Between 1567 and 1573, the Flemish printer Christophe Plantin published Thesaurus Theutonicae Linguae in Antwerp, a comprehensive dictionary of Dutch compiled by Cornelis Kiliaan. This work, containing around 40,000 entries, was the first explanatory dictionary of the Dutch language and regarded the Brabant dialect as the standard. Its publication, which took six years due to interruptions by the printing of the Polyglot Bible, established Kiliaan as the father of modern Dutch lexicography.

Kiliaan's dictionary provided Dutch poets with a standardized reference for their language, supporting the growth of a vernacular literary tradition in the Netherlands. Its etymological approach influenced the development of Dutch poetry by enabling poets to understand the historical roots of their vocabulary. The work also set a precedent for the lexicographical study of other vernacular languages in the region.