History matters. Who and what we are is in part determined by our history. This is also true of universities. The buildings, the degree programmes on offer, and the way a university is administered all bear traces of the past: nothing ever appears in a vacuum, and there is nothing that comes from nothing. Anyone who comes into contact with the University of Groningen and wishes to understand something of its character and purpose is therefore well advised to also explore the university's history. How did the University of Groningen grow from a provincial institution established for religious reasons into a national university with 36,000 students, of whom 25% come from abroad, and an academic staff, of whom 45% come from outside the Netherlands?

The leitmotif in this book is our thesis that the University of Groningen has been an international university not only since the last decades of the 20th century but since its foundation in 1614. The first professors formed a rich international community, and many students came from outside the Republic of the United Netherlands, especially from areas now belonging to Germany. Internationalization, a slogan that has been all the rage in recent decades, is therefore nothing new for the University of Groningen. Its meaning, though, has changed over time. Sometimes it has referred to the proportion of international students among the Groningen student population, sometimes to the international standing of Groningen science, and sometimes to the safe haven that Groningen offered to students and scholars who no longer felt safe in their own countries. Even in the late 19th century, when the national character of the university was most emphasized, when Groningen had almost no international students and nationalism was in its heyday, the international significance of Groningen scholars was perhaps at its peak and internationalism blossomed like never before. History therefore also gives us some food for thought.

Can a journey through the history of the University of Groningen also teach us something about its character and identity? In many ways, the university's history followed that of other Dutch and European universities. Neither its blossoming in the 17th century nor its subsequent decline in the late 18th century is unique to Groningen.