(De mythische) ‘Batavia’ in de Gouden Eeuw — een poging tot (re)constructie: Het scheppen van de nationale ruimte

This paper discusses the ‘Batavian Myth’, as it was developed by several Dutch poets and humanists in the 16th and 17th centuries. Erasmus, Cornelius Aurelius, Hadrianus Junius, Hugo Grotius and P.C. Hooft — they formed a picture of the Batavians, to shape a national feeling, in particular in times of the Dutch Revolt. P.C. Hooft’s Baeto is examined here in particular, being one of the most important historiographical and at the same time poetical representations of the new-born nation in times of conflicts between William of Orange and Johan van Oldenbarneveldt.