Prefatory note
Although this study was first designed as an
attempt to trace a pattern in the general picture presented by the literary
connexions between Elizabethan England and the Low Countries in the sixteenth
century, the material itself soon suggested a focal point in the relations
between Britain and the University of Leiden in the early years after its
foundation. This latter relationship has been analyzed in greater detail, both,
it is hoped, as a contribution to our knowledge of sixteenth-century literary
traffic and for the special cultural-historical information of interest to
students of the literatures concerned. In order to do justice to these themes it
seemed proper to quote generous selections from some of the documents that have
come to light and to supply ample reference material. As a rule no source is
given for facts that can be found in the established biographical reference
books.
In the course of collecting my data I have invariably met with much interest and
generosity. I am deeply grateful to the Right Hon. the Marquess of Hertford for
allowing repeated inspections of a manuscript of poems by Daniel Rogers in his
library. Curators, Keepers, Librarians, and staff-members of the British Museum
Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the Public Record
Office, the Leiden Town Archives, Bibliotheca Thysiana, Print Room, and Archives
of the Senate and Curators, the Royal Library at The Hague, and the University
Libraries of Leiden, Utrecht, and Amsterdam I wish to thank for many courtesies;
and for permission to reproduce materials in their possession the directors of
the Bodleian Library, the Royal Library, the Boymans Museum at Rotterdam, and
the Leiden Town Archives, Lakenhal Museum, Academical Historical Museum,
University Library, and Print Room.
I am much obliged to the Netherlands Organization for
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