Editors' Introduction

This short introduction presents the background context from which this special issue originated. It briefly sketches how the Dutch Spinoza Society (Vereniging het Spinozahuis) organized two conferences, one in 1997 and one in 2023, with an increasing focus on reflecting on the spreading of Spinoza’s thought in different countries. The papers published here are mostly derived from the 2023 conference, although they are continuous with the longer-term project already initiated in 1997.