Nieuws over dr. Albert Gootjes over #Spinoza’s reis in 1673 naar Utrecht

Op 8 september 2018 had ik het blog: ‘Over #Spinoza’s reis in 1673 naar Utrecht’ – het ging over de lezing die dr. Albert Gootjes op 20 december 2018 in het Bartholomeus Gasthuis in Utrecht hierover zal geven.

Welnu, inmiddels verscheen zijn artikel "Spinoza Between French Libertines and Dutch Cartesians: The 1673 Utrecht Visit," In: Modern Intellectual History, online 16 november 2018.

Extract: In the summer of 1673, in what Koenraad O. Meinsma once qualified as “one of the most inexplicable events in Spinoza's life,” the philosopher left his residence in The Hague to travel to Utrecht and stayed there for some three weeks. This event has garnered much interest, for two main reasons. In the first place, it is agreed that something must have induced the rather homebound Spinoza to undertake the journey, especially since Utrecht was occupied at the time by the French, rendering travel dangerous. The paucity of available sources has kept most scholars from suggesting a motive, but those who have been so bold are virtually unanimous in positing that Spinoza traveled on a diplomatic or political mission, referring in support to his first biographer Johannes Colerus's report, gathered from the philosopher's landlord Hendrik van der Spyck, that at his return he was greeted by a frenzied crowd that was ready to lynch him as a “spy, murmuring that he treated with the French of matters pertaining to state and nation,” with Spinoza countering that “many among the highly placed know why I went to Utrecht.” A second reason for the interest is formed by the connection the trip offers between Spinoza and the French general in Utrecht, Louis II de Bourbon (1621–86), the prince of Condé, renowned not only for his military exploits but also for his interest in the arts and sciences, as evinced in his patronage of dissident thinkers like Isaac La Peyrère of pre-Adamite fame. Condé thus figures in all early accounts of Spinoza's trip, and yet the conflicting nature of these accounts, combined with the paucity of firsthand sources, has left later scholars debating at length the precise nature of the prince's involvement as Spinoza's inviter, as his host, and as his ready benefactor.

Hij stelt via zijn pagina bij academia.edu zijn artikel beschikbaar. Wie die lezing wil bijwonen kan zich goed voorbereiden!