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.
History
Five of the books researched by the students are historical of nature, i.e. they tell the history of a certain place or phenomenon. At the same time, they are completely unique and different, which is mainly reflected in their target audience, visible by their materiality and contents. Some of these books were clearly written for nobility or rich civilians because their printing process or binding must have been expensive and elaborate. Others are (re-)written for a larger or very specific audience. This results in five unique books that call for attention. You can read about the results of these analyses by clicking the respective books.
Van Meerbeeck’s chronicle was written from a Catholic, moderately pro-Spanish perspective. It is a folio format and contains many engraved portraits. These portraits were not added to the book by the owner who had it bound, but instead we find an instruction to the binder where to add the engravings, so these were an intricate part of the prints. This heavily suggests it was written for wealthy people.
La grande chronique was written with an audience of nobles in mind, specifically royalist (Orangist) nobles. it consist of two big leather-bound volumes with many engraved portraits of nobles and gold tooled spines. It was written in French which was the language of the nobility at the time. This all suggests that it was written for nobles to read about themselves. Furthermore, the books link the Dutch nobility to the Batavian myth, unifying them as a warrior people. This is both reflected in the fact that it contains many engraved full-page images of these nobles in full armour and with their coat of arms and the fact that the Divisiekroniek has been included in the compiling of the work.
Lipsius’ comentary on the history of Tacitus was a real object of use for anyone who wanted to study the Annales. The simple binding and lack of decoration imply that it was probably not expansive. It is therefore a bit surprising that the copy at the KNIR does not have a lot of signs of use, except for a few annotations.
This copy of the Harlemias by Schrevelius is unremarkable in almost every single way. The binding is card board, paper and parchment is is copletely undecorated. The book block is simpel, with no decorations save for some simple initials and a single historiated initial. It is accompanied by a single engraving. From all the other bindings I found on the interwebs, this one was by far the most simple. How, then, this this copy travel all the way to Rome, and who was interested in its contents? The inside reveals some hints... but the overall story of this traveller remains a mystery.
This book is a combination of genaeology and heraldry, written after the seperation of the Northern and Southern Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt. In the Southern Netherlands, heraldry was reserved for the nobility, unlike in the Northern Netherlands, were many families developed their own coats of arms. the author of the book, although a Northerner, clearly dissaproves of this dispersion. Therefore, the book was probrably written for the nobility, which is also reflected in the qaulity of the book block and the presence of many prints, both wood cuts and copper engravings. These copper engravings are pressed on the same pages as the tekst, a rather expensive activity. Unfortunately, the binding has been completely lost and is replaced by a very simple 19th century card board binding.