tions. The first Dutch fleet to follow the Portuguese sea
route to the East had sailed in 1595 under Cornelis HOUT-
MAN, and although it was a failure in terms of trade it
demonstrated the possibilities that existed for encroach-
ing on the Portuguese trading empire, and the books of
Jan Huyghen van LINSCHOTENand Willem LODEWYCKSZ.
helped fuel Dutch interest in South Asia. The following 50
years saw the company setting up bases in the Indonesian
archipelago (in particular Java and the Moluccas), Ceylon
(Sri Lanka), numerous South Indian ports, Taiwan, and
the Cape of Good Hope. From its Jakarta base the com-
pany expelled its Portuguese rivals from Ceylon
(1638–58) and Malacca (1641); in 1652 it established the
Cape of Good Hope colony. The company had 150 trading
vessels, 40 warships, and 10,000 soldiers by 1669, but
soon declined due to English competition, waning Dutch
power, and rising debts. It was disbanded in 1798.
Further reading: Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch
Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1965;
New York: Knopf, 1970); Els M. Jacobs, In Pursuit of Pep-
per and Tea: The Story of the Dutch East India Company
(Zutphen, Netherlands: Walburg Pers, 1991).
Dutch language The language spoken in the modern
kingdom of the Netherlands (where it is called Neder-
lands) and in northern Belgium, or Flanders (where it
varies slightly from Nederlands and is called Vlaams).
There are also small pockets of Dutch speakers in the
French département of Nord, in former Dutch dependen-
cies overseas, and in North America. The High Dutch
spoken by 17th-century settlers in South Africa evolved
and was simplified over 250 years until it was recognized
as a distinct language, Afrikaans.
Dutch is based mainly on Old Franconian, the Ger-
manic dialect of the northern Franks, who, with the Sax-
ons and the Frisians, settled the area in the Dark Ages. In
the early Middle Ages the dialect of Bruges, by reason of
the town’s dominance as a trading counter of the
HANSEATIC LEAGUE, came to the fore, but in the 14th cen-
tury the duchy of Brabant began to gain the ascendancy.
Flanders passed to PHILIP THE BOLD, duke of Burgundy, in
1384, and in the 15th century the Burgundians were the
dominant power in the Low Countries. Throughout the
Middle Ages the literary influence of France was strong in
the area.
Resistance to Hapsburg rule in the 16th century even-
tually centered on the northern province of Holland, and
the form of the language there became the language of
nascent nationalism. After the Spanish recapture of
Antwerp in 1585, the dialects of refugees from the south
affected northern Dutch in several ways; the southerners’
diphthongal pronunciation of words such as huis (house)
and vijf (five), formerly pronounced in the north as
monothongs, became a permanent feature of the language.
The concepts of purity and correctness in language
were promoted in prose by Renaissance writers such as
COORNHEERT. Anna BIJNSwrote poetry that is considered a
significant stage in the development of modern Dutch.
The Statenbijbel, the Dutch translation of the Bible autho-
rized by the Synod of DORT, contains many instances of
the more formal usages of the south dignifying the collo-
quial language of the north.Du Vair, Guillaume (1556–1621) French statesman and
philosopher
A Parisian by birth, Du Vair became a supporter of Henry
of Navarre and made his name as an orator with such
speeches as Exhortation à la paix (1592). After Henry’s ac-
cession to the French throne (as HENRY IV), Du Vair served
in a number of important offices, culminating in his ap-
pointment as lord chancellor (1615) and bishop of Lisieux
(1616). His writings include the treatises De la sainte
philosophie and De la philosophie morale des Stoïques,
translations of Epictetus and Demosthenes, and the Traité
de la constance et consolation ès calamités publiques (1593;
translated as A Buckler against Adversitie, 1622), which ap-
plies the philosophy of Stoicism to the Christian faith. Du
Vair’s influence can be traced in the poems of his contem-
porary François de MALHERBEand in the works of the
French philosophers of the 17th century.Duytsche Academie (Coster’s Academie) A learned so-
ciety founded in Amsterdam in 1617 by Samuel COSTER.
Coster had been a member of De Egelantier (see CHAMBERS
OF RHETORIC), but he considered its activities were too
frivolous and therefore launched his own academy along
the lines of the Italian Renaissance ACADEMIES, with an
ambitious program of mathematical, philosophical, and
linguistic instruction to be given in Dutch. The academy
was also to produce plays; this was the only part of the
program carried through, but the virulently anti-Calvinist
stance of its dramas brought it into collision with the au-
thorities. In 1635 it merged with De Egelantier.DDuuyyttsscchhee AAccaaddeemmiiee 1 15533