PhD defence J.M.F. (Frank) Daudeij

This dissertation, Romeyh de Hooghe (1645 – 1708) in defense of civic unity, is part of the NWO-funded research-project Faultline 1700, Early Enlightenment Conversations on Religion and State.

Its focus is on the chorography Spiegel van Staat (Mirror of State) written by Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708). The Dutch artist was born as the son of a button-maker, but through his craftmanship as an etcher, he managed to become an important opinion maker in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. His work offers a unique insight in the political thought of the non-ruling citizens in the Dutch Republic around 1700. He has been characterized as cynical, a pragmatist and even as a radical democrat. However, his ideas in the Spiegel van Staat were far from controversial and he was foremost a defender of a united civic sphere.

His originality lies in the fact that De Hooghe grounded the ideal of a united civic sphere in a sacralized view of the culture of the Dutch people. In other countries this unity, because of the  ongoing decline of morality, had to be enforced top-down. De Hooghe argues that in the Netherlands, because of its superior customs and habits, civic values were taught from a very young age. The basis for good governance was, according to De Hooghe, in essence not the country’s political institutions or piety, but the quality of civic values of its inhabitants.

In the literature on the Dutch Republic the civic turn of their debating culture is situated around 1750. The Spiegel van Staat shows that this transformation started around 1700.

Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall or in the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.