Ellen van Heteren
A mystery traveller
In the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch city of Haarlem was a centre of culture, learning and art. In this city lived Theodorus Schrevelius, humanist and poet. Born in Haarlem in 1572, Schrevelius studied the classic languages. He became conrector and later rector of the Latin School in his home city. After twenty-four years of service, he was fired because of his remonstrant religious orientation and moved to Leiden, where he also filled the role of rector. Later, he was able to move back to Haarlem. Nearing the end of his life, he wrote the Harlemias, which added to a long list of publications by his hand. After over three hundred years, a copy of this book ended up in the special collections of the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome (KNIR). What is the story of this mystery traveller?
The Harlemias, printed in Haarlem by Thomas Fonteyn in 1648, was written because of Schrevelius’s love for the city in which he was born and raised. The author wrote a history of this city from its first building blocks to his own time. In doing so, he covered many different aspects of this history, which he divided into six ‘books’. The first book tells the tale of the city’s origins, the second of the famous siege of Haarlem, and the third that of the Dutch Revolt and reformation that followed. From the fourth book on, the subjects get more thematic: The fourth book summarizes all the city’s privileges and nobility; the fifth describes the rise of institutions such as the military, schools and police; the sixth book is all about the civility of Haarlem, its important magistrates, learned men, artisans and artists, and all other workers. The work was originally written in Latin and published in 1647, but soon it was rewritten in vernacular Dutch, because the author wanted to share his love for his city with everyone and not just the learned elite, as Schrevelius shares in his foreword to the reader. The books are accompanied by several poems and laudatory speeches.
After this engraving follows the typographical title page on which it, of course, states the entire title, the author and the impressum. On the back of this folio, someone has left their initials or some type of illegible signature. The engraving was an intricate part of the book as the same engraving is found in all other books from the print of 1648. A reprint from 1754 shows a different engraving. The larger part of the book is printed in a gothic letter, but some exceptions occur when names, poems or any type of citation is written.
Overall, the book and its paper are in excellent condition. There are no tears or breaks and no signs of biological infestations except for a little bookworm who left tiny holes in pages 247-383. With the exception of the end leaves and title pages, not a single marginalium can be found. These first few pages do carry interesting information about the provenance of the book. Most of these are, unsurprisingly, stamps and pencil-written signatures of libraries that held this book. Far more interesting, however, is a loose piece of paper that was put between the pages of the book. It contains an invitation for two persons to a concert that was organised by the Acedemie de France a Rome. A previous owner thus was somehow related to the French Academy of Rome. The catalogue of the KNIR library only reveals that the object was added to the collection in 2018, although I find this somewhat unlikely. Unfortunately, the KNIR does not seem to keep any other information about when or how this book came into the possession of the KNIR, whether it has ever been in the French Institute, or when it was bought by or donated to either institution.
Books and maps
a description of the Low Countries
A Dutch translation of Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi was a given, but it wasn’t until 1612 before Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt was published. This first Dutch translation was printed by Willem Jansz. Blaeu in Amsterdam. Blaeu (1571-1638) was one of the most famous map makers of his time. The Dutch translation of Descrittione di tutti i Paesi fits well within his ouvre. Blaeu printed maps and atlases, but he was also interested in science. He was named as the official map maker of the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) in 1633.
The first thing that stands out when looking at the work itself is the beautiful and thick original binding with the title printed in gold on the spine. The text starts with a titlepage, a preface, a few dedications and an index. After that the reader is treated with the first description: a detailed account of the region Brabant. The other regions are also described in detail. However, the real stars of this work are the beautiful maps. Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt contains 103 maps in total. There are not only maps of the whole country, but also maps of most of the big cities. There are also illustrations of all provinces.
Lodovico Guicciardini (1521-1589) was an Italian merchant with a special interest in the Low Countries. He moved to Antwerp in 1541, where he stayed until his death. He wrote the first description of the Low Countries: Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi in 1567. The first intention was probably to make a description of his beloved city Antwerp, but eventually it turned into a book dedicated to the Low Countries. His work continued to be popular far into the seventeenth century and became a classic within the cartographic world. Over time his successful work was translated, adapted and printed in several countries. With every new edition, new maps and illustrations were added. Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi started out with sixteen maps. Now you can find younger editions with over a hundred maps. This means that not one edition of this work is the same. The huge popularity indicates that the people in the sixteenth and seventeenth century wanted a good and detailed description of the Low Countries and her cities.
