EUROPE'S BABYLON

A chronicle of the glory years of a European city that is no longer as significant as it once was.

Now a museumlike gem, for much of the 16th century, Antwerp thrived as Europe’s most vibrant center of commerce, intellectual life, and free thought. Pye offers a colorful depiction of the city’s “exceptional years.” In 1500, he writes, the Low Countries (modern-day Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) were ruled by Spain, Europe’s most powerful nation. That era saw a commercial revolution as the colonization of America and the Portuguese-devised route to India brought back an avalanche of trade that marginalized the Mediterranean (and its commercial hub, Venice) in favor of North Sea ports, most conveniently Antwerp. Throughout the Middle Ages, military power and religion generated wealth, but “Antwerp had no court, no bishop, no very famous lord to help define its past…what made Antwerp rich was the change in trade routes.” At the same time, Spain’s Catholic rulers brutally persecuted Protestants. However, chronically short of money and dependent on their taxes and loans, they ruled the Low Countries with a light hand despite its large population of Lutherans and Calvinists as well as Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. The golden years ended in the 1570s when Protestant-dominated provinces rose in revolt and Spain’s army reconquered those in the south, wreaking havoc and sacking Antwerp in 1576. Half of the population migrated to the new Dutch republic in the north, and Amsterdam began its rise. This is an entertaining read, but the book is less sturdy history and more an impressionistic portrait of its institutions and great men (Bruegel, Erasmus, et al.), emphasizing the lives of now-obscure traders, bankers, entrepreneurs, officials, printers, and booksellers, including a surprising number of successful women and Jews. It works, but readers who already know some of the history will have an easier time. Especially welcome are the abundant illustrations and maps.

A vivid and scattershot look at a great Renaissance city.