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The Dutch Republic (World University Library)
The Dutch Republic - World University Library Author:Charles Wilson The importance of seventeenth-century Holland in the history of European art is well known, but her contribution in other fields is less widely appreciated. Yet during the seventeenth century Holland was the center of world commerce, her ships sailing as far afield as the Americas, the Far East and Australia; her scientists, technologists and ma... more »thematicians set new standards of observation and analysis in astronomy, botany, optics, medicine and statistics; Grotius propounded the modern concepts of international law; and Dutch architects and engineers were in demand in France, Italy and England. Holland herself became a refuge for some of the boldest and most influential thinkers of the century.
Professor Wilson describes the Dutch Republic's political evolution, the growth of its unique world economy, its influence on European ideas of trade and its achievements in art, science, literature and philosophy. Holland in the seventeenth century seems to have enjoyed one of those periods, like the Golden Ages of Renaissance Italy and Elizabethan England, in which all talents are encouraged.« less