Blaeu’s dream was to print an atlas which included and represented all the maps of the world. This dream was eventually realized by his son, Joan Blaeu. The Atlas Maior (1662) became one of the most expensive books of the seventeenth century.
Bibliography
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De La Fontaine, H., “The history of Guicciardini’s description of the Low Countries”, Quaerendo 12 no. 1 (1982), 22–51.
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Deys, H., Guicciardini Illustratus: de kaarten en prenten in Ludovico Guicciardini's "Beschrijving van de Nederlanden". Leiden: Brill, 2001.
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Forrer, M., “Dwalend door de Nederlanden aan de hand van Guicciardini.
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Een bespreking van de Guicciardini illustrates”, De Boekenwereld 19 (2002), 86-11.
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Guicciardini, Lodovico. Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt. Amsterdam: printed by Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1612.
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Haitsma Mulier, E. O.G., “De eerste Hollandse stadsbeschrijvingen uit de zeventiende eeuw”, De zeventiende eeuw 9 (1993), 97-111.
5 - The difference between Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (top) and the Dutch translation (bottom)
Annelynn Koenders
Willem Blaeu was not the first one who tried to publish the first Dutch translation of Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi. The printer Cornelis Claesz started with a translation, but he died before he could finish the work. In 1610 Blaeu probably bought the maps which Claesz had especially made for his edition. Blaeu also used the Dutch translation which Cornelius Kiliaan made forty years before for the Antwerp edition printed by Plantijn. His edition was published in 1581 and Guicciardini himself contributed to this edition.
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It can be said that the Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt is a beautiful work with a rich history. The different versions of the 1612 edition are kept all around Europe, for instance in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. In this essay, we’ll take a closer look into the edition in Rome.
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The text also contains printed notes in the margin from the vicar Petrum Montanum. His notes are like keywords: they give a little summery of the text. My hypothesis is that the original translation by Cornelius Kiliaan wasn’t structured enough, so they added this keyword marks so the text could be easily scanned by a reader.
1 - A map of Holland in Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt, pp. 138-139.
The text also contains printed notes in the margin from the vicar Petrum Montanum. His notes are like keywords: they give a little summery of the text. My hypothesis is that the original translation by Cornelius Kiliaan wasn’t structured enough, so they added this keyword marks so the text could be easily scanned by a reader.
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The book is easy to navigate because of the detailed index. It is divided into eleven parts, and each part addresses a different region. Every description comes with its own map. There is also a register included at the end, so names of people can be looked up. It can be concluded that this book was perfect for people who wanted to know more about the Low Countries. However, it must be difficult to use this book because it is very big and heavy. The Roman edition of Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden does not contain any special notes. Only the fly leaf is signed with the initials P.G.
It is interesting to compare the Dutch translation with the original Italian work. The first thing you notice is the difference in thickness. The Dutch translation is thicker than the original version. That’s because the Dutch translation contains far more maps. To be more precise: the original version contains 16 maps, the Dutch version has 103 maps. This means that they made 87 new maps over time. It’s noteworthy that not all the maps are new or changed: some of them look almost the same as the ones in the original version. It seems that they wanted to respect the original work, but they also wanted to add a touch of their own.
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There is also a difference between the layout of both versions. Because the original edition contains less maps, there is little variety between text and image. The mix of maps and descriptions in the Dutch translation is more balanced. It can be concluded that Lodovico Guicciardini made a great start with his Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, but the Dutch translation contains more maps and is therefore a more detailed description and a better fit for anyone who wanted to know more about the beautiful Low Countries.
Lodovico Guic
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Image 1: the difference between Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (top) and the Dutch translation (bottom)
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Image 2: a map of Holland in Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt (138-139).
Bibliography:
De La Fontaine, H., “The history of Guicciardini’s description of the Low Countries”, Quaerendo 12 no. 1 (1982), 22–51.
Deys, H., Guicciardini Illustratus: de kaarten en prenten in Ludovico Guicciardini's "Beschrijving van de Nederlanden". Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Forrer, M., “Dwalend door de Nederlanden aan de hand van Guicciardini.
Een bespreking van de Guicciardini illustrates”, De Boekenwereld 19 (2002), 86-11.
Guicciardini, Lodovico. Beschryvinghe van alle de Nederlanden; anderssins ghenoemt Neder-Duytslandt. Amsterdam: printed by Willem Jansz. Blaeu, 1612.
Haitsma Mulier, E. O.G., “De eerste Hollandse stadsbeschrijvingen uit de zeventiende eeuw”, De zeventiende eeuw 9 (1993), 97-111.
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