Medieval Urban Form in the Low Countries State of Research, Comparative Perspective and Symbolic Meaning

This chapter discusses the Low Countries is closely related to this historio-graphical and linguistic situation, but also bears the original concept and intention of the European historic towns atlas project in mind. It reviews the published town atlases and some related atlas series and urban monographs. The chapter provides a comparative overview of urban genesis in the Low Countries and shows that the significance of comparative research for the morphological history of towns. The motives for using urbanization politics and town planning, and the form and content of towns, varied between the different regions of the Low Countries. The example of a comparative and multidisciplinary approach to a study of the etymology and symbolic meaning of a particular medieval urban street-name shows the enormous potential of this kind of research. Comparative historical research on the genesis of towns and on urban development in the Low Countries is in its infancy.