Research Interests

• The advent and early days of printing
• Social networks in a book historical context:
  authors - translators - patrons - printers - publishers - booksellers - readers
• Publishing history of translations
• Liminary material in Renaissance translations
• Navigation manuals and corresponding travel accounts (16th-17th century)
  
• Late-18th and 19th century English Literature, with a focus on women writers
• Anglo-Dutch relations
  

Current Research

For my doctoral thesis I focussed on the social networks surrounding Renaissance translations of navigation manuals.

• The corpus:
  all translations published between 1500 and 1640 in English and/or in England on the field of navigation
  
• Discussion/Analysis:
  
  1. what was available in England in original English contributions
  2. what was available in England in translation
  3. gaps/overlaps: how do the translations supplement/influence/contradict the English works

The two main issues I will deal with are firstly paratexts and patronage, which will then lead me to the wider social networks.

• Paratexts:
  titlepages, prefaces, notes to the reader, liminary poems, ... but especially dedications
• Patronage:
  who were they dedicated to, how, why, with what implications, and by whom
  
  
• Key agents:
  translators, dedicatees/patrons, printers, publishers, booksellers, intended audience/readers, merchant companies/communities, universities, ...
• Social networks:
  identify meaningful clusters and relationships

In doing so, I established the importance of translation in the field of navigation and its role in Renaissance England.