De metamorfosen van Zeeland: Dye Cronijcke van Zeelandt (1551) als filosofisch traktaat

Dye Cronijcke van Zeelandt (The Chronicles of Zeelandt) is a philosophical study of the nature of Zeeland, and reveals its essence to be that of a never-ending metamorphosis of land into sea, sea into land, with immediate effects on the fortunes and wealth of the inhabitants. The book is the outcome of an ambitious, large-scale investigation, aiming to subvert the cycles of (divine) destruction that (allegedly) result from human negligence, ignorance and bad governance. The first step it takes in overturning the vicious cycle is the attempt to transform the community of interest (the inhabitants) into a community of knowledge. It does so by creating a record of past cycles of metamorphoses organized chronologically and geographically, also by chorographic and cartographic means. This record aims to instruct contemporaries to take care of the dikes that protect the lands and ports of plenty. The philosophical vision of the book does not reveal itself easily to a modern reader, who might be deceived by its methods of copia and chronology in the presentation of its wealth of particulars. A variety of literary and visual forms is used to shape the author’s vision into an instruction for the community of interest as knowledge community.