‘De pestiferis libris, cuiusmodi sunt in Hispania Amadisus, Splandianus … ’. Production, Materiality, and Readers of the Dutch ‘Amadijs’

Abstract

In the 16th century at the latest there were strong political, cultural and literary ties between the Iberian Peninsula and the Dutch speaking regions in north western Europe. Literature in general and especially romances from the ‘south’ were printed, translated and adapted in Dutch. After an introduction in which the contribution presents a short overview of the translation and adaptation of Iberian romances in Dutch the focus will be on the ‘Amadijs’ tradition especially. For the first time the Spanish source and the ‘Amadijs’ are compared, including an analysis of the paratextual elements of the first Dutch edition of ‘Amadijs’ (1546), which clearly shows that Nuyts did not follow his source as an inspiration for the design of his edition, but copied the design of earlier Dutch editions of narratives as a marketing strategy. Part four shows that the Dutch ‘Amadijs’ was obviously read by everyone in the early modern period.