Literacy in Everyday Life

Egodocumentsand History Series

Edited by

Arianne BaggermanErasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

Rudolf DekkerErasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

Michael MascuchUniversity of California, Berkeley

Advisory Board

James AmelangUniversidad Autónoma Madrid

Peter BurkeEmmanuel College Cambridge

Philippe LejeuneUniversité de Paris-Nord

Claudia UlbrichFreie Universität Berlin

VOLUME 2

Literacy in Everyday LifeReading and Writing

in Early Modern Dutch Diaries

By

Jeroen Blaak

Translated by

Beverley Jackson

LEIDEN • BOSTON2009

Cover illustration: Boy writing by candlelight, anon., oil on canvas, third quarter 17th century. Photo: Th e Netherlands Institute for Art History. Printed with permission from Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, Copenhagen.

Th is book is published with the generous support of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c Research (NWO).

Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blaak, Jeroen. [Geletterde levens : dagelijks lezen en schrijven in de vroegmoderne tijd in Nederland 1624–1770. English] Literacy in everyday life : reading and writing in early modern Dutch diaries / by Jeroen Blaak ; translated by Beverley Jackson. p. cm. — (Egodocuments and history series ; 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17740-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Dutch prose literature—History and criticism. 2. Dutch literature—1500–1800—History and criticism. 3. Books and reading in literature. 4. Literacy—Netherlands—History—17th century. 5. Literacy—Netherlands—History—18th century. 6. Books and reading—Netherlands—History—17th century. 7. Books and reading—Netherlands—History—18th century. I. Jackson, Beverley. II. Title. III. Series.

PT5309.B63 2009 839.31’30309—dc22

2009021767

ISSN 1873-653XISBN 978 90 04 17740 6

Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands.Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.Fees are subject to change.

printed in the netherlands

CONTENTS

Foreword ............................................................................................. ixList of Illustrations ............................................................................ xiList of Abbreviations and Archive Names .................................... xiii

I. Historical Research on Reading and Writing: From Book Ownership to the Use of Media ............................................... 1 Th e history of reading ................................................................ 5 Th e history of reading as a research fi eld ............................... 7 A diff erent perspective: Reading within the framework of media history ........................................................................... 10 Research on historical readers .................................................. 15 Research on historical reading behaviour ............................... 25 Egodocuments as source material ............................................ 32 Structure of the book .................................................................. 38

II. Mirror of Literacy: Reading and Writing in the Diary (1624) of David Beck .................................................................. 41 A German schoolmaster in the Dutch Republic ............... 43 ‘Mirror of my life’ ................................................................... 45 Th e conversation of the day ...................................................... 49 Writing habits .............................................................................. 54 Conversation at a distance: correspondence ...................... 55 Writing at school .................................................................... 60 Income and expenditure in writing ..................................... 64 Paper poetry: the oeuvre of the poet David Beck ............. 65 Writing poetry and everyday life ......................................... 69 Publication in manuscript form ........................................... 72 ‘Mousing and rummaging’: Beck’s reading behaviour ......... 76 Handwritten reading .............................................................. 77 Poetic taste: Beck’s reading of printed texts ....................... 79 Aging French poems and topical Dutch prose .................. 84 Beck’s books in other sources ............................................... 86 ‘Nosing around’ in bookshops or at the Binnenhof ......... 89 Books in everyday life ............................................................ 93

Diverse ways of reading ........................................................ 99 Reading in order to write ..................................................... 105 Final remarks .............................................................................. 109

III. Aristocratic Literacy: Pieter Teding van Berkhout and his ‘Journal’ (1669–1712) ................................................................ 113 Th e life of a gentleman of rank ........................................... 115 ‘Journal contenant mes occupations’ ................................. 120 Th e aristocratisation of everyday conversation? ................... 126 Putting pen to paper .................................................................. 131 Written contacts: correspondence and writing style ....... 132 Writing and family history .................................................. 136 Political notes ......................................................................... 139 A lifetime of reading .................................................................. 142 Teding van Berkhout’s library ............................................. 142 A historical taste .................................................................... 145 Reading à la mode ................................................................. 153 An unusual taste? ................................................................... 155 Purchases and gift s ................................................................ 160 Th e delights of country life .................................................. 164 Reading a book ....................................................................... 169 Reading for edifi cation and entertainment ....................... 179 Final remarks .............................................................................. 185

IV. Aural and Eyewitness Testimony: Reading, Writing, and Discussions of Current Aff airs in Jan de Boer’s chronological journal (1747–1758) ......................................... 189 Th e life of an Amsterdam clerk ........................................... 191 Th e diary or ‘journal’ of Jan de Boer ................................. 196 Historiography of the news .................................................. 204 Th e fl ow of information: De Boer’s news sources ................ 208 News in the street .................................................................. 209 News on printed paper ......................................................... 214 Th e news of 1755 ................................................................... 217 News from many sides .......................................................... 219 Reading the news: printed matter in the diary ..................... 222 Newspapers ............................................................................. 225 Newspaper reports in the diary ........................................... 229 Information and discussion in pamphlets ......................... 234 News in pamphlets ................................................................ 237

vi contents

‘Only an oortje’: the distribution of pamphlets ................ 241 Th e anonymous author of the pamphlet ‘Pro Patria’ ...... 247 Pamphlet readers and their responses ............................... 251 Other informative publications: ordinances, periodicals and prints ............................................................................ 256 News as history ...................................................................... 260 Final remarks .............................................................................. 262

V. A Devout Reader and Writer: Literacy in Jacoba van Th iel’s ‘Account-Book of the Soul’ (1767–1770) ............................... 265 A life lived amid the clergy .................................................. 267 Daily register or ‘account-book of the soul’ ..................... 272 Pious conversation ..................................................................... 281 A devout Christian woman with a pen .................................. 288 Pious correspondence ........................................................... 289 ‘Somewhat free from the earth’: on keeping a diary ....... 293 Piety with books: Van Th iel’s reading .................................... 297 A religious glutton ................................................................. 297 Old or new? ............................................................................ 305 Readers of pious literature and readers of novels ............ 307 Th e parsonage library ............................................................ 310 Relatives and women in Luchtmans’ shop ........................ 315 Purchases and gift s ................................................................ 317 Reading and the daily struggle ............................................ 319 Daily books: Van Th iel’s modes of reading ...................... 323 Nourishing the soul ............................................................... 332 Final remarks .............................................................................. 338

VI. Literacy in Everyday Life .......................................................... 341 Speech, writing and reading ..................................................... 342 Forms of reading behaviour ..................................................... 344

Appendix I: Reading Behaviour in Figures ................................... 349Appendix II: Titles of Books Mentioned in the Diaries ............. 355

List of Sources .................................................................................... 381Bibliography ........................................................................................ 387Index .................................................................................................... 415

contents vii

FOREWORD

Dear reader,

Th e subject of this book will strike a familiar note. Aft er all, reading is what you are doing at this very moment. Th e book is about readers like yourself, the diff erence being that they lived in a diff erent time. Th ey lived in an age in which it was customary for authors to address their readers quite directly and very politely in a preface, the aim being to introduce their work to them. Over the centuries, this personal appeal has fallen into disuse, and has been replaced by an introduction written in a more general style. Not wishing to fl y in the face of custom, I shall not burden you with a treatise on the background or intention of this book. Th is preface serves merely to record the fact that this book, for which I alone am responsible, would never have seen the light of day without the help of many other people. You will appreciate that I am immensely grateful to them and wish to express this gratitude here.

Th is book is a translation of my Dutch PhD thesis, defended at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and published by Verloren publish-ing-house in Hilversum in 2004, with the original title of Geletterde levens. Dagelijks lezen en schrijven in de vroegmoderne tijd in Nederland, 1624–1770. Th e translation was made possible by a grant provided by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientifi c Research (NWO). So my thanks are due, in the fi rst place, to the NWO committee that approved this grant. In the second place, I should like to thank Beverley Jackson, who turned my thesis into a wonderfully readable English text. Th anks to her, the text was not just translated but thoroughly edited as well.

I also owe a substantial debt of gratitude to Dr Rudolf Dekker and Dr Arianne Baggerman. As editors of this series, they were pivotal fi gures, along with Professor Michael Mascuch, in helping to bring this book to fruition. Both were also closely involved in the PhD thesis on which it was based. Without Dr Rudolf Dekker, my PhD research project would never have left the starting-blocks, and he gave me the benefi t of his expert guidance from the beginning. Dr Arianne Baggerman was a key mentor and critical reader of the many provisional versions of my manuscript throughout my research.

x foreword

Many more people helped me to complete this project. I should like to reiterate my gratitude to them in publishing this new, translated version of my work: Professor Maria Grever, who supervised my PhD thesis; Marijke Huisman and Irma Th oen, who read and commented on numerous draft versions of the text; and Th ea Gaasbeek and Dennis Schouten for sharing with me their fi ndings on the diaries of Jacoba van Th iel and Jan de Boer.

I want to add a word of thanks for those who helped me with my writing and in other ways. Ton and Corrie Blaak, Martijn Blaak and Denise van ’t Hart, and Herman and Annemieke de Wit all helped to make this book possible. And without Sylvia my work would never have amounted to anything. Th e book is therefore dedicated to her.

Finally, dear reader, a word about the translation. Th e quotations from Dutch sources have been translated into English here without the inclusion of the original text. I decided on this more compact presenta-tion, in the belief that those who are interested in the precise wording will be inclined to look them up in the Dutch text, Geletterde levens or in the source, which is naturally given in the notes.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Title-page of David Beck’s diary. ..................................... 46 (Photo: Th e Hague city archives).

2. Page from David Beck’s diary, July 1624. ...................... 81 (Photo: Th e Hague city archives).

3 a–b. Portraits of Pieter Teding van Berkhout. ....................... 118 (Photos: Portrait Iconography collection).

4. Page from the diary of Pieter Teding van Berkhout with a list of guests received in 1692. ............................. 127 (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).

5. Page from the diary of Pieter Teding van Berkhout with his notes on Mézeray, Histoire de France dépuis Garamond. ........................................................................... 178 (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).

6. Page from Jan de Boer’s diary with a copy of his 1748 tax form. ............................................................................... 192 (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).

7. Title-page of Jan de Boer’s diary. .................................... 197 (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).

8. Printed matter bound into Jan de Boer’s diary. ............ 223 (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).

9. First page of Jacoba van Th iel’s diary. ............................ 273 (Photo: Rotterdam city archives).

10. Page from Jacoba van Th iel’s diary, February 1768. .... 301 (Photo: Rotterdam city archives).

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ARCHIVE NAMES

Full name Abbreviation English name

Bibliotheek van het Boekenvak BvhB Library of the Book TradeArchief Luchtmans AL Luchtmans Archive

Particuliere Grootboeken PG Account BooksFamiliearchief FA Family ArchiveGemeentearchief Delft GA Delft Delft City Archives

Gemeentearchief Zaanstad GA Zaanstad Zaanstad City ArchivesHistorisch Centrum Overijssel Historic Centre of

OverijsselHoge Raad van Adel Dutch College of ArmsKoninklijke Bibliotheek Den Haag

KB National Library of the Netherlands (Th e Hague)

Nationaal Archief NA National ArchivesNoord-Hollands Archief North Holland ArchivesRegionaal Archief Leiden RAL Leiden Regional ArchivesStadsarchief Amsterdam Amsterdam City ArchivesStadsarchief Deventer Deventer City ArchivesStadsarchief ’s-Hertogenbosch ’s-Hertogenbosch City

ArchivesHet Utrechts Archief Utrecht ArchivesUniversiteitsbibliotheek UB University LibraryWestfries Archief West-Frisian ArchivesZeeuws Archief Zeeland Archives

CHAPTER ONE

HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON READING AND WRITING: FROM BOOK OWNERSHIP TO THE USE OF MEDIA

Some time between 1452 and 1454 came that crucial day when the fi rst sheet of paper printed with movable type rolled off the press in the Mainz workshop of Johannes Gutenberg. Th e new technique created unprecedented scope for reproducing texts, scope that was exploited to the fullest extent over subsequent decades. Printing presses rapidly pro-liferated throughout Europe, and the number of printed treatises grew almost visibly from day to day. Th e era of the book had dawned.

No one would dispute the infl uence of the printing press on the course of early modern history, but opinions diff er as to the precise consequences. Generations of historians saw the printing press as the driving force behind many, if not all, historical developments. Without the press no humanism, no Reformation, no scientifi c or democratic revolutions: in short, modern society itself would have been impossible.1 Nowadays, historians adopt a more nuanced view, pointing out that the eff ects of printing arose from its human applications rather than being a logical consequence of the process itself.2 At the same time, attention has widened to include other media in the early modern era, since historians now increasingly believe that the advent of books can be better understood as a change in the media system of pre-industrial society.3 Viewed from this perspective, the history of books is one aspect of the long-term development towards a literate society. Th e produc-tion of texts was already increasing in the late Middle Ages, and the

1 E.g. Elizabeth Eisenstein, Th e Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 71–159.

2 Adrian Johns, Th e Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

3 Werner Faulstich, Medien zwischen Herrschaft und Revolte. Die Medienkultur der frühen Neuzeit (1400–1700) (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997); Asa Briggs and Peter Burke, A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002), chapter 2.

2 chapter one

printing press continued this trend.4 Texts became a major vehicle for communication and information for growing numbers of people in more and more areas of society, and handwritten texts were at least as important here, if not more so, than printed ones.5 But for all their growing prominence, texts did not supersede images or the spoken word. Th ese other media remained important, on the one hand altered by printed texts and manuscripts and on the other hand infl uencing them, producing new mixed media.6

Historians have always taken an interest in media. Besides numer-ous studies on printed books, manuscripts and paintings, research has been published on communication through spectacle and the conveying of messages through ostentatious display. But historians have largely concerned themselves with the media themselves and the institutions involved in their origins, particularly where the history of books is concerned. Under the infl uence of anthropological and literary theo-ries, cultural historians have developed a new concept of culture over the past thirty years, in which the emphasis is on human action. Th is means that the value of a cultural product is no longer inferred solely from the product itself, but also takes into account the diverse mean-ings that people ascribe to it.7 So cultural history (including the history

4 Uwe Neddermeyer, Von der Handschrift zum gedruckten Buch. Schrift lichkeit und Leseinteresse im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit. Quantitative und qualitative Aspekte 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), vol. 1, pp. 315–319, 453–457. On the production of printed texts in the Netherlands in the period 1450–1550, see Peter M.H. Cuijpers, Teksten als koopwaar: vroege drukkers verkennen de markt. Een kwantitatieve analyse van de productie van Nederlandstalige boeken (tot circa 1550) en de “lezershulp” in de seculiere prozateksten (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1998), pp. 61–99. See also Peter Readts, ‘Tussen oud en modern. De periodisering van de Middeleeuwen’, in Maria Grever and Harry Jansen (eds.), De ongrijpbare tijd. Temporaliteit en constructie van het verleden (Hilversum: Verloren, 2001), pp. 49–64.

5 Han Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven in de provincie. De boeken van de Zwolse boekverkopers 1777–1849 (Leiden: Primavera Pers, 1995), pp. 295–300; Henri-Jean Martin, Th e History and Power of Writing translated from the French by L.G. Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 285–293.

6 Gerard Rooijakkers, ‘Beeldlore tussen oraliteit en verschrift elijking. Een culturele drieëenheid in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden’, in T. Bijvoet et al. (eds.), Bladeren in andermans hoofd: over lezers en leescultuur (Nijmegen: SUN, 1996), pp. 126–163; esp. pp. 138–143.

7 For a general discussion of culture as interpretation, see Willem Frijhoff , ‘Inleiding: historische antropologie’, in P. te Boekhorst et al. (eds.), Cultuur en maatschappij in Nederland 1500–1850. Een historisch-antropologisch perspectief (Meppel: Boom, 1992), pp. 11–38, and C. Strupp on Frijhoff in ‘Der lange Schatten Johan Huizingas. Neue Ansätze der Kulturgeschichtsschreibung in den Niederländen’, in Geschichte und Gesellschaft 23 (1997), pp. 44–69.

historical research on reading and writing 3

of the media culture) is just as much about the use of objects as it is about their production and distribution.

Th is book is about literacy in the early modern Netherlands. It explores the everyday uses of the printed and written word. What did people read and write in everyday life? How and why did they do so? Th e following pages set out to answer these questions. To gain a bet-ter insight into the characteristic features of communication through the printed and written word, attention will also be paid to verbal communication. Th e text will set out to discover the kind of topics that people discussed verbally, to explore whether they diff ered from those dealt with in writing, and whether such discussions infl uenced reading and writing.

People’s responses to historical events rarely leave a visible trail. Th e existence of sources recording such responses fi rst emerged when historians started taking an interest in everyday life in the past and the conceptual world and surroundings of ordinary people. Th ey found answers to their questions in texts in which people described their own lives, that is to say in ‘egodocuments’ such as autobiographies, diaries, memoirs or letters.8 Egodocuments also turned out to contain a wealth of information on the everyday use of the printed word, as will become clear later in this chapter. Th is means that they help us to describe the perspective of the ‘media user’, and this study of everyday reading and writing will therefore focus primarily on diaries, as one specifi c variant of these sources.

Th e choice of early modern diaries, that is to say, daily records kept with a certain degree of regularity, sets certain bounds to this study. Egodocuments are unique sources when it comes to personal experi-ence, but they are self-evidently confi ned to the experience of people who were able to write. Although the level of literacy in the Holland of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not low, large sections of society were unable to write or lacked the money, time or physical space required to make notes on a daily basis. More to the point here is that diaries are testimonials left to us by readers, since reading was taught

8 Rudolf Dekker, ‘De erfenis van Jacques Presser. Waardering en gebruik van egodocumenten in de geschiedwetenschap’, in Christien Brinkgreve et al. (eds.), Levensverhalen, special issue of Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift (Amsterdam 2002), pp. 19–37; esp. pp. 26–30. Idem, ‘Jacques Presser’s Heritage: Egodocuments in the Study of History’, in Memoria y Civilización 5 (2002), pp. 13–37.

4 chapter one

before writing in early modern times. Th ere is a real need for histori-cal research on reading and readers, and that is why it was decided to focus here on diaries that are most revealing about reading behaviour: that is, those in which the writer includes a relatively large number of comments on the books that he or she has been reading.

In order to place this reading behaviour in the context of the use of media in general, I opted here for an in-depth analysis rather than a wide-ranging survey, focusing on just four diaries from diff erent periods of the early modern age: the journal of the Hague schoolmaster David Beck (1594–1634) from 1624, the notes kept by the Delft aristocrat Pieter Teding van Berkhout (1643–1713) on his everyday activities in the years 1669 to 1713, the ‘Chronologische historie’ of the Amsterdam clerk Jan de Boer (1694–1764) dating from the period 1747–1756 and the spiritual diary kept by Jacoba van Th iel (1742–1800) between 1767 and 1770 while she was staying with her sister and brother-in-law in Overschie. Th ese four diaries have not gone unnoticed; a number of historians have used these sources and drawn attention to their value for research on the history of reading. However, the relationships of these four diarists to the printed and the written word have never before been described in detail.

Previous research on the historical reader, as will be shown in the rest of this chapter, has been based on the assumption that people gradually read more and more varied material in the course of the eighteenth century. Th is assumption will be examined in the analysis of the four diarists’ reading behaviour. We shall look at how varied their reading culture was, and whether the diaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries diff ered in this respect. Historical research on reading has also led to the conclusion that people’s relationships with books should be studied as part of media history, but this project has not previously been translated into an empirical study in the Netherlands. Th e book that lies before you is an initial attempt in this direction. Several questions present themselves. What does this perspective yield? Do written and printed sources cover diff erent areas of life, or do they overlap? Did the use of certain media infl uence others? And what was the infl uence of the spoken word? A close look at four early modern Dutch diaries will shed light on these and other questions.


Th e history of reading

Th is study is rooted in the specifi c research fi eld of ‘reading history’, a subject that has attracted growing interest since the 1980s. It was recent changes in the media landscape that fi rst inspired research on the historical development of reading. For now that television and internet have become the dominant media, reading is taken for granted far less than a few decades ago. Still, whether people do in fact read less today than their parents or grandparents is still open to question. In any case, it is generally believed that the mass media have changed the place of reading in society, which suggests that reading may not have been a wholly constant factor in history either. Several cultural historians have written on the nature of this change. Is the book culture truly on the way out, as Neil Postman has asserted?9 Or will reading endure, as James O’Donnell has said, with internet serving merely to expand the scope for communication?10 It has also been suggested that the electronic media are not new in any qualitative sense, and that reading from a computer screen is not so very diff erent from reading a Roman scroll.11 All in all, the media revolution has provided a major impetus for research on the infl uence of spoken, printed and written texts in the past, including the historiography of reading.

Changing ideas on the nature of text and the relationship between language and reality have also boosted interest in the history of read-ing. Traditional literary criticism tended to link the signifi cance of a text with its author. To understand a text, you needed to establish the author’s intention. Th is view of literature came under fi re from the 1960s onwards, with critics such as Roland Barthes developing new concepts of text under the infl uence of linguistic theories. Th e new assumption was that texts, like language itself, do not refer directly to an objective reality. In this view, words take on signifi cance in relation to other words, so that the text constructs a relative reality of its own. Th e author is simply an instrument for combining signs in accordance with existing linguistic codes. Since signs such as words, sentences or

9 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Viking, 1985).

10 James J. O’Donnell, Avatars of the World: From Papyrus to Cyberspace (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998).

11 Neil Rhodes and Jonathan Sawday (eds.), Th e Renaissance Computer: Knowledge Technology in the First Age of Print (London: Routledge, 2000).

6 chapter one

longer passages refer to one another, a text does not have a monolithic or objective meaning. Th e constant intertextual allusions provide scope for a multiplicity of interpretations. Th e meaning of a text depends on the reader, whose interpretation will be determined by his own back-ground as well as by the text itself. Th is theory made the reader into an important analytical concept in literary studies. Instead of analysing texts to ascertain the author’s intention, scholars scrutinised them to identify the range of meanings they might have for the reader.12

Although theorists pursued diverse paths, ranging from semiotics to psychoanalysis, the text itself generally remained their central concern. Th eir theoretical ideas were based on textual analysis, not on reader research.13 Th e problematisation of the signifi cance of texts also made itself felt in the fi elds of history and literary history, where researchers abandoned the idea that literature had a purely suprahistorical meaning that was inscribed in the text. Interest gravitated to questions of context, for instance the social environment in which a text was written and the way in which literature, like non-literary texts, represents the historical and political reality of which this representation is part.14 Th is focus on context also led to a re-evaluation of the reader and recognition of his

12 Roland Barthes, ‘Th e Death of the Author’, in David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery, Th e Book History Reader (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 221–224. On Barthes’s literary theory and its linguistic and philosophical roots, see Michael Moriarty, Roland Barthes (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991). On the infl uence of postmodern phi-losophy on research on the history of reading, see Kevin Sharpe, Reading Revolutions: Th e Politics of Reading in Early Modern England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 11–27; Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier, ‘Introduction’, in idem (eds.), A History of Reading in the West translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999), pp. 1–36; esp. pp. 1–2; Roger Chartier, Cultural History: Between Practices and Representations translated from the French by Lydia G. Cochrane (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988).

13 For a critical review of diverse literary theories, see Elizabeth Freund, Th e Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism (London: Methuen, 1987). See also the intro-duction to the subject by A. Bennet (ed.), Readers and Reading (London: Longman, 1995).

14 W. van den Berg, ‘Literatuurgeschiedenis en cultuurgeschiedenis’, in Spektator 16 (1986–7), pp. 29–40. ‘New Historicism’ is the school of literary criticism in which representation occupies centre stage; see e.g. Gabrielle M. Spiegel, ‘History, Historicism, and the Social Logic of the Text in the Middle Ages’, in Speculum 65 (1990), pp. 59–86; esp. pp. 59–72 on the epistemological roots of the method and the more or less comparable development from text to context in cultural history; Jürgen Pieters, ‘New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography between Narrativism and Heterology’, in History and Th eory 39 (2000), pp. 21–38; and Jan R. Veenstra, ‘Th e New Historicism of Stephen Greenblatt: On Poetics of Culture and the Interpretation of Shakespeare’, in History and Th eory 34 (1995), pp. 174–198, on the historiographical theory and implications of New Historicism.


role in the creation of meaning. Aft er all, books do not exist without readers, and historical readers may well have approached their books in a totally diff erent way than researchers might assume.

Th e above trends provide the framework for this study. If reading can no longer be regarded as a self-explanatory activity, the question arises of how it worked in the past. How did readers behave in rela-tion to their books? A review of the literature focusing on this central question is given in the following pages.

Th e history of reading as a research fi eld

With the shift of focus from text to context, book history becomes a fi eld in which numerous research traditions come together. Th e social and cultural history of communication through the printed word, seek-ing to understand how ideas are disseminated by books and how this printed medium has infl uenced people’s thoughts and actions, as Robert Darnton has defi ned the history of books, is a pre-eminently multidis-ciplinary fi eld.15 In Darnton’s model, reading is construed as the fi nal phase in the process of the production, distribution and consumption of books. So studying the history of reading means to explore a range of questions: who read what, in what context, in what period of time, and with what consequences?16

Th e research model of the French book historian Roger Chartier contains similar elements, but his emphasis is on interpretation. He frequently quotes the philosopher Michel de Certeau’s defi nition of ‘reading as poaching’ – that is, poaching on the territory of the writer. Whatever intention an author may have had with his text, the reader is a nomad who will go his own way. However, he is constrained by certain boundaries. Chartier describes the process of interpretation in terms of freedoms and restrictions. Eff orts are made on various sides to restrict a reader’s free interpretation of a text. Church or secular

15 Robert Darnton, ‘What is the History of Books?’, in idem, Th e Kiss of Lamourette: Refl ections in Cultural History (London: Faber & Faber, 1990), pp. 107–135; esp. p. 107.

16 Ibid., p. 134. Or ‘Who read what, where, when, how and why?’ See Robert Darnton, ‘History of Reading’, in P. Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), pp. 140–167; esp. p. 142; Paul Hoft ijzer, ‘Leesonderzoek in Nederland over de periode 1700–1850. Een stand van onderzoek’, in T. Bijvoet et al. (eds.), Bladeren in andermans hoofd, pp. 164–182.

8 chapter one

leaders exercise control (with varying degrees of success) on the books that are accessible to a reader. A publisher’s acceptance or rejection of a manuscript helps to defi ne the limits of what people can read. Th e way in which a book is published – its size, design, illustrations and so forth – may impose a certain kind of reading. And the text itself constrains the reader’s liberty. Authors always attempt to guide the reader through their text. Th e history of reading, as Chartier asserts in the survey of reading history edited by Guglielmo Cavallo and himself, is about the dividing-line between the readers or interpretations envis-aged in a particular text, and the diverse readership that actually reads the text in the course of time.17

Th e models proposed by Darnton and Chartier both off er numer-ous vantage-points for studies of the history of reading. Th e diverse approaches and the sources appropriate to them, as well as the limi-tations of these sources, have been discussed in a number of survey articles.18 Research on the extent of production, and on the type and content of the books that appeared on the market in the course of time, shows what was read in diff erent periods of history. If this research includes the size and number of editions, it can provide an indication as to the readership. Studies of the form in which a text appeared, or the font in which it was printed, may shed light on the kind of reader-ship that the author or publisher had in mind, and may clarify the way

17 Cavallo and Chartier (eds.), History of Reading, pp. 34–35. See also Roger Chartier, Th e Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France translated from the French by L.G. Cochrane (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987); idem, Forms and Meanings: Texts, Performances, and Audiences from Codex to Computer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995); idem, ‘Reading Matter and “Popular” Reading: From the Renaissance to the Seventeenth Century’, in Cavallo and Chartier (eds.), History of Reading, pp. 269–283. On Chartier see also Han Brouwer, ‘De liefde voor alle boeken. De boekgeschiedenis volgens Roger Chartier’, in De Boekenwereld 9 (1992–93), pp. 141–146.

18 Darnton, ‘History of Reading’; Han Brouwer, ‘Rondom het boek. Historisch onderzoek naar leescultuur, in het bijzonder in de achttiende eeuw. Een overzicht van bronnen, benaderingen, resultaten en problemen’, in Documentatieblad Werkgroep Achttiende Eeuw 20 (1988), pp. 51–120; idem, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 22–38; Roger Chartier (ed.), Histoire de la lecture. Un bilan des recherches (Paris: IMEC Éditions, 1995); James Raven, ‘New Reading Histories, Print Culture and Identifi cation of Change: Th e Case of Eighteenth-Century England’, in Social History 23 (1998), pp. 268–287; Berry Dongelmans and Boudien de Vries, ‘Reading, Class and Gender: Th e Sources for Research on Nineteenth-Century Readers in the Netherlands,’ in Siegener Perdiodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft 19 (2000), pp. 56–88.


(or changing ways) in which the text was interpreted.19 Research on various aspects of the book sector can also generate useful information for reading history. It can not only help to identify the readership that publishers were trying to reach, but also show how books were dissemi-nated and marketed in a particular region.20 As far as readership size is concerned, research on literacy can help to identify potential groups of readers, on the basis of factors such as writing skills and available schooling.21 Booksellers’ records, probate inventories, the catalogues of private libraries, marginal notes in books, descriptions in letters or diaries, and libraries’ lending records can all be used to trace readers. In addition, contemporary readers frequently expressed their views and prejudices concerning their reading through diverse vehicles, ranging from novels to paintings.22

All this means that a substantial bibliography now exists of the diverse aspects of reading, in which we may draw a rough distinction between studies of reading and studies of historical readers. Trends in book production and distribution, literacy and prevailing views outline a possible history of reading, but strictly speaking do not provide a picture

19 D.F. McKenzie, ‘Typography and Meaning: Th e Case of William Congreve,’ in G. Barker and B. Fabia (eds.), Th e Book and the Book Trade in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Hamburg: Hauswedell, 1981), pp. 81–125. McKenzie’s theory greatly infl uenced Chartier’s model of reading. Empirically, Chartier’s research focused on the relationship between form and the kind of readership, for instance in Form and Meanings. Peter Lindenbaum provides an example of the shift ing meanings of a text, as can be inferred from the form in which it was published, ‘Sidney’s Arcadia as Cultural Monument and Proto-Novel’, in C.C. Brown and A.F. Marotti (eds.), Texts and Cultural Change in Early Modern England (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), pp. 80–94.

20 On reaching potential buyers, see Cuijpers, Teksten als koopwaar. On book distri-bution, see Hannie van Goinga, Alom te bekomen. Veranderingen in de boekdistributie in de Republiek 1720–1800 (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1999).

21 On literacy, see R.A. Houston, Literacy in Eary Modern Europe: Culture and Education 1500–1800 (London, New York: Longman 1988); for a critical analysis of research on literacy, see Erica Kuijpers, ‘Lezen en schrijven. Onderzoek naar het alfabetiseringsniveau in zeventiende-eeuws Amsterdam’, in Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis, 23 (1997), pp. 490–522; on the infl uence of schooling on modes of reading, see Eugene R. Kintgen, Reading in Tudor England (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996).

22 On images of readers, see Fritz Nies, Bahn und Bett und Blutenduft . Eine Reise durch die Welt der Leserbilde (Darmstadt: Wissenschaft liche Buchgesellschaft , 1991); Fritz Nies and Mona Wodsak, Ikonographisches Repertorium zur Europäischen Lesegeschichte (Munich: Saur, 2000). On readers in novels, see e.g. Jan Herman and Paul Pelckmans (eds.), l’Épreuve du lecteur. Livres et lectures dans le roman d’Ancien Régime. Actes du VIIIe colloque de la Société d’analyse de la topique romanesque – Louvain-Anvers, 19–21 mai 1994 (Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 1995).

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of the history of readers; researching book ownership or book sales, for instance, will be more illuminating in that regard. Th e present study is emphatically concerned with the reader, and it will look at what some of these specifi c historical readers wrote down about their association with books: what and where, when, how and why did they read?

In the reader research mentioned above, we may distinguish two diff erent methodologies. Th e fi rst, which may be defi ned as research on the reading public, seeks to chart readership sizes and the reading preferences of specifi c groups. Studies of this kind answer the question of who read what, for instance by fi nding out whether certain book genres were read by specifi c social groups. In this approach, the empha-sis is on socioeconomic aspects of the history of books, an emphasis underscored by the use of terms such as production, distribution and consumption. In this light, researchers opt for quantitative methods and search for sources that make it possible to gain a picture of large groups of people over relatively long periods of time.

Th e second type of historical research on reading focuses on reading behaviour; it studies the way books were used. Th e key questions here are the how, where, when and why of reading, questions seeking to describe the interaction between book and reader. In studies of read-ing behaviour, the book is seen as a cultural rather than an economic product, which shift s attention away from groups of consumers to the diverse meanings that books may have had for diff erent people. Th e process of interpretation is diffi cult to translate into fi gures, and sources describing the reading behaviour of large groups of people are few and far between; research on reading behaviour therefore tends to rely on a qualitative method. Th e rest of this chapter will discuss examples of both types of research, on the reading public and on reading behaviour, and will illuminate the choice of the qualitative method for the present study. First, however, a diff erent choice will be clarifi ed: the decision to consider reading here in its relationship to speaking and writing.

A diff erent perspective: Reading within the framework of media history

Th e research fi eld of reading history has become more clearly defi ned over the years, but recent studies have concluded that the subject has been looked at too narrowly. Aft er all, books were not the only medium that infl uenced people’s worlds. Several historians have spoken out against studying attitudes to books in isolation.


In his introduction to the collection of articles Bladeren in ander-mans hoofd (‘Leafi ng through someone else’s head’), the Dutch book historian Han Brouwer describes two approaches to reading history. On the one hand, studies of reading history are part of research into the book business; the readership is studied as the fi nal link in the chain that books pass through, from producer through a distributor to consumers. Alternatively, reading history can be seen as part of communication history: from this vantage point, a book is one of the many information channels used to transmit knowledge, moral values and codes of conduct. But such information was also passed on verbally and in handwritten texts.23

According to Brouwer, research into the history of reading is best conducted using the second of these approaches. In his view, construing reading as part of the history of communication yields certain meaning-ful changes of perspective. In the fi rst place, it dispels the notion of the book as an autonomous medium. On the contrary, books are regarded as elements of a far wider-ranging history of written communication. So research on readers becomes research on persons who were able to read. Th is vantage point produces a far larger ‘reading public’ than research on book readers. Customer books may reveal that only ten per cent of the population read books, but that is not to say that the rest of the population was illiterate. Th e book culture is surrounded, writes Brouwer, by a broad reading culture of handwritten texts. People read and wrote letters, made notes in housekeeping books or drew up shopping lists. Written communication was essential at every level of government, and contacts between burghers and those who governed them were frequently conducted in writing, for instance through peti-tions or forms. Th en there were written notices in the public space, outside buildings for instance, or on the signboards of shops and workshops.24

23 Han Brouwer, ‘Een min of meer onweerstaanbare passie voor boeken. Een inleiding’, in T. Bijvoet et al. (eds), Bladeren in andermans hoofd, pp. 9–24; esp. pp. 23–24.

24 We get an idea of the presence of written texts in the public space, for instance, from the author of the handwritten Korte Chronyck oft e beschrijving van Haarlem, whose manuscript refers to all kinds of ‘inscriptions on awnings, windows, and signboards’. For instance, he read the following words above the door of a Haarlem mustard-merchant: ‘Th ere are few in the town whose noses I have not beguiled. Fresh Mustard.’ (‘Daar sijn er weijnig in de stadt, of ik hebse bij de neus gehadt. Verse Mostert.’) Noord-Hollands Archief, ms. 140, fol. 127v. Th e author of the Chronyck may have been inspired by the printed collection of Hieronymus Sweerts, Koddige en ernstige opschrift en, op luyff ens, wagens, glazen, uythangborden, en andere taferelen.

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In the second place, an approach embedded in communication his-tory highlights the diff erent ways in which people interacted with the printed word. Th ere are several degrees of literacy. People who could cope perfectly well with a pamphlet printed in Gothic script were not necessarily capable of reading a voluminous novel. So there were dif-ferent reading publics, which may be distinguished by reading skill, reading behaviour and genre preference. Th ere were people whose reading culture was limited to listening to texts being recited, others with an everyday reading culture extending to almanacs and self-help books, there was a reading public for the printed news in newspapers and pamphlets, and there were people who took an interest in the book culture of novels, travel journals and historical works.25 Chartier too advocates studying the reading culture from a broad perspective. Most people’s contact with the printed word was not in books but in pam-phlets or posters, say, or from listening to texts being recited.26 Marika Keblusek concludes her study of the book culture in Th e Hague with a similar recommendation. In her view, the signifi cance of printed texts can only be understood in conjunction with other media.27

In the third place, when looked at as an element of communication history, reading provides an opportunity to highlight the distinctive features of books in relation to other forms of communication, such as the spoken word. It is in the interaction between verbal, written and printed communication that the role of books and of literacy in general is expressed most clearly. Adam Fox illustrates this, for instance, in his discussion of the way in which the news was disseminated in seven-teenth-century England. Th e news spread fi rst and foremost through the spoken word. But conversations were also frequently infl uenced by what people had read in print or in handwriting.28 Th e printed word was long seen as the single most important factor in the success of the Reformation, but Heijting points out that written texts and discussions

Van langerhand by een gezamelt en uytgeschreven door een liefh ebber derzelve 4 vols. (Amsterdam: Jeroen Jeroense, 1683–1690).

25 Brouwer, ‘Een min of meer onweerstaanbare passie’. See also idem, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 300–302.

26 Chartier, Cultural Uses of Print, p. 159.27 Marika Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad. Haagse boekcultuur in de Gouden Eeuw

(Hilversum: Verloren 1997), p. 311.28 Adam Fox, ‘Rumour, News and Popular Political Opinion in Elizabethan and

Early Stuart England’, in Th e Histori cal Journal 40 (1997), pp. 597–620.


were just as important in spreading the ideas of the Reformed Church. Judicial records of the interrogation of Mennonites reveal that the new faith was spread not so much through books as through discussions, though these were sometimes prompted by a book.29

Th e history of the media is not a new discipline, but until recently it was mainly concerned with the modern mass media and focused pri-marily on production or the institutional side. Th e past few years have witnessed several attempts to produce a history of the media reaching back further in time, such as the survey produced by Asa Briggs and Peter Burke. In the course of early modern history, the printed book acquired an important position in more and more areas, but it did so in conjunction with other media. Th ere was a physical side to the media system: communication in early modern times required time and space. Verbal and written exchanges of information remained important and acquired new applications. Two common forms of expression were images and ritual; the latter can be interpreted as a multi-media event. Th ere were other links between media, such as books with rules for conversation or writing letters. It is in this interaction between media that books acquired their signifi cance.30

Th e history of media grew out of communication studies, a disci-pline fi rst developed in the United States in the 1940s.31 A distinction is drawn between empirical communication studies and a critical or semiotic approach. Th e latter focuses mainly on questions of ownership and control of the media and the critical analysis of the messages they transmit, and has provided much of the context for the development of the theories on texts and signifi cance described earlier in this chapter. Empirical studies seek mainly to describe media in operation, paying particular attention to the eff ects of communication. One well-known model for research of this kind was formulated by the American politi-cal scientist Harold Lasswell, who described communication research as the study of ‘who says what to whom in which channel with what eff ect’. Both approaches are used in historiography, but Lasswell’s model

29 W. Heijting, ‘ “Ziet daer staedt ghescreven ende ’t es zo”. Het boek en de over-dracht van ideeën bij de eerste Nederlandse evangelisch gezinden’, in M. Bruggeman et al. (eds.), Mensen van de Nieuwe Tijd. Een liber amicorum voor A. Th . van Deursen (Amsterdam: Bakker, 1996), pp. 14–28.

30 Briggs and Burke, Social History of the Media, pp. 23–73.31 On media studies, see Everett M. Rogers, A History of Communication Study: A

Biographical Approach (New York: Maxwell Macmillan, 1994).

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appears to be favoured by historians.32 Its appeal may well be that this model does not accord precedence to any specifi c medium, and that it provides an opportunity to classify many aspects of communication history. A possible disadvantage is the risk of over-abundance, since it can include subjects as diverse as novels and transport networks.

Clearly, then, people’s relationship with printed books can be better understood in the context of the use of media in general. Th e present study will look at two other media besides books: handwritten texts and conversations. Little research has been conducted to date on everyday practices of writing and talking.

Sources for communication history are not available in comparable numbers for every medium. Written and pictorial cultures leave records. For the culture of writing, a vast bibliography exists, including numer-ous studies on literacy levels and many others on the consequences of literacy for the conceptual world of human beings. What is lacking is research into people’s everyday use of writing.33 Th e case studies chosen for this book will revolve precisely around these everyday practices, focusing on the content of four diaries.

As for the spoken word, scarcely anything has been preserved prior to the invention of the tape recorder. Notable exceptions include the conversations recorded by police spies in eighteenth-century Parisian taverns and the reports of undercover agents who eavesdropped on workers in the bars of nineteenth-century Hamburg.34 Historians have also found traces of verbal exchanges in the records of legal proceed-ings.35 Occasionally someone’s words were written down as he spoke them, as faithful followers of the German religious reformer Martin

32 Briggs and Burke, Social History of the Media, p. 5; Werner Rösener (ed.), Kommunikation in der ländlichen Gesellschaft vom Mittelalter bis zur Moderne (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000), p. 9; Marco Mostert, ‘New Approaches to Medieval Communication?’, in idem (ed.), New Approaches to Medieval Communication (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 15–34; esp. pp. 20–21.

