Jacob Aertsz Colom, Dutch Mennonite Anticonfessionalism, and the Persistence of Dissent in the 17th Century

Jacob Aertsz Colom, Dutch Mennonite Anticonfessionalism, and the Persistence of Dissent in the 17th Century

Mike Driedger

The text below dates from 2013. It is the previous unpublished version of a paper I presented at the annual meeting of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the moment there are no notes with the text. I plan to update the text to include at least a bibliography. The title of the paper I presented in San Juan is “Mennonite Printers, Anticonfessionalism, and the Persistence of Dissent in the Netherlands.” Except for updating the title for this post, I have only edited the text of the 2013 paper very lightly.

Part of the reason for publishing the 2013 paper as a blog post now is that my grad student, Brookelnn Cooper, is finishing off her MA research paper, and she is making the case for Colom as the printer / publisher of Menno Simons’ Blasphemy. For more about the Blasphemy, see my post about it here.

Image details coming soon…

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Heresy / Hairesy

Heresy / Hairesy

Mike Driedger

The theme of CBC Radio’s Podcast Playlist from 8 March 2018 is the cultural meaning of hair (“Long, Short, Straight, Curly: Podcasts about Every Type of Hair”). What do parts on the right versus the left mean? How are curls or straight hair related to political views? What about hair’s role in group and personal identity (e.g., Black and Jewish cultures of hair)? One purpose of this blog post is recommend this excellent episode of the show.

A second purpose is to gather and eventually add some further thoughts about the cultural meaning of hair in the study of early modern heresy and dissent. Gary Waite’s writing about visual depictions of wild heretics is part of my inspiration for the idea, as is my own recent far-too-long hair and experiments with a beard. For the former, see Gary Waite, “Naked Harlots or Devout Maidens? Images of Anabaptist Women in the Context of the Iconography of Witches in Europe, 1525–1650” in Sisters: Myth and Reality of Anabaptist, Mennonite, and Doopsgezind Women, ca 1525-1900 (2104).

This is a post-in-progress. Suggestions are welcome! Post them in the comments section of this webpage, or send them to @Mike_Driedger or @Amsterdamnified on Twitter. For more ideas, expand the post.

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New publications about Ana/baptist Münster

New publications about Ana/baptist Münster

Mike Driedger

NOTE: This post will focus on literature from approximately the last 10 years (i.e., since the publication of Bernhard Rothmann and the Reformation in Münster).

More literature is on the way. Stay tuned. (LAST UPDATED: 12 May 2018)

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Using Zotero

Using Zotero

Mike Driedger

This is a quick introduction to using Zotero, a bibliographic tool that is unique and powerful because it allows for individual and collaborative work. This is an early draft of a page that will eventually be available at the Amsterdamnified Project webpage. Since that page is undergoing some maintenance, I’m starting the page here. I’m making this draft for Gary Waite’s graduate students at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, and for my undergraduate students at Brock University. Read more →

Family history mystery

Family history mystery

Mike Driedger

What’s your family history mystery? One of mine has to do with this photo.

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Conference poster: “Refusing to Fight” (Brock University, Oct. 2018)

Mike Driedger

The Blasphemy of Jan of Leiden: A research plan

The Blasphemy of Jan of Leiden: A research plan

Mike Driedger

ORIGINAL POST (May 2017): The Blasphemy of Jan of Leiden is the oldest text by Menno Simons, and it indicates that he was an early opponent of the Anabaptists of Münster. This, at least, has long been the consensus view about early Mennonite history. A challenge for researchers, however, is that the oldest copy of The Blasphemy is from 1627. This post introduces a project to find out more about this 1627 text.

UPDATE (April 2018): The transcription project is still in planning. Brookelnn Cooper has completed her archival research and is now working on her MA paper, tentatively titled “Identifying the Anonymous Printer of Menno Simons’ The Blasphemy of Jan van Leiden (1627): A Typographical Analysis.”

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Images of Erfurt during the IAHR

Mike Driedger

I’m writing this post on the second full day of the conference of the Intl Assoc for the History of Religions (iahr2015.org). Before spending the time to make some more content-heavy posts, I’ll include a few images.

I arrived on Sunday in time to take a walk around the old city. The Cathedral is of course one of the landmarks.

Erfurt Cathedral

Erfurt Cathedral (Dom)

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Photos of Ana/Baptist Münster

Mike Driedger
This picture was taken from the flagstone memorial in the Prinzipalmarkt (see the picture below).

1. St. Lamberti Church.

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(Self-)Portraits of early modern artists from Doopsgezind (Mennonite) milieus

(Self-)Portraits of early modern artists from Doopsgezind (Mennonite) milieus

Mike Driedger

This post consists of a gallery of early modern Dutch Mennonite artists (or those who were a part of Mennonite milieus, even though they might not have been congregational members). The list is far from exhaustive, but it provides a quick sense of just how involved in the arts Mennonites were. For more details about Mennonite artists, or Anabaptist portrayed in art, click the tags “art” or “portrait”. Read more →