Dr Henk Looijesteijn

Profile

Henk Looijesteijn (1973) studied early modern history at the University of Amsterdam. He has worked, among others, as Assistant-Researcher on several projects at the Netherlands Economic-Historical Archive and the International Institute of Social History between 1998 and 2002, such as the project 'Risk, risk avoidance and insurance arrangements in the Netherlands since 1500', the History of Work website and the virtual exhibition 'Ondernemers geportretteerd'. Between 2004 and 2008 he was researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, where he wrote a PhD thesis on the life and thought of the Dutch artisan Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy (c.1620-?1664) (thesis defended 25 November 2009). He was awarded a short-term research grant by the Atlantic History Seminar of Harvard University in 2007 and he was co-organizer of the Florentine Winterschool 'Politics, Press and Public Debate in the 17th centuries. Anglo-Dutch Perspectives', 10-15 December 2007. From the end of 2008 until 1 may 2009 he was Assistant-Researcher at Leiden University in the project Civil Services and Urban Communities, 1500-1800. Currently, he is working at the IISH in the project Giving in the Golden Age, investigating the founding of almshouses by private benefactors in the early modern age.

Field of interests

Henk Looijesteijn is interested in many aspects of social, cultural and intellectual history, such as the position of religious minorities in the Dutch Republic, the impact of the Age of Exploration on Dutch culture and history, the development of early modern Dutch political thought, the political opinions of the early modern Dutch middle classes and the position and mindset of the early modern Dutch elites. He is also interested in local history and was editor of the Historisch Tijdschrift Holland between 2001 and 2004.

Selected publications

- (unpublished thesis) 'Born to the Common Welfare'. Pieter Plockhoy's Quest for a Christian Life (c.1620-1664) (Florence, 25 November 2009)

- (together with Anne Doedens) Spaans Zilver. Het scheepsjournaal van Willem van Brederode, kapitein der mariniers in de Nassause Vloot (1623-1626) (Hilversum 2008)

- 'Botanisch klatergoud. Opkomst en ondergang van de tulp als beleggingsobject' in: H.W. van den Doel & G. van Boom (ed.), In het verleden behaalde resultaten. Bijdragen tot de Nederlandse beleggingsgeschiedenis (Amsterdam 2002)