Acknowledgements

In researching and writing this book I have benefitted from the expertise of many colleagues and friends, and I am indebted to them all. My thanks are due first and foremost to my doctoral advisor at Harvard University, Henri Zerner, for his constant encouragement and support. I also thank Joseph Koerner, who served as an additional advisor and critical interlocutor, and Jeffrey Muller at Brown University, who initially sparked my interest in the field and remains an important source of guidance.

I express profound appreciation to Carl Van de Velde, the world’s preeminent Floris scholar. This book owes much to his pioneering research and his generosity. I am also deeply indebted to Godelieve Denhaene, who opened my eyes to a world of Netherlandish humanism that flourished around Lambert Lombard and gave me the tools and the confidence to probe deeply into Floris’s world.

The support of the Fulbright Foundation and the Belgian American Educational Foundation not only brought me to Belgium for essential research but also facilitated contact with colleagues and friends who have enriched this project in numerous ways: Joost Vander Auwera, Karen Bowen, Nicole Dacos, Ann Diels, Dirk Imhof, Koenraad Jonckheere, Tine Meganck, Huigen Leeflang, Ger Luijten, Guido Marnef, Elena Parma-Armani, and Ilja Veldman. Frits Garritsen of Sound and Vision Publishing enabled me to disseminate earlier research on Floris’s engagement with printmaking. That experience gave rise to two volumes of the New Hollstein series and solidified an enduring friendship with Marjolein Leesberg.

Portions of Chapters Seven, Nine, and Eleven appeared in Simiolus, Art History, and Brepols’s Architectura Moderna series, respectively. Peter Hecht, Samuel Bibby, and Piet Lombaerde are due thanks for allowing me to republish those articles in revised form in this book. Dirk Imhof and Karen Bowen generously helped with the preparation of the map of Floris’s Antwerp, and Thomas Schmidt transcribed the text and score of “Le Cruel Mars” that appears in Appendix C, and even produced a digital recording of the song.

I am fortunate to have encountered important mentors and sponsors along the way, and express particular thanks to Nadine Orenstein, Alina Payne, Tristan Weddigen, and Joanna Woodall, all of whom provided me employment, guidance, and encouragement in turn. I also thank Mark Crinson, David Freedberg, Larry Silver, and especially Walter Melion, who invited me to contribute this volume to his series.

This project has grown from the advice of many colleagues and friends, including, Stijn Alsteens, Susanna Berger, Kathleen Christian, François de Callataÿ, John Gagné, Leslie Geddes, Sarah Guérin, Matthijs Ilsink, Catherine Jenkins, Joost Keizer, David Young Kim, Beatrice Kitzinger, Emanuele Lugli, Sarah Moran, Miguel Santos-Neves, Alexandra Onuf, William Tully, and, last but not least, Filine Wagner. I also thank the librarians of the Fine Arts Library and Biblioteca Berenson of Harvard University, the Warburg Institute, and, in particular, The New York Public Library, where much of this book was written. I am grateful to Bernard Barryte, Lydia Carr, and Anne Kirkham for their editorial expertise.

Important grants from the Renaissance Society of America, Historians of Netherlandish Art, and the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Publications Subsidy from Villa I Tatti enabled me to acquire the images in this book, many of which are reproduced in color here for the first time.