Verborgen meertaligheid. De katholieke drukpers in de kerkprovincie Kamerijk (1560-1600).
with Johan Verberckmoes, and Alexander Soetaert, Queeste – Journal of Medieval Literature in the Low Countries 22 (2015) 62-81.
The ecclesiastical province of Cambrai, roughly covering the French speaking southern regions of the Habsburg Netherlands, attracted in the second half of the sixteenth century a significant number of Catholic exiles, both from more northern regions in the Netherlands and from the British Isles. Transregional mobility and migration affected the then swiftly emerging Catholic printing business in this border region, located in the university city of Douai and the major cities of Mons and Arras, and temporarily Lille. At first sight, the printing presses produced a predictable output of Latin and vernacular (i.c. French) items. In fact, the political troubles – including a temporal expulsion of English Catholics – clearly slowed down the printing of English works. Still, towards the end of the sixteenth century, an impressive number of French translations of Mediterranean religious literature was printed in Douai and Arras. This ‘hidden’ multilingualism was the precursor of the clearly multilingual press that developed in the seventeenth century. This contribution analyses the conditions under which the ‘hidden’ multilingualism occurred in Cambrai. The transregional networks of printers and publishers as well as of church people and city officials reflected the position of Cambrai as an intermediary zone between print capitals such as Antwerp or Paris in the context of religious migration following religious and political upheaval.