Professor Piotr Oczko of Jagiellonian University in Krakow is an author of an intriguing book “A Broom and a Cross’’. The Culture of Cleanliness in Holland, or the ‘’History of an Obsession”, recently translated by Paul Hulsenboom and published in Dutch by Primavera Pers.
Dutch purity and orderliness was often described in travellers’ reports. Servants would carry visitors with dirty shoes on their backs so that the floor would not get dirty, the tails of the cows were tied up to keep the stables spotless and houses were regularly cleaned on the outside as well as indoors. Was it an obsession? You need to read the book to form an opinion of your own on that matter.
Professor Oczko is known as an art historian, a translator, an expert on English, Dutch and Polish literature with particular interest in culture of Dutch speaking countries. His book is an excellent anthropological study based on plays, poetry and most of all, the visual arts. Highly recommended!