33 Peter Burke, ‘Th e Uses of Literacy in Early Modern Italy’, in Peter Burke and Roy Porter (eds.), Th e Social History of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 21–42; esp. p. 21. Kuijpers, ‘Lezen en schrijven’, pp. 521–22.

34 Robert Darnton, ‘An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris’, in Th e American Historical Review 105 (2000), pp. 1–35; Richard J. Evans (ed.), Kneipengespräche im Kaiserreich. Stimmungsberichte der Hamburger Politischen Polizei 1892–1914 (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1989).

35 Fox, ‘Rumour’.


Luther did with their leader’s ‘table conversations’.36 For the rest, histo-rians largely rely on written rules for speech, such as the conversational rules laid down in etiquette books.37 Surprisingly little use has been made of diaries up to now, although these may be expected to yield a wealth of information about everyday conversation. Th e present study will explore what may be learned from diaries concerning the use of the spoken word as an information channel in relation to written and printed texts. It will examine questions such as the extent to which people discussed the subjects they read about, whether the spoken word fulfi lled the same functions as reading and writing, and how the diff erent media infl uenced each other.

Research on historical readers

Th is study builds on past research on the history of reading. Let us look briefl y at the results of this research. Th e historiography of read-ing has been primarily quantitative to date and has tended to focus on the eighteenth century, since historians have concluded that an important change took place in that century. Th is change has been called the Leserevolution or ‘reading revolution’, a term coined by the German historian Rolf Engelsing.38 While the French middle classes shook off the straitjacket imposed by nobles and Church authorities by launching a political revolution, and the British did so through economic action, Germany’s burghers achieved liberation, according to Engelsing, by surpassing the nobility in Bildung, by reading more and diff erently, and by consuming a greater diversity of texts.39 Well into the eighteenth century, writes Engelsing, book production fi gures were low and only modest-sized editions were produced of most books. Th e only books printed in large numbers were religious ones such as the Bible, the catechism, hymnals and devotional literature. Since the only

36 Rudolf Dekker, Lachen in de Gouden Eeuw. Een geschiedenis van de Nederlandse humor (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek, 1997), p. 30 [Humour in Dutch Culture of the Golden Age translated from the Dutch (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001)].

37 Peter Burke, Th e Art of Conversation (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993).38 Rolf Engelsing, ‘Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte in der Neuzeit’, in idem, Zur

Socialgeschichte deutscher Mittel- und Unterschichten (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973), pp. 113–154; esp. p. 139; idem, Der Bürger als Leser. Lesergeschichte in Deutschland 1500–1800 (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1974).

39 Engelsing, ‘Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte’, pp. 117, 139–140.

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way of acquiring literature was by purchasing it in the local bookshop, most readers were confi ned to cheap and easily accessible reading mat-ter. As a result, people’s reading was limited to a handful of religious books that they read and re-read again and again, a mode of reading that Engelsing defi nes as ‘intensive’, and which endured into the eight-eenth century. Th e best-documented example of intensive reading is the custom of countless re-readings of the bible.40 In addition, reading was conservative, in that it sought to confi rm readers’ existing religious world view, or, as Engelsing writes, ‘to remind them of what was in any case certainly true’.41

Christian doctrine lost its hegemony in the eighteenth century, mak-ing way for a world view in which human reason was paramount. In Engelsing’s view, the Enlightenment dealt a fatal blow to the authority of the book, in the sense that it undermined the categorical legitimacy of statements about the truth based on biblical or classical quotations. Th is loss of authority led readers to abandon the traditional Christian canon in favour of periodicals, biographies and works of literature such as poems and novels.42 Th is change in mentality occurred fi rst among the academic élite, who then spread the enlightened ideas through learned societies and educational institutions. Reading was boosted in particular by the advent of lending libraries, from which people could borrow books for a small fee, and reading clubs, which purchased books collectively and circulated them. Th rough these institutions, books also permeated to non-academics, so that ‘extensive reading’ as Engelsing calls it, spread among a large section of the population.43 People started to read more, and swapped their old standard diet of a handful of reli-gious texts for a constant infl ux of new books. Th ey now read far faster and more superfi cially, besides which they read each book only once.44 While intensive reading had fostered a shared world view, extensive reading catered for the personal taste of individual readers.45

Although Engelsing appears to suggest that extensive reading was largely confi ned to the upper middle classes, he is not entirely clear on this point. For he points out that there was a sharp increase in the

40 Ibid., p. 127.41 Orig. ‘um sich das zu erinnern, was ohnedies sicher war.’ Engelsing, Der Bürger

als Leser, p. 182.42 Engelsing, ‘Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte’, pp. 136–138.43 Ibid., p. 139.44 Ibid., pp. 142–143.45 Engelsing, Bürger als Leser, p. 201.


number of people who could read and write in the eighteenth century, and that the new reading public may not have been characterised by any specifi c social background.46 In any case, many eighteenth-century authors perceived an enormous growth of the reading public in their day and expressed concern about the consequences of the new trend of the quick and superfi cial reading of insignifi cant novels that was becoming endemic.47

In simplifi ed form, the concept of a reading revolution has been incorporated into a great deal of research into book history, since it enables researchers to forge links between known trends in production, distribution and consumption.48 It provides a framework for studying the growth and diversifi cation in numbers of titles, the rise of bourgeois genres such as the magazine and the novel, the development of selling on commission, the advent of libraries and reading clubs, the increase in literacy levels, the emancipation of the middle classes and the gen-esis of modern public opinion as parts of a single picture, furnishing a rhetorically appealing narrative as a context for empirical data.49 Th is explains why so many book historians have taken the theory of the reading revolution as the point of departure for their research.50

But since this book is about Dutch readers, it makes sense to explore the question of whether any reading revolution actually took place in the Netherlands. As far as the production of books is concerned – growth and diversifi cation – the theory seems to be tenable. It is generally

46 In a postscript to Der Bürger, Engelsing writes that extensive reading was confi ned to the upper middle classes of academics and merchants. But while he also appears to be referring to these groups in ‘Die Perioden’, he also mentions growing literacy among the population at large, including domestic servants. On the problematic concept of the middle classes or ‘burghers’ in Engelsing, see Joost Kloek, ‘Reconsidering the Reading Revolution: Th e Th esis of the “Reading Revolution” and a Dutch Bookseller’s Clientele Around 1800’, in Poetics 26 (1999), pp. 289–307; esp. p. 293.

47 Engelsing, ‘Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte’, pp. 144–145.48 Darnton, ‘History of Reading’, p. 148.49 Kloek, ‘Reconsidering’, pp. 293, 305.50 See e.g. Robert de Maria, ‘Samuel Johnson and the Reading Revolution’, in

Eighteenth-Century Life (1992), pp. 86–102; Roger Chartier, “Een leesrevolutie?’ Afzetmarkten van het boek en leesgedrag in Frankrijk in de achttiende eeuw’, in Th eo Bijvoet et al. (eds.), Bladeren in andermans hoofd, pp. 182–207. Similar conclusions are reached in Chartier, ‘Books, Markets and Reading in France at the End of the Old Regime’, in Carol Armbruster (ed.), Publishing and Readership in Revolutionary France and America (Westport-London: Greenwood Press, 1993), pp. 119–136; Stephen Colclough, ‘Recording the Revolution: An Introduction to the Reading Experience Database’, in Siegener Perdiodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft 19 (2000), pp. 36–55.

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accepted that this production in the eighteenth century was roughly twice what it had been in the century before, although this assumption is still based on data published by the book historian A.C. Kruseman in 1893 and is therefore not unassailable.51 On the nature of the sup-ply even less is known, but the reasonably well-documented decline in the eighteenth century of texts published in Latin and French, two prominent sectors in the internationally-oriented Dutch book trade, may point to an infl ux of new readers from non-élite circles. Th ese readers may also have been the consumers of the new genres that appeared on the market in the eighteenth century, such as magazines, treatises on popular science, children’s books and novels dealing with ethical issues. Th e distribution of books too contains elements sugges-tive of an expanding reading public and changes in reading behaviour. Reading clubs and lending libraries were formed in several cities in the eighteenth century, although not in very large numbers. Of greater signifi cance, perhaps, were organisational changes in the book trade, including new methods that accelerated the distribution of new titles and a huge increase in advertising.52 But it is interesting to see whether information is available about readers, which would corroborate the hypothesis of revolutionary change.

Th e Dutch literary scholar Joost Kloek and the historian Wijnand Mijnhardt looked for such information in the customer records kept by the Middelburg bookseller Salomon van Benthem in the early nineteenth century. Although there were many hundreds of bookshops in the early modern United Provinces, very little is known about their sales. Since it was customary to purchase books on account, many booksellers must have kept detailed records, but very few of these accounts have survived. Th e value of these sources was discovered in the mid-1980s, when the fi rst historical studies of reading were conducted in the Netherlands.

51 A.C. Kruseman, Aanteekeningen betreff ende den boekhandel van Noord Nederland in de 17e en 18e eeuw (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1893), pp. 192–193; Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 22–27; Arianne Baggerman, Een lot uit de loterij. Familiebelangen en uitgeverspolitiek in de Dordtse frima A. Blussé en Zoon, 1745–1823 (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 2000), pp. 71–75.

52 Baggerman, Een lot, pp. 75–94; Goinga, Alom te bekomen; idem, ‘Lotteries for Books in the Dutch Republic in the Late 18th Century: A New Method of Marketing’, in Marieke van Delft et al. (eds.), New Perspectives in Book History: Contributions form the Low Countries (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2006), pp. 101–116.


With their study of Van Benthem’s records, Kloek and Mijnhardt set the tone for subsequent research in this fi eld.53

Early nineteenth-century Middelburg certainly did not have a mass reading public; less than ten per cent of the local population frequented Van Benthem’s shop. It was primarily the élite who crossed the shop’s threshold, so there does not appear to have been any growth in the num-ber of readers in the lower classes of society. Nor can you say that the public read a great deal or consumed a variety of texts. Few people had an account with Van Benthem that exceeded the ten-guilder mark, and the vast majority of his customers purchased a book only occasionally. As for content, tastes were largely traditional; people favoured edifying literature, textbooks and reference works and historical reading, while few customers purchased new genres such as the magazine and the novel. Van Benthem’s records refl ect a distinct preference for functional books: vocational literature, texts required for church services, a range of practical items such as almanacs, cookery books and lists of names, and publications with some local interest. Few bought books classifi ed as ‘general reading’, that is, those read for enjoyment or intended to foster general cultural development, but these are precisely the books around which the whole theory of the reading revolution revolves.

Aside from the Middelburg bookseller, the records have also been preserved of three bookshops in the town of Zwolle, dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Brouwer has studied these sales fi gures, focusing particularly on those for Martinus Tijl’s shop between 1777 and 1787. Tijl’s records also do not suggest a fl ood of new readers descending on the bookshop. But Brouwer concedes that the information derived from bookshop records cannot easily be extrapolated to the entire reading public.54 While it is true that Tijl sold mainly new titles, the taste of his public was not very revolution-ary. Almost half of his turnover came from sales of morally edifying literature and historical geography; all other genres accounted for only a modest proportion in comparison.55 Th is shows that the newer genres did not attract a fl ood of interest, nor were they being read by a non-élite public. Far more important than social factors was the amount of money spent. Customers who spent little – whether they came from the

53 J.J. Kloek and W.W. Mijnhardt, Leescultuur in Middelburg aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw (Middelburg: Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, 1988); Kloek, ‘Reconsidering’.

54 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 70–73, 139–146.55 Ibid., p. 77.

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élite or the ranks of shopkeepers – largely purchased functional books, while high spenders purchased books of general interest as well.56

Although we do not have any information about earlier periods, Tijl’s records are not indicative of a massive growth in the public that read a wide variety of material. Th e records of W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink’s shop in Zwolle enable us to compare this period to a far later one, namely 1847–1849. Even in the mid-nineteenth century, the book-reading public in Zwolle was fairly limited, evidently consisting of about twenty per cent of the population.57 In comparison with Tijl’s customers, their nineteenth-century descendants took far less interest in theological and historical literature and far more in periodicals. It also appears that sales of functional books actually gained ground relative to general literature when compared to the fi gures for the eighteenth century, a trend that Brouwer ascribes to the increased demand for educational, vocational and recreational handbooks.58

In early modern probate inventories (that is, inventories drawn up aft er someone’s death), the notary frequently included book titles. Th e historian José de Kruif used this source to obtain a picture of Th e Hague’s reading public in the eighteenth century. A sample of the probate inventories dating from the beginning, middle and end of this century did not supply any proof for the existence of a lively reading culture in the royal residence. Th e inventories, which enable us to make a reasonable statistical estimate of the property owned by the city’s entire population, show that almost forty per cent of Th e Hague’s population did not have a single book in the house (excluding pamphlets) and that only a quarter of the population owned more than ten books.59 Th e number of books increased in proportion to affl uence, measured by the amount of tax paid at the person’s burial.60 So even if non-élite groups had wanted to embrace books en masse, there was a fi nancial barrier that hampered the growth of the new reading public. De Kruif therefore concludes from her study of samples of probate inventories that there was no increase in the number of readers. In fact all the signs seem to indicate the reverse: a decline in the reading public. Only the

56 Ibid., pp. 225–228.57 Ibid., pp. 142–143.58 Ibid., pp. 286–290, 267.59 José de Kruif, Liefh ebbers en gewoontelezers. Leescultuur in Den Haag in de

achttiende eeuw (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1999), p. 111. See also her ‘Classes of Readers: Owners of Books in 18th-Century Th e Hague’, in Poetics 28 (2001), pp. 423–453.

60 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, pp. 102–103.


major libraries, representing the small proportion of people who had always read a great deal, ensured that the average number of books owned remained roughly the same.61

As for the question of whether people read more varied texts as the eighteenth century progressed, religious material constituted an important part of people’s property throughout the century and was to be found in virtually every house. As time went on, especially in the fi rst half of the century, people owned other genres besides these theo-logical books, such as historical and geographical treatises or works of literature. Consequently, the proportion of theology declined somewhat, but in terms of percentages the diff erences were minimal and De Kruif therefore concludes that there was no noteworthy diff erentiation in reading behaviour.62 However, unlike Brouwer she did fi nd a correla-tion between reading preferences and social background by studying groups with similar books in their possession.63

De Kruif ’s study of probate inventories focuses specifi cally on books. Books as part of a person’s estate also feature in other studies of mate-rial culture in the Netherlands, and the conclusions reached are much the same. Dutch readers in early modern times owned only a handful of books and reading mainly religious texts. Very few people owned larger numbers of books and displayed more wide-ranging tastes.64 Hester Dibbits’s study of probate inventories focuses not on the number of books people owned but on the signifi cance to people of material

61 Ibid., pp. 108. 111–113.62 Ibid., pp. 160–164.63 Ibid., pp. 172–180. Th e fi rst group mentioned specifi cally consisted of those who

owned fewer than ten books, mainly ritual reading such as bibles, psalters and hymnals. Th ese were mostly the poorer households. Th e second group also had predominantly religious material, but this group, which included a disproportionately large number of women and widows/widowers, did own a great many books, ranging from eleven to a hundred. Th e third group owned a similarly large number of books, but displayed more varied tastes: on average their books consisted of 22% religious material, 13% historical and geographical works and 8% literature. Th is group was dominated by the more well-to-do sections of society.

64 E.g. J.A. Faber, ‘Inhabitants of Amsterdam and their possessions, 1701–1710’ in A.M. van der Woude and A.J. Schuur man (eds.), Probate Inventories. A New Source for the Historical Study of Wealth, Material Culture and Agricultu ral Development (Wageningen: HES, 1980), pp. 149–155; Th era Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, Achter de gevels van Delft . Bezit en bestaan van rijk en arm in een periode van achteruitgang (1700–1800) (Hilversum: Verloren, 1987), pp. 257–261; Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad, pp. 144–147; Johan Kamermans, Materiële cultuur in de Krimpenerwaard in de zeven-tiende en achttiende eeuw. Ontwikkeling en diversiteit (Ph.D. dissertation University of Wageningen, 1999), pp. 124–127.

22 chapter one

culture. For instance, she notes that the presence of seventeenth-century religious reading matter in eighteenth-century inventories was largely an expression of a trend towards ‘traditionalisation’, an attitude that accorded more value to old texts and therefore listed them specifi cally in inventories. Th is applied to a great many bibles. Th e frequently beautifully designed Holy Scriptures were generally preserved perhaps even more for their value as family heirlooms than for their content.65 Research on probate inventories is also used to chart individual book ownership. Th e numerous studies of private individuals’ libraries are enumerated in a bibliography on the subject.66 Besides descriptions of inventories, these also rely on information about auctions of libraries organised by booksellers aft er the owner’s death. Potential buyers would be notifi ed of the contents beforehand in a catalogue of the books to be sold.67 Quantitative research has not yet been undertaken to answer the question of who read what, on the basis of individual book ownership, partly because processing a large quantity of sales catalogues would be a huge task.68 Sales catalogues have been used, however, to research the dissemination of specifi c book genres.69

Summing up, research into the historical reading public in the Nether-lands, based on a wealth of statistics from customer records and book ownership, has shown that this public was not very large, and that it consisted largely of people who were content to read religious books. Few readers had wider interests, and although there may have been a certain correlation between wider interests and social background, this does not appear to have been very marked. A reading revolution, in the sense of a surge in the reading public caused by an infl ux of non-élite readers and growing interest in new genres, cannot be demonstrated for the Netherlands. According to Brouwer that is partly because the

65 Hester C. Dibbits, Vetrouwd bezit: materiële cultuur in Doesburg en Maassluis 1650–1800 (Ph.D. dissertation University of Amsterdam, 1998), pp. 227–240.

66 H.W. Kooker and B. van Selm (eds.), Boekcultuur in de lage landen 1500–1800. Bibliografi e van publicaties over particulier boekenbezit in Noord- en Zuid-Nederland verschenen tot 1991 (Utrecht: HES, 1993).

67 B. van Selm, Een menighte treff elijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: HES, 1987).

68 See Corrie-Christine van der Woude, ‘Veilingcatalogi als bron voor boekhistorisch onderzoek’, in Documentatie blad Werkgroep Achttiende Eeuw 23 (1991), pp. 47–57.

69 E.g. Suzan van Dijk and Alicia Montoya, ‘Madame Leprince de Beaumont (1711–1780), Mademoiselle Bonne en hun Nederlandse lezers’, in De Achttiende Eeuw 34 (2002), pp. 5–32; esp. pp. 8–15.


concept of ‘revolution’ has not been worked out in suffi cient detail: how many readers and how many books must be involved for the situation to qualify as a revolution?70 Th is question is a particularly pressing one in the Dutch context because of the modest numbers involved. In this situation, can one speak of ‘substantial growth’ if a particular book is purchased or owned by fi ve people rather than three? In Brouwer’s view there was probably no huge increase in the reading public until the nineteenth century, when technical innovations in printing made it easier to mass-produce cheap literature and improvements in education caused a sharp drop in illiteracy.71 De Kruif asserts, on the other hand, that there was a rapid growth in the reading public in early modern times, but situates it in the seventeenth century.72

Th ere are no quantitative studies of either the seventeenth or the nineteenth century, but inventories from both centuries are not sugges-tive of a completely diff erent picture. Over half of the Haarlem probate inventories from 1860 and 1915 still mention few if any books, and much the same fi gures emerge from Amsterdam inventories drawn up in 1650.73 Does this mean that the reading public was always small, or do the sources distort the picture to some extent? Probate inventories only list books that were considered valuable. Th e absence of any reference to books in an inventory need not suggest that the person was illiterate. Possibly the books had already been dispersed, or the deceased person may have read only borrowed books, or the notary may not have listed the books because they were of little value. As far as reading prefer-ences are concerned, many inventories do not describe the content of the books listed, which makes it diffi cult to reconstruct a person’s taste. Of the 618 Hague inventories studied by De Kruif, only thirty per cent contains a complete list of titles, and a similar percentage applies to the

70 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 38–40.71 Ibid., pp. 38–40; see also David D. Hall, ‘Readers and Reading in America:

Historical and Critical Perspectives’, in idem, Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), pp. 169–187. Dick van Lente, ‘Drukpersen, papiermachines en lezerspubliek: de verhou ding tussen technische en culturele ontwikkelingen in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw’, in T. Bijvoet et al. (eds.), Bladeren in andermans hoofd, pp. 246–263.

72 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 145. 73 Dongelmans and De Vries, ‘Reading’, pp. 67–69. Mathijs van Otegem, ‘Omweg of

dwaalspoor: de bruikbaarheid van boedelinventarissen voor onderzoek naar boeken-bezit in de zeventiende eeuw,’ in Tijdschrift voor Th eoretische Geschiedenis 26 (1999), pp. 78–87; esp. p. 82.

24 chapter one

Amsterdam inventories from 1650.74 Th e many unspecifi ed titles are a large blank in our knowledge.

While customer records have no such gap, they distort the public’s preferences in a diff erent way, because they deal with only one way in which books are acquired. Th ese records show sales for a specifi c shop, whereas people were not dependent on any particular shop for their purchases of books. However, there is a lack of sources for other purchasing channels. A number of private account-books studied by Brouwer show that in that period in any case, people acquired diff erent genres through diff erent channels.75

Th e question of who read what calls for a quantitative answer, but to formulate meaningful conclusions on the preferences of groups of readers, the large quantity of diverse data must be reduced to a few broad categories. Th e lack of sources makes it diffi cult to classify readers according to social status. Researchers frequently use occupation as a criterion, ignoring the fact that enormous diff erences in income may have existed within a particular occupation. In addition, it is open to question whether social standing depended exclusively on affl u-ence. Titles have to be combined into categories, since the individual titles listed in the sources oft en relate to only one or very few buyers or owners. Th is means that very diff erent kinds of books are lumped together under a number of broad bibliographical headings. In some cases only two headings are used: general and functional literature. Of course a certain abstraction is necessary, but here the result is such a fuzzy picture of the average reader that it does not in fact correspond to any particular individual. Not every historical or religious book or work in some other genre would necessarily have possessed the same signifi cance to readers. Other questions have remained unanswered, such as how people related to books, when and where they read, the function of reading: what role did reading play in their everyday lives? Th e present study therefore explores precisely these questions. Th e fol-lowing paragraph will discuss the tools that can be used for studying questions of this nature.

74 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 148; Otegem, ‘Omweg of dwaalspoor’, p. 83.75 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, p. 240.


Research on historical reading behaviour

Most of the studies dealing with questions such as where, when or how people read are based on sources left by individual readers. In the archives of an eighteenth-century Swiss publisher, the book historian Darnton discovered letters that had been written by the Protestant mer-chant Jean Ranson, who lived in La Rochelle. Ranson kept the publisher informed about the goings-on in his life and those of his relatives, and told him about the books in which they were interested. Ranson was not someone who read and re-read a limited number of religious texts, but a man of wide-ranging tastes. He read a variety of new genres that appeared in the eighteenth century, such as books about children’s upbringing, and was particularly interested in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. But Ranson’s preference for contemporary literature did not mean that he read less intensively. He treated Rousseau’s writing as a bible for everyday life and followed his advice in a variety of areas, such as children’s upbringing. He read and re-read the philosopher’s work, of which he possessed a handsomely bound edition, and tried to fi nd out as much as possible about the life of the author he so greatly admired. Nor was Ranson alone in this emotional connection with Rousseau’s books; we fi nd similar responses in letters from other readers in the publisher’s archives. So while book production was changing at the end of the eighteenth century, concludes Darnton, people did not read in a diff erent way.76

Anna Larpent, born in England in 1758, also read many new genres, as she noted in her diary, but that did not mean that her reading behaviour was solely extensive, writes the historian John Brewer. She both borrowed and purchased books, she read at all hours of the day, she read in diverse ways, both intensively – ‘in a followed manner’, as she calls it – and extensively, which she refers to as ‘perusal’. Her read-ing was mainly guided by specifi c aims: she read, for instance, to help her stepson do his homework or to improve her understanding of art exhibitions, and the events across the Channel in the 1790s prompted her to read a great deal about France.77

76 Robert Darnton, ‘Readers Respond to Rousseau: Th e Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity’, in idem, Th e Great Cat Massacre and other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books, 1984), pp. 243–293.

77 John Brewer, ‘Cultural Consumption in Eighteenth-Century England: Th e View of the Reader’, in R. Vierhaus (ed.), Frühe Neuzeit-frühe Moderne? Forschungen zur

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Th e Dutch boy Otto van Eck (1780–1798) might be said to exemplify the reading revolution, since his diary, studied by the historian Arianne Baggerman, shows him to have been an eager consumer of the new children’s literature that appeared towards the end of the eighteenth century under the infl uence of enlightened ideas on upbringing. Th e boy’s reading was not very intensive; he never read anything twice. Still, the books did have the desired eff ect, since Otto duly noted down the moral lessons conveyed by his reading, occasionally in even starker terms than the author had intended. Baggerman discovered the fact that the boy processed his reading in this way by reading along with him, a method that had never been used before in reading research. Otto’s diary does not, of course, provide a transparent view of his reading behaviour. He read, drew his conclusions, and noted his interpretation down in his diary. But a comparison of the diary entries with the texts mentioned by Otto does show us something of the books’ reception.78

Th ese studies of individual readers showed that questions concern-ing reading behaviour could be answered extremely well on the basis of egodocuments. Th is method has since been emulated, one result of which has been to clarify the extent to which the three readers were exceptional or refl ected the reading behaviour of a particular group. In Britain a start has been made on compiling a large database of read-ers who have described their reading behaviour in egodocuments and other texts. An initial analysis shows that other readers too read both intensively and extensively. Most importantly, the coexistence of these styles of reading was found in the beginning as well as at the end of the eighteenth century.79 Other researchers too have concluded that diverse

Vielschichtigkeit von Übergangsprozessen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), pp. 366–391. Idem, ‘Reconstructing the Reader: Prescriptions, Texts and Strate gies in Anna Larpent’s Reading’, in James Raven et al. (eds.), Th e Practice and Representation of Reading in England (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 226–245. Idem, Th e Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (London: HarperCollins, 1997), pp. 193–197.

78 Arianne Baggerman, ‘Lezen tot de laatste snik. Otto van Eck en zijn dagelijkse literatuur (1780–1798)’, in Jaarboek voor de Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 1 (1994), pp. 57–88. On Otto van Eck and his diary see Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker, ‘Otto’s Watch: Enlightenment, Virtue, and Time in the Eighteenth Century’, in A. Immel and M. Witmore (eds.), Childhood and Children’s Books in Early Modern Europe, 1550–1800 (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 277–303; idem, Child of the Enlightenment: Revolutionary Europe Refl ected in a Boyhood Diary translated from the Dutch by Diane Webb (Leiden: Brill, 2009).

79 Stephen Colclough, ‘Recovering the Reader: Commonplace Books and Diaries as Sources of Reading Experience’, in Publishing History 44 (1998), pp. 5–37.


styles of reading existed, and that individuals read diff erent things in diff erent ways.80 As far as the Netherlands is concerned, Otto’s reading behaviour turns out to be similar to that of other young readers in the same period.81

Most studies of reading behaviour are based on eighteenth-century sources and are guided by the concept of a reading revolution. Whether more people started to read, and whether these new readers were recruited from diff erent social groups, is a question that cannot be answered by a study focusing on individual readers. Diaries and letters do not provide quantifi able data, since these sources have not been preserved in large numbers. Yet it is striking that the readers referred to above all came from the upper echelons of society, which might suggest a link between reading behaviour and social background. But does the absence of readers from lower social classes necessarily refl ect a diff erence in reading behaviour, or does it merely refl ect the fact that members of these classes did not keep diaries or write letters? Th is question is impossible to answer with any certainty.

On the question of precisely what kind of literature people read in the early modern period, studies of individual readers provide a more com-plete picture, in a sense, than quantitative research. In any case, diaries and letters certainly reveal what people actually read rather than what they bought and displayed on their bookshelves. For instance, the diary of the Englishman Th omas Turner (born in 1729) frequently refers to books, newspapers and so forth that he and his wife had borrowed. Th ey subscribed to the newspaper together with a group of neighbours.82 But while diaries may reveal more of a person’s reading, they may also hide from view some books that were actually read. In the fi rst place, these sources generally span a limited period of time, and it remains

80 Hans Erich Bödeker, ‘Lesen als kulturelle Praxis: Lesebedürfnisse, Lesestoff e und Leseverhalten in Kreis von Münster um 1800’, in R. Vierhaus (ed.), Frühe Neuzeit-frühe Moderne?, pp. 327–365; esp. p. 364. Brewer, Pleasures, p. 192; Roger Chartier, ‘Richardson, Diderot et la lectrice impatiente’, in Modern Language Notes 114 (1999), pp. 647–666; esp. p. 656.

81 Arianne Baggerman, ‘Otto van Eck en de anderen. Sporen van jonge lezers in schrift elijke bronnen’, in Berry Dongelmans et al. (eds.), Tot volle waschdom: bijdragen aan de geschiedenis van de kinderen jeugdliteratuur (Th e Hague: Biblion, 2000), pp. 211–224.

82 Naomi Tadmor, ‘ “In the Even My Wife Read to Me”: Women, Reading and Household Life in the Eighteenth Century’, in J. Raven et al. (eds.), Th e Practice and Representation of Reading in England, pp. 162–174.

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unclear what someone may have read before or aft er the time during which he was keeping a diary. At the same time, one cannot of course expect that readers made a note of everything they had read. It may have slipped their mind, or perhaps there were other everyday matters that demanded their attention, and in some cases they may indeed have deliberately omitted to mention certain titles. Th e Dutch boy Otto van Eck once wrote, for instance, that he had spent all aft ernoon reading a little book a friend had given him, without mentioning – perhaps quite intentionally – what book it was. Baggerman discovered in the archives that not all the volumes on this friend’s bookshelves were of the enlightened kind.83 Many diarists may have lacked the frankness of the British naval offi cial Samuel Pepys, who included erotica when recording what he had read in 1668.84

More than anything else, studies of individual readers have dem-onstrated that it is actually possible to fi nd out about people’s reading behaviour (the how, where and why) in the past. Opinions diff er as to whether any reading revolution took place. Darnton roundly states that it did not. Jean Ranson’s letters show that people still read inten-sively, although their interest had shift ed from the bible to authors such as Rousseau.85 Th e Utrecht historian Ursula Becher reached the same conclusion aft er studying a number of egodocuments by women. Early eighteenth-century women described reading religious texts as an intense, emotional experience. With the passage of time, religious books were read less frequently and replaced by literature, but the lit-erary preferences of late eighteenth-century women were still inspired by the desire for an intense, emotional reading experience, as is clear, for instance, from the many references to the pre-Romantic epic Der Messias by the German writer Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.86 It may

83 Baggerman, ‘Otto van Eck en de anderen’, pp. 222–223.84 Roger Chartier, ‘De praktijk van het geschreven woord’, in idem (ed.), Geschiedenis

van het persoonlijk leven, vol. 3: Van de Renaissance tot de Verlichting translated from the French by R. de Roo-Raymakers (Amsterdam: Agon, 1989), pp. 95–139; esp. p. 122. [Histoire de la vie privée 3: De la Renaissance aux Lumières (Paris: Seuil, 1986)]

85 Darnton, ‘Readers Respond to Rousseau’; see also his Th e Forbidden Bestsellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1995), p. 219.

86 Ursula A.J. Becher, ‘Religiöse Erfahrungen und weibliches Lesen – Zu einigen Beispielen des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Hans Erich Bödeker, Gérald Chaix and PatriceVeit (eds.), Le livre religieux et ses pratiques. Études sur l’histoire du livre religieux en Allemagne et en France à l’époque moderne/Der Umgang mit dem religiösen Buch. Studien zur Geschichte des religiösen Buches in Deutschland und Frankreich in der frühen Neuzeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991), pp. 316–334.


be noted that the conclusions drawn by these researchers do not diff er very greatly from Engelsing’s original concept of a reading revolution. Engelsing did not deny that people also read new literature intensively, as he illustrated himself, using the popularity of Klopstock’s work as one of his examples.87

Brewer does believe that there was a shift from intensive to extensive reading behaviour at the end of the eighteenth century. However, he sees it as a consequence rather than a cause of the expanding book market. Th ere were many readers in the seventeenth century too, but book production was so limited that they were more or less compelled to keep re-reading the same familiar texts. Th e expansion of the book market, partly as a result of the disappearance of censorship, created easier access to books, enabling people to consume more, and more varied, fare, although all did not necessarily do so. Anna Larpent’s diaries illustrate this trend, since they take the presence of books for granted in a way that would have been impossible in previous centu-ries.88 Robert DeMaria has studied the diaries of Samuel Johnson, along the books he owned and the marginal notes he added, and concludes that he reserved his most attentive studies for classical literature and the bible. He devoted somewhat less attention to books with precepts for living, though he still read them intensively, while he tended to browse newspapers, novels and other kinds of reading. Interestingly, it was above all in his youth that he read intensively, while in later years he read extensively, which DeMaria interprets as a sign that a reading revolution had indeed taken place.89 Th e comments about books in the letters of the French writer Madame de Graffi gny (1695–1758) show, according to the Belgian literary theorist Paul Pelckmans, that the ‘read-ing revolution’ is still a potent concept. Th e writer of the popular novel Lettres d’une Péruvienne seldom read anything religious, historical or classical, and was mainly interested in the new popular entertainment that the presses were churning out, books she read quickly so as to be able to start on a new one as soon as possible. De Graffi gny was in

87 Engelsing, ‘Die Perioden’, pp. 128–130.88 Brewer, ‘Cultural Consumption’, pp. 389–91; idem, Pleasures, p. 169. Hannie van

Goinga and Arianne Baggerman argue the exact opposite. Th ey maintain that changes in the distribution of books in the eighteenth century can all be explained by changes in demand: Goinga, Alom te bekomen, p. 304; Baggerman, Een lot, pp. 83, 351.

89 Robert deMaria, Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).

30 chapter one

all respects an extensive reader, and hence a textbook product of the reading revolution, writes Pelckmans, although she may have heralded a trend that would only later spread to a wider circle.90

Th e books read by Ranson, Larpent, Van Eck and others were typical of the late eighteenth century. Whether their reading behaviour was equally typical of this period, and whether it refl ects a reading revolu-tion, is impossible to say at this stage, since almost no research has been done on seventeenth-century readers’ egodocuments. However, another kind of source handed down to us by readers, commonplace books and marginal annotations in printed works, have been researched for the seventeenth century. Th e British historian Kevin Sharpe studied the reading notes of the minor nobleman William Drake (1609–1669). Drake’s library was typical of the collection of a humanist scholar, including numerous Greek and Roman texts but a larger proportion of work by humanist historians and political thinkers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Guicciardini, Machiavelli and Lipsius. But William Drake did not read these books to become an erudite scholar; he used them to acquire practical knowledge that he could apply in everyday life. As Sharpe puts it, each book was to him a ‘self-help manual of prudential engagement with the world.’91 To Drake, who spent much of the 1640s and 1650s in the Netherlands, reading was a matter of serious study. He summarised passages in the work itself or in his notebook, he read and compared passages from a range of texts, he noted down and collected wide sayings, he repeated what he had read every day and discussed his reading with others. In all these practices Drake acted no diff erently from other highly educated readers, and the fact that all these readers fi shed in the same pool of wisdom has been construed by historians as a sign of conservatism and respect for authority. Sharpe rejects this view since it fails to do justice to the role of the reader, since it is he who selects and collects passages because they possess a particular signifi cance to him at a cer-tain moment in time. Other texts, as well as Drake’s surroundings and the political context, infl uenced the meaning of the books that he read,

90 Paul Pelckmans, ‘Madame de Graffi gny: profi el van een achttiende-eeuwse lezeres’, in De Achttiende Eeuw 34 (2002), pp. 49–64.

91 Sharpe, Reading Revolutions, p. 190. See also p. 116.


and conversely the words of wisdom he gleaned from books infl uenced his view of the world.

Drake’s mode of reading was clearly inspired by his humanist upbringing. Professional scholars read in the same purposeful way, seeking to pluck practical lessons from what they read. Th e British humanists Gabriel Harvey and John Dee underlined and annotated while they read, and like Drake they compared passages from a vari-ety of works and kept lists of wise sayings they came across in their books.92 But few could aff ord to spend their entire lives studying. For many people, reading would have been primarily an activity related to understanding the Word of God, and would have revolved around the Bible, psalter and other religious texts. Th is mode of reading is described by the Dutch historian Willem Frijhoff in his study of Evert Willemsz. (1607–1647), an orphan from Woerden – later a clergyman in New York – who underwent a religious experience in 1622 during which he became a deaf mute. Following this transformation, Willemsz. com-municated in notes, which were later printed collectively in a pamphlet. Th is remarkable egodocument testifi es to great familiarity with biblical language, a familiarity that arose only in part from constantly poring over his bible or psalter. Reading also meant discussing the bible and constantly incorporating biblical quotations into one’s speech, listening to sermons and communal singing, prayer, silent reading and reading aloud. Reading, writes Frijhoff , was ‘a form of memorising, intensive reading, a slow collective rumination of a small number of edifying books.’93 But it was Evert Willemsz. who selected and arranged the quotations because they possessed signifi cance in his life, while at the same time the biblical language infl uenced his view of the world. So to understand his reading, it is also important to look at the informa-tion that he received in ways other through printed media, such as in conversation and images.94

92 W. Sherman, John Dee: Th e Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995), pp. 59–65, 79–100; Lisa Jardine and Anthony Graft on, ‘ “Studied for Action”: How Gabriel Harvey Read his Livy’, in Past and Present 129 (1990), pp. 30–78.

93 Willem Frijhoff , Wegen van Evert Willemsz.: een Hollands weeskind op zoek naar zichzelf, 1607–1647 (Nijmegen: SUN, 1995), p. 317 [Fulfi lling God’s mission: the two worlds of dominie Everardus Bogardus, 1607–1647 translated from the Dutch by Myra Heerspink Scholz (Leiden: Brill, 2007)].

94 Ibid., pp. 290–294.

32 chapter one

Th e above survey of the literature clearly demonstrates the value of egodocuments to a study of readers and their reading behaviour in the past. For this reason, the research in this study is based on a number of diaries from early modern times. Since little research has been done as yet on seventeenth-century readers, the present study incorporates two diaries from this period. Th e concepts of intensive and extensive reading, which are frequently used in studies of individual readers, provide a framework for the analysis of the what, where and when, how and why of reading. We shall be exploring the applicability of these terms to the reading behaviour of the diarists who are at the centre of this study.

Egodocuments as source material

Although initially treated rather warily, egodocuments have by now secured a permanent place in historical research.95 The structural approach has been superseded by a greater emphasis on people’s expe-rience of history, in a shift from the ‘macro’ to the ‘micro’ level.96 Th is focus on individuals has naturally boosted interest in egodocuments. Sources of this kind, in which people noted down events in their own lives, provide an opportunity to study experience in an objective as well as a subjective sense. For instance, diaries proved excellent sources in which to fi nd out facts about everyday life, and could supplement other sources in important ways. At the same time, researchers started studying the subjective elements of egodocuments, such as views and feelings about life and everyday aff airs. Th ere is also growing interest in the ways in which people construct their picture of reality. From this vantage point egodocuments are a particularly fascinating source, because their history shows the diverse ways in which people convey

95 On the use of egodocuments in diverse disciplines, including historiography, see Rudolf Dekker, ‘Egodocumenten: Een literatuuroverzicht’, in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 101 (1988), pp. 161–189; esp. pp. 170–171. For recent surveys on the use of these sources, see Dekker, ‘De erfenis van Jacques Presser’; Gert-Jan Johannes and Rudolf Dekker, ‘Het egodocument: stiefk indje of oogappel?’, in Vooys 17 (1999), pp. 22–30; Rudolf Dekker, ‘Introduction’, in idem, ed. Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages (Hilversum: Verloren, 2002), pp. 7–20.

96 See e.g. Georg Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientifi c Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997), pp. 99–117.


aspects of reality through language. Changes in thinking about per-sonal identity, for instance, can be followed very well in the history of egodocuments.97 Historians are therefore turning more than ever to diaries, letters, autobiographies and other personal texts, not just to study people’s experience and the linguistic formation of the subject, and to trace the genesis of modern concepts of individuality, but also to track down aspects of everyday life that are not described in other sources.98

Th e growing interest in personal experience has been translated, for instance, into research on a range of aspects of everyday life that were once taken for granted. Family life is a good example. While the structuralist approach tended to focus on demographic trends such as population size or average numbers of children, the infl uence of anthropology widened attention to include thoughts and feelings about family life. Alan Macfarlane was among the fi rst to analyse a personal document from the perspective of historical anthropology. He studied the diary of the seventeenth-century British vicar Ralph Josselin, look-ing at a range of familiar anthropological themes such as kinship, life cycles and family life.99 By now a vast literature has been accumulated on themes of this kind. Yet it was not until the 1980s that it included the large-scale use of egodocuments.100 In the Netherlands, Rudolf Dekker studied attitudes and practices surrounding children’s upbringing in egodocuments by people from various social backgrounds.101

Aside from research on everyday subjects, egodocuments have also been used to gain a better picture of groups that had tended to be neglected in historiography. Th e American historian Natalie Zemon Davis, for instance, scoured three egodocumentary sources written by

97 See e.g. Michael Mascuch, Origins of the Individualist Self: Autobiography and Self-Identity in England, 1591–1791 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997); Nicolas D. Paige, Being Interior: Autobiography and the Contradictions of Modernity in Seventeenth-Century France (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).

