Timothy Brook’s Vermeer’s Hat

Write an essay discussing the use of primary sources in Timothy Brook’s Vermeer’s Hat. Choosing at least three different primary sources (including paintings, texts, archaeological remains) discuss the nature of those sources, how the author employs them, and what you think these primary sources can reveal to us about the early modern period. Be sure to discuss the sources in light of what you see as the author’s main theme or argument in the book. I recommend reading at least chapters 1, 4, 5 and 8. Chapter 7 is also very worthwhile particular about attitudes toward race in the world of the seventeenth century. This essay should be at least three pages long, typed and double-spaced (roughly 750 words or more up to 1000 words or four pages). Please include a title for your essay. In discussing the primary sources you might ask the following types of questions: What is the nature of the source? Is it a text, material object, and of what type? Who made or wrote the source? What kind of person wrote or made it (status, level of wealth, gender, position, etc)? What were their intentions? Is the source prescriptive or descriptive? Does it suggest how something should be or does it describe how things are (On Good Manners is prescriptive because it suggests how people should behave, whereas a census record is descriptive because it describes an existing population)? What are the limitations of the sources you have discussed? Does the author use them in an imaginative or unusual way? Does the author misinterpret the source or miss something you think is critical. My recommendation is to pick different types of sources and write about each. You can choose a painting, an archaeological site (shipwreck), and a text the author uses (such as one of the texts about smoking). This is just a suggestion. Make some overall point about what we know and don’t know about this period. You can read the book strategically. Look at the chapter headings, think about what the book is trying to do. Read some parts more thoroughly than others when there is a source you would like to discuss. Just rely on your own words and thoughts! Do not use any outside sources. The use of outside sources will result in a five point deduction.        

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