Thesis Engravings Dedicated to Archduke Leopold William of Austria (1647-1656)

In the early modern period, academic pro gradu disputations led to the publication of illustrated broadsheets summarizing their conclusions. In the mid-seventeenth century, a number of thesis prints, richly decorated, were dedicated to Archduke Leopold William of Austria, who ruled the Southern Low Countries from 1647 to 1656. This paper intends to analyse the visual devices displayed in these engravings (mise en abyme of their own presentation to the sponsor, heraldry, personifications, emblems) in order to glorify the archduke, but also the students and the Society of Jesus or the university. Furthermore, a study of this particular corpus would enable us to address the issue of the designers of such complex iconographic programmes, and to discuss the question of the gift-giving of thesis broadsides (considered both as works of art and as scientific contributions) through the practice of the written dedication to a protector, as well as the image staging it.