98 On the use of egodocuments in historiography, see also the introduction by Kaspar von Greyerz, Hans Medick and Patrice Veit (eds.), Von der dargestellten Person zum erinnerten Ich: Europäische Selbstzeugnisse als historische Quellen (1500–1850) (Cologne: Böhlau, 2001).

99 Alan Macfarlane, Th e Family Life of Ralph Josselin; a Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970).

100 Dekker, ‘Egodocumenten’, pp. 171–173.101 Rudolf Dekker, Uit de schaduw in ‘t grote licht. Kinderen in Egodocumenten van

de Gouden Eeuw tot de Romantiek (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek, 1995) [Childhood, Memory and Autobiography in Holland: from the Golden Age to Romanticism translated from the Dutch (Basingstoke-New York: Macmillan, 2000)].

34 chapter one

single women for the way in which they held their own in uncertain times, and for the role of religion in their lives.102 Th e lives of artisans have also become more tangible by studying their personal papers. For instance, Paul Seaver studied the world of the seventeenth-century London artisan Nehemiah Wallington.103 In a similar vein, the French historian Daniel Roche published the autobiography of the eighteenth-century French glazier Jacques-Louis Ménétra.104 James Amelang anal-ysed a large number of egodocuments by artisans from diff erent parts of early modern Europe. However, rather than approaching them as sources for the history of artisans, he emphasised the documents as texts. According to Amelang, while autobiographies and other fi rst-person writing provide in the fi rst instance a picture of artisans’ writing practices, indirectly they reveal information about their environment and their pictorial world.105

Amelang represents a growing trend among historians to acknowl-edge the literary aspects of egodocuments, seeing them as sources – par-ticularly in the case of autobiography – that belong to the domain of literary history.106 Until the 1950s, studies of autobiography were greatly infl uenced by the view that such a text must represent an individual, autonomous personality. ‘Real’ autobiography arose in this perspective in the nineteenth century, as proof of, and as a consequence of, the discovery of the individual. Still, there were a number of precursors in history, and these became the autobiographical canon. Th is canon continued to dominate research, although theoretical views changed in the course of time. Rather than seeing autobiography as the representa-tion of a personality, the emphasis shift ed to its linguistic structure: a structure with no immediate reference to reality. Personality was seen

102 Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins: Th ree Seventeenth-Century Lives (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1995).

103 Paul Seaver, Wallington’s World: A Puritan Artisan in Seventeenth-Century London (London: Methuen, 1985).

104 Jacques-Louis Ménétra, Journal of my life by Jacques Louis Ménétra edited by Daniel Roche; translated from the French by Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).

105 James Amelang, Th e Flight of Icarus. Artisan Autobiography in Early Modern Europe (Stanford: Satnford University Press, 1998).

106 On the development of approaches to autobiography in literary history, see Johannes and Dekker, ‘Het egodocument’; Rudolf Dekker, ‘Introduction’, pp. 12–13; Sheila Ottway, Desiring Disencumbrance: Th e Representation of the Self in Autobiographical Writings by Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen (Ph.D. dissertation University of Groningen, 1998), pp. 41–63.


solely as a construct inscribed in language. Nowadays, literary historians oft en steer a middle course. A person represents himself or herself in language, but has the freedom to opt for a particular discourse. While personality is based on biological factors, it is conceptualised by lan-guage, and it is this conceptualisation that changes according to place and time. For instance, the American historian Michael Mascuch has written a study demonstrating the growing trend for writers to opt for an individualistic discourse in the early modern period.107 Th e literary scholar Sheila Ottway has studied the diverse role models that seven-teenth-century British women used to describe their lives.108 Th e shift in approaches to autobiography within literary theory resulted in part from the attention paid by historians to all kinds of egodocuments that did not meet the defi nition of autobiography. Conversely, historians were made aware of the fact that personal sources are not transparent representations of reality.109

Th e main criticism of the micro-approach to history, a charge that is also levelled at the use of egodocuments, is that it reduces history to a series of anecdotes or fragments without any synthesis. It is said that too sharp a focus on minor details risks obscuring the broader trends or wider context, or that microhistorians’ attempts at synthesis hold no water, since they are based on a single case.110 Th e historiography of reading encounters similar criticism. Critics ask what individual readers add to the general picture, or rather, whether such individual studies may be accorded universal validity. According to Brouwer it is highly questionable whether any general trend can be distilled from studying a series of individual cases.111 De Kruif formulated her criticism even more pointedly by observing that studies of individual readers are separate pieces of research conducted on the basis of a sample size of N = 1.112

If one were to apply the criterion of representativeness strictly, one would fi nd few historical studies that fulfi l it. Research on the reading public too, for instance, is based on a limited geographical location such as the city, and its results can only be extrapolated to a larger whole on

107 Mascuch, Origins of the Individualist Self.108 Ottway, Desiring.109 See e.g. the conclusions reached by Amelang in Flight of Icarus, pp. 245–248.110 On this criticism, see Iggers, Historiography, p. 113.111 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 33–34, 294.112 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 21.

36 chapter one

the basis of a few broad similarities. Besides, the conclusions yielded by statistically representative research are oft en limited, since the sources are not amenable to extensive statistical analysis. Th e samples of pro-bate inventories that De Kruif used in his research off er representative information only on the number of books that Hague citizens had in their homes. As soon as one focuses on general bibliographic catego-ries, let alone individual titles, a good many inventories fall outside the sample and representative research becomes impossible. In such cases, validity will have to be argued, not calculated. Egodocuments, and studies of individual readers, may yield arguments that contribute to a synthesis just as well as serial sources. What is more, it will always remain impossible to study certain things, of which reading behaviour is a good example, for large groups of people. Even if one were able to compile lists of all the books owned by all early modern Dutch people, the question remains of how these people read, a question that can clearly only be answered for some of them. Th e debate on the relative merits of the macro- and micro-approach has subsided a little in recent years. Nowadays it tends to be argued that these approaches are actu-ally complementary perspectives rather than opposite poles. Studies of an individual historical person can show how the structures perceived by the historian apply in concrete situations. Research on large groups helps to identify the unique features of an individual case.

For such reasons Darnton concedes the potential value of ego-documents, but he doubts whether suffi cient sources can be found that really deal at length with reading experience in the manner of the let-ters he studied by Jean Ranson.113 Th e approach advocated by Stephen Coclough, which is applied in the Reading Experience Database, is one possible answer. He believes that studying a large number of diaries and combining them with research on other aspects of books can yield a valuable contribution to the history of reading. To what extent a specifi c case is typical could be ascertained by analysing as many experiences as possible.114

Th ere is the risk, however, that a quantitative approach of this kind may have the eff ect of obscuring the textual aspects of the egodocu-ment, making it harder to properly appreciate the passages on reading.

113 Darnton, ‘History of Reading’, pp. 142–143.114 Stephen Colclough, ‘Recovering the Reader’, pp. 36–37.


Experience always undergoes a certain stylisation in egodocuments, which will display a certain development, as in literary genres, but which may diff er from one writer to the next. Egodocuments are as much presentation as they are registration. Th at makes it impossible to apply quantifi cation in the same manner as may be done, say, with probate inventories. As Baggerman shows in her study of Otto van Eck’s diary, the boy’s notes on the books he read were infl uenced by his diary-keeping. Otto’s parents had insisted on his keeping a diary and hoped it would give them a better grasp of his intellectual devel-opment. Otto responded to this obligation creatively, and tended to highlight the positive aspects of his behaviour, such as the book learn-ing that his parents were eager to see.115 In every egodocument there are personal motives and background factors that colour the content of the text. In this respect diaries are no diff erent, up to a point, from other sources.116 But while offi cial sources such as probate inventories are fairly uniform and amenable to comparison, ‘egodocument’ is a col-lective term embracing a wide range of texts, which makes any attempt to accumulate or quantify data fairly pointless.

Another impediment to a quantitative approach to egodocuments is the sheer scarcity of sources in many cases. Th e many diff erent sub-jects that are studied within the new cultural history can sometimes be found only in exceptionally well-documented cases. For instance, the Dutch historian Judith Pollmann set out to discover all the implications involved in joining a church in the early seventeenth century. Only by studying the autobiographical written sources left by the Utrecht archaeologist Arnoldus Buchelius was it possible to gain a picture of the background factors underlying religious choices.117 Reading behaviour too is a subject that seldom leaves sources, as this chapter has shown. Only by consulting exceptionally well-documented cases can we come to understand the history of the use of reading material.

115 Baggerman, ‘Lezen tot de laatste snik’.116 Marijke Faassen, ‘Het dagboek, een bron als alle anderen?’, in Tijdschrift voor

Th eoretische Geschiedenis 18 (1991), pp. 3–17; esp. pp. 5–6.117 Judith Pollmann, Religious choice in the Dutch Republic: Th e Reformation of

Arnoldus Buchelius (1565–1641) (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999).

38 chapter one

Structure of the book

Four remarkable readers have been chosen for this study. Starting from previous research on early modern Dutch egodocuments, all the texts described as diaries were fi rst subjected to a preliminary examination.118 Th ose that mentioned book titles most frequently were then selected for detailed examination, a selection partly dictated by a preference for sources from diff erent periods. Th e four diaries to emerge from this process will be discussed here in chronological order, but that is not to suggest that they provide an unbroken history of reading, writing and discussion. Rather, the four chapters of this book are best regarded as four micro-studies, each one set in its own general frame of reference. Each of the four diarists illuminates aspects of the history of reading, writing and discussion in his or her own way.

At the heart of each chapter is an analysis of the person’s literacy, preceded by a biographical sketch and an introduction to the diary. Th e early sections of each chapter also discuss the information that the diary provides on everyday topics of conversation. Th e diary of the Hague schoolmaster David Beck, discussed in the fi rst chapter, presents a colourful picture of the use of printed texts in the early seventeenth century and shows possibilities other than the erudite readers and intensive readers of the bible discussed earlier in this introduction. At the same time, Beck’s diary also provides a remarkably wide survey of the diff erent areas in which writing was used, ranging from administra-tion to poetry. Th e diary of the Delft burgomaster Pieter Teding van Berkhout, discussed in the second chapter, reveals the everyday reading habits of an aristocrat towards the end of the seventeenth century and clarifi es the importance of writing in these élite circles. In the third chapter, the focus shift s to the various channels through which people learned about current events, as discussed in the diary of the Amsterdam clerk Jan de Boer. De Boer wrote at length about the pamphlets and newspapers of his day and kept many of them in his diary, enabling us

118 R. Lindeman, Y. Scherf and R.M. Dekker, Egodocumenten van Noord-Nederlanders uit de zestiende tot begin negentiende eeuw (Rotterdam: Erasmus University, 1993). For an analysis of this corpus of texts, see Rudolf Dekker, ‘ “Dat mijn lieven kinderen weten zouden . . .” Egodocumenten in Nederland van de zestiende tot de negentiende eeuw’, Opossum. Tijdschrift voor Historische en Kunstwetenschappen 3 (1993), pp. 5–22. Idem, ‘Egodocuments in the Netherlands from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century’, in E. Griff ey (ed.), Envisioning Self and Status: Self-Representation in the Low Countries 1400–1700 (Hull: ALCS, 1999).


to gain a picture of how people dealt with a specifi c category of printed matter about which most other sources say nothing at all. Finally, the fourth chapter describes the reading and writing of Jacoba van Th iel. She is one of the few women whose diary has been preserved, and her text illuminates the way books were treated in pious religious circles.

CHAPTER TWO

MIRROR OF LITERACY: READING AND WRITING IN THE DIARY (1624) OF DAVID BECK

Snow showers persisted throughout the day amid menacing skies on that fi rst day of January 1624, but by nightfall it was raining and a thaw had set in. As the fl akes whirled past his window, David Beck (1594–1634) sat inside, he wrote in his diary, where he had been ‘treated to cabbage, bacon and sausage by Breckerfelt, whom I told aft er supping (by the hearth) the story, from the beginning, of how the Netherlands, Spain, Naples and all fi rst came into the hands of the House of Austria, and then the beginning, subsequent course and conclusion (up to Trèves) of the Dutch war.’1 Although like his host Herman Breckerfelt, David Beck had not lived in Holland for very long, he was very well-informed about the recent history of the United Provinces. An uneasy peace had been concluded with Spain at Trèves in 1609. Th at was eight years before Beck moved from Cologne to Th e Hague.

Th anks to David Beck, we still know today what the two men dis-cussed on that wintry day, since his diary for 1624 has been preserved and is now regarded as one of the oldest surviving early modern ego-documents.2 Yet it is not to this text but to his handwritten poetry that Beck owes his modest place in history.3 His diary was long neglected (once its existence became known) because the minuscule size of the handwriting and the document itself makes it extremely hard to read. Th anks to the eff orts of Svend Veldhuijzen, an edition of the text was published in 1993. Since then, several historians have used this remark-able diary, some as a source for research on book history.4

1 1 January 1624. Quotations from the diary have been translated into English for this edition.

2 David Beck, Spiegel van mijn leven; een Haags dagboek uit 1624 edited by S.E. Veldhuijzen (Hilversum: Verloren, 1993).

3 See the introduction by Veldhuijzen to the edition of the diary, p. 21.4 Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad; idem, ‘Haags stilleven met boeken’, in T. Bijvoet

et al. (eds.), Bladeren in andermans hoofd, pp. 81–95.

42 chapter two

Beck devoted considerable attention to books in his diary. Certainly for this early period, the history of reading is largely shrouded in obscu-rity, given the paucity of sources. Th e book consumers of those times of whom we can build up the clearest picture are humanist scholars. For them, reading meant collecting, classifying, clarifying and comparing passages from classical texts.5 A salient feature of humanist reading culture was the use of commonplace books, notebooks divided into sections in which quotations were recorded. Since these commonplace books were encouraged at Latin school and later at university, this mode of processing texts was part of the intellectual baggage of the élite, who sought to improve their eloquence by studying the classics.6 But what about the book culture in the rest of society? Surviving pro-bate inventories and auction catalogues from the seventeenth century are rare, which means that book ownership among the non-scholarly sections of the population is largely concealed from our sight. All that is clear is that books were important for religious obligations.7 David Beck’s diary tells us about the books that non-scholars read in the seventeenth century and describes their role in everyday life, bringing the seventeenth-century reader into sharper focus. We shall see what was read aside from humanist and religious literature.

Since Beck reports in detail on his daily activities, we can also explore one of the new avenues in research on reading history, looking at the use of books in the wider perspective of communication. Historians acknowledge that the culture of the seventeenth century was primarily oral in character, but point out that oral and literate cultures were not

5 Anthony Graft on, ‘Th e Humanist as Reader’, in Cavallo and Chartier (eds.), History of Reading, pp. 179–212; esp. 196–203. See also Graft on’s other studies in the bibliography at the back of this book.

6 On this mode of reading, the roots of which are in the art of rhetoric, see Kintgen, Reading in Tudor England. In the course of the sixteenth century, pupils were not necessarily expected to build up their own commonplace books, but could use printed collections such as Erasmus’s Adagia. On this trend, see Anne Moss, Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Th ought (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). For one such élite reader, the Englishman William Drake, who kept a commonplace book, see Sharpe, Reading Revolutions. Th is study shows that in practice, reading did a good deal more than foster eloquence. Sharpe shows that books greatly infl uenced Drake’s view of the world.

7 Willem Frijhoff and Marijke Spies, 1650. Bevochten eendracht (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1999), p. 261 [1650: Hard-Won Unity translated from the Dutch by Myra Heerspink Scholz (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)].

mirror of literacy 43

separate circuits.8 Beck’s daily notes reveal areas in which the spoken word was important and point up the relationships that existed between spoken and written forms of communication. Th ey also illuminate the role of written texts. As historical research has revealed, printed texts had not yet marginalized manuscripts in the seventeenth century. Beck’s notes show how handwriting was used in everyday life and shed light on the relationship between writing and printing. But before turning to the record of Beck’s literacy, let us take a more general look at the circumstances of his life.

A German schoolmaster in the Dutch Republic

David Beck was one of the six children of Stephan Beck and Sara van Arschot, and he was born in Cologne in 1594. Little is known about his youth. He probably learned to be a schoolmaster in Cologne, work-ing there as a junior master. In 1612 he practised this profession in Emmerich, where he was then living. Five years later Beck left Germany and moved to the United Provinces. He settled in Th e Hague, opened a school and met Roeltje van Belle, whom he married in 1618. Th ree children were born in the years that followed: Adriaan, Sara and Roeltje. Th e birth of the latter proved fatal to her mother; Roeltje van Belle died in childbirth in December 1623. So Beck’s diary, which he started keep-ing on 1 January 1624, is the written account of a man who had just lost his wife. He lived as a widower for six years until remarrying in 1630; his second wife was Geertruijt Jansdr. Noot. By then, David Beck was no longer living in Th e Hague; he had left in 1625 and settled in Arnhem. Th e marriage he concluded there in 1630 produced another three children, but was granted only a short life. Beck died in 1634.

David Beck taught at what was known as a ‘French school’. Th e United Provinces had two types of primary education, Dutch and French. Th e system of ‘Dutch schools’ had been founded by the local authorities to provide children with an elementary education. Learning to read, possibly followed later by learning to write, and instruction in the doctrine of the Reformed Church were the most important ele-ments of the lessons. French schools, on the other hand, were private

8 See e.g. Adam Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England 1500–1700 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000), pp. 39, 50.

44 chapter two

enterprises with a larger curriculum. Besides reading and writing, they also taught subjects such as French and arithmetic, for instance. All this came at a price; these institutions charged considerably higher fees than ‘Dutch schools’.9

David Beck’s curriculum cannot be fully reconstructed. We know that he taught his pupils writing and French, since he wrote about it in his diary. His income from school work is also impossible to deter-mine precisely. It is certainly clear that his school would have been beyond the means of many people in Th e Hague. One of Beck’s pupils paid 60 guilders for a year’s tuition.10 From the sparse information on other pupils, it can be inferred that Beck taught pupils from the affl u-ent burgher classes. Among his pupils were two children of a local bailiff , the son of a Walloon clergyman, the son of a commissioner of ammunition, the son of a city magistrate, a captain, a brewer, and a pharmacist’s daughter. In August, Beck noted that he had between thirty and forty pupils, which he considered a very small number.11 Th is seems to imply that his school yielded him an annual income of at least 1,800 guilders, but the reality was more complicated, since most pupils did not pay for a whole year but for the number of lessons they attended. So when children stayed at home or were given time off , Beck did not earn anything. And this evidently happened quite oft en.12 Of course, running a school also incurred certain overheads. Beck had to rent a building large enough to accommodate it, besides which purchasing furniture and teaching materials would have consumed a large part of his income. Assuming that his position was comparable to that of other schoolmasters, he earned between 500 and 600 guilders a year. Th at was more than the vast majority, whose income was close to the subsistence level of 200 guilders, but less than the small top echelon,

9 Engelina Petronella de Booy, Kweekhoven der wijsheid. Basis- en vervolgonderwijs in de steden van de provincie Utrecht van 1580 tot het begin der 19e eeuw (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1980), pp. 26–27.

10 Th e entry for 30 August 1624 records that a Miss Dimmers had come to pay the money due for Willem Dimmers’ board and lodging and schooling for a whole year, being 60 guilders. Th at Dimmer also paid board and lodging here could imply that other pupils also lodged with Beck. But there is not another word about lodgers in the rest of the diary.

11 8 October 1624.12 E.g. the entry for 29 May 1624 records that school attendance was poor that

day on account of the fi ne weather and the fair at Scheveningen. Th e entry for 12 February 1624 records that attendance was poor that day on account of the extremely cold temperatures.


who generally earned more than 1,000 guilders a year.13 So Beck did not belong to this wealthy élite, but neither are there any indications that he could scarcely keep his head above water.

Beck’s income had to feed a good many mouths. Besides his own three children – with the services of a wet-nurse being required for the youngest – he had also taken on responsibility for his younger brother Abraham and his younger sister Odilia. And this at a time when the country seemed to be heading for stormy weather. In the historiography of the United Provinces, 1624 is known as one of the worst years of the fi rst half of the century.14 Th e armed struggle against Spain, which resumed in 1621, was going poorly. In 1624, Spanish troops invaded the United Provinces simultaneously from the east and the south. Th e Dutch army was only partly successful in repudiating them, in spite of the enormous increase in the military budget. Th e expense involved in maintaining the army and continuing to support German Protestants compelled the States-General to raise new taxes, causing prices to rise. To compound this tale of misery, an epidemic of the plague broke out in 1624.15

‘Mirror of my life’

David Beck’s diary describes a wretched year in Dutch history. It is unlikely that the text as it is preserved today actually consists of the notes he made on a daily basis. According to Svend Veldhuijzen, the

13 J. de Vries and A. van der Woude, Nederland 1500–1815. De eerste ronde van moderne economische groei (Amsterdam: Balans, 1995), pp. 647–650 [Th e First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)]. For purposes of comparison: in 1624, Utrecht city council persuaded Daniël Waterrijk to settle in the city to run a French School. He received 150 guilders a year from the city and was allowed to charge one guilder a month in school fees for each pupil. Th ose who wanted to learn how to write were charged a lump sum of ten guilders. So although French schools were private companies, several city councils did their best to attract schoolmasters in the early seventeenth century. Clearly, the demand for French schools outstripped the supply at the time. De Booy, Kweekhoven, p. 138.

14 Jonathan Israel, Th e Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 485.

15 Ibid., pp. 478–485. Roughly one-tenth of the population died in 1624. Th e mortal-ity rates in Delft and Leiden were higher still: about one-fi ft h of their population lost their lives. Leo Noordegraaf and Gerrit Valk, De Gave Gods. De pest in Holland vanaf de late middeleeuwen (Amsterdam: Bakker, 1996), pp. 54–55.

46 chapter two

Fig. 1. Title-page of David Beck’s diary (Photo: Th e Hague city archives).


uniformity of the manuscript and the absence of deletions indicate that Beck forged his entries into a unifi ed whole later on.16 Th e best proof for this is the diary itself, since it records the times at which he wrote in it. Another indication is the fact that Beck furnished his diary with a title page. In beautiful calligraphy he informed his readers that the manuscript was a ‘daily history’ of events that had taken place in Th e Hague, but more especially about ‘my own comings and goings’, writ-ten down ‘as a sweet memorial for the benefi t of my dear children, as a mirror of my life’.

From the fi rst half of the seventeenth century very few texts from the Netherlands have survived that record the everyday lives of ordinary people.17 Th ere were a few diarists who focused largely on the public events in their immediate or wider surroundings, such as Cornelis Jonkgesel, who kept a ‘Utrecht chronicle’ from 1610 to 1625.18 Others kept a diary only briefl y: for instance, Willem de Groot did so while his brother, the scholar Hugo Grotius, was being held in prison.19 Others described episodes of their lives in the margins of their fi nancial records. Th e customary bookkeeping method prescribed that ‘you should write in a journal only the daily business that you must conduct, with a good explanation of how and in what manner the transaction took place, specifying the date and day on which it occurred.’20 But although journals were intended only as records of fi nancial aff airs, such notes could easily expand into a diary.21 Th e Deventer town clerk Hendrik van Haexbergen kept a record of his private business in an account-book between 1615 and 1624. He noted, for instance, that he purchased a cupboard for 42 guilders and rented out a house for 20 guilders a year.22 But aside from these fi nancial transactions, he also described the times when he was incapacitated by fever, his wife’s recovery

16 See Veldhuijzen’s introduction to the edition of the diary, p. 22.17 Th e classifi ed list of egodocuments mentions 21 texts written by people who started

keeping a daily journal between 1600 and 1650: Lindeman et al., Repertorium, nos. 55, 58, 63, 65, 71, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81, 85, 87, 88, 91, 92, 93, 96, 100, 103, 104, 107.

18 Utrechts Archief, library no. V F 26 (Lindeman et al., Repertorium, no. 63).19 Lindeman et al., Repertorium, no. 71.20 Nicolaus Petri, Practique om te leeren rekenen (Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz.,

1605 (1583)), fol. 288. Translated into English as Th e Pathway to Knowledge (London 1596).

21 Th is was not a specifi cally Dutch phenomenon. See Amelang, Flight of Icarus, p. 183.

22 Stadsarchief Deventer, Stadsarchief Republiek II, inv. no. 147: Memorial of the town clerk Hendrik van Haexbergen 1619–1623, fol. 3, 20.

48 chapter two

from an illness, and the day on which his little daughter acquired a new teacher at school.23

Th e Frisian farmer Dirck Jansz. described a variety of fi nancial tran-sactions in his diary, which covered the period 1604–1636. But this diary also chronicles all kinds of remarkable or important events in his surroundings. For instance, he recorded the deaths of relatives, friends and acquaintances, he would not allow an extremely hot summer or an unusually cold winter to go unremarked, and he even jotted down a good method for preserving meat. His entries are all dated, and in this sense they constitute a ‘daily’ record. But Jansz. did not describe every day in his little book.24

David Beck’s diary bears many similarities to others written in the same period. Th us, his text is part chronicle, since it records remark-able events such as the fi rst session of England’s parliament.25 Another common feature is Beck’s reference to fi nancial transactions, such as the time he arranged with a peat supplier for a delivery of four cartloads of peat.26 Th e weather is another standard item. And like other contem-porary diarists, Beck writes a good deal about his social life. Th e diary is full of descriptions of meetings with other people, dinners he hosted or attended, and walks that he enjoyed in the company of others.

Unlike his contemporaries, however, Beck kept his diary with meticu-lous regularity. He based himself not on the events that took place, but on the day itself. Rather than confi ning himself to days on which something remarkable occurred, he described what took place each day, and did so with immense precision. He generally tried to record how he had spent the entire day. Each entry opens with a description of the weather. Th en Beck goes on to describe what he has done that day, in the morning, aft ernoon and evening. He tried to convey the entire fl ow of time in words, as it were. Th at is clear from the entries

23 Ibid., fol. 2, 11. Th at the diary did in fact arise as an appendage to the book-keeping is clear form a note that Haexbergen made on the fi rst page: ‘Nota bene: that everything that is related in this book, where necessary, will be recorded in my ledger of debts and money owed. Aft er the said amounts have been transferred, liquidated or settled, this shall be denoted by the addition of a +sign before the said item.’ As was customary in bookkeeping, Haexbergen wrote down the day’s events, later classifying them according to whether they related to a debtor or a creditor in his ledger.

24 Dirck Jansz, Het aantekeningenboek van Dirck Jansz edited by P. Gerbenzon (Hilversum: Verloren, 1993).

25 29 February 1624. Parliament did not sit permanently, but was convened by the King.

26 29 July 1624.


for days on which very little happened. In Beck’s eyes, it was worth mentioning that he had ‘not done anything out of the ordinary today’.27 With short sentences of this kind, Beck indicated what had happened during a particular period of time, so as to capture the entire course of the day in his diary. Th is makes Beck’s style of writing quite unusual, in comparison to other Dutch diaries as well as to contemporary diaries written elsewhere.28

Th e conversation of the day

With its detailed notes, Beck’s diary from that dismal year in Dutch history provides a rare glimpse of everyday life. Th e text testifi es to a busy social life, bristling with encounters, visits, dinners and communal walks. So a great deal of verbal information circulated in Beck’s sur-roundings. Th ere is nothing remarkable about this; any historian will acknowledge the importance of verbal exchanges in seventeenth-century culture. But the spoken word seldom leaves any records, and that is what makes Beck’s diary so unusual, since his notes help to bring these everyday conversations to life.

A quantitative analysis of the entries gives a good picture of Beck’s rich social life. In the course of the year, Beck recorded 1,179 encoun-ters with 137 diff erent people.29 Th e actual number would have been

27 9 January 1624.28 According to Stuart Sherman, this mode of writing arose in England towards

the end of the seventeenth century. In his view, the new style of keeping a diary on a daily basis, conveying the passage of time, refl ected changing perceptions of time itself. Th ese changing perceptions were closely related to technological developments in the measurement of time, most especially to the invention of clocks with a minute hand. Stuart Sherman, Telling Time: Clocks, Diaries, and English Diurnal Form, 1660–1785 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Beck’s diary shows that the Netherlands witnessed a similar change in writing style earlier than this. Harold Tersch has pub-lished a survey of Austrian egodocuments that includes a diary dating from 1625 in which he claims to have identifi ed the same change in writing style, Harold Tersch, Österreichische Selbstzeugnisse des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit (1400–1650). Eine Darstellung in Einzelbeiträgen (Vienna: Böhlau, 1998), p. 527.

29 Th e passages concerned are those in which Beck actually spoke to people. Th ese do not include all the names that are mentioned in the diary. For instance, Beck wrote that he once found himself sitting opposite the king of Bohemia in church. Th e rec-ognition will not have been mutual, and we can be sure that Beck did not exchange any words with the king. Th e focus here is on people with whom David Beck actually communicated. Th ese conversations did not always take place between Beck and a single interlocutor. Beck frequently socialised in groups. In such cases, each of those

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greater still, since there was plenty of everyday social interaction that did not end up in the diary.30 Most of the people he met lived in Th e Hague, a logical consequence of the physical presence required by the spoken word and the relative lack of mobility in the seventeenth century. Beck’s horizon extended beyond the city’s limits, since when travelling by tow barge or carriage, and even when walking, he came into contact with people from Delft , Amsterdam and Gouda, as well as a few from Arnhem. Many of Beck’s everyday contacts came from a similar social background, but through his marriage to Roeltje van Belle he could also claim kinship with a large Dutch family that included several prominent members of the community. Family ties were in any case important to verbal exchanges of information, since a third of Beck’s total interlocutors were relatives of some kind. In addition, Beck spoke to people with whom he had some professional connection, such as fellow schoolmasters, besides which he sought out the company of friends who shared his interests.31

Beck did not, of course, converse with the same frequency with all 137 of the people he mentions in the diary. Th ose he spoke to most oft en were friends, relatives and in-laws. In this respect, there is a clear

present is considered separately, aside from the few exceptions in which one of Beck’s frequent contacts brought along someone who does not reappear in the diary and of whom Beck did not write explicitly that he had spoken to the person concerned. Th e primary concern in this analysis is the kind of information that Beck obtained from such conversations, and the focus is accordingly on passages that specify the topic. For a analysis of Beck’s entire social network, see Meta Snijders, Op de portie genoot. Het sociaal leven van David Beck, schoolmeester te ’s-Gravenhage in 1624 (unpublished master’s thesis, Open University (Netherlands) 2001). Irma Th oen off ers an in-depth analysis of the maintenance of social relationships within Beck’s network in: Strategic Aff ection? Gift Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Holland (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), esp. pp. 45–96.

30 For instance, Beck did not record many of the conversations he had with his sister Odilia, even though she lived in his house and the two will have had dealings with each other on a daily basis.

31 As will frequently be noted in the following pages, an interest in the arts, especially in literature, was an important unifying factor in this circle of friends. It was a group organised along much the same lines as musical and literary circles, two informal networks that Zijlmans distinguishes in her study of seventeenth-century circles of friends. Jori Zijlmans, Vriendenkringen in de zeventiende eeuw. Verenigingsvormen van het informele culturele leven te Rotterdam (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1999), pp. 57–58, 173–174. Friendship possessed a diff erent meaning to members of these circles – including Beck – than it did in circles whose ties were based largely on mutual benefi ts, which Luuc Kooijmans has described as an undercurrent below the seventeenth-century discourse on friendship. Luuc Kooijmans, Vriendschap en de kunst van het overleven in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Bakker, 1997), pp. 14–18.


distinction between a circle of intimi and one of more casual acquain-tances. Th ere was a small group of about twelve people with whom Beck conversed very regularly, including most notably his mother-in-law Anna Jacobsdr. van Overschie and his friend Herman Breckerfelt, and a large group of people he met only a few times.32

Th e social network outlined here provided Beck with all the spoken information that he received and passed on. Much of what was discussed on a daily basis, at least many of the conversations that Beck actually recorded, had to do with the social network itself: people related their experiences and those of mutual acquaintances. Of interest in relation to Beck’s use of handwritten and printed documents are the conversations he recorded in his diary about news, religion and poetry. Th e role of books in these subject areas was important, but by no means exclusive, as is clear from Beck’s diary. He and his uncle, Adriaan van der Cruijsse, frequently discussed the political situation, or, as Beck once put it, ‘today’s tragic-comic times.’33 Armed confl icts tended to dominate the discussions, including such remote encounters as the taking by Dutch ships of the bay of La Rica in Peru, and the capture of All Saints’ Bay in Brazil.34 But there were also confl icts closer to home. On 11 November, for instance, Beck heard from his Uncle Pieter Jansz van Palesteijn ‘that a company of cavalry and 500 musketeers from Emmerich [had] invaded

32 Amelang remarks on the same distinction in the social network of the Spanish craft sman Paret (1610–1660). James Amelang, Th e Flight of Icarus, p. 109. Amelang’s comment that ‘the more signifi cant members of the latter category combined more than one attribute; they were both kinsmen, friends, or neighbours and fellow work-ers, guildsmen, or parishioners’ is partly applicable to Beck. Th us, his friend Mathijs Miller was also godfather to one of Beck’s children, while Beck shared with his brother Hendrick a love of the arts, and his friend Breckerfelt was a frequent guest at the homes of several of Beck’s relatives.

33 6 September 1624.34 11 September 1624. In April 1623, aft er a long and strenuous eff ort on the part of

Prince Maurits, a fl eet of ships – later known as the ‘Nassau Fleet’ – set sail for South America, with the intention of besieging Spanish ships. Its original objective was to capture the Spanish ‘silver fl eet’, but it failed to do so. Between April 1624 and March 1625 the fl eet sailed along the coast of South America and set siege to cities including Lima, where countless Spanish ships were destroyed. Still, the Dutch did not capture the city. Aft er the fl eet returned home, an account of the journey appeared in print. See De reis om de wereld van de Nassausche vloot 1623–1626 edited by W. Voorbeijtel Cannenburg (Th e Hague: Nijhoff , 1964). All Saints’ Bay and the city of Salvador, which was built on this bay, were conquered by a fl eet of the Dutch West Indies Company, which was founded in 1621. See Charles R. Boxer, Th e Dutch in Brazil 1624–1654 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957).

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the county of Marck’, capturing a number of villages, and now awaited support from the States-General.35 Germany had long witnessed armed confl ict between Protestant and Catholic troops.

Th e war between the United Provinces and Spain was the main subject of political debate. Beck oft en spoke to Abbesteegh and Vlack, Gouda’s representatives in the States of Holland, who lodged at the inn run by his mother-in-law, and had ‘many a discussion and serious debate . . . about the war.’36 In 1624 the confl ict suddenly arrived on the doorstep of the province of Holland for the fi rst time in years, since Spanish troops advanced to Breda and laid siege to the city, an event that provoked many vigorous exchanges. For instance, Beck’s Uncle Adriaan told him that he had learned ‘that the captain of the prince’s guard had been shot dead in a raid conducted from Breda.’37 From his neighbour’s maidservant, Beck heard the news that Prince Maurits had returned from Breda gravely ill. Beck was greatly agitated by this report and ‘immediately walked off to the Binnenhof to fi nd out if it was true.’ It turned out to be less serious than Beck had heard.38

Th e reason for Beck’s agitation was that he feared that chaos might break out following the death of Maurits. Beck viewed the prince as the protector of Church and State, which he saw as two sides of the same coin. Prince Maurits represented not only the liberty of Holland, but the bastion of the Church as well. Th e close link between the political and religious sides of the confl ict recurs in other conversations. Beck spoke to Mathijs Miller ‘about our own situation both as concerns the war and the state of the Church’.39 Th e Church referred to by Beck and Miller was the Reformed Church. Religion came up quite frequently, although Beck tends to write about it in general terms, such as in the ‘written debates’ he conducted with his cousin Mannis and the ‘edifying matters’ he discussed with his aunt.40 Singing psalms was another form of verbal communication about his faith that Beck frequently mentions. An avid psalm-singer, he writes about this activity over sixty times. He sometimes sang alone, but more frequently he sang in a group. On 12 January, for instance, he wrote: ‘Sang before dining with Sister

35 Marck is a county that lies to the northeast of Cologne.36 3 March 1624.37 11 September 1624.38 6 October 1624.39 8 March 1624.40 8 January 1624.


Odilia and Abraham, the four psalms 51, 50, 23 and 38 as well as Our Father.’ When his sister-in-law Eva was visiting, Breckerfelt extended his hospitality to both of them, and Beck writes that he ‘fi rst sang the whole of Psalm 51 in my study with Breckerfelt, who came to fetch us, while accompanying myself on the Violin.’41

Beck sometimes indulged in secular music, along with the many other forms of artistic expression that he describes in his diary.42 Culture in this artistic sense was a regular topic of conversation. For instance, Beck writes that he had ‘numerous discussions about art’ with Anthonij, a lay reader at the church in Delft .43 More specifi cally, his discussions frequently revolved around drawing and painting as well as literature. Beck was an erudite literary fi gure, and his own work was frequently discussed when people visited him. When the Amsterdam brothers David and Bernhard de Moor visited Beck, they went to his study, where they perused and discussed his ‘writings, drawings and poems’.44 His neighbour Van Wou too sometimes dropped in, and he too examined Beck’s writings, drawings and poems.45

Conversely, Beck frequently visited others to look at and discuss works of art and literature they had produced. He described many artistic meetings with the stained-glass artist Breckerfelt, with whom he discussed ‘painting, drawing and engraving’ at the fi reside.46 Aft er Willem de Langue, a Delft notary and a well-known collector and connoisseur of art, came to see his ‘prints, drawings and other art’, Beck returned the compliment and looked at De Langue’s ‘paintings and other splendid things’.47 Beck also had numerous conversations ‘about literature and art’ with David de Moor of Amsterdam’48 But precisely what they had to say about art and literature is not mentioned

41 3 July 1624.42 See e.g. 8 May 1624: ‘aft er dining, Uncle Adriaen . . . and I made music together,

he playing the harpsichord and I the violin, accompanied by the sweet voices of the womenfolk.’

43 25 April 1624.44 30 August 1624.45 1 October 1624.46 2 November 1624.47 27 October 1624; 3 November 1624. On De Langue, see Michael Montias, Artists

and Artisans in Delft : A Socio-Economic Study of the Seventeenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 191, 221. Th at De Langue was a connoisseur of art is a conclusion that Montias infers, for instance, from the fact that many artists availed themselves of his services. For instance, De Langue was a notary to the art dealer Reynier Vermeer and the latter’s son Johannes (ibid., p. 236).

48 27 May 1624.

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in the diary; Beck never gives details of this kind. Did the discussion turn to the beauty of a particular poem or painting, for instance? We know that the quality of works of art was sometimes raised, since on one occasion Beck talked to the Hague clergyman Otto Badius about ‘mediocre art’.49

Th e arts generated an independent social network of their own. Beck’s conversations about political and religious issues, personal and family matters, were always conducted with the same people, but with these people he seldom discussed paintings or poems, for instance. While other topics were broached most frequently with relatives, Beck did not discuss culture with this group at all, with the exception of his uncle Adriaan.

Writing habits

Literacy made it possible to enjoy or in some cases to write works of literature, and a love of literature could generate a new circle of acquaintances, as is clear from the everyday conversations recorded by David Beck. No surprises here: culture is a key theme in his diary. Beck dwells at length on the artistic side of his life, since he wanted to see this image of himself refl ected in the ‘mirror’ of his life.50 Th e presenta-tion of this self-image makes his diary a remarkably helpful source on everyday literate culture. Th e world of handwritten texts, which will be addressed below, was very varied in Beck’s case. First and foremost he wrote a great many poems, frequently inspired by events in his own everyday life. He was also a prolifi c letter-writer, in this way keeping in contact with relatives and acquaintances who did not live close by. For the rest, handwritten texts were an aid to organising his life, in that they enabled him to keep his fi nances in good order. Indeed, literacy was a key factor in his fi nancial situation, since he earned part of his income as a writing teacher.

49 26 December 1624.50 Jeroen Blaak, ‘Autobiographical Reading and Writing: the Diary of David Beck

(1624)’, in Rudolf Dekker, ed., Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages (Hilversum: Verloren, 2002), pp. 61–88; esp. pp. 79–83.


Conversation at a distance: correspondence

One of the most delightful aspects of literacy was that it enabled people to remain in contact over great distances. Correspondence occupied a central place in Beck’s life: the diary for 1624 refers to 72 letters that he wrote and 82 that he received. Although his correspondents were less numerous than those with whom he engaged in conversation, in other respects the two groups were much the same. Th us, relatives again predominated, but in this case they were relatives who lived further away. He also met them quite oft en in person, but when this was not possible, letters provided a convenient alternative. One of those with whom Beck corresponded most frequently was his brother Hendrick in Delft .

An interesting feature of the correspondence that Beck mentions in his diary is that it was sometimes indirect. For instance, Beck wrote two letters on behalf of his cousin Odilia van Overschie, one to an acquaintance of hers in Leiden and the other to her brother, who was serving an apprenticeship to a glazier in Paris. It is possible that Beck wrote these letters because Odilia was unable to write. So illiteracy, which was more prevalent among women than among men, did not necessarily exclude someone entirely from participating in the culture of writing. More frequently than writing letters for others, he received them from third parties. Letters oft en helped to fuel verbal communica-tion, since they were related to others or passed on. For instance, his mother-in-law, Anna van Overschie, had Beck read out four times a letter from her son Seger, a clerk in the Dutch West Indies fl eet that had seized control of All Saints’ Bay that year. Eight of the thirteen letters that Beck received from his friend Breckerfelt were about letters that Breckerfelt himself had received. Th ese examples show that information from written sources was oft en passed on and discussed.

