Nadine Akkerman - Selected Publications#
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021). This will contribute to the current revival of court studies that is re-defining early modern politics and diplomacy, and further enhance our understanding of women’s history as it moves away from the traditional (male) hegemonic centres of power, such as the king, parliament and institutions of state. The first reviews are excellent: An extraordinary biography of a much-maligned and much-forgotten queen... Akkerman knows her archive as few have ever done, and demonstrates how to resurrect an early modern woman. ― Suzannah Lipscomb, Books of the Year 2021, BBC History Magazine; As a political biography, and as a sensitive exploration of the position of a royal woman, Nadine Akkerman's book is excellent. ― Jean Wilson, Times Literary Supplement; [A] masterful transformative biography ― Noel Malcolm, The Daily Telegraph; Akkerman situates astonishingly comprehensive research against an even more complicated background, rooting her account in diplomatic reports, Elizabeth's own correspondence and numerous illustrations... [Her] erudite, pacey narration of the frustrations, downturns and highlights of Elizabeth's life make for compelling reading. I was gripped. ― Anna Groundwater, Literary Review; [A] masterful transformative biography ― 5 Star Review, Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph; Akkerman's sensitivity to literary and cultural symbolism deeply enriches this biography ... After all the macho chevaliers who served her in life, this Elizabeth has found a superb and sisterly champion in death. ― Kate Maltby, The Spectator; This excellent book sheds light on a part of Scottish history – and European history – that is too little known. It is also a reclamation of a figure of genuine significance and strength. ― Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman; [Akkerman's book] comprises both personal and political history in which, seamlessly, Elizabeth's reported giggles at her wedding to Frederick of the Palatinate and her dislike of purgatives keep company with – and are as well handled as – Count Mansfeld's military advances on Breda. ― Steven Veerapen, Aspects of History; This is a scholarly and fascinating account of both an extraordinary woman and of the time in which she lived. Using original source materials, much of which has not been seen before, Dr Akkerman is particularly skilled at showing how easily women can be misrepresented or erased from history. ― Kate Mosse; In Queen of Hearts, Nadine Akkerman combines matchless archival expertise with a story-teller's instinct to give new life to one of the seventeenth century's most misunderstood women. A gripping tale. ― Natalie Zemon Davis.
'Unlocking History through Automated Virtual Unfolding of Sealed Documents Imaged by X-Ray Microtomography' (co-authored as the Dutch PI of an international team of researchers), Nature Communications 2021. The article published in Nature Communications described the virtual unfolding of a sealed letter from the 17th-c, allowing it to be read without breaking its seal. It will have transformative effects on the field of history, as it pertains to a key resource of any historian, if not the key resource, the handwritten document, but admittedly also the fields of literature, history, mathematics, digital humanities, and cultural heritage industries: see NWO's newsletter, 'Virtual letter Opener Unlocks New Research Area'. Unopened documents have been read by scanners in the past, of course, but the algorithm developed and made open access here, is fully automated: it can unfold any geometric form, not merely predictable forms such as scrolls. As such, it has the potential to transform conservation practices all over the world, as it shows that textual content can be accessed without sacrifices being made to materiality.
Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018; paperback 2020). In terms of straddling the divide between scholarly and public discourses, Akkerman's most successful work has been the single-authored monograph Invisible Agents, the first study of its kind, showcasing the opportunities inherent in gendered political history and literature. Described as ‘a brilliant book’ (Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph), ‘a work of deep scholarship’ (Leanda de Lisle, The Times), ‘a model monograph’ (R. C. Richardson, Times Higher Education), and ‘an intriguing book ... [Akkerman’s] own remarkable ability to ferret out secrets is often as great as the spies she writes about’ (Adrian Tinniswood, Literary Review), Invisible Agents was ranked no. 36 in The Daily Telegraph’s best history books of 2018, chosen as belonging to the top 5 books of 2018 by History Today, and has led to appearances on BBC Woman’s Hour, amongst other prestigious shows.
The Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, 3 vols, 2 published to date (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, 2015, 2023 projected). The Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart is a landmark edition published by Oxford University Press, one of the most renowned publishers in the field, with over 100,000 words in annotations alone per volume (more words than the average monograph). See the laudatory review in Renaissance Quarterly by Joan E. Hartman: RQ 67.2 (2014).
Courtly Rivals in The Hague: Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662) & Amalia von Solms (1602-1675). [Also available in Dutch: Rivalen aan het Haagse hof: Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662) & Amalia von Solms (1602-1675) (translation: Sandra Arts-Binnendijk)]. Venlo: VanSpijk / Rekafa Publishers in conjunction with Haags Historisch Museum, 2014. This publication shows Akkerman's commitment to public engagement as it is a reflection of the international exhibition she curated, which attracted over 30,000 visitors.
The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in Waiting across Early Modern Europe (co-edited with Birgit Houben) (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This is the first collection that seeks to integrate ladies-in-waiting into the master narrative of court studies, it was nominated for the Society of the Study of Early Modern Women Prize in 2015, and appears on many UK reading lists. See the laudatory review by R. Malcolm Smuts, an authority in the field of court studies, in Early Modern Women Journal 9.2 (Spring 2015), pp. 189-91.
”The Postmistress, The Diplomat, and a Black Chamber? Alexandrine of Taxis, Sir Balthazar Gerbier and the Power of Postal Control”. In: Robyn Adams & Rosanna Cox, eds, Diplomacy and Early Modern Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011): 172-88. David Kahn, author of the seminal work The Codebreakers, wrote Akkerman a letter to congratulate her on unmasking the first Black Chamber in early modern history, an espionage office hitherto thought only to appear in the late seventeenth-century. The fact that this Chamber was led by a woman was the inspiration for her monograph on seventeenth-century women spies, Invisible Agents.
‘Mad Science Beyond Flattery: The Correspondence of Margaret Cavendish and Constantijn Huygens.’ In Sara H. Mendelson ed., Ashgate Critical Essays on Women Writers in England, 1550-1700: Volume 7: Margaret Cavendish (Farnham, England & Burlington, USA: Ashgate, 2009): 263-304. [rev. ed. of the 2004 EMLS article with Marguérite Corporaal]. This peer-review article was reprinted in 2009 as one of the most influential articles on playwright Margaret Cavendish since the 1980s.
