How to Attack 17th Century Dutch Texts
For me, the best approach for reading or translating 17th century Dutch texts is a methodical one. I also know that my excitement for hearing that 17th century voice from the past can give way to feeling ready to move on with my research already. Please let me begin by empathizing, while setting your expectations realistically. Learning to read 17th century texts takes some time. It definitely gets better with practice, and each person eventually sorts out, through trial and error, what works best for them. Having said that, here are some of the methods that have worked well for me.
Print it out—mark it up! If at all possible, print out or make a copy of the text you are working on so that you can write directly on the page. This goes for both printed and handwritten texts. Reading from the computer screen has some advantages (see Use Your Mac to Enhance Handwritten Texts) but, by and large, being able to mark up a text is very helpful when it comes to parsing, as well as for noting any insights about the text as you go. I have even gone as far as typing a scripted text over into a word document, then enlarging the font, triple spacing it, and printing it so I could write on it. When making a copy from a book, try enlarging the copy. Even though the text will be bigger, the spaces will be, too.
Copy a text over by hand. Especially when working with handwritten texts, copying a text over by hand can make it easier to recognize old spellings and grammar while connecting you to the style of writing. Writing out a text out also provides the opportunity to organize it in a way that might make it more readable to you. For example, spacing out a crowded text out and leaving blanks where I need to re-visit to a word or phrase helps me to focus on individual sections and not feel overwhelmed by the entire piece. Try my 3-lined paper for writing out a text.
Number the lines of your text. Whether you are working with printed or handwritten texts, it is a good idea to number the lines for organization, to help break up the text, and to serve as location markers while you are working. It can be frustratingly easy to lose your place while you are working with long passages, sentences that seem repetitive, or texts without logical punctuation. If you are making notes on a separate paper or copying the text over, number the lines of your notes or writing to match up with the numbered lines of text as reference points. You’ll be glad you did.
Parse by clause or phrase. It can be very cumbersome to try to understand 17th century texts by translating word by word, especially because Dutch verbs are often found at the end of a sentence. Instead, it is often more effective to seek out clauses or phrases. Try reading until you find a verb, then identify which subject goes with that verb, or look for a conjunction that joins the noun to a sub-clause. It can be helpful to mark the clause or phrase in brackets and try to make sense of it as a whole. If you find that you have words leftover, especially verbs, this is a sign that you need to go back and try a different way to re-structure your clause.
Read the text out loud. Sometimes, listening to words in your own voice and intonation can help signal where a clause ends, or which nouns go with which verbs. For instance, perhaps because my spoken Dutch is better than my written Dutch, sentences often parse themselves more readily when I say them out loud than when I read them in my head. Reading aloud can also be especially helpful for identifying words that are spelled differently now. For example, while the word “cleyn” might look unfamiliar, it is easily recognizable as “klein” when said aloud.
Check your translation. I used to think that consulting pre-existing translations was a strategy best reserved for when you are really stuck. After all, you don’t want your ideas to be biased by someone else’s translation (that may or may not be correct) and, of course, once you’ve seen another translation, you can’t un-see it. But, I have learned a lot about translation by comparing my translation to another. First, it is helpful to see how others, often from earlier time periods, have interpreted certain words. But, especially with handwritten documents, I have also learned to recognize words by working backwards—seeing the English word first and then looking for it in the Dutch. In the end, struggling with which interpretation fits most accurately, yours or “the other,” is an effective teacher.
I hope you will find some of these ideas helpful and, if you have suggestions for methods that have worked for you, please share them!