As for the subjects raised in letters, as far as can be gleaned from Beck’s notes, they did not diff er greatly from those discussed verbally, so that correspondence can also be defi ned as conversation at a dis-tance. For instance, letters were frequently used to exchange news about mutual acquaintances and family members. Hendrick wrote a brief letter to his brother, for instance, informing him of his wife’s deteriorating state of health.51 Two months later the roles were reversed, when Beck

51 20 April 1624.

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received a letter from his sister-in-law informing him that Hendrick had fallen ill, and immediately set off for Delft .52 Th e correspondents also described their experiences. In one of his letters to Hendrick, Beck wrote about the ‘past night’s marvellous dream.’53 He had already written to his brother the previous day to tell him what had happened between him and the ‘Rose Leliale’, whose hand he had requested in marriage – in a letter that he had delivered in person. A few months later he proposed marriage to another young woman, Catharina Bloemaerts, again in writing.54

Correspondence was also a perfect way to organise one’s social life. Beck and his brother frequently wrote to each other to announce impending visits, and Beck and Hendrick would oft en send invitations by post.55 In one letter to his brother, Beck asked him ‘to come by towards the evening and to stay for his day of prayer and fasting the next day’, and later that month he again ‘invited him to come by the next day.’56 Interestingly, it was not only to bridge long distances that invitations were sent by letter. Beck and Breckerfelt, who both lived in Th e Hague, also sent each other invitations by letter, such as one note in which he invited ‘him and his sweetheart to dine on stew at luncheon.’57

Beck’s own letters do not touch on political or religious subjects, but he oft en heard news through indirect channels. His uncle, Adriaan van der Cruijsse, would frequently read him the letters he had received. Th e postmaster of Nuremberg kept Van der Cruijsse informed about events in Germany, and the latter gladly kept his nephew abreast of the latest news. One morning, Uncle Adriaan dropped in to see Beck and read out a letter he had received from Nuremberg with an anecdote about a tree struck by lightning the previous year that had subsequently been chopped down and had now started to flower again, ‘to the astonishment of all those who saw it or heard of it’. Th is was not just a remarkable miracle but also a piece of political news. For according to the letter-writer, people were hoping that the event was a positive

52 3 February 1624.53 21 October 1624.54 26 December 1624.55 E.g. 16 July 1624: Hendrick to Beck, ‘ende dat B[roer] van meijninge was, den

aenstaenden sondag over te commen.’ 2 November 1624: Beck to Hendrick, ‘hem waerschouwende dat ick des andren daegs daer zoude comen.’

56 19 July, 31 July 1624.57 14 November 1624.


omen signifying the ‘rise and renewed fl owering’ of Frederick V, the ousted king of Bohemia.58 At his uncle’s house Beck also read letters with news about the decrees enacted by King James I of England, and heard the news, ‘from merchants’ letters’ that Dutch ships had seized a bay in Peru.59

Finally, the arts were another frequent topic of discussion. Beck and his correspondents oft en exchanged books and their own poems by post, and these would generally be accompanied by a letter. Beck received a letter from David de Moor, which enclosed copies of poems by Anna Roemersdochter Visscher.60 Beck in turn sent copies of his own poems in a letter to David de Moor.61 Breckerfelt showed Beck a letter written by the brilliant writer Sacks, ‘who could draw any image or wondrous thing in words.’62 In some of Sacks’s poems, the words were arranged to form the image of a tree. From his Amsterdam acquaintance Christina Poppings, Beck received a letter with news about the Roemers sisters, both of whom were poets. Enclosed with it was a poem by P.C. Hooft about the marriage of Tesselschade Roemers, a poem that Beck ‘read straight through with great pleasure’, besides which Poppings reported that Anna Roemers had been married on the 23rd of the month, to the ‘papist’ Dominicus Wesel.63

It is fair to say, then, that David Beck’s correspondence can be classifi ed as conversation at a distance. In theory, that is precisely what letters were meant to be, according to rhetorical treatises on correspondence.64 Erasmus wrote that a letter was a conversation at a distance conducted

58 16 September 1624. Th e Elector Palatine Frederick V was also briefl y king of Bohemia. In 1620, as leader of the Protestant Union, he suff ered a defeat at the hands of the Catholic League and took refuge in Th e Hague, at the home of his uncle, Prince Maurits of Orange.

59 10 April, 11 September 1624. It was undoubtedly because of his work as a German translator for the States-General that Uncle Adriaan was so well-informed about the news, a job that kept him close to the source. Government bodies were among the clien-tele of newspaper publishers; see Maarten Schneider and Joan Hemels, De Nederlandse krant 1618–1978. Van ‘nieuwstydinghe’ tot dagblad (Baarn: Het Wereldvenster, 1979, fourth edition), pp. 25–29.

60 16 November 1624.61 28 November 1624.62 4 February 1624.63 26 January 1624.64 For the history of the theory of correspondence, see W. van de Berg, ‘Briefrefl ectie

en briefi nstructie’, in Documentatieblad werkgroep Achttiende Eeuw 38 (1978), pp. 1–22.

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with a good friend, which made rhetorical devices such as full titles and lengthy salutations redundant. It was better to aim for a cordial, loose style, although the writer should show his good breeding by freely drawing on the rhetoric he had mastered as part of his education. So Erasmus’s theory of correspondence mainly focused on the learned culture that was conducted in Latin.65 Erasmian correspondence style can be seen in practice in the letters of P.C. Hooft , which are peppered with allusions to classical stories that add humour and excitement and give the letters the air of a conversation between friends.66 But it was not only erudite scholars who viewed letters as a mode of conversation: in 1624, Dorothea van Dorp wrote to Constantijn Huygens, who was staying in England, in 1624: ‘It feels almost as if I am talking to you [Huygens] as I write.’67

As to whether David Beck wrote his letters in a ‘cordial’ style, that is harder to say. He did not record much about this aspect of his cor-respondence, only very occasionally did he note that he had written a ‘sweet’ letter.68 Th is sweetness referred to content as well as style. One evening, Beck wrote ‘to Delft to brother Hendrick, warning him that I would be coming to visit the next day, and other sweet matters.’69 What ‘sweetness’ involved in respect of style is apparent from the let-ters that Beck wrote to Breckerfelt. He wrote a ‘sweet letter in French’ inviting him to dinner.70 In October he wrote a ‘sweet little pastoral letter’, extending his hospitality to Breckerfelt.71 So Beck, like Hooft , used literary stylistic devices to embellish his letters, in his case rhetoric inspired by the genre of pastoral literature.72

65 Saskia Stegeman, Patronage en dienstverlening. Het netwerk van Th eodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen (1657–1712) in de republiek der letteren (Ph.D. dissertation Radboud University Nijmegen, 1996), pp. 194–200.

66 Tineke ter Meer, ‘Stijlmiddelen in de brieven van Hooft aan Huygens en Barlaeus’, in Jeroen Jansen (ed.), Zeven maal Hooft . Lezingen ter gelegenheid van de 350ste sterfdag van P.C. Hooft , uitgesproken op het herdenkingscongres in de Amsterdamse Agnietenkapel op 12 mei 1997 (Amsterdam: A D & L, 1998), pp. 35–44.

67 De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens (1608–1687) edited by J.A. Worp. 6 vols. (Th e Hague: Nijhoff , 1911–1917), vol. 1, letter 222 (24 March 1624).

68 E.g. 20 October 1624.69 2 November 1624.70 15 July, 14 November 1624.71 31 October 1624.72 Th e pastoral literary tradition dates from antiquity and enjoyed a revival in the

early seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Pastoral poems idealise the supposedly happy, simple life in the countryside. In these idyllic surroundings, shepherds and shepherdesses are the most important characters, and the action generally revolves


Since Beck’s actual letters have not been preserved, the fruits of this pastoral inspiration are unknown. Perhaps he used shepherd’s pseud-onyms and addressed his friend Breckerfelt as the shepherd Menalck, an anagram of his friend’s name.73 Beck sometimes wrote letters to his friend in verse, as in the ‘very poetic and sweet letter’ he sent him on one occasion.74 His brother Hendrick also sometimes wrote letters in verse: ‘Brother Hendrick came to visit from Delft , and showed me at my desk a letter (written by him to me but unfi nished) in verse, very amusing and droll.’75 All this shows that Beck derived enjoyment not only from the information conveyed by letters, but also from the style in which it was packaged. For instance, David de Moor’s letter of 14 September was one of many that he described as ‘charmingly written’.

Unlike verbal conversations, written ones conducted at a distance could be preserved and re-read later on. Beck kept his correspondence meticulously and frequently refers to reading old letters. At the begin-ning of the year, for instance, he re-read letters he had written to his wife that he had found while tidying up.76 He carefully preserved and ordered the letters he received. On one occasion he wrote, ‘I spent a whole hour in my offi ce, musing and leafi ng through my letters, which I rearranged a little.’77 His brother Hendrick did the same, and on one occasion Beck went to Hendrick’s offi ce, where he and Breckerfelt looked through ‘a pile of the most enjoyable letters I had written to him, the content of which made us laugh, especially when there was some droll comment about Breckerfelt.’78

around the love (sometimes unrequited) between them. Th e shepherds tended to be called Daphnis, while the shepherdesses had names like Amarylis or Chloe. On the pastoral genre in the Netherlands, see Mieke B. Smits-Veldt and Hans Luijten, ‘Nederlandse pastorale poëzie in de 17de eeuw: verliefde en wijze herders’, in Peter van den Brink and Jos de Meyere (eds.), Het gedroomde land. Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw (Zwolle: Waanders, 1993), pp. 58–75; Alison McNeil Kettering, Dutch Arcadia: Pastoral Art and its Audience in the Golden Age (Montclair, NJ: Allenheld & Schram, 1983), pp. 19–31.

73 21 August 1624: ‘Made a few anagrams . . . including one of H[erman] Breckerfelt’s name: Buer-herder Menalck’ [neighbour shepherd Menalck].

74 26 April 1624.75 23 August 1624.76 4 January 1624.77 30 March 1624. See e.g. also 13 April 1624: ‘spent two whole hours ordering my

letters by candlelight in the company of Breckerfelt, who stayed for the evening and dined with us’.

78 4 April 1624.

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Letters could bring to mind some past event, and in this sense served as personal memoirs. Th at is one reason why so many people carefully preserved their letters in the seventeenth century.79 Beck’s mother-in-law took the value of letters as souvenirs quite literally. Th e letters she received from her son Seger brought not just news but her son’s physical presence, which she felt she could touch in his writing. She related a dream to Beck in which her deceased daughter Roeltje had appeared and admonished her to stop kissing the letters she received from Seger in the West Indies, aft er which she had ‘awakened in fright, weeping’.80

Writing at school

One could certainly not take the ability to write for granted in the early seventeenth-century Dutch Republic; illiteracy was rife.81 Th ose who could write used a variety of scripts, the most common one being a variant of Gothic lettering. Th ere was also an italic or Italian script that harked back to the antique period and enjoyed higher status.82 ‘Writing masters’ elevated writing to an art, calligraphy, which was

79 Huygens, for instance, included his correspondence explicitly in his will. He bequeathed his letters to his son Constantijn, leaving it to him to decide ‘which of these writings should be published to preserve the memory of my name’. De briefwis-seling van Constantijn Huygens vol. 1, p. IX. For the preservation of documents from the family’s past, see Baggerman, Een lot uit de loterij, pp. 356–366. Th e Blussé family kept personal papers for generations, describing them as a ‘palace of memories’ and ‘lieu de mémoire’.

80 6 November 1624. 81 A.M. van der Woude, ‘De alfabetisering’, in Algemene geschiedenis der Nederlanden

vol 7 (Haarlem: Fabula-Van Dishoeck, 1980), pp. 257–264. S. Hart, ‘Geschrift en getal. Onderzoek naar de samenstelling van de bevolking van Amsterdam in de 17e en 18e eeuw, op grond van gegevens over migratie, huwelijk, beroep en alfabetisme’, in idem, Geschrift en getal. Een keuze uit de demografi sche-, economische- en sociaal-historische studiën op grond van Amsterdamse en Zaanse archivalia, 1600–1800 (Dordrecht: Historische Vereniging Holland, 1976), pp. 115–192.

82 Ann Jensen Adams, “ ‘Der sprechende Brief ”. Kunst des lesens, Kunst des sch-reibens: Schrift kunde und “schoonschrift ” in den Niederlanden im 17. Jahrhundert’, in Sabine Schulze (ed.), Leselust: niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt bis Vermeer (Stuttgart: Hatje, 1993), pp. 69–92; esp. p. 72. Th e diff erence in status is aptly illustrated by the fact that P.C. Hooft wrote his Dutch letters in Gothic script but his Latin ones in italics. P.J. Verkruijsse, ‘P.C. Hooft : een toontje lager. Over liedbundels, lettertypes en lezers’, in Jeroen Jansen (ed.), Zeven maal Hooft , pp. 79–97; esp. p. 81.


highly esteemed, judging by the large number of model books that these experts produced.83

For Beck, writing was of vital importance, since he earned his living by teaching children to write. He ran a private ‘French’ school, which meant that he had to advertise to assure himself of enough pupils. Th e probate inventory of his brother Hendrick, who also ran a private school, included ‘a signboard advertising girls’ education’ and another one for an evening school.84 Another form of advertisement was dis-playing one’s own skill in diff erent scripts. Beck’s diary reveals that the master’s handwriting was one of the things on which parents based their choice of school. One morning, his brother Steven came to ‘fetch one of my exercise books to show to Auditor Mierop at his request’.85 A few days later this Mierop sent Beck two new pupils.86 Th e advantages of good handwriting also became clear in 1625, when Beck applied for a schoolmaster’s position in Arnhem and secured the job because his handwriting ‘surpassed by far that of the other applicants’.87 Beck had displayed his skill before, in a poem written for Prince Maurits, which he presented to the prince on 1 January 1622.88 Th is poem, besides showing him to be a fervent Calvinist who reviled Catholicism (as the literary historian De Vooys has written), also revealed his outstanding skill in writing, and his ability to produce a variety of scripts. Beck may have hoped that this off ering would help to spread his reputation in courtly circles.89 And perhaps it did; Prince Maurits’s butler decided to send his child to Beck’s school on 21 July 1624.

Beck’s diary is scarcely explicit about the actual lessons at his school. Th ere were morning classes from about 8 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., followed by an aft ernoon session from 1.30 to (probably) 4 p.m. On top of this,

83 Jensen Adams, ‘ “sprechende Brief ” ’, pp. 76–77. For Dutch writing masters, see A.R.A. Croiset van Uchelen, Nederlandse schrijfmeesters uit de zeventiende eeuw (Th e Hague: Rijksmuseum Meermanno Westreenianum, 1978).

84 G.A. Rotterdam, Oud Notarieel Archief inv. no. 692, p. 1. Hendrick had moved from Delft to Rotterdam around 1630, but he had not changed occupation.

85 4 April 1624.86 15 April 1624.87 Quoted in the introduction to the diary, p. 10.88 C.G.N. de Vooys, ‘Een lijfpoëet van prins Maurits’, in idem, Verzamelde letter-

kundige opstellen: nieuwe bundel (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1947), pp. 72–84.89 Th ere is a handwritten poem in the archives of the House of Orange. See Kees

Zandvliet (ed.), Maurits, prins van Oranje exhibition catalogue Rijksmuseum (Zwolle: Waanders, 2000), p. 285.

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Beck had an evening school, with lessons from about 5 to 7 p.m.90 Writing fi gured prominently in his teaching, and Beck supplied all the materials for it – at no inconsiderable expense, given that at one point he ordered 5,000 pens from a retailer in Amsterdam.91 Beck’s writing instruction was probably not unlike the picture sketched by Dirck Adriaensz. Valcooch in his verse proposal for better education, Regel der Duytsche schoolmeesters, published in 1591, in which case he would have begun by teaching his pupils how to form the letters.92 Th at is how he had taught his own son Adriaan, about whom he wrote, on his fi ft h birthday, that ‘he had only just learnt his ABC both forwards and backwards, but wrote it with a fi ne hand and with perfect letters (even those he did not know) which if necessary would have been good enough to form script.’93

According to Valcooch, forming script started with writing the letters next to each other to learn the correct proportions, aft er which children were taught to write the lines of the letters in the correct thickness. Th en the master could teach them to combine letters to form words, and later to write sentences, in the form of little poems, gradually with more and more lines.94 During all the stages of this learning process, the pupils used examples supplied by the master, who needed to have a large store of these at his disposal, starting with two-line proverbs and extending to poems of twenty lines, according to Valcooch. Aside from serving as writing examples, these poems could also be used to convey moral messages. Valcooch provides countless examples of such poems in his Regel, such as this one, in his section on two-line proverbs: ‘Love peace, from which all good does soar / Choose not the failed path of strife and war.’95

90 For purposes of comparison, according to Planque’s study of Valcooch’s school regulations and the school by-laws of Utrecht and Gelderland, morning school lasted from 8 to 11 a.m. and aft ernoon school was from 1 to 4 p.m. P.A. Planque, Valcooch’s regel der Duytsche schoolmeesters: bijdrage tot de kennis van het schoolwezen in de zestiende eeuw (Groningen: Noordhoff , 1926), pp. 9–10. Th e evening classes were probably attended by older pupils than those who attended during the daytime. People frequently combined school with a job in the seventeenth century. Th e Amsterdam artisan Hermanus Verbeeck worked under his father in the furrier trade, but continued to attend school in the evening to learn the secrets of ‘penmanship and arithmetic’. Hermanus Verbeeck, Memoriaal oft e mijn levens-raijsinghe edited by Jeroen Blaak (Hilversum: Verloren, 1999), pp. 10, 52.

91 28 July 1624.92 Planque, Valcooch’s Regel, p. 43.93 20 September 1624.94 Planque, Valcooch’s Regel, pp. 43–44.95 Ibid., p. 253.


Beck certainly used numerous examples of poems in his lessons; he wrote them himself. He produced countless ‘ABC poems’ and ‘writing poems’, as he called them in his diary, and recorded these exertions, unlike other school business. Sometimes he wrote one a day, but his output was generally higher than that. On 6 March, for instance, he wrote seven writing poems towards the evening, on 12 June he wrote six as well as another three ‘ABC poems’. In total he mentioned in his diary producing 87 ABC poems and 163 writing poems. Th e poems themselves did not end up in the diary, nor did they survive by any other means.

From time to time Beck would test his pupils’ progress by holding writing contests, in which the children would have to copy out one of his own sonnets. On one occasion, the prize poem to be copied out was a sonnet to Prince Maurits, beginning: ‘Sail on, oh great hero.’96 So Beck could also use his poems to convey patriotism. Th is poem may have been one of the sonnets that Beck had written for Prince Maurits in 1622.97 Th e model poems could also convey religious lessons. Th e April contest was based on a religious poem beginning ‘When God’s eternal word’, while another prize poem bore the title ‘For Your name, oh Lord!’98

Th e winner of the writing contest would be given a poem written by Beck on vellum, possibly the one that had been used for the contest. Th ese little prizes sometimes occupied Beck’s attention for a long time. On 28 August he started drawing a number of ‘circular shapes on vel-lum’, and he carried on working on them for the next two days. Th e circles were probably used as frames for the poems. Beck started work-ing on one poem on 3 September and continued almost every day until the contest was held on 16 September. He continued working on the prize texts even aft er that, although less frequently than before. Th en, on 10 October he started ‘gilding’ the prizes, which may mean that he embellished them with marginal decorations. Finally, on 7 November, Beck awarded the prizes aft er the contest.

96 7 March 1624.97 It may have been a variant on the 170th sonnet in the series, which began: ‘Sail

on, oh great soul! Seek boldly to oppose Rome.’ (‘Vaert voort, O groote siel! wilt Roma kloeck bestrijden.’)

98 5 April, 16 September 1624.

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Income and expenditure in writing

Beck taught writing for a living. Why were people prepared to pay schoolmasters like Beck to teach them how to write? Not, of course, because they all hoped to become schoolmasters themselves some day. Clearly, there were other applications that made it worthwhile to acquire the skill of writing well. Th e ability to conduct correspondence was important, as Beck’s diary has shown, but writing also had other everyday uses, such as in fi nancial administration. Beck describes some of the paperwork involved in running his school. Towards the end of March, he wrote: ‘sat down and wrote the monthly invoices for my pupils of the past quarter to be sent in the coming month of April, which task occupied me until nightfall.’99 Since pupils attended diff er-ent classes, the invoices were not all identical. Beck based the fees on the number of days or classes that a pupil had attended. He kept daily attendance records in a separate ‘monthly register’.100

Writing was also useful in everyday fi nancial administration, aside from school business. At the beginning of the year, Beck started ‘a notebook of . . . receipts and expenditure.’101 He used writing to keep a clear picture of his domestic aff airs. It is unclear exactly what this notebook looked like, whether it was what is known in bookkeeping as a daybook or journal, with simple notes on everyday transactions, or a ledger, in which the transactions would all be carefully classifi ed.

In any case, Beck never called his fi nancial records a ‘journal’, a term that he reserved for his diary. He started ‘this present journal’ at the same time as the fi nancial notebook. So Beck distinguished between events that were strictly business and other everyday activities, unlike Deventer’s town clerk, Haexbergen. In practice the notebook and the journal were closely connected, since Beck seems to have generally recorded his entries in the two books at the same time. In his diary he frequently described moments at which he had attended to his diary and noted down other matters. He generally did so at the end of the day: one day he noted aft er writing a poem, ‘made these and other notes and went to bed past midnight.’102 Two days later, however, he did his writing in two stages, fi rst making entries aft er the end of aft ernoon

99 30 March 1624.100 1 January 1624.101 1 January 1624.102 21 November 1624.


classes and then later in the evening making ‘these and other notes before going to sleep’.103

Writing was virtually indispensable to ordering one’s fi nancial aff airs. Keeping records of transactions on paper made it possible to compare incomings and outgoings. So writing served as a memory aid. Th e fact that Beck frequently wrote in his fi nancial notebook and his diary at the same time show that his diary-keeping too served in part to support his memory. By keeping a record of his everyday activities, Beck maintained a good overview of his life. Th e book also served another purpose, as Beck noted on the title-page to his diary: these written records of his everyday life would keep alive the memory of Beck himself in the minds of his off spring. His diary was a ‘memorial for my dear children’.

Th e importance of a paper memory was refl ected in Beck’s other writing activities. For instance, towards the evening of 12 July he started drawing up ‘an inventory of all our furniture, assets, goods, garments, books and jewellery, as present at the time of Roeltje’s death.’ Inventories were needed when determining inheritances, and hence – again – related to fi nancial transactions. It is interesting that Beck did not leave this work to a notary. Th e spoken word was not always considered suffi cient when concluding agreements; at one point Beck draft ed a contract for an apprentice hired by Breckerfelt, who was a stained-glass artist.

For all fi nancial and economic aff airs, literacy was a useful skill. Beck was not exceptional in this respect. Historical research on literacy shows that areas with highly developed economies had higher levels of literacy than poorer regions, although the economy was not the sole factor.104 Beck’s diary makes it clear that writing was not only important for running a business, but also for ordering one’s personal fi nances.

Paper poetry: the oeuvre of the poet David Beck

A great many people undoubtedly used their writing skills for con-ducting correspondence and keeping administrative records. Many other schoolmasters will have written short poems for use in school lessons. But Beck’s interest in poetry was not limited to the ABC and writing poems he used in class. He took a great interest in the lives of Dutch poets. Whenever he saw or heard anything about them, he

103 23 November 1624.104 Kuijpers, ‘Lezen en schrijven’, p. 512.

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wrote it down in his diary. For well-known Amsterdam poets such as Hooft , Tesselschade and Anna Roemers, Beck was obliged to acquire his information from other sources, but the literary life of his own city, Th e Hague, was close at hand. While out walking on 7 May and passing Burgomaster Kintschot’s door, he saw ‘the Hague rhetoricians acting in the old manner’ and while walking with the Hague town magistrate Cincq he met ‘the gentlemen Jacques Cats and C. Huijgens’.105 Th e ‘rhetoricians’ were undoubtedly members of De Corenbloem chamber of rhetoric, a society that had been founded in 1494 and that had been particularly active in the sixteenth century.106 Th e two gentlemen were Jacob Cats and Constantijn Huygens, poets who had already published numerous works in print and who did not operate within any kind of formally structured organisation, but belonged to a more or less informal network of friends, a situation that was becoming more and more common as the seventeenth century drew on.107

Beck himself was also a poet, but he did not belong to the circle of Huygens and Cats. He probably met them only because he was in the company of Cinq, who belonged to the same leading ranks of public life as the two poets; the most highly esteemed literary fi gures were also a social élite. Still, David Beck’s literary life was organised in much the same way as theirs. Like them, he did not belong to the local chamber of rhetoric, but had an informal network of friends in which art was one of the cohesive factors. For instance, he corresponded – and exchanged poems – with Jacob Hendricks and the bookkeeper David de Moor, both of whom lived in Amsterdam, besides which his brother Hendrick and his friend Breckerfelt also shared his interests. Although Th e Hague formed the backdrop for Beck’s literary life, it did not loom large in other ways; Beck had little or no contact with other local poets.

Th e nature of Beck’s literary output also bore similarities to that of leading literati. But since few of Beck’s poems have been published,

105 28 July 1624.106 Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad, pp. 193–197.107 Zijlmans, Vriendenkringen, p. 40; E.K. Grootes, ‘De ontwikkeling van de literaire

organisatievormen tijdens de zeventiende eeuw in Noordnederland’, in Zeventiende Eeuw 8 (1992), pp. 53–65. Th e contrast between these two kinds of organisational structure should not be overstated. Th e image that has been handed down of tightly-structured societies of versifi ers as opposed to a cluster of free, brilliant poets is largely an invention of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary historians. See Gert-Jan Johannes, “Zoo is overdrijving de ziekte van elke eeuw.” Het beeld van de 17de eeuw in 19de-eeuwse literatuurgeschiedenissen voor schoolgebruik en zelfstudie’, in Nederlandse Letterkunde 7 (2002), pp. 28–60.


the diary is one of the main sources for his literary oeuvre, since he recorded meticulously in it what poems he wrote, and when. Besides the many poems he wrote for use at school, he also wrote a few lon-ger pieces, including a lament aft er the death of his wife, Roeltje. Th e genesis of this lament can be followed closely in the diary. He started writing it on 2 January 1624, and by May, when it was fi nished, it had grown into a collection of twelve verses in alexandrines. Th e protago-nists, Daphnis and Orlande, were typical pastoral characters. Daphnis was the proverbial shepherd, and Orlande, though not a common name in this genre, was a very pastoral-sounding allusion to ‘Roeltje’. In eleven poems, each one structured diff erently, Daphnis mourns the loss of his ‘dearest love’ Orlande, who replies with words of comfort in the fi nal verse.

David Beck’s other poems included sonnets and odes, besides which he composed new lyrics for a number of existing melodies. Songs were enormously popular in the seventeenth century. One of his composi-tions was a May song, to be sung to the tune of the popular O schoonste personage.108 Later on, at the request of David de Moor, he wrote David’s Lament on the Deaths of Saul and Jonathan, and the defeat of the people of God, II Sam 1:19’,109 to the tune of Ik lij in ’t hert pijn ongewoon, which was originally a love lament. Beck’s penchant for pastoral poetry is also clear from one of the longer poems he wrote in 1624. On the evening of 26 October, he started on ‘an eclogue of a pastoral lament (on my recent experience)’, the opening lines of which are “Shepherds, who graze your fl ocks, etc.”, continuing to work on it until midnight, stopping at the 72nd verse.’ His ‘recent experience’ was the rejection of a proposal of marriage he had made to Catharina Ruijsch. Its theme was quintessentially pastoral: a shepherd’s lament about an unrequited love.

In form and meter, Beck’s poetry is well-attuned to the literary devel-opment of his day. Th e prevailing views on poetics had changed since the end of the sixteenth century under the infl uence of French literature. Inspired by ‘Pleiad’ poets such as Pierre de Ronsard or Joachim du Bellay, contemporary Dutch writers abandoned the rhetorical tradition and sought instead to emulate Petrarch and the Greek and Roman

108 30 May 1624.109 11 November 1624.

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poets.110 When Beck proclaimed his love for an ideal woman, writing in the form of a sonnet, he was working in a tradition introduced by Petrarch. Poets imitated classical genres such as odes and epics, epi-grams and satires. Th ey also used verse forms derived from their great examples. Poets strove to achieve a pleasing sound with a regular metre, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. For instance, Beck wrote a poem in French-style iambic alexandrines, with alternate lines contain-ing twelve and thirteen syllables and a rest aft er the sixth syllable.

Beck’s diary records the making of his poetry almost from line to line. It therefore provides a rare glimpse of a poet’s methods, and of a complex writing practice. Content and form alike bore the imprint of classical rhetoric. While he was writing his shepherd’s lament, Beck frequently opened his copy of Virgil’s Eclogues – one of the seminal texts in the pastoral tradition – in search of inspiration.111 Writing poetry called for great skill, a skill best acquired, it was believed, by translating and copying one’s admired predecessors and by seeking to surpass them. To attain the standard of the Classics, a poet had to start out by trans-lating them. Th e next stage was to emulate them in verse form, metre or content. Finally, once he had mastered these elements, he could seek to outdo these masters in his own work. So Joost van den Vondel translated the poems of Seneca and wrote plays in the spirit of Virgil’s Aeneid, and endeavoured to surpass Virgil by infusing his own work with the spirit of Christianity.112

Like Vondel, David Beck produced a good many translations, although he honed his skills on French rather than Latin poetry, from contemporary verse to French translations of classical poems. For instance, he tackled ‘Quand viendra le siècle doré’, a poem that Clément Marot had written as an introduction to his rhyming psalms.113 Th ough not a Pleiad poet, Marot was immensely popular in the Netherlands in

110 W. Waterschoot, “Marot or Ronsard?”: New French Poetics Among Dutch Rhetoricians in the Second Half of the 16th Century’, in Jelle Koopmans et al. (ed.), Rhetoric–Rhétoriquers–Rederijkers (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1995), pp. 141–156.

111 On this tradition, which lasted for centuries in Europe, see Elze Kegel-Brinkgreve, Th e Echoing Woods: Bucolic and Pastoral from Th eocritus to Wordsworth (Amsterdam: Gieben, 1990).

112 J.D.P. Warners, ‘Translatio-imitatio-aemulatio’, in De Nieuwe Taalgids 49 (1956), pp. 298–295, 50 (1957), pp. 82–88, 193–201.

113 5 February 1624.


this period.114 Another poet whom Beck translated, who did belong to the Pleiad, was Pierre de Ronsard, the central fi gure among the innova-tors of French literature. A long time elapsed between the beginning and the end of Beck’s translation of one of Ronsard’s poems: he started in 1623 and resumed work on it the following year,115 having no doubt suspended his labours in the period of his wife’s death. He set aside his translation of Virgil’s Georgics (also from the French) for the same reason, taking it up again in July 1624. Beck learned Italian poems too from French translation. For instance, he translated a lament on the death of Clorinde by the French poet Pierre Poupo, who had derived it from the Italian poet Torquato Tasso.

Writing poetry and everyday life

Much of Beck’s diverse oeuvre can be classifi ed as occasional poetry; it related to events in his social world, from weddings to dinner invita-tions. Th is was quite a popular activity, but it was not disdained by the great poets; much of Dutch poetry fell into this category.116 Th e ‘sweet pastoral letters’ that Beck wrote to Breckerfelt are good examples. Beck also wrote poems marking more offi cial events, including a sonnet on the death of Ghijsbert Ruijs, secretary to the Court of Generality.117 He also wrote a sonnet for Willem de Vrij, who was then in Th e Hague, as Amsterdam’s representative in the States of Holland.118

Clearly, not everyone could write poetry. Beck enjoyed a special posi-tion in this respect, as his diary confi rms: there are frequent references to people enlisting his help for an occasional poem. For instance, he wrote a poem to celebrate the wedding of an aunt by marriage and gave it to the son of his uncle Adriaan, ‘who would copy it out and . . . present it to the Bride and Groom in his name’.119 Breckerfelt oft en asked Beck

114 Paul Smit, ‘Clément Marot aux Pays-Bas: présence de Marot dans les biblio-thèques privées des Hollandais au XVIIe siècle’, in G. Defaux and M. Simonin (eds.), Clément Marot: “Prince des poëtes françois”, 1496–1996 (Paris: Champion, 1997), pp. 799–813.

115 30 November 1624.116 Riet Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.), Met en zonder lauwerkrans. Schrijvende

vrouwen uit de vroegmoderne tijd 1550–1850: van Anna Bijns tot Elise van Calcar (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997), pp. 56–57; Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, p. 544.

117 17 May 1624.118 25 March 1624.119 17 June 1624.

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to furnish lines of verse for his glass. On one occasion Beck wrote two lines to accompany an image of Apollo and another for a fi gure of Pallas, both of which were intended for the windows Breckerfelt was making for a cousin’s offi ce.120

Beck also wrote occasional poems for the stamboeken kept by Breckerfelt’s brother-in-law and his uncle Adriaan. A stamboek could be either a genealogical register or an album amicorum, in which latter sense it was especially popular among students, who fi lled it with poems and drawings by fellow students, famous professors or other persons of note.121 It is clear from Beck’s diary that these stamboeken were not limited to scholarly circles. Or were the albums for which Beck wrote his lines of verse perhaps some kind of hybrid form in between a family register and an album amicorum?

Beck contributed to another album amicorum later in life, belonging to Harderwijk’s burgomaster Ernst Brinck.122 Th is was not so much an album of friends as a collection of inscriptions contributed by diverse artists and luminaries. Evidently Beck enjoyed a certain reputation, probably largely as a calligrapher. For Brinck’s album contains 32 samples of beautiful or curious handwriting: handsome inscriptions by well-known calligraphers such as Jan van der Velde and Maria Strick, lines of Arabic poetry inserted by Anna Maria van Schurman, and oddities such as Guovani Carocini’s entry, of which Brinck wrote: ‘A man from Geneva named Johan Carocini wrote this with his foot, having been born without arms.’

120 27 March 1624. Later on, Breckerfelt asked Beck for four quatrains on the history of Tobias, ‘which he inscribed in glass for the brother-in-law of his sister Eva, Willem Pieterss of Rotterdam’ (14 August 1624). Eva was Beck’s sister-in-law, married to his brother Hendrick.

121 Th e Album Amicorum of Jacob Heyblocq: Introduction, Transcriptions, Paraphrases and Notes to the Facsimile edited by K. Th omassen and J.A. Gruys (Zwolle: Waanders, 1998), p. 8. On this phenomenon, see also K. Th omassen (ed.), Alba Amicorum. Vijf eeuwen vriendschap op papier gezet: het album amicorum en het poëziealbum in de Nederlanden (Maarssen-Th e Hague: Schwartz-Sdu, 1990). Th at the term stamboek was also used for an album amicorum is clear from the poem that Catharine van der Veer contributed to Heyblocq’s album, the opening words of which state: ‘In the stamboek of Professor . . .’; see the facsimile on page 48.

122 Koninklijke Bibliotheek Den Haag [KB] ms. 133 M 87. Beck’s poem bears the caption ‘Deugt verheugt’ (‘Virtue gladdens’): ‘As age does follow youth / and nobility follows virtue / So do you follow the lustre of glory’s son / Th e learned, art-loving Brinck.’ [Gelijc den ouderdom de jeugt/ en soo den adel volgt de deugt/ volgt u den eeren-sonne blinck/ const-lievende geleerde Brinck] / D. Beck, Arnhem 1631.’ On Brinck’s album, see Th omassen (ed.), Alba Amicorum, pp. 71–72.


Beck sometimes presented people with unsolicited poems: he off ered Prince Maurits a splendidly calligraphed ode, he volunteered a con-gratulatory poem to the local offi cial Willem de Bije, and wrote a verse prayer for a Bohemian nobleman living in Th e Hague. Although writing poetry was regarded as a noble pastime, some certainly tried to earn an income in this way, either by writing on commission – occasional poems, for instance – or by dedicating their work to a wealthy burgher or administrative body.123 Perhaps Beck himself expected something in return for the poems he off ered, possibly a non-pecuniary favour: the poem to Prince Maurits may have spread his fame at court as a school-master and writing teacher. On other occasions he received money: the Bohemian nobleman gave Beck two rijksdaalders.124 Although Beck’s diary does not state explicitly that the money was for the poem, it seems a plausible conclusion.

On one occasion Beck accepted a paid commission, although this was for clerical work rather than for poetry. For the lawyer Reinier Pauw, Beck produced copies of ‘certain proceedings (between sharehold-ers and directors of the East Indies Company).’125 Other requests for poetry were always based on friendship. Aside from the poems already mentioned, Beck also wrote a song about the biblical King David for David de Moor, who furnished the melody. Th e association between Beck and De Moor was based almost entirely on their shared love of poetry. Characteristically, Beck expressed this relationship too in some lines of verse ‘to our friendship’. Other Amsterdam burghers too had asked Beck for poems. Th e schoolmaster Jacob Hendricks asked Beck to compose a number of ‘writing poems’ for him, and Beck also wrote ‘two writing poems in the evening, which I had to send to Miss Christyne [Popping] for her nephew’.126 No money changed hands for any of these commissions.127

123 Marijke Spies, ‘Betaald werk? Poëzie als ambacht in de 17e eeuw’, in Holland 23 (1991), pp. 210–224.

124 22 March 1624.125 4 October 1624. Th e VOC’s policy was under fi re. Shareholders had received no

dividends for four years. According to the writer of the pamphlet Klaer vertooch van de schadelijcke directie der bewinthebberen der Vereenichde Oost-Indische Compaignie (n.p.: Pieter Gerritsz. Rees, 1624), the directors of the VOC were trying to bring the share price down, so that they, and their friends, could buy shares cheaply.

126 26 January 1624.127 On the exchange of poetry see also Th oen, Strategic Aff ection?, pp. 176–180.

According to Th oen, the poems off ered by Beck were a means of establishing a patron-age relationship.

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Much of Beck’s poetry can be classifi ed as ‘social’ poetry, which refl ects the role that poetry could play in everyday life. Th e poems added a dimension to otherwise common events, enriching them by transform-ing them into poetic images. Th us poetry was part and parcel of Beck’s social life. Conversation, correspondence and poetry all helped to nour-ish ties with other people. Strikingly, there were no real exchanges of poetry between Beck and others. Beck was the productive hub of his network. People came to see him when they needed a poem.

It was not only in his ‘social poems’ that Beck responded to events by writing about them: not long aft er his wife’s death he translated his grief into a verse lament. It was a common way of coping with tragedy. ‘For torment cast in metre cannot be so intense’, wrote Tesselschade Roemers in 1637 to Huygens, who had just lost his wife. Writing could alleviate the pain, as she had discovered herself aft er the death of her husband.128 Th e pastoral complaint Beck wrote later that year was also a way of assuaging torment – in this case pain at the rejection of a marriage proposal. Th e fact that he cast his experience in the form of the literary topos of the rejected shepherd did not make his poem any less personal. According to the rules of early seventeenth-century literary theory, poetry was expected to elevate the events of everyday life to a higher level.129

Publication in manuscript form

Few of Beck’s poems were published in print. In 1622 his De Tropheen off Zeghe-teeckenen (‘Th e Trophies’) was published, another ode to Prince Maurits – not the same one he had presented in manuscript form.130 Beck’s diary also mentions his ‘printed Prayers’, but no copy of these has been preserved. Th e only other printed poem was the Gelderlants Triumph-dicht (‘Guelders triumphal poem’), an occasional

128 Quoted in E.K. Grootes, ‘Zeventiende-eeuwse literatuur als bron van historische kennis’, in M. Spies and J. Jansen (eds.), Visies in veelvoud: opstellen van prof.dr. E.K. Grootes over zeventiende-eeuwse letterkunde (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1996), pp. 131–139; esp. pp. 137–138.

