The Bounds of Empirical Modes of Reading: Knowledge About Visible and Invisible Worlds in the Dutch Adaptations of Georg Christian Raff

Abstract

The comparative German-Dutch analyses in this chapter highlight the Dutch appropriation of the larger Western European attempt to develop empirical modes of reading that fostered inquisitive, experiential knowledge processes amongst the young. The empirically based reading techniques revealed in this chapter were used to acquire knowledge about various invisible phenomena and places—God, but also faraway geographical regions and exotic natural phenomena that children were unable to see with their own eyes. This chapter illuminates a Dutch interest in modes of literacy that helped transform invisible worlds into tangible shapes and demonstrates that advancing readers were expected to acquire knowledge about visible and invisible worlds, as well as to make connections amongst the bits of knowledge thus obtained.