Georg Marggrafe (1610-1643) is today hailed as the principal author of an influential account of the natural history of Northern Brazil and as compiler of the first accurate map of the area, which is considered as one of the most elegant products of seventeenth-century Dutch cartography. But initial he had the ambition to become known in astronomy. With the support Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, then governor-general of colonial Dutch Brazil, he built in Recife the first European-style astr...

The earliest painting by Rembrandt whose owner is documented depicts the prophet Balaam, on his way to blessing Israel. The man who bought it was a Sephardi Jew in the service of Cardinal Richelieu of France. The first known buyer of an etching plate by Rembrandt, depicting Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael, was a Sephardi Jew of Amsterdam. Seen through their eyes, Rembrandt was the creator of images with a special meaning to Jews. They have been followed through the centuries by Jewish c...

As a former colonized nation, Indonesia has a unique place in the history of photography. 'A History of Photography in Indonesia: From the Colonial Era to the Digital Age' looks at the development of photography from the beginning and traces its uses in Indonesia from its invention to the present day. The Dutch colonial government first brought the medium to the East Indies in the 1840s and immediately recognized its potential in serving the colonial apparatus. As the country grew and changed...

Economies are increasingly dependent on supply chains, which have grown enormously in the 21st century. The textbook 'Supply Chain Management in the 21st Century' prepares students in business and management sciences for this new reality. It is primarily written for undergraduate students, but is also suitable for MBA courses. The book is also a welcome addition to the curricula of technical courses in the field of industrial design and production technology.

'Supply Chain Management in the 2...

Capitalism has gone astray. Today we face ecological exhaustion, persistent inequality, financialization, stress on communities, short-termism, and new power concentrations.

An avalanche of new economic thinking and a reorientation of European values show the way toward a different economy. A new perspective is necessary if we want to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and if we consider our planet as ‘Our Common Home,’ for present and future generations.

This book argues that ...

In the ‘Anatomy lessons’ that were painted for the Surgeons’ Guild in Amsterdam, the surgeons portrayed, their teachers, the corpse and the dissection are described and discussed.

In talking about Europe, it is common to emphasise the democratic, constitutional and peaceful values that unite Europeans. However, according to Dag Nikolaus Hasse, it is not that easy to find an essence of Europe.

In What is European? he shows that many traditional ideas about Europe are culturally one-sided and historically and geographically distorted, and calls for the discourse on Europe to be de-romanticised and de-colonised. This would better reflect Europe's eventful history and dive...

For four centuries, people from the Netherlands have gone to America by boat or plane, to explore the country, to trade, to colonise, to settle, to do business, to find a new future or simply to visit the country as a tourist. And for four centuries, Americans, of diverse backgrounds, of native, African or European descent, have come to the Netherlands. These are their stories.

This book begins in the seventeenth century, when settlers commissioned by the West India Company settled on the sou...

The practice of writing for third parties, often done on commission and/or for profit (pro pretio ), remains a largely neglected aspect of late medieval manuscript culture. Although professional scribes and book artisans played a central role in the production and circulation of manuscripts, evidence of their economic activities is sparse and fragmented, leaving our understanding of the financial aspects of manuscript production, whether in secular or religious settings, still limited. As a r...

In this book - an ABC of the genre, with 26 entries - two renowned biographers and teachers take us on a tour, from A for Authorization to Z for Zigzagging to the End. In trenchant, witty entries they explore the good, the bad and the plain ugly in modern 'life writing' and the portrayal of real lives today - and how, across history and continents, we got here.This book will fascinate general readers interested in how real lives are approached by biographers today in a multitude of media. It ...