129 A. van Strien, Constantijn Huygens, Mengelingh (Amsterdam: Stichting Neerlandistiek VU, 1990), p. 9.

130 De tropheen of zeghe-teeckenen van de Nederlandschen Mars. Vol. 2 (Delft : Jan Pietersz Waelpots, 1622). Th ough called ‘vol. 2’, it was the fi rst one to be printed. In his words ‘to the reader’, Beck wrote that volume 1 was ‘within the printer’s gates’, but no printed copy of this volume 1 has been found.


poem celebrating the liberation of Wezel, published in 1629.131 But Beck’s unprinted poems were read too, since long aft er the invention of the printing press, manuscripts were still perfectly suitable as a chan-nel for publication. In early modern times, as the work of David Beck demonstrates, ‘manuscript publication’ was booming.132

Beck did more than simply scribble poems on loose sheets of paper. Th at may have been the way he started writing poetry, but his work certainly developed far beyond that. One entry records that he was ‘perfecting my pastoral complaint, which I copied over in neat again aft er dinner.’133 He clearly preserved his poems with great care, making neat copies of each one in a separate ‘great book’. Sometimes he made the copy soon aft er fi nishing the poem. He copied David’s lament on the death of Jonathan, which he had written for David de Moor on 21 November, into his ‘great book’ just two days later. On other occasions he saved the poems up: in July and August, for instance, he spent some time copying the poems he had written over the past few months into his great book.134

Th e ‘great book’ helped to preserve poems, and can be seen as an initial stage of publication. Beck recited his poems from this book and allowed people to read from it. His brother Hendrick was the fi rst person to read the neat copies of the lament and the May song, and Breckerfelt read them too a month later.135 Earlier that year, Beck had received an aft ernoon visit from Mr Jan de Grave, ‘with whom I stayed and talked in my offi ce for a whole two hours, showing him my poems when he asked to see them.’136 Beck’s cousin Van der Poel also came to his offi ce

131 Gelderlants Triumph-dicht oft e danck-segginge aen den alderhoogsten over de heerlijcke, wonderbare, schielijcke overwinninghe ende verlossinge der stadt Wesel uyt het Spaensche jock (Arnhem: Jan Jansz, 1629). Th e poem was dedicated to Mr Cantzelaer, councillor and treasurer of Guelders, to the representatives of the Veluwe district and to the burgomasters and council of Arnhem. Th en came the triumphal poem, all 100 alexandrines of it, with a sonnet to Frederik Hendrik of Nassau and another sonnet with words of comfort for the king of Bohemia. With the exception of the dedication, the entire piece was reprinted as a supplement to the Victory-liedt gherijmt tot truymphe over den heerlijck ende wonderlijcke veroveringhe der stadt Wesel (Amsterdam: Paulus van Ravestein, 1629). It is not known who wrote this Victory-liedt. Its author signed only with his personal motto, ‘Loves tranquility.’

132 Harold Love, Scribal Publication in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).

133 9 November 1624.134 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 July; 1, 5 August, 12 and 13 August 1624.135 2 June, 22 July 1624.136 17 February 1624.

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and spent two hours ‘examining my notebooks, drawings, art etc.’, and his later neighbour Van Wou too ‘examined’ Beck’s poetry.137

More frequently, Beck recited his own poetry. On 7 May, for instance, he recited some poems to his cousin Mannis. When his uncle Adriaan came to visit in July, he ‘spent a whole hour talking to me about all sorts of things, and I read some of my poems to him, since I hap-pened to have my great book in front of me at the time, ready to carry on copying my poems into it.’138 Th e following day, Beck recited his translation of the Georgics to Breckerfelt, who was also the fi rst person to whom Beck recited his pastoral complaint;139 he later read it to his sisters-in-law Eva and Jacobina.140

Disseminating copies of poems was the second channel through which manuscripts were published, examples including the many poems that Beck provided on request, such as those written for Christina Poppings and Jacob Hendricks. But Beck never parted with a poem until it had been transcribed into his ‘great book.’ Sometimes he would copy out poems from his book and send them off to people.

Like many of Beck’s readers, David de Moor was fi rst introduced to his work while staying in Th e Hague. He and his brother Bernhard visited Beck’s offi ce, the diary records, and ‘leafed through my note-books, drawings and poems, being astute young men and lovers of the arts.’141 Th is cultural interest became apparent when Beck was staying in Amsterdam and paid a return visit to De Moor. He stayed in De Moor’s study for a whole morning, ‘looking at his poems, notebooks, copies of a host of fi ne sermons and musical scores, as well as many unprinted poems and psalms by Anna Roemers.’142 De Moor also wanted poems by David Beck for his collection. Th e next day, Beck wrote out his poem about Amsterdam for him. Over the following few weeks, Beck and De Moor exchanged poems by letter. Beck received ‘some poems by jonkvrouw Anna Roemers’. In the same letter, De Moor asked for copies of some of Beck’s own poems. Beck responded by copying nine paraphrases of psalms from his ‘great book’ and compiling a catalogue of

137 21 June, 1 and 2 October 1624.138 26 July 1624.139 27 and 31 October 1624.140 3 and 12 November 1624.141 30 August 1624.142 23 September 1624.


all his poetry. On the basis of this catalogue, De Moor ordered a number of poems, which Beck sent him towards the end of the year.143

It was thanks to the handwritten copies made for De Moor that Beck’s poems were disseminated and that they have withstood the ravages of time. For they were copied into a seventeenth-century manuscript that still exists today and is preserved in the National Library of the Netherlands.144 It includes the poems Beck sent to De Moor: the sonnet to Amsterdam, David’s lament on the death of Jonathan, his poem to their friendship, and his rhyming versions of several psalms. Virtually all the other poems to which Beck refers in his diary were also copied into the manuscript. Although the writer of the manuscript does not identify himself, all the evidence suggests that he was connected to David de Moor. Th is assumption derives further support from the inclusion of numerous rhyming psalms and other poems by Anna Roemers that never appeared in print, since Beck’s diary notes that De Moor owned a large amount of unprinted work by Anna Roemers.

Th e manuscript proves that it was not unusual for poetry to be disseminated in manuscript form. Perhaps David de Moor had asked Anna Roemers, too, to give him copies of her poems, and perhaps she copied them out for him from her own ‘great book’. She did compile a collection of her own work from a later period, in any case – calling it the Letter-juweel (‘Jewel of letters’). Roemers, like Beck, contributed to Ernst Brinck’s album amicorum. Few of her poems were ever published in print, and these few appeared in collections compiled by others, such as Heinsius’s Poemata.

Literary historians attribute the absence of independent printed work by women to their disadvantaged position in the literary world. Women were expected to practise the virtue of modesty, which prevented them from seeking the limelight by having their work appear in print.145 Anna Roemers was not the only woman whose poems were circulated fi rst – and mainly – in manuscript form.146 Beck’s literary activities show that

143 16 November, 27 November, 25 December 1624.144 KB, ms. 74 G 12.145 Gedichten van Anna Roemersdochter Visscher edited by Riet Schenkeveld-van

der Dussen and Annelies de Jeu (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999), pp. 39–40.

146 Annelies de Jeu, ‘’t Spoor der dichteressen.’ Netwerken en publicatiemogelijkheden van schrijvende vrouwen in de Republiek (1600–1750) (Hilversum: Verloren, 2000), pp. 163–166.

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women were not the only people thus disadvantaged. Social class also played a role, in that it aff ected education. Th e elite, men like Hooft and Huygens, were able to study at university, but women from their social group were not taught Latin or Greek and therefore lacked the knowledge of the classics needed to compete with literary luminar-ies.147 Similarly, men of Beck’s social class had no access to a university education, as a result of which Beck too lacked the requisite knowledge of Latin. He describes himself as someone who had not ‘touched the Greek lyre or the Latin strings’.148 Another important factor was that a great deal of poetry functioned fi rst and primarily in a limited social environment, which reduced the need to publish in print. Th e poems were intended to strengthen mutual ties, not to prove one’s standing as a great author.149

‘Mousing and rummaging’: Beck’s reading behaviour

Literacy could serve a range of purposes. Beck’s writing enabled him to communicate over a distance, to organise and record his daily activities, to generate an income by teaching others how to write, and to enjoy literature to the full. Few would have possessed such a varied range of skills. For most people, literacy probably meant little more than the ability to read. Let us take a close look at the kind of reading in which the writing expert David Beck indulged. A poet himself, Beck spent many hours reading work by others, with French and Dutch poets featuring prominently among his favourite authors. Th ere must have been countless other poets reading and writing in the United Provinces, but Beck is the only one whose reading behaviour we can follow from one day to the next. Since almost every page of his diary refers to his association with texts, with 341 entries mentioning specifi c titles, his daily notes provide a unique picture of a historical reader. Th e follow-ing paragraphs discuss what he read, how he acquired his reading, and explore the questions of when, where and why he read.

147 Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.), Met en zonder lauwerkrans, pp. 35–39.148 In De Tropheen off Zeghe-teeckenen, quoted in the introduction to the edition

of the diary, p. 11.149 For England, see Love, Scribal Publication, p. 179; A.F. Marotti, Manuscript, Print,

and the English Renaissance Lyric (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 30.


Handwritten reading

When historians discuss reading, they generally assume that the texts concerned were all printed. But a signifi cant proportion of David Beck’s reading consisted of handwritten work: 119 entries refer to texts of this kind.

Any account of these handwritten texts must start with Beck’s own work. He would oft en read his own poetry for half an hour, or some-times for as long as an hour and a half.150 While in this case he would be reading to himself, he frequently recited from his own work. For instance, he read his lament to Breckerfelt, his mother-in-law Anna van Overschie and his brother Hendrick.151 Other poems he read to Breckerfelt included his song on David’s lament, the pastoral complaint, and Beck’s translation of the Georgics.152 Th en there were other, non-poetic manuscripts: he read the documents in the proceedings between the VOC and shareholders, which he had recently copied out for coun-cillor Reinier Pauw, to Breckerfelt and his brother Hendrick.153

Besides his own work, Beck also read a great many handwritten texts by others, a large proportion of which consisted of letters. Th e diary includes references to 82 letters that Beck read. He was also shown the will dictated by his brother Hendrick.154 On 20 April, Beck was accosted by Daniël de Kempenaer, ‘who showed me a French petition to His Excellency on behalf of the orphans of Mr Guillam Paets, a schoolmaster of this town’, who had died the previous day. Although Beck may have read this document out of interest, since he was acquainted with Paets, he may also have been asked to correct it. He frequently took on edito-rial work, for instance for his brother, whose lament on the situation in Bohemia he read, corrected and later copied out for himself.155

Most of the handwritten texts that Beck read originated from his immediate surroundings. Still, handwritten texts were not only passed on in small private circles. English historical research has shown that writers sometimes published their work in manuscript form as a means

150 9 June, 29 September 1624. See e.g. also 25 October, 6 November 1624.151 22 July, 5 July, 2 June 1624.152 23 November, 31 October, 27 July 1624. 153 12 October, 17 October 1624.154 29 August 1624.155 1 March, 2 March 1624. Hendrick Beck’s poem has been handed down in the

miscellany 74 G 12 in the KB, p. 530: ‘Clachte [over den bedroefden staet van Bohemen &c door Hendrik Bek].’

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of retaining control of the text, but Beck’s diary shows that even in this form, texts might travel beyond the writer’s sphere of infl uence.156 Beck’s diary refers eight times to handwritten poems he had read by writers outside his social network. Christina Poppings sent him the wedding poem that Hooft had written for Tesselschade Roemers, a prime example of ‘social poetry’.157 Hooft had no desire to bring poems of this kind to the attention of a wider public, and actually refused permission for his response to a poem by Huygens about this wedding to be printed in the latter’s Otium.158 Still, the printing press was not the only means of distribution, and Hooft ’s poem was disseminated anyway in handwritten form, through mutual contacts with poetry lovers. Although it did not reach such a wide readership as it would have if it had been printed, it still travelled beyond Hooft ’s immediate circle; the Hague schoolmaster David Beck was certainly no personal acquaintance of his.159

Beck did not know Anna Roemers either, but although she seldom published anything in print (unlike the male authors in her circle), he was one of her readers. For instance, he read her handwritten rhyming psalms together with his cousin Mannis.160 Between 1615 and 1622, Anna Roemers had written rhyming versions of thirteen psalms. Four were printed in the Zeeusche Nagtegael (1623), a collection of work by poets from Zeeland, published on the initiative of Jacob Cats and others.161 Beck may have been referring to this collection, but it cannot be ruled out that he read handwritten copies. He certainly received such copies later that year, when David de Moor copied out some of Roemer’s unprinted poetry and psalms for Beck, who read them ‘with immense pleasure’.162 Th e following day, Beck read some of them to Breckerfelt, which meant that Roemer’s readers included a schoolmaster and a stained-glass artist from Th e Hague. Whether she knew that her work was being distributed in this way, outside the channels of printed publication, is not known. In any case, De Moor’s miscellany, which

156 Love, Scribal Publication, p. 46.157 26 January 1624. For this poem, see Gedichten van P.C. Hooft edited by F.A. Stoet.

2 vols. (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1899–1900), vol. 1, pp. 195–197.158 De briefwisseling van Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft , letters 203, 204.159 Whether Hooft was aware of his work being disseminated in this form is unknown.

Nor is it clear how Christina Poppings obtained her copy of it. She may have received it from a member of Hooft ’s circle, or possibly from someone who knew Tesselschade Roemers, to whom it was addressed.

160 9 June 1624.161 Gedichten van Anna Roemersdochter Visscher, pp. 29–30.162 16 November 1624.


includes copies of poems from printed work as well as printed pieces bound into it,163 and Beck’s diary show that handwritten texts played an important part in early seventeenth-century reading culture.

Poetic taste: Beck’s reading of printed texts

David Beck’s love of reading is well documented: his diary contains 209 references to the printed books he read. Th e reading list that can be distilled from his diary contains 64 titles, 38 of which were written in verse form and 25 in prose (and one that was unidentifi able).

Let us take a closer look at these books. Th e prose works included three belonging to the domains of history and geography. Beck’s diary refers to an unnamed book by Johannes Sleidanus, a German scholar who published a range of historical books on secular and religious history. Beck studied the history of painting in Karel van Mander’s Schilderboeck, which contains life histories of numerous Dutch paint-ers. Th e geographical work is the monumental Atlas by the Dutch cartographer Gerard Mercator. Beck also read fi ve books about con-temporary political history. He followed recent developments in the newspaper, probably the Courante uyt Italiën &c produced by the Amsterdam journalist Caspar van Hilten,164 and somewhat less recent events in the German-language Historio continuatio, a review of the main events in Europe that was published every six months. Beck learned of some news items in the pamphlet Veelaus Vastelavont-spel, in which Baudartius reported on the invasion of the Spanish troops in the Veluwe. He read about the history of religious confl ict in France in the Morgenwecker. Th is work was also a commentary on contemporary politics: the author used his historical examples to incite revolt among Protestants, urging them to recall the unreliability of any peace agreed with Catholic rulers.165

163 Such mixtures of collected verse were not uncommon; see Marotti, Manuscript, pp. 19, 326.

164 His uncle Adriaan provided Beck with the newspaper. While Beck was lodging in Amsterdam, he noted in his diary: ‘and I went on an errand (for uncle) to the news-paper proprietor Van Hilten’ (28 December 1624). So Uncle Adriaan was evidently acquainted with Caspar van Hilten, and it is therefore likely that he, and therefore Beck too, read the Courante uyt Italiën &c.

165 J. Itjeshorst Jr, ‘Jan Fruytiers en zijn “Der Francoysen ende haerder nagebueren morghenwecker” ’, in Annuarium der Societas Studiosorum Reformatorum 1 (1912), p. 21.

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Beck also read prose lessons in worldly wisdom in books of stories, anecdotes, historical tales and quotations. Mario Equicola, an Italian writer living at the court of Mantua around 1500, wrote a Libro de natura de amore (fi rst edition published in 1525) directly related to courtly life. Like Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, a major infl uence on Equicola, the Libro provided rules for courtly conduct in the form of quotations. Equicola’s book went through fourteen reprints before 1626. Beck read it in a French translation, Les Six livres de Mario Equicola, published in 1584.166

Six of the prose works read by Beck belonged to the category of religion. Besides the Bible, he read works expounding on points of Protestant doctrine such as the Heidelberg catechism, the offi cial teach-ings of the Reformed Church cast in question-and-answer form. Before the catechism acquired this offi cial status, towards the end of the six-teenth century, many other textbooks had rolled off the press. Th ese had evidently not been rendered superfl uous by the catechism; Beck, in any case, still used them. One such text was Veluanus’s Een corte onderrichtinge (‘Brief lessons’). It was sometimes called the Leken wechwyser (‘Lay handbook’), since it provided simplifi ed teaching of Protestant doctrine.167 For specifi c points of doctrine, Beck consulted books including an unnamed work by Udemans that taught believ-ers how to prepare for Holy Communion.168 Muller’s Hantboecxken (‘Handbook’) provided Beck with assistance, again in question and answer form, in ‘learning how to live like a Christian and to be blessed in death’. Muller dealt with questions such as ‘How should a Christian behave when he falls ill?’ Believers were exhorted to understand that their illness was caused by sin and that they should look to God’s help, not medicine, for a cure.169

166 Stephen Kolsky, Mario Equicola: Th e Real Courtier (Geneva: Droz, 1991).167 Willem Heijting, De catechismi en confessies in de Nederlandse reformatie tot 1585

2 vols. (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1989), vol. 1, p. 385. G. Morsink, Joannes Anastasius Veluanus (Jan Gerritsz. Versteghe, levensloop en ontwikkeling) (Kampen: Kok, 1986).

168 It is not clear which of Godefridus Udemans’s books Beck read. No text by Udemans with ‘preparation for Holy Communion’ is known before 1624. Th e mis-cellany Het rechte gebruyck van des heeren H. avondmaal (Amsterdam: M de Groot, 1679) does contain a text by Udemans on this subject: De Noodtsakelijckheydt des H. Avontmaels. A dialogue between Th eophilus and Urbanus expounds on all the facets of this religious rite.

169 Martin Muller, Hant boecxken vande voorbereydinghe ter doodt (Groningen: Nathanael Rooman, 1635) chapter IV.


Fig. 2. Page from David Beck’s diary, July 1624. Th e subjects mentioned here include Pero Mexia’s Verscheyde lessen (2 July), Virgil’s Aeneas in the Masures translation (3 July), Peletier’s Art poétique and Montaigne’s Essays (4 July)

(Photo: Th e Hague city archives).

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Some of the 38 works of poetry that Beck read refl ect the Protestant doctrines expounded in the above prose works. For instance, he refers to the work of the French writer Th eodore Agrippa d’Aubigné, a poet who had taken part in the French wars of religion, but who also defended his faith in his writings. His epic poem Les Tragiques is a fi erce indict-ment of the injustice perpetrated on the Huguenots, culminating in a song of praise for God’s destruction of the enemies of the Protestant faith. Beck did not read bellicose poetry of this kind very oft en, but his diary does mention other French poetry written with Protestant, or anti-Catholic, overtones. In the early sixteenth century, Marguerite d’Angoulême, queen of Navarre and sister of King Francis I of France, published a work in verse denouncing abuses in the Church. Beck also read the poetry of Georgette de Montenay, lady-in-waiting to Marguerite’s successor in Navarre. Her emblem collection provided the general rules for living wisely that were customary in this genre, but also construed the prints in a Protestant sense.170 Th e French poet Clément Marot frequently challenged the Catholic Church and was therefore compelled to leave the country several times, staying with John Calvin in Geneva among others. Marot was a prolifi c poet and his work included a French translation of the psalms. His version was very popular and Beck too owned a copy of it.

Clément Marot was also one of the fi rst to translate the new human-ist culture into French poetry. He can take much of the credit for converting the rediscovery of Graeco-Roman antiquity into new verse and metrical forms. Pierre de Ronsard is regarded as the writer who perfected classical infl uences. He wrote several books of love poetry and odes to nature, but his writing consistently served the Catholic cause. In his poems he sought to emulate the classics, and in one respect he set out to surpass Latin literature. Ronsard believed that his own language, French, was on a par with the universally idolised Latin, a view in which countless French poets concurred. In other European countries too, the universal reappraisal of national vernaculars was a typical off shoot of the Renaissance.171 Another French writer who strove to promote

170 Régine Reynolds-Cronell, Witnessing an Era: Georgette de Montenay and the “Emblèmes ou devises chrestiennes” (Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 1987).

171 On this aspect of Dutch literary history, see Marijke Spies, ‘1 juli 1584: De Amsterdamse kamer “De eglentier” draagt de “Tweespraack vande Nederduitsche let-terkunst” op aan het Amsterdamse stadsbestuur’, in M.A. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.), Nederlandse literatuur. Een geschiedenis (Groningen: Nijhoff , 1993), pp. 177–182, which includes new ideas on the poet’s profession.


literature in the vernacular was Jacques Peletier, who wrote a number of works of literary theory.

David Beck was an avid reader of the new French poetry of the sixteenth century. Ronsard and Peletier were only two of the many French poets named in his diary, but Beck does not say which of Ronsard’s books he read. He read Peletier’s L’Art poétique, which analyses the essence of poetic language and expounds on its diverse stylistic devices. Beck read an overview of literary criticism in Pierre Deimier’s Académie, the subtitle of which claimed to provide readers with a perfect understanding of French poetry. For the rest, Beck read work by Jodelle, known mainly as a playwright, one of the fi rst French authors to write tragedies in the style of the Roman poet Seneca. Beck’s diary also mentions the Oeuvres poétiques by Jean Bertaut, court poet to kings Henry III and Henry IV, and the Oeuvres of the pastoral poet De la Roque.

References to Dutch poems are far less frequent. He certainly read at least three works by Jacob Cats of Zeeland: Maechden-plicht, Self-stryt and Tooneel van de mannelicke achtbaerheyt. Th e subtitle of the latter, ‘To the improvement of the domestic shortcomings of this age’, makes it crystal-clear what Cats sought to achieve with his poetry. He wanted to convey moral messages, in the case of his Tooneel on the position of men and women within marriage. Th e wife of the biblical king Ahasuerus once declined to submit to her husband’s desire. At this, Ahasuerus dissolved the marriage and chose a diff erent woman to ascend to the throne beside him, because, as the poem concludes: ‘that is the old right, the foundation of real love / thus it is that man is the head of his family.’172

Th ree other Dutch poems that Beck read in 1624 were involved in a controversy. Th e poem that appeared fi rst, Jacob Westerbaen’s Noodsaeckelick mal, derided men’s tendency to fl aunt themselves. Boys did their best to attract the attention of girls, most absurdly sometimes parading about in militia uniform. Indeed, making an impression with their uniform was the only reason why men took part in militia contests, since they were totally inept with weapons: ‘and handle their rifl es / like donkeys playing a lute.’173 Westerbaen chose Delft as the setting

172 Jacob Cats, Al de werken van Jacob Cats. Met eene levensbeschrijving van den dichter (Schiedam: H.A.M. Roelants, n.d.), p. 45.

173 Sic soleo amicos, satyra, oft e ’tNood-saeckelick mal, gestelt door Jacob Westerbaen (Th e Hague: A. Meuris, 1624).

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for his poem, thus taunting Delft ’s guardsmen. Two members of this militia, incensed, responded with a poem of their own attacking the ‘ignorant doctor in Th e Hague’, whose writing was, and would always remain, ‘now and for ever plainly ludicrous.’174 Westerbaen reacted in turn with O pulchra capita, which primarily disparaged the poetic abilities of the two men from Delft .

Aging French poems and topical Dutch prose

Cats is one of the few Dutch-language poets mentioned in Beck’s diary. Of the 64 titles on his book list, 34 are in French. Th e list also includes 24 Dutch titles, two German ones, two in Latin, and one of which the language cannot be determined. Th e French infl uence was largely confi ned to literary texts. Of the 38 works of poetry that Beck read, 27 were in French. In contrast, his Dutch reading was largely prose: 15 prose as opposed to 9 poetic texts. Beck had a striking penchant for collected poems. Th e diary mentions the Oeuvres poétiques of numer-ous poets, all of them French: Jean-Édouard du Monin, Isaac Habert, Étienne Jodelle, Siméon de la Roque, Nicolas LeDigne, Jean Bertaut, Marguerite de Navarre, Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard, Pierre Poupo, Jean Prevost and Jean Vauquelin de la Fresnaye. He also read an anthology of the ‘plus fameux poètes françois’ (according to the title) in the Marguerites poétiques.175 Beck mentions only two reference books relating to the French poets: Croix du Maine’s Bibliothèque, with biographical information, and Du Verdier’s Bibliothèque, a major bibliographical source.176

174 Caedimus, inque vicem praebemus crura sagittis. Medice cura te ipsum, oft e, Spotters ontbreeckt gheen rijm. Ghestelt . . . teghen het Nootsaeckelick-mal van Jacob Westerbaen (Delft : J.P. Waelpot, 1624). Th e poem was signed by Z.B. and W.D.L. Svend Veldhuijzen has identifi ed the latter initials as Willem Reijersz de Langue, the Delft notary mentioned in Beck’s diary (see index to the edition of the diary, p. 251).

175 Putting together collections of lyrics and publishing them in print was common in France earlier than it was in the Netherlands and England, for instance. In these countries, printing such miscellanies did not become common until around 1650. Some miscellanies did appear before then, but these contained exclusively neo-Latin poetry. Marotti, Manuscript, p. 210; Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, p. 542.

176 For an account of these two libraries, the fi rst two catalogues of books ever to appear in France, see Roger Chartier, Th e Order of Books: Readers, Authors and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries translated from the French by L.G. Cochrane (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994), pp. 41–43, 75–87.


Since the encyclopaedic works produced by Croix du Maine and Du Verdier date from the 1580s, they did not cover the recent French poets. Th is was not a great problem for Beck, since his interest focused on older French poetry. Were his literary preferences in general somewhat dated? Unlike sources like probate inventories, diaries reveal how old a book was when the reader actually read it – that is, going by the fi rst edition of a work. Of course, Beck may not necessarily have read the fi rst edition: many sixteenth-century works appeared in several editions, some as late as the seventeenth century.

From a modern perspective, Beck’s reading can be classifi ed as dated, since at least 21 of the titles he read were thirty years old or older when he read them. At least half of the 64 titles mentioned in the diary appeared before 1611. Th is is indeed a conservative estimate, since the books not identifi ed by title include numerous poetic works fi rst published in the sixteenth century. Some of the texts of which the edi-tion read by Beck is known date from before 1600. Although he read the Catechism in a 1621 edition, it was a revised edition of one dating from 1609, including the text of the Heidelberg Catechism according to an edition that had appeared in 1580.177

Despite all this, Beck was not wholly old-fashioned, given that he read eight works straight from the press – that is, books printed in 1624 – such as Westerbaen’s poems or the almanac. At least fi ve were less than fi ve years old when Beck read them, including the poems of Jacob Cats. Th ere is a noticeable link between language and the age of the books he read: at least half of his French reading was over thirty years old, while the corresponding fi gure for work published in Dutch was only 12%. Conversely, one-third of the Dutch titles was published in 1624, while Beck did not read a single French book from that year. Th ere is also a diff erence in genre. Most of the older French works that Beck read were poetry collections, while virtually all the older Dutch works were religious prose. Th e Dutch poetry mentioned by Beck, on the other hand, was far more recent.

Th e reader’s portrait delineated in David Beck’s diary shows that plenty of texts other than scholarly and religious literature existed in the seventeenth century. Beck was certainly not a humanist reader, given the virtual absence of classical historians and poets in his diary. But that

177 See the entry on ‘Gelius Faber de Bouma’ in Biografi sch lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlandse protestantisme vol. 2 (Kampen: Kok, 1983).

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does not mean that he was constantly poring over the Bible. Between Bible readers and humanists there was evidently room for readers who took an interest in poetry in their own and other languages, and who breathed in something of classical culture without neglecting biblical study. Beck’s preference for French is an indication that many Dutch readers enjoyed their reading in a European context. In other words, Dutch literature faced foreign competition, even in the seventeenth century.178

Th e dates of the texts on Beck’s reading list seem to corroborate the well-known historiographical hypothesis as to the slow circulation of printed works in early modern times. Books retained their economic value for a long time because readers such as David Beck frequently read older work. However, the 1624 diary also demonstrates that this hypothesis is only partly true, since readers like Beck also took an interest in recent, topical printed publications. Of course, it is always possible that David Beck was the exception that confi rms the rule. We do not have any other source material for purposes of comparison, and other sources incorporated into the reading study are also scarce for the early seventeenth century. To explore this subject, we shall therefore need to consult a diverse range of sources.

Beck’s books in other sources

Judging by literary history covering the early seventeenth century, Beck was not exceptional in his preference for work written in French. Dutch trends were greatly infl uenced by French literature. At the end of the sixteenth century, only a handful of writers (Jan van der Noot for one) took inspiration from French writers, most notably from Ronsard, but by the early seventeenth century, this infl uence was discernible among many poets. Although no immediate comparison can be made with titles read by these poets, we can assume that their choice of literature was not unlike Beck’s. Th e popularity of the great names from French Renaissance literature, in any case, is indisputable. Th e literary histo-rian Paul Smith found that twenty editions of Marot’s psalms had been printed in the United Provinces, not counting numerous translations.

178 For the eighteenth century, this has been noted in relation to the development of periodicals by Gert-Jan Johannes in De barometer van de smaak: tijdschrift en in Nederland 1770–1830 (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1995), p. 111.


Th e infl uence of Marot and Ronsard was visible in the circle of poets surrounding Karel van Mander, prompting Dutch translations of French poetry such as De Nederduitse Helicon (1610). Marot, Ronsard and Montaigne are also mentioned frequently in the sales catalogues of private libraries studied by Smith.179

Th e popularity of French poetry among poets is also refl ected by the correspondence between the Dutch poets Hooft and Huygens. In a letter dating from 1623, Hooft apologised to Huygens for the ‘delay in returning the enclosed Tragiques,’ partly owing to the ‘delightful-ness of its insights’, which ‘made me reluctant to part with it’.180 Th e Tragiques were also listed in the 1688 auction catalogue of part of Huygens’s library, along with the Oeuvres of Ronsard and Marot.181 Th e poet Anna Roemers, whom Beck so loved to read, was familiar with works such as Georgette de Montenay’s Emblèmes, which she translated into Dutch.182 Beck’s tastes in French literature were very similar to the library of the Utrecht burgomaster Dirk Canter. Th e latter’s estate, which was auctioned in Leiden in 1617, included the Bibliothèques of Du Verdier and Croix de la Maine, the Oeuvres of Ronsard and Marot, Montaigne’s Essais, the Histoires Tragiques, Apologie pour Hérodote, the lessons of Mexia and the Muse Chrestienne.183

Several early seventeenth-century auction catalogues have been preserved, including that of the private library of Jacob Pieter de Haes of Leiden.184 Th e latter contained Du Verdier’s Bibliothèque, Marot’s Oeuvres, De la Roque and Deimier and the collection Marguerites poé-tiques. Seventeen titles in the catalogue corresponded to Beck’s. Few other catalogues published around 1624 displayed such a large overlap with Beck’s library.185 Th e combined catalogue of the nobleman Van Mathenesse and the clergyman Plancius from 1623 contained eight titles from Beck’s diary, such as Estienne’s Apologie and Van Mander’s

179 Smith, ‘Clément Marot aux Pays-Bas’.180 De briefwisseling van Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft , letter no. 199.181 Catalogus der bibliotheek van Constantijn Huygens edited by W.P. van Stockum

(Th e Hague: Van Stockum, 1903), pp. 24, 28, 55–56.182 De gedichten van Anna Roemersdochter Visscher, p. 54.183 Th e Auction Catalogue of the Library of Dirk Canter edited by J.A. Gruys (Utrecht:

HES, 1985).184 Th e books were auctioned in Leiden on 24 September 1625. J.A. Gruys and H.W.

de Kooker (ed.), Guide to the Microform Collection Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic, 1599–1800 (Leiden [s.n.]1990– . . .) IDC catalogue no. 2013.

185 Th ose studied are ibid. IDC cat. nos. 2010–2015, 1670, 1675, 1689, 1066, 815, 766, 606–608; all auctions of private libraries held in the 1620s.

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Schilderboeck.186 Th e Hague burgher Alewijn owned copies of Marot, Ronsard and Montaigne, but also the Oeuvres of De Montreux and the works of Guevara and Heliodorus.187 Th e Morgenwecker is mentioned in three catalogues, Mexia’s Verscheyde lessen in four other. Th ese two books existed in both French and Dutch versions.

Besides the auction catalogues, Beck’s diary itself also provides an opportunity to compare his choice of books to the preferences of others, since some of his entries actually document shared interests. Breckerfelt and Beck frequently enjoyed the same literary texts. On 31 January, Beck read his friend a passage from Antoine Héroet’s Parfaite amye, a poem about courtly love that was bound into the works of Antonio Guevara. Beck also discussed literature with his brother Hendrick. Th ey were frequently to be found leafi ng through books together in Hendrick’s attic study. Th e Amsterdam bookkeeper David de Moor was another literary kindred spirit. He was a great lover and collector of literature, including Beck’s poetry.188

Notarial sources give an indication of the number of books owned by people in Beck’s immediate surroundings. Herman Breckerfelt had his will drawn up in 1673, in which he bequeathed his 51 books to his son Josua. Th e will does not mention any specifi c titles.189 Beck’s brother Hendrick also had a notary draw up an inventory of his books, likewise without any specifi cations; he merely mentioned in 1659 that almost a hundred books had been found in the attic ‘offi ce’.190 Th is was more than the average inhabitant of Th e Hague had on his book-shelves. Th e book historian Marika Keblusek studied a hundred book inventories from this city, drawn up between 1600 and 1660. Forty of them contain references to books, in most cases numbering between one and ten volumes.191

186 Ibid., IDC cat. 2012.187 Ibid., IDC cat. 607.188 16 December 1624.189 Th e will includes ‘twelve books in folio, seventeen in quarto, fi ft een in octavo and

seven in duodecimo.’ See the transcript of this document in Gelders Archief (Gelderland archives) in Reinier van ’t Zelfde, Herman Jansz. Breckerveld (1595/96–1673). Een veelzijdig ambachtsman (unpublished master’s thesis, University of Leiden 1999), pp. 108–109.

190 Th e inventory description does record size. In the front attic were two bibles, one German and one French, and ‘15 small old books’. In the ‘offi ce’ were ‘7 books in small folio editions, 17 in quarto, 26 in octavo, 25 ditto small old volumes, bound and non-bound’. GA Rotterdam, Oud Notarieel Archief inv. no. 692, p. 1.

191 Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad, pp. 146–152.


Th e inventories also provide material for comparison for Beck’s read-ing. Religious books were found in all inventories, regardless of size. So as far as this category of books was concerned, most of his fellow townspeople were on a par with Beck. Th ere were plenty of exemplary bible readers, judging by the fact that most houses owned a bible, a psalter and a catechism.192 Th e book titles in the inventories also high-light certain diff erences with Beck’s reading. Th ey refl ect the indisput-able infl uence of the humanist reading model in the Netherlands. Th e classics, which were absent from Beck’s library, abounded in numerous auction catalogues. A Hague clerk of the stadholder of Holland left 233 books on his death, including numerous French titles, but also a great many titles in Latin. Beck was probably unable to read Latin, which explains why his diary does not mention any work in that language, aside from a solitary curiosity. Th e sales catalogue, on the other hand, consisted primarily of Latin texts on theology and literature. Beck’s diary also diff ers from these catalogues in the paucity of books on his-tory and geography it lists.

In the preceding paragraphs, the books owned by various people have been compared to those mentioned by Beck in his diary. Since there is a tacit assumption here that the 64 titles mentioned by Beck represent actual purchases, this assumption should be examined more critically; we need to know whether Beck actually bought all these books, or if he might have borrowed or been given some of them.

‘Nosing around’ in bookshops or at the Binnenhof

Beck’s diary contains frequent references to new books that he had seen, and his diary therefore provides a good picture of the diff erent ways in which books could be acquired. It gives an account of early seventeenth-century book distribution from the position of the consumer.

Any discussion of book distribution must obviously start by looking at bookshops, which abounded in Th e Hague. Th e city had 23 book-sellers between 1620 and 1624, traders who combined various aspects of the book trade, and we may assume that most of them had a shop. Little is known about their clientele, but we can occasionally catch a glimpse of the kind of merchandise they sold. Th e literature off ered for sale in Jacob Elzevier’s shop in Th e Hague, for instance, was largely

192 Ibid.

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French, and other bookshops in Th e Hague were also amply supplied with French literature.193 Most of the booksellers in Th e Hague were required to join the St Luke’s Guild and to abide by its rules. But Th e Hague was an anomaly within the Dutch Republic, since as the seat of government it possessed two spheres of jurisdiction. Th e Binnenhof and the surrounding area were ruled by the Court of Holland and were not subject to guild regulations. So booksellers from outside Th e Hague could also market their wares in the Great Hall of the Binnenhof. What is more, the Court of Holland imposed far fewer restrictions on book auctions than the city council. Jacob Elzevier was one of the booksellers with a shop at the Great Hall.194

Th is meant that readers in Th e Hague could choose from the book-shops around town and those at the Great Hall. David Beck confi ned himself to the Great Hall in 1624, buying some books at auctions and others at the shops there. At the beginning of the year, he noted: ‘My brother Steven brought me the catalogue of books that are to be sold at the Hall on the 8th of this month’.195 Together with his brother Hendrick and his friend Breckerfelt, Beck went to the Hall on the day of the auction, but all they did there was ‘listen and watch’.196 Just two days later, Steven bought Muses en Deuil (author unknown) and the Oeuvres of Jean Prevost for his brother David at the auction.197 It is unclear whether this was still the same auction, nor can we deduce whether it was from the catalogue of the sale, since the extant copy has several pages missing. Still, it seems likely that Beck had placed an order based on the catalogue he had been given. Th e day aft er Steven had bought these books, Beck himself went to the Hall, this time not for an auction but to ‘nose around’ at the bookstalls.198 He eventually left the complex with Buchanan’s Paraphrasis psalmorum. He may have purchased it at the stall of Cornelis Vaeck, since when the latter died on 2 September 1624, Beck referred to him as ‘my bookseller’.

Beck was hardly one of Vaeck’s best customers, since he bought only one other book at the Great Hall aft er the Buchanan.199 He did purchase other books besides the four mentioned above, but in other cities. In a

193 Ibid., pp. 28, 74–80.194 Ibid., pp. 27–42.195 5 January 1624.196 8 January 1624.197 10 January 1624.198 11 January 1624.199 6 February 1624.


letter to his brother in Delft he asked him to buy a French bible for him there.200 Later on, Beck himself bought Mario Equicola’s Nature d’amour in Delft , in a bookshop near the town hall.201 While visiting relatives in Rotterdam, he went to Van Waesberghe’s shop in between visits ‘to browse through the French books’, and later on he purchased from Matthijs Sebastiaenz Wagens Les diverses poésies by Mr De la Fresnaye Vauquelin and l’Uranie ou Recueil des chansons chrestiennes.202 Beck also bought a book in Amsterdam, again through a local intermediary: an acquaintance named Jacob Hendricks purchased at his request the Oeuvres of De la Roque.203 Th e last book that Beck purchased in 1624 was a Hebrew psalter, evidently out of curiosity, since he could not read this language. Th is time he did not use a bookshop at all; he purchased the book from David de Moor’s brother Bernard for 14 stuyvers. Th is is the only book for which Beck noted its price.204

Beck’s diary makes it clear that seventeenth-century readers were not restricted to local bookshops for their book purchases. In book his-tory, the city is frequently defi ned as a level of the analysis, with local booksellers being regarded as responsible for ‘importing’ supplies from elsewhere.205 But readers like Beck were not confi ned by city borders;

200 13 January 1624.201 20 July 1624.202 3 August 1624. Several members of the Van Waesberghe family worked in

Rotterdam as printers in the early seventeenth century. ‘Matthijs Sebastiaensz’ was Mathijs Sabastieansz Wagens, printer and publisher from 1609 to 1625. His shop was on ’t Steiger near the sluisvliet (drainage channel) and bore the name ‘De France Croone’ (‘Th e French Crown’). See M. Evers, H. van Mourik, E. Vercauteen and D. van Wingerden, ‘Lijst van Rotterdamse boekverkopers tot 1800 gebaseerd op de aantekeningen van H.C. Hazewinkel’, in H. Bots, O.S. Lankhorst and C. Zevenbergen (eds.), Rotterdam bibliopolis. Een rondgang langs boekverkopers uit de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw (Rotterdam: Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst, 1997), pp. 483–519; esp. pp. 516–517. Th e name of his shop possibly refl ects the books he sold, and this may have been what attracted Beck to it.

203 7 July 1624: ‘ende vant eenen brief gecommen van Amsterdam van mr. Jacob Hendricks met Oeuvres du Sieur de la Roque die hij mij gecocht hadde.’ But this note is not entirely clear. If it is interpreted as meaning ‘which he had bought for me’ it suggests that the purchase was made on request. It cannot be ruled out that it was a gift , possibly bestowed in gratitude for the poems that Beck had written for Hendricks some time earlier.

204 28 December 1624.205 Hoft ijzer and Lankhorst write in their bibliographical handbook that most studies

on book history have ‘indisputably’ focused on the book trade in specifi c cities and on individual booksellers. P.G. Hoft ijzer and O.S. Lankhorst, Drukkers, boekverkop-ers en lezers in Nederland tijdens de Republiek. Een historiografi sche en bibliografi sche handleiding (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1995), p. 82.

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they could buy elsewhere, either through acquaintances or on their travels. Th e fact that Beck would sometimes drop into a bookshop and buy a book on impulse is also noteworthy. It is universally believed that books were kept unbound in early modern shops.206 Th is implies that potential buyers had to know what they intended to buy in advance, since one could not browse through the volumes on the shelves. Beck’s diary appears to contradict this. It was evidently perfectly possible to browse around a bookshop, possibly because numerous bound volumes were in fact displayed aft er all.

