Visions of Virtue

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Both lyrically and visually, Amsterdam born and bred Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert (1522-1590) was a real pioneer. His extensive oeuvre includes the first ethics in a European vernacular, a groundbreaking treatise about the treatment of prisoners, and a unique language guide aimed at both boys and girls. In addition to a great number of prose texts, he also wrote poems, songs, and plays. As a visual artist, Coornhert created hundreds of top-quality engravings, enabling him to also reach an illiterate audience with his ideas about tolerance, freedom of expression, and the importance of correct knowledge for the good life. The anthology Visions of Virtue is the first to bring together a rich selection of Coornhert’s work, largely translated into English for the first time. The texts and engravings in this book offer an insight into one of the first advocates for tolerance and freedom of conscience in Europe. At the same time, they shed a surprising light on pressing contemporary issues such as truth versus lie, democracy versus autocracy, and rational thought versus gut feeling.

Ruben Buys is a philosopher and historian of ideas. He has worked as a Marie Curie fellow at Utrecht University and the University of California, Los Angeles. His PhD thesis was awarded the Praemium Erasmianum Research Prize. He publishes on late medieval and early modern Dutch philosophy.