Social and Economic Imperatives for the Production of Wedding Poetry in the Dutch Republic: A Data-Driven Analysis

Abstract

In this article, we show the importance of both social and economic imperatives for authors and printers active in the genre of wedding poetry, and the interaction between these imperatives. The lack of systematic evidence and the fragmented nature of previous research has led to the dominance of tentative interpretations in studies of wedding poetry. Necessary, therefore, is a broader and more inclusive approach of the genre as a whole. We have thus combined a literature review with a quantitative analysis, exploring metadata of over 3,500 publications of wedding poetry (year of publication, names of brides, grooms, printers and authors) in the Dutch Republic between 1600-1760.