David Beck expanded his library in 1624 by purchasing ten books. Th is was not the only way in which he acquired new reading material, however. He oft en saw titles when out visiting, and sometimes bor-rowed them. In terms of sheer numbers, this mode of acquisition actu-ally exceeded purchases, in that Beck mentions fourteen titles and six unspecifi ed ‘books’ seen in this way. For instance, Beck borrowed Jacob Cats’s Mannelijke achtbaarheit from his brother Steven.207 Two months earlier he had glanced through a copy of this author’s Maegdenplicht while visiting his mother-in-law.208 And during a meal at Breckerfelt’s home, Beck was allowed to ‘see and read in its entirety a satirical poem entitled ’t Nootsackelyck Mal [by Jacob Westerbaen] with a reaction to another poem (a defence of the Delft militia, which the other poem had impugned).’209 Beck acquired Westerbaen’s subsequent riposte to the militiamen’s poem from his brother Steven.210

It is striking that Beck read so much recent work at other people’s houses. Of the thirteen titles he read that were published in the previous fi ve years, Beck owned only three. Th e other ten he either borrowed or read at other people’s homes. He read the Veelaus vastel-avond-spel, about the Spanish invasion of the Veluwe, at his uncle Adriaan’s house, where he also read the newspaper and the German news digest Historio

206 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, p. 61; De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 65. Cf. Paul van Dijstelberge, who mentions the ‘entrenched misconception’ that book buyers gener-ally purchased ‘a pile of printed paper’: ‘Donc je suis. Een fi losoof en zijn boek in de zeventiende eeuw’, in Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 6 (1999), pp. 123–136; esp. p. 132.

207 29 November 1624.208 27 September 1624.209 14 June 1624.210 18 June 1624.


Continuatio.211 He browsed through Mercator’s Atlas when visiting his landlord’s offi ce and paying the quarter’s rent.212 Interestingly, though, Beck does not refer to a single work of French poetry that he borrowed or read at someone else’s house.213 All 25 titles in this category were books he actually owned. Viewed in this light, it is entirely under-standable that six of the ten books that Beck purchased in 1624 were collections of French poetry.

Just as Beck sometimes borrowed books, he also lent them out and gave them to others. He frequently gave away his own poems. Aside from this, he would oft en exchange books with Breckerfelt, who bor-rowed his copy of Van Mander’s Schilderboeck, for instance.214 Aft er they had both read the Leecken wech-wijser, Beck gave it to Breckerfelt.215 Th e last book that Beck gave away was De Montenay’s Emblèmes, which he sent to his friend David de Moor in Amsterdam.216

Books in everyday life

Beck’s diary gives a picture of the books read by seventeenth-century readers and the ways in which they acquired them. Let us now see what it conveys about reading behaviour. Although reading is a mental activity, it has distinct physical aspects to it. Reading requires certain contingencies of time and space, and as such it has to be fi tted into various other activities in the same space. So it is interesting to see how David Beck dealt with these physical aspects of reading.

To start with, he did not link books inextricably to a specifi c place. His reading sometimes travelled around with him, quite literally. Once, out walking with his brother Steven, ‘from the maliebaan [court for a game resembling kolf ] to deep in the woods’, he rested there for an hour, ‘talking about all manner of things and reading for a time in Henry Estienne.’217 So he would sometimes take a book along with

211 26 November 1624.212 20 February 1624. His landlord was Adriaan van Assendelft , a lawyer in Th e

Hague.213 Th at is, assuming that the unnamed ‘books’ that Beck sometimes read at the

home of his brother Hendrick were not French poetry. See 15 April, 19 July, 2 August 1624.

214 12 February 1624.215 4 February 1624.216 16 December 1624.217 23 June 1624.

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him. Some kinds of reading could be consumed in a single sitting. On one occasion while out walking with Steven and Breckerfelt, Beck had the newspaper with him: they went ‘straight to Voorhout, in and out of the plantation, resting there on a bench beneath the cool and pleas-ant foliage of the green trees for a long while, until I had read the last printed Courant in its entirety.’218 Th e newspaper consisted of a single printed sheet that was easy to take along.

But reading while out walking was the exception rather than the rule. Beck did most of his reading at home, in some rooms more than others. Although his diary frequently mentions activities that took place in the kitchen, the warmest room in the house, Beck seldom read there. Th e room is mentioned specifi cally only once in this connection: ‘read the new Italiaensche Waerzegger oft e Almanack from beginning to end in front of the fi re.’219 Th is room was the centre of the family’s social life. Visitors were always received in the kitchen, and Beck and his guests would oft en sit around the fi reside chatting.

Th e schoolroom was evidently a more suitable place, judging by the many times Beck mentions reading there. As was customary in early modern times, the schoolroom belonged to the schoolmaster’s house, but whether Beck used a room in the house or an annex behind it is not known.220 Beck called it the ‘school’, and frequently read there in his ‘place’, which can be assumed to refer to a table or lectern and a chair. He read his French bible ‘in [his] place before and aft er the mid-day meal’.221 Perhaps the schoolroom gave Beck the peace and quiet he needed to concentrate on his reading, though he did not always need such calm surroundings since he also read during school hours. He once studied the Bible during schooltime because there were not many pupils at school that day.222 And he read a book by Cats during aft ernoon classes. One disadvantage of the schoolroom was that it was usually unheated. Th is meant that on some winter days it was too cold to do anything there, such as one day on which the cold and unpleasant weather made it impossible to ‘read, write or make poetry’.223

218 1 August 1624. For descriptions of walks, Beck oft en added a symbol, in this quo-tation aft er gingen [went]. Th e signifi cance of this symbol has never been clarifi ed.

219 1 February 1624.220 De Booy, Kweekhoven, p. 28.221 8 October 1624.222 22 February 1624.223 12 February 1624.


Th e room where Beck liked reading most was his kantoor, offi ce or study. Th e term comptoir or kantoor originally denoted a merchant’s money-chest, but in the course of the seventeenth century it also came to denote the room in which the merchant ran his business, besides which it was associated with books.224 So a kantoor was also a study, a new room in a house in which book lovers and collectors kept not only their books but also their art and other collectibles such as shells.225

Beck generally uses the word kantoor in the sense of a study. It was here that he did almost all his reading and writing. In the summer he produced a number of ‘writing poems’ there and then spent some time reading La Fresnaye’s Oeuvres. On another occasion, he studied the Bible for some time in his study, aft er which he spent half an hour reading Muller’s Hant-boecxken. Th e study was also where he did all his administration and kept his papers. He kept a large book with his own poetry in it, which he oft en read for a while before going to bed.226 He kept his correspondence there too: ‘aft er dinner I stayed in my study until 11.30, quite absorbed in my letters.’227 Beck also kept his art col-lection in his study: ‘aft er dinner I tinkered with my gilded drawings in my study for a whole hour, polishing and arranging, aft er which I read some of my own poetry until 11 o’clock.’228

Since Beck so frequently read in his study, it is fair to assume that he kept his books there as well as his papers, although his diary does not say so explicitly. Th e only reference to the place where he stored books relates to those he had in his schoolroom. One night when his brother Hendrick had come to stay, they were aroused by some thump-ing sounds coming from the schoolroom. Th ey leapt out of bed, ‘both naked’, and stormed into the schoolroom armed with a knife and an old spade, expecting to fi nd thieves. However, they encountered a rather diff erent situation: ‘Found my books and luggage knocked down onto the fl oor, but no thieves or anyone else. It appeared that cats had been

224 See e.g. the entry in the Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal.225 On the collection of art and objets d’art and the development of special rooms for

such collections, see Jaan van der Veen, ‘De verzamelaar in zijn kamer. Zeventiende-eeuwse privé-collecties in de Republiek’, in H. de Jonge (ed.), Ons soort mensen. Levensstijlen in Nederland (Nijmegen: SUN, 1997), pp. 128–158.

226 See also 25 October, 7 May, 9 June, 30 August 1624.227 1 April 1624.228 25 October 1624.

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chasing each other there, which sent us back to bed laughing, aft er which we slept well into the day.’229

Th at Beck’s study possessed special signifi cance for him is clear from the meetings that took place there. Like the kitchen, it played a role in his social life, but unlike the kitchen, he did not receive everyone there. Th e only guests invited to the study were men who shared Beck’s love of the arts, and they would always be involved in reading. It was here that Beck recited poems to Jan de Grave and that the De Moor brothers came to browse through Beck’s poetry. Beck’s brother Steven sometimes chatted to him in the study, as did his friend Muller and Guillaum of Delft . Th at the study was reserved for lovers of the arts is highlighted by the fact that Breckerfelt in particular spent a great deal of time there.

In Beck’s circle it does not seem to have been unusual to have a kan-toor. His uncle Adriaan had one, and so did his cousin Van Overschie. For the former, it was clearly an offi ce; his kantoor was not at home but at the Binnenhof. Hendrick had a kantoor that was used as a study and a place for literary activity. Beck visited him a few times to browse through his brother’s books and letters. Hendrick’s house in Rotterdam also had a study, in the attic, where he kept books. Beck’s Amsterdam friend David de Moor had one that was full of books and written poems, but that also contained the rest of his art collection.230 Cousin Van Overschie also kept a collection of ‘antique and rare objects’ in his kantoor.231

Beck clearly liked reading in some rooms more than others. Did he also favour certain times of the day? It is interesting to investigate whether people tended to read mainly by daylight, as is generally assumed, since reading by candlelight was both expensive and a strain on the eyes.232 Beck’s reading times can be followed quite well in his diary. He always noted at least whether he had been reading in the morning, aft ernoon

229 20 May 1624.230 24 September 1624: ‘toonde ons voort zijn contoor, fraeyigheijt, ende schilderij-

kens etc.’231 16 May 1624.232 A.T. van Deursen, Mensen van klein vermogen. Het kopergeld van de Gouden

Eeuw (Amsterdam: Bakker, 1991), pp. 158–159 [Th e Poor of Holland: Popular Culture, Religion and Society in the Seventeenth-Century Netherlands translated from the Dutch by Maarten Ultee (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)].


or evening,233 and he oft en noted the times exactly, to the half-hour.234 Th is provides a good picture of his reading behaviour over the year as a whole.235

Beck seldom opened a book in the morning. Afternoons were evidently more suitable, and evenings too, though somewhat less so. One might deduce that this diff erence was attributable to the use of daylight. Th is would imply that Beck would have confi ned his evening reading mainly to the early hours, and to summer evenings. But if we analyse his notes on a seasonal basis, we fi nd that this is not the case. In fact it was precisely in the winter and autumn months that Beck read most in the evening, sometimes until very late: ‘I read Van Mander’s Schilder-boeck for an hour in the evening, and before I went to bed (in my study until 1 a.m.) I read the Tragedische Historien [‘Tragic Histories’] and fi nished two of them.’236 Clearly, reading by candlelight was no problem for Beck. On 30 November, for instance, he read ‘the whole of Catz’s Mannelycke Achtbaerheijt by candlelight’.

So it was not so much the need for light that infl uenced Beck’s reading behaviour as his other activities. Modern research on readers shows the extent to which reading has to compete with other pastimes,

233 Beck’s notes are very precise, but not always very clear. When morning became aft ernoon and aft ernoon became evening is impossible to establish with certainty. Mornings probably ended for Beck at about midday. On 12 February 1624 he went for a walk ‘at midday’, returning at 12.30. On 7 June he went to church in the late morning (in the voormiddag), returned home at 12 noon and went to church again in the aft ernoon. Th e aft ernoon probably ended between 6 and 7 p.m., but this is not entirely clear. On 11 May, 5 p.m. was described as ‘evening’, while on 17 May the word is used for the time around 8 p.m., and on 13 June it was 7.30 p.m. On 27 May, however, Beck refers to ‘6 p.m. in the evening’, and uses the same phrase again on 3 April. On 18 November and 31 December, something happened ‘in the evening’ from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. On the basis of these and other notes, it seems best to assume that the evening started around 6 to 7 p.m.

234 Beck recorded the exact time for many other activities besides reading. Clock time determined the rhythm of the day, with the half-hour being treated as the smallest unit of time. When Beck mentions times, he refers to the hour or half-hour. He may have gone by the time of the clock of the Hague church tower, the chimes of which were replaced on 10 December. Th e passage of time was generally also described in clock time, the smallest unit of time here being a quarter of an hour: Beck writes that he did something for an hour, an hour and a half, or a quarter of an hour. Th is obviously does not mean he spent exactly 15 or 30 minutes on these activities. It was simply a convenient way of distinguishing between periods of time. He sometimes uses vaguer words like een tijd, een wijle, een poos, een goede poos (‘a time’; ‘a while’; ‘a short time’; ‘some time’).

235 Table 1 in the appendix gives a full list of the number of notes Beck includes on his reading.

236 29 February 1624.

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and much the same applied in the early modern period.237 In the fi rst place, work occupied a great deal of time. Beck probably taught morn-ing classes from 8 until 10.30 a.m., aft ernoon classes from 1.30 to 4 p.m. and evening school from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. He had time to read between classes. For instance, one early aft ernoon ‘aft er school’ he read the entire book of Judges.238 On 4 July, Beck writes that he ‘did nothing at all besides read for half an hour in Montaigne’s Essais before school and an hour in Jacques Pelletier’s Art Poetique aft er school.’ But it was not always impossible to read during schooltime. Th e number of pupils at school fl uctuated substantially in the course of the year, so that Beck was sometimes able to read a little during classes. And Beck did not teach every day; he oft en gave his pupils a day or aft ernoon off .

Walking was very popular and ‘competed’ with reading as a way of spending one’s time. Although the two activities would occasionally be combined, as we saw earlier in the chapter, they were generally mutually exclusive. Weather permitting, Beck would be out and about in Th e Hague. In the seventeenth century, people preferred to walk in built-up or park-like areas.239 Beck himself generally walked around town or in the woods known as the Haagse Bos. A favourite haunt was the garden of Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange, which had a fountain. Although Beck would undoubtedly have favoured walking as a form of exercise, there was also a social aspect to his peregrinations around Th e Hague. He would call on various friends, relatives and acquaintances for a chat while out on his walks. Of course, walking was contingent on suitable weather conditions, so the weather indirectly infl uenced reading behaviour. In the summer it was possible to walk more oft en and for longer, because the weather was better and it stayed light for longer. Th is may explain why Beck read more in the winter.

Social life took up much of Beck’s time, whether or not it was con-nected to walking, and was therefore another activity that ‘competed’ with reading. Beck dined with relatives very frequently, especially at his mother-in-law’s house. Dinner would generally be served at 7 or 8 p.m. and last for hours, so that it would be very late before there was any time for reading. On 6 November, for instance, Beck arrived at his

237 Wim Knulst and Gerbert Kraaykamp, Leesgewoonten. Een halve eeuw onderzoek naar het lezen en zijn belagers (Rijswijk: Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 1996).

238 16 March 1624.239 Wendy Jansen, ‘Verfrissing van lichaam en geest: aspecten van de wandeling in

de 17e en 18e eeuw’, in Holland 28 (1996), pp. 22–37; esp. p. 23.


mother-in-law’s house for dinner at 8 p.m. and stayed there talking until 11.30. He returned home at midnight and stayed up until 1 a.m. reading his own poems. Besides frequently dining at the homes of friends and relatives, Beck oft en entertained guests himself. So although in theory any time of the day or evening was suitable for reading, activities of this kind imposed certain constraints on the time available.

Diverse ways of reading

It has become customary in modern historiographical research to point to a range of possible reading styles rather than linking specifi c modes of reading to specifi c historical periods. Th ere was no linear develop-ment from reading aloud to reading silently, from reading alone to reading together, or from intensive to extensive reading; all these modes coexisted. Even so, it is believed that a wider range of options existed towards the end of the eighteenth century than before then.240 In seeking to clarify David Beck’s reading style, and to discover whether or not he read in a variety of ways, we can fi nd pointers in his use of words and the number of times he mentions a particular title in his diary.

When Beck discusses books, he generally uses the verb lezen, ‘to read’. Th is is the word he uses, for instance, for poring over his French Bible,241 and it implies that he perused a number of consecutive pages in a certain time span. When making notes on his reading of the Bible, Beck always specifi es the passages he has read, using the verb lezen. Although lezen meant perusing a text uninterruptedly, this was not necessarily for a long time. Beck oft en adds phrases indicating that he has read ‘for a short while’ or ‘a little’.242 Sometimes he specifi es which part of the Bible he has read: ‘and read the entire books of the prophets Daniel, Hosea and Joel in the French Bible until dusk’.243

But Beck does not always use the verb lezen. He bladerde [leafed, glanced] a little in Mercator’s Atlas, stayed at his neighbour’s house ‘doorsnuff elende [browsing, nosing] through three or four of his her-baria’, he futselde [toyed with] Verdier’s Bibliothèque for an hour, Beck and his brother Hendrick muisden [nosed] in books and Beck speculeerde [scrutinised, looked over] De la Roque’s Oeuvres for a

240 Brewer, Pleasures, p. 170; Chartier, ‘Richardson’, p. 656.241 18 May, 29 January 1624.242 3 February, 4 March 1624.243 22 August 1624.

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while.244 Th e diff erent words suggest a distinctly sensory relationship with books, and also indicate diff erent usages. Beck would sometimes open a book at a particular page, glance at it and perhaps read a few lines before going on to another page. Th is was how he looked at the books displayed in the Great Hall and in bookshops when deciding what to buy: ‘Th is aft ernoon I went to the Hall at the Hof to look over the books there and purchased Buchanan’s Latin Paraphrasis.245 When in Rotterdam, he dropped into Van Waesberghe’s shop to ‘nose through the French books’. Most of the books he had purchased that day he had later overzien ende doorlopen [inspected and glanced through] on the boat from Rotterdam to Th e Hague.246 When Beck las [read] or snuff elde [browsed], he was oft en alone, but sometimes in company. Reading aloud was one of the ways in which Beck and others expressed their shared interest in literature. Beck would sometimes recite his own poems to others or read from printed books. On one of Breckerfelt’s visits, Beck read him ‘a passage from the book Mespris de la Cour and [a passage] from A. Heroet’s Parfaite amye’.247 On a visit to his mother-in-law, the Gouda representatives who were lodging there read Beck a poem by Starter.248 Not only poetry was read aloud. For instance, Beck read aloud from Veluanus’s Leecken wech-wijser together with Breckerfelt and on several occasions read aloud from the newspaper.249 Occasionally Beck would relate the gist of a text without having the book with him. While walking to Delft , he writes: ‘To pass the time while we were on our way I told Breckerfelt (at his request) the entire content, condensed, of the Historie des Moorenlantschen geschiedenisse, [‘Ethiopian History’] written and printed by Heliodorus’.250

One November evening, Breckerfelt came to see Beck, who was por-ing over a book by Jacob Cats. Beck describes the incident as follows: ‘Breckerfelt came calling this evening, listened for a while to my reading from Self-strijt.’ Th e wording is intriguing. Did Breckerfelt enter while

244 20 February, 25 September, 7 December, 10 July, 7 July 1624.245 11 January 1624.246 3 August 1624.247 31 January 1624.248 20 September 1624.249 Veluanus: 4 February 1624. Newspaper: 12 January, 22 January, 1 August

1624.250 7 March 1624. See also 4 November, when Beck was the guest of Breckerfelt and

his brother-in-law: ‘told him (at his request) the entire story of the knight Mendoza and the duchess of Savoy from Bandel’s Clagelycke geschiedenissen.’


Beck was reading and stay for a while, listening? Or did Beck start read-ing aloud from the book when Breckerfelt came in? In the fi rst case, this would imply that Beck was actually reading aloud to himself. Perhaps he whispered or mumbled while reading. Some historians maintain that reading silently was a technique that did not become common until the end of the Middle Ages.251 Perhaps not everyone was yet familiar with the habit in the early seventeenth century.

Someone who did read aloud, at any rate, was Sw Andersdochter, the wife of the Frisian farmer Dirck Jansz., as is clear from her husband’s account of the day of her death. Th e maidservant had seen her go into the house that day, where she ‘sat down and read from the Bible, such that the maidservant could hear her from the kitchen.’252 Aside from the passages mentioned above, however, Beck’s diary does not contain any other indications of whether he read silently or out loud.

Th ere were other moments at which Beck raised his voice while alone, namely in song. Aft er reading from Bertaut for a while, he writes that he sang psalms 6, 91, 100, 131, 129 and 103 in French.253 Beck’s diary mentions numerous occasions on which he sang psalms. He sometimes held the book in his hand while doing so: ‘Before noon I sang psalms 79, 80, 81 and 101 together with a number of German hymns from Luther’s hymnal’.254 On other occasions, Beck does not note specifi cally having sung from a book; perhaps he was sometimes able to sing from memory. And it is possible that books were dispensed with during group singing sessions, such as one day when Beck was at Breckerfelt’s house and the two men sang psalm 51 together with the other guests.

Beck’s use of words reveals the existence of diverse ways of reading. Th is variety is also refl ected in the number of occasions on which Beck

251 Paul Saenger, Space between Words: Th e Origins of Silent Reading (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 256 ff . Saenger bases himself on matters of layout, in particular the use of punctuation and the separation of words. He believes that the dissemination of the use of word separation and punctuation documents the spread of silent reading. As far as Latin written culture is concerned, silent reading had become universal in the thirteenth century. Written culture in the vernacular followed in the fourteenth/fi ft eenth century.

252 Jansz, Aantekeningenboek, p. 137 (20 April 1618). Andersdochter was reading aloud, and when her voice suddenly fell silent, the maid was afraid that something had happened. Andersdochter sat nodding with her head on one arm and the bible slipping off her lap onto the sofa, and told the maid she wanted to take a nap, at which the maid left her alone. Th e sleep that overtook Jansz’s wife proved to be the eternal one.

253 18 January 1624.254 21 January 1624.

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refers to specifi c titles in his diary.255 Th e Bible is the book he mentions reading most frequently. He read the Book of Books systematically in slightly less than a year, a mode of reading he reserved exclusively for the Bible. At the beginning of the year he purchased a French Bible through the mediation of his brother in Delft . On the day he received the Bible from Delft he read ‘before and aft er the evening meal the fi rst lessons in my French Bible, namely the fi rst chapters of Genesis’.256 Aft er that he read several chapters at a time on a very regular basis, though in some months more than in others. Th is dedication meant that in mid-December he was fi nally able to record: ‘I read (both before and aft er dinner) the Epistle of James, the fi rst and second Epistles of Peter, the fi rst, second and third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude and the Revelation of John straight through, thus concluding my reading of the French Bible on this day’.257

Protestant doctrine emphasises that every believer must read the Bible himself. Beck shows that this was not just theory but that it was also put into practice. Reading the Bible was a matter of faith, and it was therefore a very serious business. It is clear from the words Beck uses for his reading of the Bible that he regarded it as a duty. Th e fi rst time he mentions the Bible in his diary, he refers to reading the ‘les-sons’. In other passages he refers to reading his ‘task’ from the Bible.258 Th e fact that Beck took ‘lessons’ from his Bible would have elicited the approval of any religious authority. Th is begs the question of what les-sons he learned from the Bible. While Protestant doctrine emphasised the importance of individual bible study, textual exegesis was still con-sidered the prerogative of clergymen.259 So each translation of the Bible into the vernacular was accompanied by a fl ood of Bible commentaries, catechisms, collections of sermons and other printed matter with the right doctrine. Beck was not unfamiliar with this secondary literature, as is clear from the reference to the catechism or the Leecken wech-wijser. For the rest, believers were expected to attend sermons and to listen to the words of the clergymen, who were also called ‘teachers’,

255 Th ere is a complete list of the titles that Beck mentions having read (and the number of times mentioned) in table 2 of the appendix.

256 21 January 1624.257 17 December 1624.258 28 July 1624.259 Jean-François Gilmont, ‘Protestant Reformations and Reading’, in Cavallo and

Chartier (eds.), History of Reading, pp. 213–237; esp. pp. 219–223. In this respect there was no marked diff erence between Catholics and Protestants.


an obligation that Beck duly fulfi lled. He was a faithful churchgoer and the lessons he derived from his Bible were probably infl uenced by what he heard at services. But when reading, he went his own way. At the beginning of April, he read ‘the fi rst book of Paralipomenon or Chronicles’, but the next day Cornelis de Vrije preached on John 14 in the Great Church.260

Th e Bible was the only book to receive Beck’s continuous, protracted attention, but there are other texts that he mentioned several times in his diary, such as Pierre Poupo’s collection of poetry. In January he spent an evening reading (lesende) the Muse chrestienne, in late April and early May he mentioned the book a number of times, and in December it was on his reading list again. In this period Beck did not read the book from cover to cover, as he did with the Bible, instead selecting passages from it at random. One April aft ernoon he pored over the Eclogue Myrtine, while a few days later he studied poems including Le canticque de la vraye beauté.261 At the end of December he studied the poem Clorinde, a translation by Poupo of part of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata.262 In this manner he worked his way through the book, without stating explicitly that had read it from beginning to end.

Th is mode of reading could be called random, in the sense that Beck did not read the pages from one page to the next from the beginning, instead working his way through it as he saw fi t. Beck used this mode of reading for various other texts besides Poupo’s poems. From October onwards he was occupied in this way with the work of Ronsard. At the end of the month he immersed himself in the poem ‘La Grenouille’, which he had started the previous year. Th e following day he read Ronsard ‘for an hour’ before going to bed, not long aft er which he read ‘a stretch in Ronsard’ and later he noted that he had ‘browsed in Ronsard for an hour and a half.’263 Beck purchased the Oeuvres of Vauquelin de la Fresnaye in Rotterdam, and glanced through it on the boat journey back to Th e Hague. In the following days he noted several times that he had been reading it.264 One aft ernoon, Beck read a poem

260 13, 14 April 1624.261 27 April, 1 May 1624.262 Pierre Poupo, La Muse Chrestienne edited by Anna Mantero (Paris: Société des

Textes Francais Modernes, 1997), p. 351.263 22, 23, 25, 28 October 1624.264 3, 6, 7, 19 August 1624.

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from Bertaut’s Oeuvres entitled ‘La complainte funèbre sur la mort de Calyrime’. Four months later he was reading the poem ‘Timandre.’265

Poetry collections lent themselves to this desultory approach. Since they did not constitute a continuous text, there was no need to read them from beginning to end. Most prose was less suited to this mode of reading. But although Beck read the entire story about the love between Boudewijn of Flanders and the daughter of the king of France ‘from beginning to end’ until deep in the night,266 he could start reading at any page of this volume, since the Histoires tragiques were a collection of stories. Beck’s reading list included other items that, like poems, were read in random order. Although Taffi n’s Boetveerdicheyt consisted of four books arranged in a logical sequence, one could also look up what it had to say about specifi c subjects by consulting a ‘table of the main points of doctrine’.267 Mexia and Du Verdier’s Verscheyde lessen consisted of numerous brief chapters on subjects ranging from female popes to the properties of herbs. Beck did not read Montaigne’s Essais from beginning to end (at least, not in 1624); he read only one. Th e essay genre, which Montaigne himself devised, was ideally suited to reading parts at random.

In contrast to this browsing mode, Beck describes several texts that he read from beginning to end in a brief space of time, such as newspapers, the poems of Jacob Cats and the controversy surrounding Westerbaen’s Noodsaeckelick mal. What all these texts had in common was that they were relatively short and that they did not belong to Beck. Beck bor-rowed the newspaper, each of which consisted of a single sheet, from his uncle. Th e controversy between Westerbaen and the Delft militia consisted of three fairly short poems that Beck was shown by others. He read Cats’s Tooneel van de mannelicke achtbaerheyt ‘in the aft ernoon (during classes) and for some time aft erwards, fi nishing it . . . by candle-light.’268 Th e poem, which had been lent to Beck, consisted of about 1600 lines of verse. Beck had also borrowed Cats’s Self-strijt, one of the few lengthy works that Beck read all the way through. He started on this 3,000–odd-line poem aft er returning home from a meal at his mother-

265 ‘Calyrime’: 18 January, ‘Timandre’: 19 April 1624.266 29 February 1624.267 Jean Taffi n, De boetveerdicheyt des levens (Amsterdam: J.P. Wachter, 1628

(1600)).268 30 November 1624. Th is book is mentioned twice in the diary, because Beck also

describes the occasion on which his brother Steven came calling and lent it to him.


in-law’s house: he read ‘Cats’s Self-strijt until 1 a.m., and was over half way through before retiring.’269 He fi nished it the following day.

Beck certainly did not read everything in the same way; in fact his notes show clearly that many diff erent kinds of reading existed before the eighteenth century. He read, browsed and nosed through texts, he examined or scrutinised them, he read them out loud, translated and retold them. Sometimes he read a book from cover to cover in a brief space of time, while on other occasions he picked a book up and if it held his interest for a few days he would read passages from it and then put it aside. Th at did not mean that he never looked at it again aft er that; he might pick it up occasionally and browse through it at a later stage, perhaps reading a passage or a single poem. For instance, Beck had looked at the works of Montaigne, Ronsard and Marot at least once before 1624. But in the year he kept his diary, he returned to these books on occasion, and this will undoubtedly have applied aft er 1624 as well. It is interesting to try to establish what prompted Beck to choose a specifi c book from his bookcase.

Reading in order to write

Th e question of what prompted Beck to choose something to read is a diffi cult issue that can be approached in many ways. Contemporary views, the appearance and content of books – analysed using methods drawn from literary theory or the sociology of literature – or specifi c historical conditions can all be invoked to formulate plausible hypoth-eses regarding readers’ motives and a book’s infl uence on him. For instance, it is certainly a fair assumption that seventeenth-century read-ers without a humanist education in the classics read books precisely to redress this gap and to immerse themselves in this ‘high’ culture. Th e book historian Bert van Selm has interpreted Pieter Saenredam’s library on the basis of this assumption. Th us, the many translations of classical authors in Saenredam’s library show clearly that the painter sought to model himself on the ideal of the scholarly artist by read-ing certain books.270 Th e books of David Beck – also an artist – could

269 24 November 1624.270 Bert van Selm, Inzichten en vergezichten. Zes beschouwingen over het onderzoek

naar de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse boekhandel (Amsterdam: De Buitenkant, 1992), p. 90.

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be interpreted in the same way. He read to develop his mind and to familiarise himself with ‘high culture’. In the present context, however, we are concerned with the reasons for Beck’s reading behaviour as presented in his diary.

Even using the diary, it is not easy to ascertain what reading meant to Beck, since his entries are rather vague about motives. We can discern certain links between his life and his reading. But the historian can certainly not probe the workings of Beck’s mind, as Keblusek rightly comments in an article on the Hague book world and Beck’s ‘inner reading culture’.271 Imputing motives is a matter of interpretation, though the reasoning may be eminently plausible.

Let us take one clear example. Beck had a very specifi c reason for reading Mespris de la cour. He translated passages from it, he wrote, ‘to use with my school pupils, to teach them how to translate.’272 Th is is the only time that his diary refers explicitly to his use of books for educational purposes. Still, it is a fair assumption that a similar connection existed with other titles. It can scarcely be a coincidence that a schoolmaster who ran a ‘French school’ read so much French literature.

In the case of religious books, too, Beck had practical reasons for reading. Some of his reading was related to religious obligations. He read Udemans’s book about Holy Communion in January, on the evening before the day he was to take Holy Communion himself. At the end of the year he read the same book again, together with another one, for the same reason: ‘then [read] Udemans Voorbereijdinge tegen het h[eilig] avontmael (which was to be held in the great church here the next day) and Taffi n also about Communion in his Boetveerdigheijt.’273 Beck also read Taffi n’s work the day before the day of prayer on 20 March.

What emerges most clearly is a close connection between Beck’s reading and his writing. For instance, Beck read the introduction to Marot’s rhyming psalms and then translated it. Ronsard’s Oeuvre inspired him to venture an imitation of the poem ‘La grenouille’. He enjoyed Pierre Poupo’s Muse chrestienne so much that he wanted oth-ers to share in his pleasure. On 27 November he copied out the poem

271 Keblusek, ‘Haags stilleven met boeken’, p. 94.272 22 March 1624.273 12 October 1624.


‘Mort de Clorinde’ to send to David de Moor. On 18 December he started on a translation of this poem.

Just as reading would oft en lead to writing, the converse too oft en applied. While Beck was working on his shepherd’s complaint, he read a passage from Montaigne’s Essais about Virgil, the father of the pastoral genre.274 When De Moor asked him for a poem about King David’s lament on the death of Jonathan, Beck browsed through a number of French books, ‘seeking (though in vain) a model for the aforesaid lament of David.’275

Th e fact that Beck describes explicitly looking for an example indi-cates the context within which we should see the connection between Beck’s reading and his writing. Beck’s reading behaviour fi tted within the rhetorical theory of translatio, imitatio and emulatio.276 Beck was a writing reader or a reading writer, who withdrew to his study to pore over books attentively and who later used them in his own work. Although he had not been taught Latin, his relationship with books chimed with humanist tradition.

It has already been noted that Beck’s poetry was related to events in his everyday life. And it was oft en through his writing that books played a part in daily life. Certain events prompted Beck to read and write, and conversely, reading and writing sometimes infl uenced his view of events. One of the ways in which Beck channelled his grief following the loss of his wife was by writing a lament in verse. So he had good reason to read Bertaut’s ‘Complainte funèbre sur la mort de Calyrime’ in this period. A similar pattern can be discerned a few months later. Aft er Beck’s proposal of marriage had been rejected, he dealt with his disappointment by writing a shepherd’s lament, translating his personal feelings into universal, pastoral terms. Books also played a role, since while he was writing, Beck read the Roman poet Virgil and a chapter about him in Montaigne. Th e pastoral genre subsequently off ered Beck a way of writing about everyday life. At a dinner that Beck shared with his uncle Adriaan, his brother Hendrick and Breckerfelt, the men had ‘several pastoral talks’. Th e next day, the pastoral theme was resumed in the company of Breckerfelt’s brother and brother-in-law. They drank a ‘good shepherd’s tankard of wine’, Beck read a little pastoral

274 5 July 1624.275 16 November 1624.276 Warners, ‘Translatio’.

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poetry, and they ate a merry ‘shepherds’ meal’.277 So it was not only in writing poetry that Beck assumed the guise of a shepherd; real life too sometimes acquired a pastoral fl avour.

It is not easy to discover what Beck thought of the books he read, since he seldom wrote lengthy assessments of them in his diary. Th e few opinions he does include are generally brief expressions of appre-ciation. For instance, in the Historio Continuatio he read ‘the excellent letter from the ousted and devout king Frederick of Bohemia to the Elector in Saxony’. But exactly what was ‘excellent’ about it, he does not specify. On 26 January, Beck read Hooft ’s poem to the marriage of Tesselschade Roemers ‘with great pleasure’, a phrase he repeated when browsing through the poems of her sister Anna. Beck sometimes describes letters as ‘charming’ and he occasionally calls a work ‘splen-did’ or ‘beautiful’.

Beck does express an unusually strong opinion about the work of Pierre Poupo, calling him an author ‘of whom I am particularly enam-oured’.278 What did Poupo have that aroused this passion? First and foremost, perhaps, his French Renaissance background. Th e Muse chrestienne contains a wide range of pastoral poems and classical love poetry, including ‘Myrtine’, a pastoral verse lament in which a shepherd describes the death of his son. Th e ‘Clorinde’ was a typical example of Renaissance-inspired love poetry. For the rest, Beck probably admired Poupo because he was a poet who had converted to Protestantism. Th at is why Poupo called his work Muse chrestienne, to indicate that he had abandoned the classical (pagan) muses in favour of Christian ones.279

Beck’s behaviour with his books also helps to clarify his appreciation of them. If he opened a book several times to read passages from it, this undoubtedly refl ects on the value that it had for him. Th e other books he read from beginning to end (partly no doubt because they were relatively slim volumes) can also be assumed to refl ect the appeal they had for him.

277 27, 28 October 1624.278 24 April 1624.279 On Poupo, see Ralph M. Hester, A Protestant Baroque Poet: Pierre Poupo (Th e

Hague: Mouton, 1970).


Final remarks

Th e Hague schoolmaster David Beck was certainly not the only early seventeenth-century diarist, but the written record of his everyday life is remarkable in comparison to other egodocuments from this period. He devoted considerable attention to his association with books, enabling us to fi ll in the gaps in our picture of seventeenth-century readers – for one such reader, in any case.

Beck’s reading behaviour was strikingly varied. Religious material accounted for some of the works on his lengthy book list, but he also took a considerable interest in French prose and poetry and popular prose such as almanacs. Th e way in which he acquired his reading was equally varied. He purchased books in shops and auctions, but sometimes borrowed them from others. Th e diary contains interesting information about the way business was conducted in early modern bookshops. Customers could browse through books there and purchase them ready-bound. Beck’s diary also makes it clear that the books people owned accounted for only a proportion of the books they read. Th e activity of reading was equally diverse: Beck read in a variety of places and at many diff erent times of day. His diary reveals that other activities sometimes infl uenced the times and places left for picking up a book. Th e variety of books corresponded to the diversity in modes of reading. Beck studied the Bible seriously and systematically; in that respect he was a traditional Bible reader. But this model did not deter-mine his reading behaviour. While he read the whole of Westerbaen’s poem at a single sitting, he would oft en leaf through poetry collections, reading at random. Th is random browsing was closely related to his writing activities, and may be related to the art of rhetoric. Although Beck had no access to the world of Latin scholarship, the humanist model of reading nonetheless infl uenced his reading. Beck’s diary is not a source enabling a historian to probe the thoughts of the diarist’s mind, but his notes do give a clear record of the mutual infl uence between life and reading. Pastoral discourse in particular forged a bond between devotees.

For Beck, writing was as important a part of literacy as reading. His diary, itself part of his written output, shows that his writing served a wide range of purposes, from administrative to social and artistic, the latter two being frequently combined: Beck wrote numerous poems for acquaintances and relatives, and exchanged handwritten poems with his friends.

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Th e detailed notes that Beck made in his diary also help us to gain a picture of everyday conversation and therefore to place literacy in the context of another mode of communication. Artistic, political and religious themes fi gured prominently in verbal as well as written culture. In addition, many conversations revolved around family matters and personal experience.

Beck’s diary also reveals the numerous relationships between con-versations, written texts and printed matter. Reading and writing, for instance, were oft en social events. Friends would recite texts to one another, browse through books together, and discuss literature. Books and written poems were exchanged. Poems were written in response to events in everyday life. Letters were read and passed on to others. People retold to each other the stories they had read.

Th e way in which the diff erent media came together can be seen in the realm of news, for instance. To stay abreast of events in European politics, Beck read the newspaper, the Historio continuatio and pam-phlets like the Veelaus vastel-avond-spel. But he did not derive all his information from printed sources. For instance, he fi rst heard the news of the taking of All Saints’ Bay from his uncle Adriaan. Later on, his mother-in-law received a letter from her son who had sailed with the fl eet. Beck read and copied this letter and immediately visited numerous acquaintances to give them an opportunity to read it. Th ey too copied it out. Beck later read the account again in the newspaper and wrote about the event in his diary.

Th e roles played by these media sometimes overlapped. Beck incor-porated his wife’s death into a poem, and while he was writing it he frequently read examples of such poems in printed books. But talk-ing too helped him work through the process of mourning. Beck had many conversations with his mother-in-law about his grief and poured out his heart about his ‘loss and the lack of her sweet, lovely, faithful companionship’ that caused him to ‘weep and lament from the depths of his heart.’280 He coped with the rejection of a marriage proposal by reading and writing, but he also went to talk to Breckerfelt and to his mother-in-law, ‘in search of companionship to help expunge some of the melancholy thoughts.’281

280 19 February 1624.281 21 October 1624.


David Beck’s diary reveals the existence of diverse modes of reading and writing in the seventeenth century and shows how ‘literate life’ was shaped by, and in turn infl uenced, everyday social life. For numerous reasons, Beck’s use of written and printed words was highly individual. First of all, few people had the opportunities he enjoyed, while at the same time he lacked certain skills that others possessed. Beck was a man, his education had equipped him with a knowledge of French but not of the classics, he was fairly well-off though not particularly wealthy, he had suffi cient time to read and write but had to fi t these activities into his daily working life. It is time to turn to others in diff erent circum-stances and to see how they used their ability to read and write. Th e following chapter deals with a diarist from a diff erent century, who, like David Beck, kept a record of his reading.

CHAPTER THREE

ARISTOCRATIC LITERACY: PIETER TEDING VAN BERKHOUT AND HIS ‘JOURNAL’ (1669–1712)

Th e Hague schoolmaster David Beck had to assuage his thirst for French literature at local bookshops. He would have envied Pieter Teding van Berkhout (1643–1713), also from Th e Hague, who was able to purchase books in the centre of French culture. Travelling through France, Teding van Berkhout (also referred to below merely as ‘Berkhout’) spent several days in Paris, where he found time in his busy round of visits to make purchases at bookshops, noting in his diary: ‘some [of these purchases] are instructive while others provide amusement during my travels.’1

There was indeed a world of difference between the two men. Berkhout was born long aft er David Beck had died. While Beck lived in the fi rst half of the seventeenth century, Berkhout’s life spanned the entire second half of the century. Th e social positions of the two men were also poles apart, since Berkhout belonged to the upper echelons of society, a fact underscored by his purchases in Paris. Like many boys from the well-to-do classes, Berkhout concluded his education with a grand tour of France, in the course of which he obtained a university degree and mastered the rules of polite social intercourse.2 Despite these diff erences, the two men did have one thing, at least, in common: they both kept a daily record of their activities. When Berkhout died in 1713, he left a pile of papers in which he had written down what he had done almost every day since 1669.3 Reading was one of the activities he regularly recorded, and this makes his diary a remarkable document.

1 Nationaal Archief, Familiearchief Teding van Berkhout [hereaft er abbreviated to NA, FA TvB] inv. no. 214: travel journal of Pieter Teding van Berkhout, 12 April 1664. ‘je me fi s rien que faijre quelque emplette de livres, dont les uns me pourvaient servir d’instruction et les autres de divertissement durant le cours de mon voyage.’

