Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
This essay discusses the role of the Chambers of Rhetoric (literary guilds or confraternities) in the construction of urban culture in the Southern Low Countries. The Chambers of Rhetoric not only contributed to the forging of urban identity through their associational practices, but also played an important role in the molding of public space through theatrical representations and the staging of civic ritual. In particular, the Chambers’ participation in large-scale regional and interregional theater and poetry competitions is crucial for our understanding of sixteenth-century urban culture in the Low Countries.
This research was conducted within the framework of the Belgian-Dutch project Urban Society in the Low Countries (Late Middle Ages–16th Century), financed by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme — Belgian Science Policy. I should like to thank Peter Arnade, Susie Speakman Sutch, and Gary Waite for their valuable remarks on earlier drafts of this essay. All translations are my own.