Abstract
In Early Modern times, bilingualism in Latin and the vernacular prevailed throughout European literature. In the seventeenth century, the (northern) Netherlands were a bulwark of Neo-Latin literature, but many Neo-Latin poets were writing in Dutch too. In the adaptation taking place abroad of this 'Dutch' Latin and vernacular literature, the tension between Latin and the vernacular plays a specific role. This is especially the case in the German countries, where its influence was large since the relationship with the Netherlands was felt to be close. Literature from the Low Countries, particularly by Hugo Grotius, Daniel Heinsius, Jacob Cats and Joost van den Vondel, was brought into action to further the cultural unification of the German countries. One of the decisive factors in this process, however, was the way in which authors manifested themselves as poets in combination with their public image: of themselves as well as their works, both in the country of origin and in the new context. In the case of Cats, for instance, his self-fashioning depicting him as a civil-moralising populariser and learned writer of international fame probably played a certain role, the extent of which remains to be investigated - as holds true for the relationship with his multilingualism (for instance, his Sinne- en minnebeelden contain Dutch, Latin and French texts from his own hand as well as English, Italian and Spanish quotations). With the help of the German reception of Dutch literature by Grotius, Heinsius, Cats and Vondel in its 'bilingual' appearance, this project tries to develop a model to analyse how the interplay of these combined issues assisted in the process of cultural transmission.