A foreigner in the bookshop of the world : printing the works of Sir William Temple in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic

Abstract

Few foreigners had a better standing in the Dutch Golden Age than the Englishman Sir William Temple (1628-1699). At the beginning of an edition of Temple’s Memoirs, the printer Adriaen Moetjens described him as ‘one of the great men of this century’. This reputation was, in part, a result of the pivotal role that Temple had played in the Republic’s foreign affairs. But the Englishman also owed his fame within the United Provinces to print. This article explores how Temple’s writings were published in the Dutch Golden Age. Some printers of his works enjoyed a substantial amount of success in the process, while others ended their careers in bankruptcy. Yet, despite these mixed fortunes, more editions by Temple were published in the United Provinces than in his homeland during the seventeenth century. Temple’s books continued to prove popular in the Dutch Republic, long after his achievements in diplomacy had faded.