Emergence of the Press in the Dutch Golden Age, Tijdschrift voor Tijdschriftstudies 38: 9-19.
- Groesen M. van (2015), (Sem) Notícias do Front Ocidental: O Brasil Neerlandês, O Mundo Atlântico e Os Jornais Impressos dos Paíxes Baixos, Revista do Instituto Arqueológico, Histórico e Geográf ico Pernambucano 2015(68): 13-48.