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  • On Tuesday 28 October 2025, dr. Maurits den Hollander was invited for a lecture by Forum Romanum, the legal historical society co-hosted by the VU and UvA universities in Amsterdam. He talked about his recently published book Court, Credit, and Capital (CUP 2025), discussing how important innovations in seventeenth-century Amsterdam’s insolvency legislation could contribute to…

  • On 16 October 2025, Cambridge University Press published a monograph by dr. Maurits den Hollander. ๐Ÿ“˜ ๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ต, ๐˜Š๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ต, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜Š๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ญ: ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜ฎโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜บ ๐˜“๐˜ฆ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜‹๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜Ž๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ˆ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ explores how important innovations in insolvency legislation contributed to seventeenth-century Amsterdamโ€™s economic success. Moving beyond the traditional moral condemnation of insolvents, the cityโ€™s specialized insolvency court introduced…

  • In the latest issue of BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review, an article by dr. Christian Manger and dr. Maurits den Hollander titled ‘Advisers or Decision-Makers? The Agency of Dutch Urban Administrative Officials, c. 1500-1700’ appeared. It analyses the unique position of secretaries and pensionaries in thegovernments of cities in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century NorthernNetherlands.…

  • This interview was originally published on the website of Tilburg Law School: [link]. Legal historian Marco In โ€™t Veld places a river at the center of his research. And wine. But what does the EU have to do with the Rhine, and the trade carried on it between the 14th and 17th centuries? In โ€™t…

  • ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Palace of Commerce reveals the hidden world behind the marble walls of Amsterdamโ€™s seventeenth-century city hall. Far from quiet grandeur, the palace once bustled with paperwork, legal specialists, and urban officials like Jacob de Vogelaer โ€” a wealthy urban secretary managing the flow of commerce and justice, one of 30,000 sheets at a time!…

  • ๐ŸŒ As part of our research project on multilevel governance in medieval and early modern commercial cities, we are expanding our website with a series of short vignettes on the legal histories of key trading hubs. In each of these introductions we explore the organisation of urban governance in relation to the economy of the…

  • ๐Ÿ›๏ธ ๐‘ท๐’‚๐’๐’‚๐’„๐’† ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘ช๐’๐’Ž๐’Ž๐’†๐’“๐’„๐’† reveals the hidden world behind the marble floors of Amsterdamโ€™s seventeenth-century city hall. Amsterdam’s ambitions related to hard commercial interests, but also to the weak in society. Including orphans! ๐Ÿ“– Watch the trailer, and join Bob Wessels and me to discover a fascinating aspect of governance in a global city. ๐Ÿ”—…

  • Dr. Marco in โ€˜t Veld (Tilburg University), dr. Bart Holterman (Forschungsstelle fรผr die Geschichte der Hanse und des Ostseeraums), and dr. Maurits den Hollander (Tilburg University) warmly invite all academics interested in medieval river trade in an urban context to submit their paper proposals for our main session (nr. 3) at the EAUH conference in…

  • ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Palace of Commerce uncovers what happened when fortunes crumbled in seventeenth-century Amsterdam โ€“ even for Rembrandt! Behind a marble door in todayโ€™s Royal Palace, insolvent debtors faced not shame, but a second chance. In the Chamber of Insolvent and Abandoned Estates, commissioners and their staff worked to resolve financial collapse with surprising nuance. ๐Ÿ“–…

  • Dr. Maurits den Hollander and prof. em. Bob Wessels (Leiden University) recently presented the first copy their book Palace of Commerce to Niels Breukers, Head of Public Opening & Activities Dutch Royal Palaces, in the magnificent Citizen’s Hall of Amsterdam’s Royal Palace (photo: Jan Wind). Tilburg Law School published a news item about the book…