Literary Cultures and Public Opinion in the Low Countries, 1450-1650

In the early modern Low Countries, literary culture functioned on several levels simultaneously: it provided learning, pleasure, and entertainment while also shaping public debate. From a ditty in Dutch sung in the streets to a funeral poem in Latin composed to be read for or by intimate friends, from a play performed for a prince to a comedy written for pupils literary texts and performances often dealt with highly controversial topics of religion or politics, on a local or national, but also on a supranational scale.