2 Many sons of the Dutch elite lived in Paris for part of their grand tour and like Berkhout kept a record of their travels. Van Westrienen used these travel accounts as the basis for her history of the grand tour. Anna Frank-van Westrienen, De Groote Tour. Tekening van de educatiereis der Nederlanders in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandse Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1983). Teding van Berkhout’s account and that of his later brother-in-law Coenraad Ruysch were among the sources she relied on.

3 KB, ms. 129 D 16. Quotations from the diary in the text of this chapter are given in translation, accompanied by a footnote with the original French text.

114 chapter three

Given his elite background, there is nothing surprising, of course, about the fact that Pieter Teding van Berkhout was a keen reader. In the seventeenth century, the book-reading public was made up fi rst and foremost of the upper echelons of society, people who could aff ord to buy books. Since gentlemen of this class generally attended university, their reading behaviour would have been infl uenced by the prevail-ing model of the humanist reader. Th is is borne out by the nature of private book collections, such as that of the statesman and diplomat Adriaan Pauw. On his death in 1653, this former Grand Pensionary left a library of 160,000 books, consisting mainly of theology, classical texts and history.4 While few collectors were as fanatical as Pauw, his library does provide an indication of the taste of many patricians, although it should be noted that most book collections included occupational literature on legal issues and public administration.5

Teding van Berkhout’s diary has been studied before. Th e sociologist Cornelis Schmidt used it for a study of this family,6 whose fortunes so perfectly exemplifi ed the aristocratisation of Holland’s elite – a sig-nifi cant sociohistorical trend. Th e cultural side of this trend involved growing interest in the behavioural model inspired by Italian and French codes of honnêteté, civilité, courtesy and good breeding.7 At the heart of this model were rules of etiquette, laid down in guidelines for informal, judicious behaviour tailored to the specifi c social context, but civilité was also expected in correspondence, for instance, and reading was

4 H. de la Fontaine Verwey, Uit de wereld van het boek IV: Boeken, banden en bib-liofi elen (’t Goy: HES, 1997), pp. 183–196.

5 Maarten Roy Prak, Gezeten burger. De elite in een Hollandse stad. Leiden, 1700–1780 (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1985), pp. 222–223; Luuc Kooijmans, Onder regenten. De elite in een Hollandse stad. Hoorn 1700–1780 (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1985), pp. 199–200; Otegem, ‘Omweg of dwaalspoor’, p. 85.

6 Cornelis Schmidt, Om de eer van de familie. Het geslacht Teding van Berkhout 1500–1950, een sociologische benadering (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1986). On Pieter Teding van Berkhout: pp. 69–84. Idem, ‘Een lengteprofi el van het Hollandse patriciaat. Het geslacht Teding van Berkhout 1500–1950’, in Johan Aalbers and Maarten Prak (eds.), De bloem der natie. Adel en patriciaat in de Noordelijke Nederlanden (Meppel: Boom, 1987), pp. 129–140.

7 E.K. Grootes, ‘Heusheid en beleefdheid in de zeventiende eeuw’, in P. den Boer (ed.), Beschaving: een geschiedenis van de begrippen hoofsheid, heusheid, beschaving en cultuur (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2001), pp. 131–145. On aristocratisation and the rules of civility in the United Provinces, see Pieter Spierenburg, Elites and Etiquette: Mentality and Social Structure in the Early Modern Northern Netherlands Centrum voor Maatschappijgeschiedenis vol. 9 (Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit, 1981).

aristocratic literacy 115

recommended as a way of learning the rules of polite conversation.8 French culture set the standard of civilised culture, but the ideal of the honnête homme clearly pervaded Europe.9 In the United Provinces, the French language itself was esteemed for its refi nement, and people evidently read more French than before, judging by the growing num-ber of books in that language.10 Public tastes may have been swayed by the ideal of decorum. Dutch literature was geared towards readers who took an interest in civilised pastimes, bon mots and entertaining rather than scholarly reading.11

Two models may be used to describe the seventeenth-century aris-tocratic reader: one informed by humanism, the other informed by the ideal of good breeding. It is interesting to see whether either of these descriptions fi ts the specifi c historical reader we are dealing with here. From Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s diary we can learn a good deal about what aristocrats read in the latter half of the seventeenth century, as well as how, where and when they read. Th is chapter also analyses the uses of writing, the other side of literacy, in this social group. Berkhout left other documents besides the diary that help to clarify these uses. Th e context of everyday reading and writing was shaped by the spoken word, and Berkhout’s diary tells us about everyday conversation in an elite milieu. But let us start by looking at the writer and his diary.

Th e life of a gentleman of rank

Pieter Teding van Berkhout served on numerous local, provincial and national executive bodies. Still, he did not make a mark on the politi-cal history of his day, and he has only recently gained a reputation in historiographical circles. He owes this belated fame to two entries in his diary. On 14 May and 21 June 1669, Berkhout wrote that he had visited an ‘excellent painter named Vermeer’, who had shown him certain specimens of his art. Th is makes Berkhout the only Dutchman to have documented a visit to the artist Johannes Vermeer, and one of only two

8 Anna Bryson, From Courtesy to Civility: Changing Codes of Conducts in Early Modern England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), pp. 151–155. Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, pp. 234–235, 577–579. On the ideal of courtesy in France, which developed from a universal model of behaviour to a comprehensive code of conduct based on life at court, see Chartier, Th e Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France, pp. 75–91.

9 Bryson, From Courtesy to Civility, pp. 79–81.10 Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, p. 235.11 Ibid., pp. 577–579.

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known contemporary commentators on the work of the painter who is so famous today. Th e diary entries gainsay the romanticised picture of Vermeer as a genius who lived in social isolation, since his contempo-raries evidently described him as ‘excellent’ and ‘celebrated’.12

The art-historical discovery was the work of Schmidt, who has shown, taking the Teding van Berkhout family as an example, that the distinctions between the most prominent citizens and the rest of society became more sharply focused in early modern times, in political, social and material terms.13 Th e elite gradually became a true patrician class, for whom governing the city, the province and the country had become their mission in life. While Berkhout’s grandfather, like his ancestors before him, had been both merchant and administrator, his father and later he himself were fully occupied with their responsibilities on city and provincial councils. His father, Paulus Teding van Berkhout, born in 1609, began his political career as pensionary of Monnickendam, in which capacity he frequently stayed in Th e Hague. But he lived in Delft , the birthplace of his wife Jacomina van der Vorst, whose kinsmen held important positions in the city’s government.14 In 1649 Paulus was appointed to a provincial executive and moved to Th e Hague.15 Serving in public offi ce could be extremely lucrative: on his death in 1672, Paulus left a fortune amounting to over 324,000 guilders, making him

12 Ben Broos, ‘Un celebre Peijntre nommé Verme[e]r’, in Ben Broos and Arthur Wheelock Jr (eds.), Johannes Vermeer exhib. cat. Mauritshuis/ National Gallery of Art (Zwolle: Waanders, 1995), pp. 47–65; esp. pp. 49–50. See also John Michael Montias, Vermeer en zijn milieu, translated from the English by Hans Bronkhorst (Baarn: De Prom, 1993), pp. 282, 377–378. Th e references to Teding van Berkhout were later addi-tions that had not been included in the original English edition. Later on, Berkhout also described a visit to Gerrit Dou, ‘le fameuze peijntre Douw, qui nous fi t voijr 3 ou 4 belles pièces de son art et de sa maijn.’ (30 December 1669).

13 Th e family history described in this section is based on Schmidt, Om de eer. On the process of aristocratisation, see Luuc Kooijmans, ‘Patriciaat en aristocratisering in Holland tijdens de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Aalbers and Prak (eds.), De bloem der natie, pp. 93–103. Dirk Jaap Noordam, Geringde buff els en heren van stand. Het patriciaat van Leiden, 1574–1700 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1994).

14 Th e marriage between Paulus and Jacomina was typical of the patrician class, which, in marrying among their own ranks, separated themselves from the rest of society. Paulus was not the only Teding van Berkhout to marry within the patrician circle. His eldest sister was married to the Pensionary of Delft , another sister to a bailiff , the next one to a justice of the Supreme Court and yet another to a burgomaster of Alkmaar. His sister Cornelia Teding van Berkhout married Maarten Tromp, admiral of the Dutch fl eet.

15 He was appointed to the Chamber of Accounts of the Domains of Holland and West Friesland, which administered lands that had previously belonged to a count and were now ruled by the States of Holland.


one of the fourteen wealthiest people in Th e Hague. As was customary for aristocratised members of the patrician class, his fortune consisted primarily of investments in land and bonds rather than the high-risk commercial and industrial ventures favoured by his ancestors.

Pieter Teding van Berkhout, the fi rst son of Paulus and Jacomina, was born in 1643.16 In this affl uent family the son is sure to have enjoyed a refi ned and very sound education, but the details of this education are obscure. Whether he attended school or was privately tutored at home like his contemporaries Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens is unknown, but it is clear that Berkhout was well versed in Latin and had a perfect command of French at an early age.17 We also know that he acquired a university degree in Orléans, during the grand tour of France with which he concluded his education.

Several years aft er his French grand tour, Pieter Teding van Berkhout married Elisabeth Ruysch, daughter of the registrar of the States General; she came from a family of Dordrecht and Leiden patricians. Th e couple’s future lay in Delft , where Berkhout was related to numerous patrician families through his mother and grandmother. In 1670 Berkhout and Ruysch moved to Delft , and they had their fi rst child shortly aft erwards. Nine more children would follow over the years, only four of whom would survive their parents. In 1704 Elisabeth Ruysch was borne to her grave. A few years later, the then 64-year-old Berkhout remarried, his new wife being the three years younger Maria van Bleyswijk. It was thought strange in this era for elderly people to take an interest in the opposite sex and relatives worried about their inheritance prospects in the wake of a second marriage. Coenraad Ruysch, the brother of Berkhout’s fi rst wife, called the new marriage ‘lunacy’ in a letter to a friend, adding a few satirical lines of verse: ‘Piet and Marie desire to mate/ and want to burden the marital bed / with a hundred and twenty-fi ve-year slate / Pasquijn, my friend, what’s your view? / Pasquijn, the grave were an apter venue!’18 Ruysch’s wish was granted. Berkhout died in 1713.

16 He was followed by Jacomina, born in 1645, and Joan, born in 1648.17 His name does not occur in the album of students at Leiden University, not even

under other possible variants of his name. Berkhout’s father had studied at the University of Leiden, however, as would Berkhout’s son, also named Paulus. Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae (Th e Hague: Martinus Nijhoff , 1875), pp. 186, 737.

18 Prak, Gezeten burger, p. 183.

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He had a lifetime of public service behind him. Aft er settling in Delft in 1670, Berkhout fulfi lled his obligations in the militia, and as a well-to-do burgher was naturally placed in charge of a company.19 Contrary to his expectations, he was not immediately appointed to Delft ’s vroed-schap, the pool from which the executive was drawn, but had to wait until 1674 for that honour. Public administration in Delft had long been dominated by a power struggle between groups of patricians with confl icting interests and Berkhout was caught in the middle of it. His appointment was opposed by a group of councillors who argued that he was not a true burgher of Delft because he had not been born there.20 Th ey also tried to discredit him in the eyes of stadholder William III, whose prerogative it was to appoint new members on the basis of the executive’s nominations.21 Th eir eff orts were initially successful, in that William refused to accept Berkhout’s nomination, but not long aft er-wards the factional dispute was resolved. Pieter Teding van Berkhout was admitted to the vroedschap, although he had been obliged to agree to a deferral of his full burgher status ‘to preserve peace and harmony’;22 this excluded him from all executive positions outside the vroedschap for fi ve years. It was therefore not until 1680 that his career in public administration was fi nally launched. Berkhout’s subsequent positions included several terms as burgomaster of Delft and as the city’s delegate to the States of Holland. In later years he served as the States-General’s representative to the Admiralty of Zeeland, part of the Dutch Republic’s navy. His career was crowned with an appointment to the Council of State, which administered the army and the fortifi ed cities. But since

19 For instance, militia captain Teding van Berkhout led the Delft troops who were sent to Goejanverwellesluis in 1672 to help defend Holland from the advancing French army: NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 205: Letter from Herman Graswinckel to Pieter Teding van Berkhout. Graswinckel informed Berkhout that 180 or 190 troops would soon be departing to relieve his men.

20 Berkhout described the dispute about his appointment in the minutes he took of the meetings of the city council (raad ) from 1674 onwards. GA Delft , Losse aanwinsten Delft , inv. no. 1290: minutes kept by Pieter Teding van Berkhout.

21 Ibid., fol. 2v. Th e merits of their accusations cannot be ascertained with any confi dence. Schmidt writes that in the fi rst few years Berkhout voted with what one could call the republican majority, but he thinks it unlikely that this was based on deliberate ideological considerations. Berkhout seems to have acted largely on the basis of pragmatic motives, his main desire being to preserve his position. When the majority in the council inclined to the House of Orange, Berkhout duly changed sides. Schmidt, Om de eer, p. 75.

22 Ibid., fol. 5.

120 chapter three

he did not acquire this position until 1713, he was not able to enjoy it for very long.

Teding van Berkhout had all the trappings of a true aristocrat. He lived in a stately mansion overlooking one of Delft ’s canals and spent his summers on the family’s country estate. Initially he owned a coun-try home in the vicinity of Noordwijk, and later he inherited from his father-in-law the estate of Pasgeld, near Rijswijk, where many wealthy people from The Hague had their summer residences.23 Berkhout employed a large number of domestic servants and possessed typical status symbols such as carriages. His vast assets included estates in Oud Beijerland and Pijnacker and a large portfolio of bonds and annuities, together amounting to a value of 475,000 guilders, Berkhout calcu-lated in 1707.24 Even by patrician standards this was a large fortune. No fi gures are available about the makeup of society in Delft , but in Gouda, a city of a similar size, the average patrician left an estate val-ued at 70,000 guilders. In another medium-sized city, Hoorn, this sum was 200,000 guilders, and only fi ve aristocrats were worth more than 500,000 guilders. In Leiden only one patrician possessed a fortune of this order.25 Clearly, Pieter Teding van Berkhout belonged to the cream of Holland’s elite.

‘Journal contenant mes occupations’

Pieter Teding van Berkhout called the fi rst section of his diary ‘journal, contenant mes occupations depuis le 1 de janvier 1669 jusqu’au 15iesme du moijs du juijllet 1669’. It was the fi rst part of a text that would ultimately grow into a 31-part manuscript in which Berkhout wrote an account of his activities on a virtually daily basis until 1713.26 Was this regularity exceptional among his contemporaries? More material for comparison is available from the latter half than the beginning of the century, which makes it possible to form a clear picture of what it meant in this period to keep a diary.27

23 S.E. Veldhuijzen has written a history of this house and its inhabitants, ‘De buiten-plaats Pasgeld te Rijswijk ZH’, Jaarboek Die Haghe (1967), pp. 72–130.

24 Schmidt, Om de eer, p. 84.25 De Vries and Van der Woude, Nederland 1500–1815, p. 683.26 Only from 1680 to 1684 were his entries sparse, with only a brief outline of the

events in his life in that period.27 In the period spanned by Berkhout’s diary, there were at least 25 other people

who kept a daily record of their lives, as is clear from the inventory of egodocuments:


Although others kept a diary, few did so for as long as Berkhout. Th e Amsterdam burgomaster Joan Huydecoper kept a diary for 23 years.28 Another member of Amsterdam’s patrician class, Pieter de Graeff , made notes in his almanacs for 42 years.29 Th e diary of the French clergy-man Jacques Basnage de Beauval spans a full 48 years, but the notes he made in the period 1675–1720 related to historical events that he had read about later in books.30 Th e merchant Claes Arisz. Caescooper of Zaandam started writing in the same year as Berkhout and kept it up until 1729. His ‘notebook . . . or journal’ was mainly full of notes about births, marriages and deaths in his family as well as occasional records of other noteworthy events and comments about the weather.31

Diaries less voluminous than Berkhout’s have been handed down in much larger numbers. Th e same range of diary styles as those described in relation to David Beck’s time can also be identifi ed towards the end of the seventeenth century. Th is includes a variety of personal chronicles. Numerous people recorded the dramatic events of the ‘year of disaster’, 1672. Everard Booth (a burgomaster’s son) kept daily notes on events in the city of Utrecht during the French occupation, describing, for instance, the placards that the occupying forces hung around town broadcasting their demands to the remaining Dutch troops.32 In 1672 the Amsterdam militiaman Lucas Watering kept a daily chronicle of events in his surroundings and in the rest of the country, frequently adding printed matter to his diary.33

Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, nos. 125, 127, 130, 132, 133, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144–146, 148, 151, 152, 154, 158, 165, 170, 171, 175, 176, 185, 189, 190.

28 Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 116. Th e notes that have been preserved cover the years 1658–1660, 1673–1674, 1676–1687, 1694–1704. On Huydecoper and his diary, see Kooijmans, Vriendschap, pp. 132–148

29 Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 121. Th e notes begin in 1664 and end in 1706.

30 UB Leiden, mss. BPL 127 AH. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 138. Not until 1720 do Basnage’s notes relate to events within his own experience, such as conversations or letters he had received. Th ese notes too deal almost exclusively with historical matters.

31 GA Zaanstad, Persoonlijk Archief Honig, doos VII. Lindeman et al., Egodocu-menten, no. 125.

32 J.A. Grothe, ‘Dagelijksche aanteekeningen gedurende het verblijf der Franschen te Utrecht in 1672 en 1673, gehou den door mr. Everard Booth, Raad-Ordinaris in den Hove provin tiaal van Utrecht en Oud-Raad ter Admiraliteyt, uit de papie ren van Booth’, Berigten van het Historisch Genootschap (1857), pp. 3–166, entry for 1 July 1672. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 130.

33 J.F. Gebhart Jr, ‘Een dagboek uit het “Rampjaar” 1672’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 8 (1885), pp. 45–116; esp. p. 90. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 131.

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Th e connection between diary-writing and fi nancial administration still applied towards the end of the seventeenth century, as is illustrated by the records left by Aleida Leurink, one of the earliest women dia-rists. Most of her notes related to her farm. In the fi rst few years, she noted only the proceeds from the harvest and from sales of rye. Later on she expanded the diary to include brief notes on the weather and its infl uence on the harvest. In the rest of her diary she added notes like this on a daily basis.34 Jan Brouwer was in charge of the day-to-day running of Rotterdam’s Pest- en Dolhuis (‘Plague House’ and insane asylum). He recorded all his expenditure in a notebook every day, work as well as private expenses. In between these fi nancial transactions he also noted down events from everyday life, such as the meetings of his music society and his nephew’s fi rst day at school,35 along with striking observations he had come across in books.36

Some historians have interpreted the connection between fi nancial administration and diary-writing by suggesting that early modern diaries can be seen as the administration of ‘social capital’. People developed and maintained a sound social network by exchanging services ranging from dinner parties to mediating in jobs. Exchanging services was not so diff erent from the receipt and payment of money and it was recorded in the same way, thus providing an overview of the person’s social capi-tal. Th is kind of record is best illustrated by the journal kept by Joan Huydecoper’s father of the same name, who served on Amsterdam’s city council.37 Whether everyone took this strategic approach to social life is open to question, but it is certainly true that many early modern diarists focused primarily on their daily round of social intercourse. Th is applied in the early seventeenth century, as the analysis of David

34 Historisch Centrum Overijssel, collectie kopieën (no inv. no.). Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 170.

35 GA Rotterdam, Archief Pest- en Dolhuis inv. no. 148. Lindeman et al., Egodocu-menten, no. 146. Zijlmans devotes a chapter of her book to the music society to which Brouwer belonged: Zijlmans, Vriendenkringen, pp. 43–58.

36 Brouwer copied the following observation from Baudartius’s Spreucken, for instance: ‘How curious it is that some people exert themselves to ascertain how many knots there were on Hercules’ club or what colour the beards of Judas or Achilles were.’ Diary of Jan Brouwer, p. 23. Brouwer was quoting from Willem Baudartius’s Apophthegmata christiana. Oft e Ghedenck-weerdighe, leersaeme, ende aerdighe spreucken (1605), a book that ran through several editions in the seventeenth century.

37 Utrechts Archief, FA Huydecoper inv. nos. 54–65: diary of Joan Huydecoper. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 116. According to Luuc Kooijmans his diary was ‘largely a social balance-sheet of items credited and debited – on the social rather than the fi nancial side.’ Kooijmans, Vriendschap, p. 137.


Beck’s diary makes clear, and social interaction continued to dominate diaries later in the century. Th e entries that Dirk van der Koghen of Amsterdam made in his almanac, for instance, are almost exclusively concerned with the visits he made and received. He frequently travelled by tow barge to see acquaintances in Haarlem.38

Th e diary left by the nobleman and army general Alexander Bernhard van Spaen exemplifi es a variant of the daily journal that has not yet been discussed in this book. His notes revolve around his professional career and are confi ned to his military campaigns.39 Diaries like this, personal accounts of leading fi gures on the political stage, were more like the memoir genre and were very popular early on, also in printed form. Th ere were several in Teding van Berkhout’s bookcases.

To what extent did Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s diary correspond to his contemporaries’ writing style? His ‘journal’ can certainly not be called a chronicle. Interesting news items are mentioned now and then, but these are not at the heart of his daily accounts. Berkhout’s entries were based on the events of his personal life. Although politics were the fabric of his daily life, since much of his time – certainly from 1674 onwards – was spent in meetings with other patricians, his diary refl ects little of this. Berkhout always records his attendance at council meetings and days spent at the magistrates’ court (schepenbank), but without describing his activities. So his notes do not resemble memoirs, even though he was a professional public administrator. Nor was his ‘journal’ related to the written records of his fi nancial administration. Berkhout occasionally notes purchases, but never lists prices in his diary.

Berkhout’s diary focuses on meetings, visits and shared activities, and in that respect it is not unlike those of many of his contemporaries. So it might be seen as an account-book of Berkhout’s social life, and has in fact been interpreted as such. An aristocrat like Teding van Berkhout was able to maintain his standing not only by virtue of his economic and political power, but also because he possessed the right social capital. He noted down the details of this capital in his diary.40

38 Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Bibliotheek F 2233–2234. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 148.

39 Hoge Raad van Adel, FA Van Spaen inv. no. 85: diary of A.B. van Spaen. Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 171.

40 Schmidt writes in Om de eer, p. 73, that Pieter kept strict accounts of his visits and return visits ‘in the manner of a bookkeeper’.

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Th at said, Berkhout was not very meticulous. In the early 1680s he neglected his diary, and in other respects too he was sometimes lax. Although his text reads like a daily account, he did not in fact write every day but sometimes added his entries several days later. On 12 February 1669, very little time elapsed between event and its written account. Berkhout spent the morning writing down his account of the previous day. More time elapsed in the description of 13 January 1671, which Berkhout described along with the next thirteen days in a single session, ‘insofar as it was possible to go that far back in my memory’.41 In cases like this, he obviously did not describe everything that had happened to him. He would note, for instance, that he had ‘forgotten what I did that day’ or ‘ate at the Delft boarding-house and can’t remember anything else’.42

Berkhout had never aspired to write down everything that had happened on a particular day. Unlike David Beck, who described the whole day, he selected only some of the day’s events. On 16 February 1701, when he recorded the days since 31 January, he reported that he would confi ne himself to ‘the most important activities’.43 On 29 June 1674, Berkhout had allowed some 100 days to elapse without writing in his diary. Much had happened that had since escaped his memory, and many of his diverse activities were ‘not worth noting down.’44 In a later section of the diary, he writes that he has decided to stop record-ing his everyday activities for want of time, as long as there is nothing special to report.45

In the 43 years that he kept his diary, Berkhout gradually changed his style. In the early years, his entries were frequently very long, and the fi rst of the 31 sections spanned only the fi rst six months of 1669.

41 ‘J’escrivis ce jour l’exercise de ces 13 jours autant que ma mémoijre me put raporter.’

42 4 January 1676: ‘Je recommence icij d’escrire le 12iesme et aij beaucoup oublié.’ 28 October 1673: ‘Je escris cecij le 3 novembre et ne scaijs l’occupation de ce jour.’ 12 December 1692: ‘A l’assemblée et disnions a 4tre au logement Delphique et ne scaijs le reste, escrivant le 27iesme.’

43 ‘J’escris cecij le 16 aprez mon retour et me contenteraij de marquer les faciendes principales.’

44 ‘J’escris cecij le 29 jour de juijn, 3 moijs et dix jours depuis le jour précédent, faijsant environ cent journées’. Berkhout mentions being involved with his sister’s wed-ding, the division of his aunt’s estate, his brother-in-law’s departure for Italy ‘et une infi nité d’autres occupations eschappez a ma mémoijre comme visites de congrulations etc. et autres choses qui ne valant la paijne estre annotées.’

45 29 March 1691: ‘Aijant au reste resolu, faute de loijsir, de ne plus marquer les occupations ordinaires, à moins que je n’ij aij quelque réfl exions particuliere.’


Th e notes became shorter with the passage of time, a change that was refl ected in the titles Berkhout gave to the successive sections. Until March 1672, that is, in the fi rst four sections, Berkhout described the contents on the cover as a ‘journal containing my activities from . . . to . . .’. Th e fi ft h volume was referred to only as a ‘journal’ for the year con-cerned. Th e eighth was simply called ‘diary for the year 1679’, and from the twelft h volume onwards, Berkhout merely wrote ‘the year . . .’ on the cover.

Like the rest of his diary, these cover titles were in French. In this respect Berkhout diff ered from the majority of contemporary diarists, who generally wrote in Dutch. But the aristocrat Berkhout, pursuing the ideal of fi ne etiquette, opted for the language that the elite saw as most elegant, displaying one of the ways in which the elite’s leaning towards French culture was expressed in everyday life. Th e popularity of the French (or rather Francophone) culture was initially confi ned to the circles surrounding senior public offi cials in Th e Hague and the stadholder’s court. Th e language of Berkhout’s diary can therefore be seen as a sign that he considered himself a member of Th e Hague’s beau monde – not unjustifi ably so, given the association with many prominent public fi gures that he recorded most notably in the early sections of his diary.46 His orientation towards Th e Hague is refl ected by the fact that in 1670, when he moved to Delft , he started keeping his diary in Dutch. But he did so for only one year; in 1671 he went back to writing French.

Another striking diff erence between Berkhout and other diarists is the frequency with which he discusses his reading. Since the text spans a very long period, it contains a wealth of information about his use of books. From 1669 to 1713, Berkhout made a total of 316 entries about 116 books. To Berkhout, literacy meant fi rst and foremost the ability to write. Th is emerges clearly from his diary, for instance in the many passages about correspondence, and is clearer still from the many papers handed down by the Teding van Berkhout family, many of which were written by Pieter. Communication through print and writing was clearly a normal part of an aristocrat’s everyday life. But although Berkhout did not read and write every day, not a day passed without some con-versation. His diary describes a great many visits, meetings, gatherings and other social events. So this chapter’s discussion of various kinds of communication will start by looking at the spoken word.

46 Schmidt, Om de eer, p. 73.

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Th e aristocratisation of everyday conversation?

If Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s diary did in fact function as an account-book in which he recorded his social capital, we would expect him to have occasionally read through his accounts to draw up the balance sheet of this capital. Aft er all, that is how book-keeping works. And Teding van Berkhout does in fact fulfi l this expectation: towards the end of 1692 he drew up the balance of people who had come calling at his country home of Pasgeld and added the list to his diary. He divided the visits into three columns, the fi rst two for his Dutch and French visitors, and the third for those who had come especially to see his children. Th e number of visitors in a four-month period came to 51, 55 and 44 respectively.47

Berkhout’s journal was hence clearly related to recording his social capital, although this cannot have been his sole reason for writing a diary, since the 1692 table was the only one of its kind.48 In any case, this year’s ‘balance’ certainly illustrates the intensity with which Berkhout pursued his social life. He spoke to over 100 people within the space of four months, assuming that he did not concern himself with his children’s visitors. Following Berkhout’s own account, the following pages seek to draw up the balance of his social life in 1692, to provide a framework for his literacy. Certain questions present themselves: how elitist was a patrician’s everyday world? To what extent did matters related to reading and writing arise in conversation, for instance as part of the ideal of good breeding?

Caution must be exercised in interpreting the social network that Berkhout recorded in 1692, since much of his social intercourse was left out. He rarely mentions his everyday concerns with managing his household and possessions, nor does he discuss his administrative

47 If the duplicated entries are not counted, Berkhout had 146 visitors.48 Berkhout made several other lists in his diary. Aft er the birth of his fi rst daughter,

he made a list of all those whom he had told the news. In 1699 he listed all the country estates he had visited on his trip through Zeeland, including the residents and the way he had been received (18 December 1699). In 1706 two of Berkhout’s daughters got married: Elizabeth married Jacob Briell, while Ann married Maerten Pauw. In both cases, Berkhout made a list of people who had called to congratulate him (June and November 1706).


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work. Even so, his diary records that he had contact with 168 people that year. 49

Berkhout’s account of his social life shows that his everyday life was lived among the exclusive ranks of the aristocracy. Almost without exception, the people he met belonged to the social elite. Berkhout associated mainly with patricians from Delft , and to a lesser extent with high-ranking offi cials from Th e Hague. He was also related to many of them, which underscores the fact that the elite maintained their exclusivity socially as well as politically. For instance, the treasurer of the United Provinces, Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet, was a cousin of Berkhout’s, besides which seven other cousins belonged to Delft ’s vroedschap.50 Berkhout also boasted a family relationship with the noble-man Willem Frederik, baron of Wassenaar-Rosande.51 Even distant relationships counted: relatives in the third or fourth degree were still seen as cousins and treated as such in everyday life. Berkhout referred to all the members of the Ellemeet, Van der Dussen, Briel, Bogaert van Bloys, Kinschot and Bye families as cousins; he had to go back three generations to fi nd the common great-grandparents, Volckera Knobbert and Paulus van Berensteyn, but this apparently did not matter. Family

49 Married couples are counted here as a single contact. Th e groups described by Berkhout were sometimes larger than two. At meetings of the vroedschap for instance, Berkhout obviously met enormous numbers of people, but he does not say what was discussed or who he had contact with at the meetings. Th ese groups have therefore been omitted from the analysis. When Berkhout visited someone where others were already present, these others have been left out of consideration. Th e same applies to those who came to visit Berkhout’s children. He frequently mentions the friends who come to see his sons and daughters, but these young people were not among the conversational partners of the children’s father, Teding van Berkhout.

50 Ellemeet was responsible for collecting the provinces’ fi nancial contributions to the Republic. He was suspected of embezzlement and in 1696 rumours circulated that he was keeping a mistress. Historians believe that he fulfi lled his duties faith-fully, however, although his fortune was one of the largest in the Republic. B.E. de Muinck, Een regentenhuishouding omstreeks 1700. Gegevens uit de privé-boekhouding van mr. Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet, ontvanger-generaal der Verenigde Nederlanden (1646–1721) (Th e Hague: Nijhoff , 1965), pp. 6–27.

51 Th e baron was married to Maria van Leeuwen of Leiden, Berkhout’s niece, who came from a regent family. Marriages between nobles and regents were rare, and were frowned on in aristocratic circles. Jacob, baron of Wassenaar Opdam, admiral of the Republic and a kinsman of Willem Frederik, was furious, writes Coenraad Droste in his autobiography, Overblyfsels van geheugchenis, der bisonderste voorvallen in het leeven van den Heere Coenraet Droste, terwyl hy gedient heeft in veld- en zee-slaagen, belegeringen en ondernemingen, als ook mede syn verdere bejegeningen aan en in verscheyde vreemde hoven en landen 2 vols. edited by Robert Fruin (Leiden: Brill, 1879), vol. 1, p. 219. See also Robert Fruin’s notes to the published edition, vol. 2, p. 516.


relationships did not always lead to a frequent and intense relationship. Although Berkhout had an extensive family network, he only saw a few of his relatives on a regular basis.52

Another striking feature of Berkhout’s social life was his frequent association with French Huguenots, who had taken refuge in the United Provinces aft er the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1688. Politically speaking he was an interesting fi gure for the refugees, since he sat on Delft city council and served as a representative in the States of Holland on several occasions. Th e Huguenots approached these bod-ies for fi nancial and political support, and found a willing ear, partly perhaps because of Berkhout’s infl uence.53

It is sometimes said that the aristocratised elite constituted a true ‘leisure class’ that elevated social intercourse to the most important part of their lives.54 Th is is confi rmed by Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s diary, which is full of meetings, visits, card games and dinner parties. Courtesy calls were another important part of social life. Social events, ranging from marriages to deaths, created obligations, but it was also customary to visit those who were setting off on a journey or who had just returned from one, even if they were simply moving back into their town house aft er spending the summer on their country estate.55

Teding van Berkhout’s diary provides a detailed picture of his social life, but does not contain much information about the subjects that arose in everyday conversation. With fellow patricians he would undoubt-edly have had discussions about administrative matters, such as his

52 Berkhout’s description of his dealings with relatives is similar to accounts by other members of the elite. See Donald Haks, Huwelijk en gezin in Holland in de 17de en 18de eeuw. Processtukken en moralisten over aspecten van het laat 17de- en 18de-eeuwse gezinsleven (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1982), pp. 48–52.

53 In the peace negotiations in Rijswijk that ended the Nine Years’ War, for instance, a committee of Huguenot refugees tried to get their interests taken into account. Th rough the mediation of a ‘Delft burgomaster’ the Huguenots managed to gain access to Grand Pensionary Heinsius and could press their case to the country’s foremost political leaders, writes Frank van Deijk in ‘Elie Benoist (1640–1728), Historiographer and Politician aft er the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes’, in Dutch Review of Church History 1 (1989), pp. 53–92; esp. p. 72. Van Deijk does not name this Delft burgomaster, but it may well have been Teding van Berkhout.

54 Prak, Gezeten burgers, p. 218.55 For instance, on one occasion when Berkhout came back to town aft er a stay on

his country estate of Pasgeld, ‘numerous visitors’ came calling to welcome him and his family home (19 October 1692).

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exchange with Meerman and ’s-Gravezande about the girls’ orphan-age.56 Berkhout also picked up all kinds of news verbally, for instance at the meetings of the administrative bodies to which he belonged. In June, for instance, he heard the news of the Dutch fl eet’s victory over the French fl eet during a meeting of the States of Holland.57

One of the incidents that Berkhout discussed at great length was the earthquake that struck the Netherlands on 18 September 1692.58 Th e quake did not cause great damage, but it was soon a favourite topic of conversation. It happened on a Th ursday, when Berkhout was visiting his brother Joan in Th e Hague. He was standing at the window looking at a procession of the guard when he felt four or fi ve heavy shocks that made the windows vibrate. Berkhout joked about the poor upkeep of Joan’s house and the latter responded by blaming the noise produced by the guardsmen’s tambourines. Aft er these witticisms, Berkhout went to see Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet, who had also felt the shocks. In the evening Berkhout spoke to the Rosandes, Mrs Huygens van St. Annaland ‘and endless others’, all of whom said they had felt the shocks too. So initially the conversation revolved around people’s experience of the earthquake, but it soon shift ed to possible causes. Opinions in Th e Hague were divided, with some believing that it had been a real earthquake, wrote Berkhout, while others thought that a gunpowder magazine had exploded at Dunkirk. Most of the people he spoke to inclined to the latter view, triggering a lively debate about how it was possible for an explosion of this kind to make itself felt over such a great distance.59

Th e event was much discussed on the days that followed. At a meet-ing of the States, Berkhout heard that the earthquake had also been felt in other cities, including Utrecht, Amsterdam and Dordrecht. He also heard various details that he duly recorded in his diary: ‘bells had started

56 6 February, 4 November 1692. Th is orphanage had places for about twenty girls, and was separate from the city orphanage. Admission cost about 24 guilders. In practice, half-orphans as well as full orphans were admitted. According to Van der Vlist, local people saw the girls’ home as a kind of boarding school. Ingrid van der Vlist, Leven in armoede. Delft se bedeelden in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bakker, 2001), pp. 45, 134–135.

57 3 June 1692.58 Regarding the earthquake and the reactions to it, see Rienk Vermij, ‘Natuurgeweld

geduid’, in Feit en Ficitie 3 (1996), pp. 50–64. Th e entry in Berkhout’s diary supports Vermij’s contention that people did not, in everyday conversation, construe the earth-quake in religious terms.

59 18 September 1692.


ringing of their own accord, pumps had spouted water and clocks had stopped’.60 He also heard that a church tower in Rotterdam had col-lapsed and that Dordrecht’s streets had subsided. But Berkhout heard nothing more about any gunpowder explosion, which strengthened his belief that a true earthquake had taken place. Later accounts corrobo-rated this explanation, since the quake had been felt in all the country’s provinces and the earth had even moved in England and France.61 If any more proof were needed, the fact that water pumps had started spouting spontaneously surely demonstrated that something had moved in the centre of the earth, wrote Berkhout, concluding his account of the earthquake.62 Th is example shows that news items fuelled the con-versational fabric of Berkhout’s social life, but while he was describing this life in his diary he concentrated primarily on those he met rather than on what they had to say to each other.

Putting pen to paper

Pieter Teding van Berkhout was a highly educated man who used his writing skill, among other things, to record the names of the prominent relatives and acquaintances he met every day. Th is shows the importance he attached to preserving this part of his social life, partly no doubt for himself, but also as a memento to be handed down to future genera-tions. Th e ability to write was extremely useful in creating a collective family memory. Th e many additional uses of writing are also illustrated by the diary and Berkhout’s other papers. Like Beck, Berkhout used writing to keep in touch with relatives and acquaintances who lived further afi eld. He also used it for his administrative work. Letters, family papers and political notes will be discussed in the rest of this chapter, to show the ways in which patricians deployed their literacy. Th e picture is certainly not complete. Neither the diary nor the family

60 ‘Des cloches avaient sonnées d’elle mesme, des pompes avaient jetté de l’eau, des horloges s’estaient arrestées.’

61 Th e earth of the Southern Netherlands had shaken too. Constantijn Huygens, who was encamped near Ghent with the army of the stadholder-king William III in September 1692, recorded the event in his diary. Constantijn Huygens Jr, Journaal van Constantijn Huygens, den zoon, van 21 October 1688 tot 2 Sept. 1696 3 vols. (Utrecht: Kemink, 1876–1888), pp. 124–127 (18 to 22 September 1792) (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 158).

62 19 September, 20 September 1692.

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archives has much to say about the role of writing in managing assets. Still, it is reasonable to assume that Berkhout kept written records of his substantial fortune.

Written contacts: correspondence and writing style

Few traces of Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s correspondence have sur-vived. Only one letter written by him and a few addressed to him have been preserved in the family archives. Yet his diary bears witness to a substantial correspondence, certainly in the early years. With the passage of time, his style becomes more condensed and this subject vanishes from the diary. So to gain a picture of his everyday correspondence, we must look at one of the early years. Th e year 1670, for instance, when Berkhout switched temporarily from French to Dutch, demonstrates the important role played by letters in social intercourse: that year, Berkhout noted down 33 correspondents, to whom he sent a total of 101 letters and from whom he received 80.63

Let us take a closer look at his network of correspondents. As we have seen, the seventeenth-century theory of correspondence defi nes a letter as a conversation conducted at a distance. So one would expect this to be refl ected in similarities between verbal and written exchanges. Berkhout’s correspondence certainly bears this out, in that the 33 people with whom he corresponded came from the same social circle as that reconstructed earlier in this chapter: almost all came from the elite, and many were related to him in some way. Th ey did not live in the Delft area, however, but in towns further afi eld such as Leiden and Dordrecht. In 1670, some of his letters actually crossed national frontiers: Berkhout received letters from his brother, who was on a trip through Spain and Portugal, besides which he frequently corresponded with people in Paris, including the marquesses of Hauterive and Chateauneuf. His cousin Coenraad Droste, who was undertaking a grand tour through France, also spent some time in Paris, as did his friend Lodewijk Huygens, who went there to tend his sick brother Christiaan.

Just as Berkhout’s diary entries record the people he spoke to but generally contain nothing about the subject-matter, his references to correspondence also generally focus on names and omit substance.

63 Th e letters he wrote regarding the birth of his daughter have been left out of consideration here.


Referring to a letter from Coenraad Droste in Paris, for instance, Berkhout writes that it contained an ‘enjoyable satire’ without adding any further explanation.64 Nonetheless, it is clear that correspondence frequently related to specifi c social events, such as the birth of Berkhout’s fi rst child, Jacoba.65 He rushed out notifi cations immediately aft er the delivery, at 7 a.m., sending his domestic servant to Th e Hague with letters to his father and father-in-law, his aunt from the Tromp side of the family and an uncle from the De Bye branch, and Susanna Huygens. Th e next day, he sent letters to his wife’s three uncles in Leiden, rela-tives in Dordrecht, Alkmaar, Hoorn and Geertruidenberg, and a long list of cousins in Th e Hague. Th en it was time to inform his friends in Delft , although it is unclear whether he gave them the glad tidings verbally or by letter. Assuming that all these notifi cations were made in writing, Berkhout despatched 53 letters that day: a social event such as a birth clearly generated a great deal of writing. But it was by no means one-way traffi c: the letters he sent created an obligation to reply. Th e day aft er Berkhout had informed his uncle Paedts he received a letter from Leiden, undoubtedly congratulating the new parents.

