Demi van Breukelen MA

PhD Candidate

Cohort/Start PhD: 2025-2026

The print culture of state administration: Law, tax and commerce in the Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century

The early modern period saw the rise of modern bureaucracy in Europe, with an increasing reliance on paperwork across all facets of society. Cheaper paper production, the growing centralisation of states, rising literacy rates, and expanding urbanisation, drove an increase in administrative paperwork from the late mediaeval era onwards. Scholars have noted how an excess of information began to permeate society, as individuals increasingly created, transcribed, and archived more and more information. The medium of print was increasingly used within this expanding bureaucracy, with pre-printed forms, bills, and lists structuring and standardising administrative practices. However, while archival and administrative practices of early modern states have gained scholarly attention, the significant role of printed materials within this administration remains underexplored.

This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the print culture of state administration in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. This study will contribute to the history of information, law, administration and record-keeping in the early modern period, illuminating the importance of printed materials within administrative, legal and political processes. Furthermore, it will contribute to the field of book history. Traditionally centred on the book as its primary object of study, scholars in this field have in recent decades increasingly called for greater attention to ‘ephemeral’ types of print, emphasising its value in providing a better understanding of printing practices as well as the role of print in governance and daily life.

Project title: Communicating the Law in Europe, 1500-1750 (COMLAWEU)

University: University of St Andrews, School of History

Supervisors: Prof. Andrew Pettegree, Dr. Arthur der Weduwen

Duration of appointment: sept 2025 – sept 2028