Both books use digital methodologies to analyse early modern creative practices: Lucas van der Deijl’s Translating the New Philosophy in the Dutch Early Enlightenment (1640-1720) develops a combined methodology of computational and qualitative analysis to understand how translating activities fueled Early Enlightened debates about language and knowledge; Weixuan Li’s Painters’ Playbooks in the Art Market of Early Modern Amsterdam introduces an innovative digital socio-spatial approach to re-examine artistic competition on the Amsterdam art market.

The authors will reflect on their books and the broader agenda for digital early modern studies in an interview and discussion hosted by Dirk van Miert. Besides, they will give us a glimpse of their promising new and future digital research directions. What is the potential of AI to detect objects in paintings? How to use digital methodologies to analyse satirical techniques in literature?

Lucas van der Deijl is assistant professor in early modern Dutch literature at the University of Groningen. Translating the New Philosophy in the Dutch Early Enlightenment (1640-1720) (2025) is his first monograph, resulting from his PhD project conducted at the University of Amsterdam.

Weixuan Li is art historian and digital humanist. She currently works as a Mellon Research Fellow at the Rijksmuseum and as a lecturer in art history at the University of Amsterdam. Painters’ Playbooks in the Art Market of Early Modern Amsterdam is her first monograph, resulting from her PhD project conducted at the University of Amsterdam.

Dirk van Miert is professor in the History of Knowledge from a Digital Perspective, and director of the Huygens Institute for History and Culture in the Netherlands.