Th e obligation to reciprocate applied to all letters, not only to family announcements of this kind. Th is is clear from the remaining corre-spondence conducted in 1670: the number of letters sent and received was evenly balanced for the majority of correspondents. Berkhout replied almost immediately to every letter, and within a short space of time he would receive a reply. On 10 February he received a letter from a cousin from the Meerdervoort branch of the family, and he wrote back the next day. He wrote to Miss Nothe on 6 July, and her reply arrived on 9 July.

Letters relating to births, marriages and deaths largely adhered to standard formulas. Books on correspondence included sample letters,

64 23 April 1670.65 6 April 1670. Th e birth itself was a social event. Berkhout’s wife went into labour

at 1 a.m. She was initially well able to withstand the pain, and so she waited until 4.30 before calling for her aunt (from the Van Leeuwen side of the family) and her sister Jacoba. Th e two women had been lodging with the couple for some time to assist her. At 12.45 p.m., when the delivery seemed close at hand, Berkhout summoned an army of other close friends and relatives: his aunt from the Loodenstein side of the family, cousins from the Vallensis, Brasser, Beresteyn, Van der Dussen and Briel branches, as well as as Miss Verburg and Miss Nothe. Th ese were all Delft friends and relatives, and they assisted Berkhout’s wife when she fi nally gave birth to their daughter Jacoba at 7 p.m.

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many of them designed specifi cally for such occasions. Preserving social etiquette was evidently essential in relation to events of this kind.66 Whether Teding van Berkhout observed this etiquette scrupulously in 1670 is impossible to ascertain, given the dearth of sources: aside from a single exception, the letters written by Berkhout have not been pre-served. Th e family archives do contain two letters to Berkhout dating from a later year, however, which may give an idea of the customary style of writing in relation to special family events. Both were written in 1697 to announce a death. Th e fi rst is dated 23 February and was sent from Hoorn to inform Berkhout of the death of his cousin Cornelis de Groot. Th e second was written in Middelburg on 5 March, and brought the news of the death of another cousin, from the Verheije branch of the family.67

Th e letters from Hoorn and Middelburg both open with a formulaic salutation, variants of ‘Dear sir and cousin’, although the Middelburg writer addresses Teding van Berkhout with the more deferential term weledelgestrenge, possibly because he was lower on the social ladder (or regarded himself as such) than the correspondent in Hoorn. Books on correspondence emphasised the importance of choosing the correct form of address to mirror the social status of the person concerned.68 Both letters continue with Christian sentiments, stating that it had ‘pleased’ God to ‘call the deceased to Him’ or ‘to bring him into eternal joy’. Th ey give the name of the deceased, preceded by his relationship to the correspondent, and his professional status. Th e correspondents then describe the cause of death. Both allude to an ‘unremitting fever’, which is in one case further classifi ed as ‘severe’, and note the time of death. Th ey then state that they see it as their duty to apprise Berkhout

66 Bryson, From Courtesy to Civility, pp. 155–59.67 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 206: letter from Anna Voordig and Allard de Groot; NA,

FA TvB, inv. no. 215: letter from Mr Verheije.68 Mostart’s Nederduytse secretaris contains a list of forms of address running to

several pages: Daniël Mostart, Mostarts Nederduytse secretaris oft zendbriefschryver (Amsterdam: Dirck Pietersz, 1635), p. 35 ff . Even the layout was governed by rules. Mostart writes that the title must be placed at the top of the page, such that ‘the higher the position or status, the higher the title should be placed’. (Ibid., p. 35). Jean Purget de la Serre, Fatsoenlicke zend-brief-schryver translated from the French by Joan Dullaart (Amsterdam: Benjamin Jacob, 1654), p. 42, put it more clearly still. When writing to someone of higher rank, the inscription must be placed at the top, ‘in a separate line. . . . with a large space before the second line’, that is, the beginning of the letter. When writing to persons ‘whom one does not wish to honour so highly’, on the other hand, the fi rst line of the letter should follow the salutation without any space.


of the death. Both letters allude to the sadness caused by the death, and then place Berkhout under a certain obligation. Th e letter from Hoorn asks him to ‘pay the deceased his last respects’, while the one from Middelburg appeals for his compassion for the deceased, ‘in recognition of the blood relationship’ between them. Both letters are signed formally as ‘Your grieving servants’ (Hoorn) and ‘Your most humble servant’ (Middelburg). Clearly, mourning letters were expected to conform to well-defi ned conventions.

Th e other extant letters to Berkhout, 26 in total, do not display so many similarities, but one convention was followed in all letters, namely the formal salutation and signature. Berkhout was addressed as ‘Dear sir and cousin’ by various people who signed ‘your humble servant’ or even ‘your most humble and most obedient servant’.69 Even closer relatives adopted a fairly formal style in their forms of address. Berkhout’s son-in-law Isaac de Lespaul addressed Berkhout as ‘Dear sir and father-in-law’, and his nephew Paul Huygens wrote ‘Monsieur mon oncle’.70 Th us, forms of address always included a courteous address and the degree of kinship. Berkhout’s sister added a more aff ectionate note, opening her letter to him with the words ‘Monsieur mon cher frère’.71 Both courteous formula and degree of kinship were reiterated in the signature, with Lespaul signing ‘Your humble servant and son-in-law’, and Huygens with ‘your very obedient servant and nephew’. Berkhout’s sister was humbler still, but also displayed her feelings: ‘Your very humble and very obedient servant and very aff ectionate sister’.72 Berkhout himself did not spurn these conventions: the only extant letter by him includes a similar formal salutation and signature. Th is letter is an invitation to dinner, addressed to his brother Joan Teding van Berkhout, which opens ‘Dear sir and brother’ and is signed ‘Your obedient servant and brother’.73

69 NA, FA TvB, inv. no.199: Letters from Berkhout’s cousin, De Boodt de Bogaertskercke; NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 213: letters from Frederik Rooseboom.

70 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 206 (Lespaul), inv. no. 207 (Huygens). Lespaul was married to Berkhout’s eldest daughter. Paul Huygens was the son of Berkhout’s sister.

71 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 198: letter from Jacoba Teding van Berkhout, 27 February 1697.

72 Th is formality was in accordance with recommendations in correspondence manuals. For instance, De la Serre’s Fatsoenlicke zend-brief-schryver states (on p. 42) that relatives should specify degree of kinship in the salutation.

73 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 251.

136 chapter three

Writing and family history

Pieter Teding van Berkhout frequently referred to his diary-writing in the diary itself. As already noted, he did not keep the diary on a daily basis, but oft en described days or weeks at a single session. Th is meant relying on his less than perfect memory of what had taken place. So Berkhout’s memory infl uenced what ended up in the diary. But the converse applied too. Th e diary was a signifi cant aid to Berkhout’s memory. He refers explicitly to this function of keeping a diary. Aft er having kept a diary for many years, Berkhout started to question its usefulness, and from 1680 to 1683 he abandoned it. But in 1684 he picked up his pen again: ‘since I noticed now and then that it possessed a certain usefulness for me personally, and since I was occasionally embarrassed to have forgotten when certain things had happened, I saw fi t to resume my diary.’74

Besides serving as an aid to the individual memory, some sections of the diary were much like a family album. For instance, Berkhout wrote a great deal about his children’s social life. He frequently noted down the days on which they received guests, whether together or individu-ally, oft en including the visitors’ names, as he did in the accounts of his own social contacts. In July 1694, for instance, he wrote that his eldest daughters, Jacoba, Maria and Elizabeth, had received a ‘large company’ that had arrived in fi ve or six carriages, aft er which he included a list with the names of the 21 guests.75 Berkhout also made a note in his diary when his daughters went on a trip or lodged with relatives. Sometimes other relatives contributed to the diary in a quite literal sense. On 6 July 1679 Berkhout wrote that ‘I hired Margaretha’s wet nurse four weeks ago today [Margaretha was his seventh child], which I am recording here at my wife’s express request.’76 So the diary occasionally includes things beyond Berkhout’s own personal memories.

Writing thus helped to record family history. In this respect Berkhout’s diary is no diff erent from other egodocuments. Dutch egodocuments

74 14 February 1684. ‘maijs comme quelquefoijs j’aij trouvé qu’en mon particulier il m’estaijt de quelque usage et que je me suis trouvé embarasse par foij de ne sçavoijr quant certaijnes choses s’estaijent passées, j’aij trouvé bon de le recommencer pour certaijne esgard.’

75 1 July 1694. From lists of this kind, which Berkhout made quite oft en, it is clear that his children frequently associated with the off spring of his own close acquaintances. Th e 1694 list included numerous names belonging to Delft ’s elite.

76 ‘Il ij avoijt 4 sepmaijnes ce jour que la nourrice de Margarite estaijt entrée en service, ce que je marque icij par ordre exprez de ma femme.’


generally state that their main use is as a record for posterity. People would write autobiographies to leave a memory of themselves for the benefi t of others. Such writings also had a certain educational value, in that the accounts of their lives displayed both good and bad examples.77 Similar motives are oft en mentioned in the personal documents of the French elite.78

Accounts of a family’s day-to-day activities were part of an extensive family history. Th e family tree was of great importance, especially in aristocratic circles, since ancestry was one of the pillars of a family’s status. Berkhout proves that this aspect of the aristocratic mindset also mattered to the Dutch elite and illustrates the essential role of writing here. His diary records a brief span of the family’s history, but Berkhout was also concerned to preserve family traditions in the longer term. In 1686, for instance, he started writing a ‘mémoire de généalogie’ for his family.79 He also took a keen interest in his own and his family’s written legacy.

Th e conservation of written records kept by various members of a family at diff erent times furnished the family with a set of archives that strengthened its identity.80 A picture of the family was created for future generations by preserving certain documents – and by destroying others.81 Teding van Berkhout was well aware of the value to a family of its written legacy. When his father died in 1672, he was concerned about the papers belonging to the estate. He spent months ‘ordering the ocean of papers left by my father, separating the good from the

77 Dekker, ‘Dat mijn lieve kinderen’, p. 19. Pollman, Religious Choice, pp. 33–35.78 Jonathan Dewald, Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture:

France 1570–1715 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 188.79 26 September 1686.80 Baggerman, Een lot, p. 356. She also points out the similarity between the function

of the paper legacy and that of heirlooms such as paintings (ibid., pp. 363–366). Th e Teding van Berkhout family also had material assets with a signifi cant commemorative value. On his marriage in 1670 Pieter added items including a silver jug with the Teding van Berkhout coat of arms (NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 239: records of goods provided on the occasion of marriage). Pieter in his turn bequeathed to his eldest son ‘my silver jug and dish that belonged to my grandfather, on a gold plate; the dish displays the arms of Berckhout and Berensteijn.’ (NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 247: will of Pieter Teding van Berkhout).

81 Arianne Baggerman, ‘Autobiography and Family Memory in the Nineteenth Century’, in Rudolf Dekker (ed.), Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages (Hilversum: Verloren, 2002), pp. 161–173; esp. p. 163.

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bad’.82 Th e following year he spent at least one more day on this task. He put the papers in alphabetical order and added a table of contents based on titles.83 Paulus Teding van Berkhout was a prolifi c writer, and his children’s inheritance included a family chronicle, a treatise on the Chamber of Accounts and a political memoir.84 Th ere was evidently more, but Berkhout did not think it worth the trouble of preserving it. It may have been this experience with the ‘ocean’ of papers handed down by his father Paulus that inspired Berkhout to spend so much time ordering his own. At the beginning of 1688, he wrote in his diary, he arranged his papers from 1687 ‘and put them together in packages, as I do every year’.85 In this way he ensured that his successor as fam-ily archivist would have an easier task. Th e will gave Berkhout’s eldest son Paulus responsibility for ‘all the printed and written papers’ in his father’s study.86

Th anks to Paulus’s eff orts, Berkhout’s memory is preserved in a wealth of documents. First of all there is the diary, of course, which was later transferred to the National Library. Th ere are also mementos from Berkhout’s schooldays, which clearly demonstrate that he enjoyed a sound humanist education. Berkhout had a superbly bound manuscript with a large collection of Latin essays he had copied out, on subjects like conscience, envy, peace and war or the responsibilities of the nobil-ity.87 Th e manuscript also contains emblems drawn by Berkhout, the wise sayings of Church Fathers, anagrams such as ‘meester Johan van

82 16 August 1672: ‘Je rangeraijs l’ocean de papiers de mon père, separant les bons des mauvaijs.’

83 3 November 1673.84 Schmidt, Om de eer, pp. 54–64. Th e family archives still contain a large quantity of

papers. Many probably relate to his work as a public administrator, such as notes from the Chamber of Accounts’ records (inv. no. 113) and an extract from Delft ’s records of tithes (inv. no. 142). But other surviving documents include a copy of two letters from Johannes Uytenbogaert’s Kerkelijke historie (inv. no. 149) and printed documents about mirages in the sky over Maassluis in 1652–66 (inv. no. 179).

85 16 January 1688: ‘Le soijr je rangaijs mes papiers de 1687 et les rangaijs en pakets, comme je le faijs tous les ans.’

86 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 247: last will and testament of Pieter Teding van Berkhout (1713).

87 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 218: essays written by Pieter Teding van Berkhout. Frank-van Westrienen has studied Berkhout’s school papers, by means of which she demonstrates how seventeenth-century pupils were trained in retoric and classical learning. Frank-van Westrienen concludes that Teding van Berkhout was a good but not exeptionally bright student. A. Frank-van Westrienen, Het schoolschrift van Pieter Teding van Berkhout. Vergezicht op het gymnasiaal onderwijs in de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlanden (Hilversum: Verloren, 2007).


Oldebarneveltt – Is een vaeder van’t beroemt Hollant’ (‘Master Johan van Oldebarnevelt – is a father of renowned Holland’), notes about epitaphs and a whole collection of thematically arranged quotations from the work of authors such as Erasmus.

Political notes

Since writing was one of the pillars of administration, patricians who served in positions of public leadership clearly had to be very com-fortable producing written texts. Meetings were largely discussions of written texts, besides which administrators spent a lot of time writing reports and letters.88 Th ere was obviously an army of clerks to do this work, but public administrators also had plenty to do themselves. For instance, Berkhout drew up an inventory of the Hague lodging-house that was shared by the members of Delft ’s and Gouda’s vroedschap.89 No other reports by him are known, but the family archives do contain other documents that Berkhout wrote in his various offi cial capaci-ties. He took the minutes of the meetings of the States of Holland, the Admiralty of Zeeland, and the Delft ‘council of forty’ in several diff erent years.90

It was not uncommon for people to take their own personal minutes. Similar notes are known by a number of other seventeenth-century patricians. Th ey were partly a consequence of the way public adminis-tration was organised. In the States of Holland, the pensionaries of all the cities took their own minutes, on which they based their reports to the city government. Th is is because information regarding the meetings of the provincial executive was not made available in writ-ten or printed form, since everything discussed at such meetings was

88 Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt constantly complained of the enormous quantity of writing his work involved. In a ‘memorial’ from 1668 he calculated that in the course of 15 years he had written 22,191 pages of resolutions, besides which he had draft ed 534 reports arising from his diverse committee memberships. Added to this was his foreign correspondence. According to De Witt, all his predecessors had written only 23,475 pages of resolutions and 85 reports between them. Paul Knevel, Het Haagse Bureau. 17de-eeuwse ambtenaren tussen staatsbelang en eigenbelang (Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bakker, 2001), pp. 44, 20.

89 C. Gijsberti Hodenpijl, ‘Aantekeningen over het logement van Delft der stemheb-bende steden te ’s-Gravenhage’, in Jaarboek die Haghe (1900), pp. 313–322.

90 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 232: concise minutes of meetings of the States of Holland (1687, 1696, 1697); NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 235: concise minutes of meetings of the Admiralty of Zeeland (1698–1704); GA Delft , Losse aanwinsten Delft , inv. no. 1290.

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theoretically confi dential. Th e ensuing decisions were written down and later printed, but these documents certainly do not cover all the cases that arose. Furthermore, the printed documents do not include voting records. Minor petitions were not covered in the printed reports, and even letters from Dutch ambassadors were left out. So the only way in which a city government could acquire a full report was through its own representatives or pensionaries.91

Berkhout took the minutes of the States of Holland meetings when he served as the representative for Delft in 1687, 1696 and 1697. He did so in a book of the same size as his diary. He divided the page in two, giving a brief description of the subject on one side and the deci-sion reached on the other. In most cases he also recorded the way in which opinions were divided and which cities had voted for or against a decision. A wide range of issues came up for discussion in 1687: an advisory report on the state of the army, the Rijsoord clergyman who wanted his allowance increased and requests from printers to be given the exclusive rights to their books.92 It may be assumed that Berkhout used these notes as a basis for his reports to the Delft government. Th ey were not actually discussed in the vroedschap, however; they functioned as a political diary that Berkhout kept at home, for his own personal use. Th e existence of these and other political notes explains why Berkhout hardly ever refers to his offi cial duties in his diary. In describing his everyday life, he drew a clear distinction between his offi cial duties and events of a personal nature.

Berkhout maintained the same distinction between offi cial duties and other activities in relation to his political life within the city of Delft . Th is too is a subject rarely mentioned in his diary, because he kept a separate record of it. He started with the notes on the day on which he was elected councillor and wrote a detailed report of the dispute that arose concerning his appointment. Once calm had been restored, he kept a record of the matters discussed in the council as he would later

91 Guido de Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad. De geheimhouding van staatszaken ten tijde van de Republiek (1600–1750) (Th e Hague: SDU, 1991), pp. 42–46, 399; N. Stellingwerff , S. Schot, Particuliere notulen van de vergaderingen der Staten van Holland 1620–1640, vol. 1: December 1620–August 1623 edited by J.W. Veenendaal-Barth (Th e Hague: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1992), pp. IX–X.

92 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 232. Th e minutes that Berkhout drew up and preserved of the meetings of the Admiralty were very similar to those of the States, though the subject-matter was obviously diff erent.


do when fulfi lling other positions in public offi ce. He noted down what matters arose in the council, who voted for and against each motion, and he kept an annual record of appointments. He was capable of spouting some wonderful bureaucratic jargon. About the meeting of 17 December 1677, for instance, his note that there had been ‘many contestations and bitter recriminations . . . against burgomasters, who indeed sought to infract the rights of the [council of] forty, by pertinaciously striv-ing to uphold the said denunciation’ was couched in French-derived offi cialese. As this was the only note he made that day, the subject is impossible to reconstruct.93

Th e fact that he recorded confl icts of this kind gave Berkhout’s notes a function over and above their usefulness in helping him to remem-ber his own activities; whether or not intentionally, they acquired historical value. For the council itself did not record, or at any rate did not preserve, any notes on most matters that arose. Take the fi erce dispute that erupted in the council at the beginning of 1675 between Gerard Putmans and Harper Maertense Tromp. Th e latter had said that Putmans was not qualifi ed to sit on the ‘council of forty’ since his fortune was less than 1,000 guilders. On 12 January 1675 the dispute was resolved, at which ‘all the minutes relating to that case were thrown into the fi re’, wrote Berkhout. So had the council had its way, no one outside its ranks would ever have heard of this matter. But Berkhout recorded the vroedschap’s internal squabbles, undoubtedly for himself and his descendants.

Th e political minutes contain Berkhout’s personal recollections, which, like his diary, were part of family tradition. For aft er Berkhout’s death they were continued in the same book by his son, who had been elected to the council in 1713, although by then the notes amounted to little more than an annual list of offi cial positions.

93 GA Delft , Losse aanwinsten Delft , inv. no. 1290, fol. 50. In the original Dutch: ‘veele contestatiën en bittere verwijten [voorvielen] teghens burghemeesteren, die inderdaet sochten t’impecteeren op ’t recht van de veertighen, door sich t’opiniastreren om de gedane denonciatie te maijnctineren’. Th is kind of language was evidently coined for internal use, as is clear from the fact that the Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal has no lemmas for most of the words used here, which were derived from French. Th us, contestatiën came from the French contestation, meaning dispute or discord. Th e word opiniastreren was most probably derived from opiniâtre, meaning obstinate. In the same way, the French words dénonciation (indictment) and maintenir (maintain) also yielded Dutch equivalents.

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A lifetime of reading

On 3 January 1669, on the third day of his diary, Pieter Teding van Berkhout wrote merely that he had spent the morning reading. But regarding his activities the following day, he was more specifi c: ‘I then withdrew to my little room and read Mézeray’s life of Charlemagne’.94 He proceeded to write down a large number of observations (remarques) that he had come across in this book. With this description Berkhout set the tone for the rest of his diary, in which he made frequent notes on his reading. He wrote about it in 310 diff erent passages, naming a total of 116 book titles.95 Most were printed works, but Berkhout also mentions six handwritten texts. Th e diary thus provides a unique opportunity to explore the role played by books in the everyday life of a patrician. Several questions spring to mind: what did Dutch aristo-crats read, how did they read, and why? Was their reading dominated by history and theology, or did they have more affi nity to the French-language culture of fi ne etiquette? Th e rest of this chapter will analyse passages from the diary in an eff ort to answer these questions.

Teding van Berkhout’s library

Berkhout mentions the titles of 116 books in his diary, but he probably owned more than that. In his country house of Pasgeld he had a real library at his disposal, and sometimes spent entire days arranging it.96 Books were undoubtedly taken back and forth between Pasgeld and

94 ‘[M]e retirant ensuite dans ma chambrette, où je lus Mizeraij en sa vie de Charlemagne.’

95 Th is number does not account for all his references to books. Berkhout frequently noted that he had been reading or had fi nished a book, without the title being clear. Each reference of this kind has been listed as one book under the heading ‘title unknown’. Even in the case of the 115 references with a description of some kind, not all titles could be identifi ed. Six were manuscripts. In fi ft een other cases, Berkhout’s description is not suffi cient to allow us to fi nd the precise title, such as a book sent by Beringen (25 March 1692: ‘Beringen, qui m’avait envoijé son livre, me vint voijr’). On four occasions Berkhout mentions a category of reading (such as a newspaper or a pamphlet), the specifi c title of which cannot be ascertained (e.g. 5 August 1687: ‘Je lus plusieurs livrets’). A few identifi cations cannot be confi rmed positively, although it is clear what kind of book was concerned. For instance, Berkhout refers to a book about the Knights Templar, but the title is not certain. Th ere are several possibilities (22 February 1692: l’Histoijre des Tempeliers’). Ninety books have been identifi ed conclusively. For an overview of the titles, see the appendix.

96 17, 18 April 1684, 12 May 1703.


the house in Delft . Th e size of the book collection at Pasgeld is not known, since there is no extant catalogue or inventory of it. In any case the library was important enough to be included in Berkhout’s will in 1713.

Th is last will and testament creates the impression that there was a large number of books in the house of Pasgeld. It stated that Berkhout’s daughters could choose forty or fi ft y of them (each or together, this is unclear), which left enough to divide the library in ‘equal portions’ among the three sons. Th ey had in fact helped to build this library up, contributing books that they had received at the Latin school, for instance.97 Th e sons’ own contribution was taken into account by putting all the books together and dividing it into equal portions. Th is prob-ably did not mean one son going off with another’s books. Th e equal apportionment meant that the son who had the most books of his own received fewer books from Berkhout than the son who owned fewer. It is open to question, however, whether the books were really divided into three portions. It is possible that the entire library remained at Pasgeld with the eldest son and that the other two received their share in money. Aft er all, the library was a prestigious asset; no reputable country house could be without one.98

However the inheritance may have been divided up, it is clear that the library at Pasgeld was a family heirloom rather than the property of any one individual. So even if an inventory of the books it contained had been handed down, it would not have refl ected the preferences of Pieter Teding van Berkhout alone. Th e library consisted of books that Berkhout’s sons had purchased, books he had bought for his children or with which they had some special connection, and books belonging to Berkhout himself, some of which he had inherited from his own father. At the same time, the will refl ects some striking views concerning mas-culinity and femininity. Book ownership was evidently not associated

97 Th e Latin school had a prize-giving tradition of awarding a book to the best pupil in each class. Th ere is a detailed historical account of this tradition in Jan Spoelder’s study Prijsboeken op de Latijnse school: een studie naar het verschijnsel prijsuitreiking en prijsboek op de Latijnse scholen in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, ca. 1585–1876, met een repertorium van wapenstempels (Amsterdam: APA/Holland Universiteits Pers, 2000). In the early eighteenth century, the Haarlem boy Jacobus Barnaart (1726–1780) kept a record of these prizes in his diary. Noord-Hollands Archief, mss. verz. Rijk, inv. no. 5.

98 R. Myeres and M. Harris (eds.), Property of a Gentleman: The Formation, Organization and Dispersal of the Private Library 1620–1920 (New Castle, DE, 1991).

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with women, since nowhere is it stated that Berkhout’s daughters had purchased any books of their own. It seems likely that they did choose reading material, but that it was purchased on Berkhout’s account and therefore not regarded as their property. Th ere was apparently no doubt concerning the daughters’ preferences, since the will allowed them to select only from among the ‘devotional books’. Berkhout’s daughters were certainly devout, but the will also clearly refl ects stereotypical ideas concerning female readers, who were not expected to read to acquire knowledge or for entertainment.99

Berkhout did not describe every book that he read from the library at Pasgeld in his diary. Th is is clear from the diary itself. To his diary for 1677, he appended a list of the 21 books he bought that year,100 but he records reading only seven of them. So the diary does not provide a full catalogue of the books in Berkhout’s possession, but aside from the 1677 list it is the only source of information on the content of the bookcases. It also shows us how Berkhout behaved with his books. Th us, the list of purchases does not refl ect the books that Berkhout read in 1677. In his diary for that year, he also described books that were not in the list, either because he had purchased them before or because he had borrowed them from others. Nor does the list show that Berkhout sometimes purchased reading matter but did not read it until much later. One title in the list of purchases is not mentioned until a year later, and another one two years later.101 More strikingly still, in 1677 Berkhout bought a book that he had already read in 1672. So the list clearly refl ects a particular moment in time: it does convey more information on the books that Berkhout possessed, but it does not indicate which ones occupied his attention in everyday life.

99 Jaqueline Pearson, Women’s Reading in Britain: A Dangerous Recreation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 43–44. Berkhout wrote about the deaths of his daughters Lucretia (‘Crese’) and Maria (‘Mijte’) in his diary, describing them as very devout. In September 1695, Crese suddenly fell ill. On the 24th she bade farewell to everyone, ‘et dit des choses très chrestiennes’. On the 25th she lay in bed, ‘parla beaucoup et chanta des airs de pseaumes’. She died between 3 and 4 a.m. on the 27th.

100 Th e catalogue at the back of the 1677 diary contains 22 numbers: 21 titles, with two issues of the same periodical being counted as two separate items. Th e list poses another problem of interpretation. In his entry for 13 March, Berkhout wrote ‘J’en mettaijs un catalogue . . . a la fi n de ce journal des livrets nouveaux acheté durant l’année.’ Th e catalogue at the end of the diary bore the title ‘Janvier 1677’. Was this a list of books he had purchased in January, or the beginning of a list that he continued for the rest of the year? In this chapter the discussion will be based on the latter interpretation.

101 8 June 1678; 10 January 1679.


A historical taste

What reading matter does Pieter Teding van Berkhout describe in his diary? It is obvious that his main interests were history and geography, since almost half of the 116 books he read relate to these subject areas. He read both secular historical works (12) and books about the his-tory of the Church and religion (15). He also refers to 7 biographies, 13 memoirs and 10 travel accounts. Aside from history he was mainly interested in religious topics, of which he mentions 22 in his diary. His third area of interest was law and politics, accounting for 17 titles, most of them pamphlets. Berkhout did not neglect literature, mentioning a total of 13 plays, works of poetry and literary treatises.102

Th e secular history books that Berkhout read had a common denomi-nator: all may be classifi ed as political history. History revolved around ‘great men’, around successions to various thrones, battles and treaties. Th ere were methodological diff erences, however. Humanist historians emphasised the importance of telling their story as beautifully as pos-sible, while ‘antiquarian’ historians were more concerned to document events. Th e former sought to imitate classical historiography as well as possible, while the latter sought the answers to their historical questions by studying the primary sources themselves.103 Berkhout did not have a preference for one or other of these types of historiography. He read both Mézeray’s Histoire de France, a humanist history extolling the glorious deeds of the kings of France, and Aitzema’s more antiquarian work that presents key documents from Dutch history.

102 He also mentions an auction catalogue and a work on natural science. Five titles proved impossible to classify.

103 On the history of historiography, see Reginald de Schryver, Historiografie. Vijfentwintig eeuwen geschiedschrijving van West-Europa (Louvain: Universitaire Pers, 1990), pp. 173–254; P.B.M. Blaas, Anachronisme en historisch besef. Momenten uit de ontwikkeling van het Europees Historisch Bewustzijn (Rotterdam, Th e Hague: Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 1988), pp. 3–34. G.E. Aylmer, ‘Introductory Survey: From the Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century’, in M. Bentley (ed.), Companion to Historiography (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 249–280. On seventeenth-century French historiographers, see Orest Ranum, Artisans of Glory: Writers and Historical Th ought in Seventeenth-Century France (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980); idem, ‘Historiographes, historiographes et monarchie en France au XVIIe siècle’, in Yves-Marie Bercé and Philippe Contamine (eds.), Histoires de France, historiens de la France (Paris: Champion, 1994), pp. 149–163. For Dutch historiography, see E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, ‘Geschiedschrijving in het vroegmoderne Nederland (16e-18e eeuw). Enige lijnen en patronen’, in Holland 17 (1985), pp. 185–199.

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Berkhout did not study the ancient world. Th e biographies and memoirs he read show clearly that his main interest was in recent history. Th ey include lives of Charles V, the duke of Lorraine and commander-in-chief of the Austrian army, who died in 1690, and Jean de Gassion, Marshal of France, who died in 1647. Berkhout refers to very few biographies of Dutchmen, undoubtedly because the genre of biography was scarcely practised in the Netherlands.104 Th e only one mentioned in his diary is Gerard Brandt’s life of Admiral De Ruyter, Het leven en bedryf van den heere Michiel de Ruiter (1687). Berkhout also read Sir William Temple’s account of the political history of the period 1672–1679, and in the more personal sphere he read the memoirs of Pierre Chanut and François de Bassompierre. Chanut had served as France’s envoy to the court of Sweden, where he tried to dissuade Queen Christina from abdicating; Descartes was among those he introduced to the court. Bassompierre was Marshal of France and executed a number of diplomatic missions, but in 1630 Cardinal Richelieu decided that he posed a threat and had him confi ned to the Bastille, where he languished for twelve years. Th ese biographies and memoirs did not give Berkhout a diff erent perspective from his other reading, since they too dealt with the political deeds of world rulers.

Berkhout’s interests were not confi ned to the European political stage; he also read numerous travel accounts, which could also be classifi ed as memoirs. Th e work of Louis du May, the Prudent voyageur, gave him a broad panorama of the forms of government and dynasties that existed throughout the world. Th e book was evidently the product of a virtual journey through other books rather than a real journey. For the rest, Berkhout took a keen interest in the Middle and Far East. For instance, he read the account published by the VOC offi cial Joan Nieuhof of his diplomatic mission to China – largely a description of the country itself, as was customary in this genre.105 He also read detailed descriptions of Middle Eastern countries in the Journal de voyage written by Jean Chardin, the jeweller who travelled to Persia by way of Turkey and the Caucasus and stayed in the city of Isfahan for so many years that he

104 Jan Romein, De biografi e (Amsterdam: Querido, 1951), pp. 57–74. Th e fi rst Dutch biographies were published in the early seventeenth century. Romein describes Gerard Brant’s work as the acme of the genre in early modern times (p. 71).

105 V.D. Roeper and G.J.D. Wildeman, Reizen op papier: journalen en reisverslagen van Nederlandse ontdekkingsreizigers, kooplieden en avonturiers (Amsterdam/Zutphen: Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum-Walburg Pers, 1996), pp. 82–83.


avowed that he knew it ‘better than Paris’.106 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier too was a jeweller, who travelled extensively on business through the Ottoman Empire. Since his work left him little time to study, as he explains in his own introductory notes, his account was not a schol-arly treatise but a story based on his own observations and those of two highly-placed acquaintances, the sultan’s Sicilian treasurer and his page.107 Berkhout also read one travel account that revolved not around a particular country but around the traveller himself. Th e Dutch lawyer Arnout van Overbeke wrote an amusing account of his adventures on a journey to and from the East Indies. Th e narrative was later printed, but Berkhout was one of those who saw it in manuscript form.108

Aside from books about days long past and remote regions, Berkhout also read printed material about contemporary political events. His diary refers on several occasions to newspapers, but without giving any titles, so that it is unclear which gazette he read. He also consumed magazines such as Mercure Galant and Gueudeville’s L’esprit des cours de l’Europe, monthly overviews of matters such as events at court and fashions. Berkhout also refers several times to pamphlets, generally without specifying their content. Th ese seldom contained the latest news, but would deal with recent events, such as the Relation du siège de Maestricht (1676), which gave an account of William III’s unsuc-cessful siege of Maastricht. Berkhout must have possessed a good many more pamphlets, since in 1694 he spent an entire day tidying up his study, in the course of which he made ‘twenty packages of pamphlets and papers, all arranged in alphabetical order.’109 Th ese packages would have included numerous political treatises, such as one that appeared in 1694 entitled De vrye staats-regering, geschetst in een beschrijvinge van Denemarken, zoo als ’t was in den jare 1692 (‘Th e free government of the state, described in an account of Denmark as it was in the year 1692’).110 Another text clearly intended to convey a political message

106 Jean Chardin, Dagverhaal der reis van den ridder Chardyn na Persiën en Oost-Indiën (Amsterdam: Van de Jouwer, 1687) from ‘Voorreden’ [Preface].

107 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Nouvelle relation de l’intérieur . . . (Paris [s.n.], 1675) ‘Dessein de l’auteur’.

108 Marijke Barend-van Haeft en and Arie Jan Gelderblom, Buyten gaets. Twee burleske reisbrieven van Aernout van Overbeke (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), p. 9.

109 3 March 1694: ‘Ce jour a ranger mon comptoir et faijre une vingtaine de paquets de plusieurs livrets et papiers sous les lettres de l’alphabet.’

110 Th e book was proscribed in 1694 by the executive of the States of Holland on account of its political content. Ingrid Weekhout, Boekencensuur in de Noordelijke

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was Authentycke stucken . . . ontrent de saeck van do. Guiljelmus Momma (‘Authentic documents relating to the case of Rev. Willem Momma’, 1676). Momma was a clergyman in Middelburg whose sympathies with the Voetian movement led to his dismissal and banishment from the city at the behest of stadholder William III. Th e stadholder took advan-tage of the wrangling about Momma to depose part of Middelburg’s vroedschap and to replace it with patricians likelier to side with him. So the publication of ‘authentic’ documents relating to this case certainly served a political purpose. Th e treatise might be called a pamphlet, a news source or a political tract.

Where his reading was concerned, Teding van Berkhout took a keen interest in both secular and ecclesiastical history. He read a history of the French Protestant Church in l’Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes by Elie Benoist. Th is book possessed special signifi cance for Berkhout since he knew its author very well. He also read a history of the Church of England by Gilbert Burnet and informed himself on Dutch Protestantism by reading Gerard Brandt’s Historie der Reformatie (‘History of the Reformation’). Benoist, Burnet and Brandt were all of the ‘antiquarian’ school of historiography and based themselves on copious sources. Still, each had his own strong bias and chose sources representing his own point of view. Brandt’s book was immediately labelled as an ‘Arminian’ version of the events, and Burnet’s History of the Reformation of the Church of England generated a fi erce controversy involving writers from several European countries.111

Th ese examples show that historiography – even in accounts of the early Church – was embroiled in the general religious battle. Berkhout read the books produced by the French Jesuit Louis Maimbourg on the two great schisms, but this was by no means an uncontroversial subject. Th e many denominations that had turned away from Rome in the past all claimed to represent the true faith, and it was this that proved to Maimbourg and many like him that no truth existed other than the

Nederlanden. De vrijheid van drukpers in de zeventiende eeuw (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1998), p. 389.

111 On Burnet and Brandt, see Peter Burke, ‘Th e Politics of Reformation History: Burnet and Brandt’, in A.C. Duke and C.A. Tamse (eds.), Clio’s Mirror: Historiography in Britain and the Netherlands (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1985), pp. 73–85. On the work of Benoist, see Frank van Deijk, De spiegel van Clio. Een beschouwing van de politieke en historiografi sche activiteiten van Elie Benoist (1640–1728) (unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Leiden 1988) which can be consulted at GA Delft ; idem, ‘Elie Benoist’.


Catholic truth.112 Th e French bishop Bossuet discussed the same theme in his Histoire des variations des églises protestantes (1688). He found it contradictory that so many variations could exist in a movement claiming to be following the original Church. Th e book provoked fi erce reactions from Protestants, from Jacques Basnage de Beauval among others. Berkhout read the latter’s response to Bossuet’s work.113

In these ecclesiastical histories, with their belligerent overtones, Berkhout read about the same themes as those discussed in his theol-ogy books and treatises on religious controversies. For instance, the battle between denominations was the subject of a treatise by Isaac d’Huisseau, who did not defend one faith at the expense of another but sought to defi ne a common foundation for all Christian beliefs. His book expounded his own creed, which would create unity among those who called themselves Christians and who were convinced that the doctrine of the gospel as set down in the New Testament came from God and that this gospel comprised everything that man needed to know, to believe and to do.114 In d’Huisseau’s view, the Bible should be read with the aid of reason, which would strip away all but the most universal truths. Th is rational view aroused indignation in France, where d’Huisseau was condemned.115

Isaac d’Huisseau represented a new tone in the seventeenth-century debate on religion, which no longer revolved exclusively around the clash between denominations but extended to the relationship between philosophy and religion. In the fi rst place, there was a dispute between theologians who interpreted the Bible by the rational method proposed by Descartes and those who rejected the use of philosophy in Biblical

112 Paul Hazard refers to Maimbourg and others including Mézeray, Burnet and Varillas as writers who ‘would like to be recalled from the underworld but whom we are wholly justifi ed in leaving there. . . . Th ey wrote splendid prefaces and claimed that their greatest concern was to show their lack of bias. But since they also assumed that their role compelled them to defend their king, their country, and their religion, they took sides at every turn and no longer strove to fi nd the truth, but to defend positions . . . Th is gave rise to endless disputes, the loudest of which were provoked by Th e History of the Reformation of the Church of England by Gilbert Burnet, L’Histoire du Lutheranisme (1680) and L’Histoire du Calvinisme (1682) by Father Maimbourg’. Paul Hazard, La crise de la conscience européenne, 1680–1715 (Paris: Fayard, 1961), p. 54.

113 For the controversy regarding Bossuet’s work and Basnage’s contribution to it, see Gerald Cerny, Th eology, Politics, and Letters at the Crossroads of European Civilization: Jacques Basnage and the Baylean Huguenot Refugees in the Dutch Republic (Dordrecht: Nijhoff , 1987), pp. 203–231.

114 Isaac d’Huisseau, La réunion du christianisme (Saumur: René Pean, 1670) ‘preface’.115 Hazard, Crisis, pp. 103–104.

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matters.116 Th ese two factions were known in the United Provinces as Cocceians and Voetians respectively. Teding van Berkhout was undoubtedly familiar with the debates, which were also conducted in pamphlets. He refers in his diary to Het leven van Philopater (‘Th e life of Philopater’), a satirical novel about the dispute between the two schools of thought.117 Berkhout also read about the diffi cult question of the relationship between philosophy and theology in the work of the French Jesuit René Rapin, who certainly did not reject rational thought, but asserted that faith transcends reason.

Most scholars, like Rapin, acknowledged the authority of theology in matters of faith. But radical thinkers went further than this. Th ey followed the philosopher Spinoza in holding that reason was simply inconsistent with essential Christian truths such as free will, the exis-tence of a God who creates, takes action, and is constantly guiding the hand of man, or with supernatural phenomena such as angels or the devil. God must be interpreted as the essential order of nature, and only through philosophy, not theology, could one know God.118 It is not unduly rash to suppose that Teding van Berkhout was aware of this radical trend in thought, since Spinoza lived in Th e Hague and the Huygens brothers belonged to Berkhout’s circle.119 In any case, some of the books that Berkhout mentions in his diary were directly related to the uproar caused by the new philosophy. For instance, he read one text in which the existence of God was demonstrated ‘by natural arguments’.120 While this is unlikely to have been an off shoot of the radical school of thought, it was not entirely unimpeachable. In any case, the anonymous author had evidently not dared to have his work disseminated in print, since Berkhout read it in manuscript

116 Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, pp. 308–314, Israel, Dutch Republic, pp. 889–931.117 On this work’s place in the debate between philosophy and theology, see Maréchal’s

introduction to its modern edition: Johannes Duijkerius, Het leven van Philopater en Vervolg op ’t leven van Philopater. Een spinozistische sleutelroman uit 1691/1697 edited by Gerardine Maréchal (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 19–24. Berkhout refers only to the fi rst novel, published in 1691. Th e second one, the Vervolg, which gives a popular version of Spinoza’s philosophy, is not mentioned in Berkhout’s diary.

118 Th e development of radical thought, its dissemination in Europe and the reac-tions to it are described in detail by Jonathan Israel in his book Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). On the Dutch roots of these ideas, see pp. 157–212.

119 Ibid., p. 247.120 9 January 1669: ‘par raijsonnement naturels.’ Th e treatise does not draw any

radical conclusions from the arguments, since it demonstrates the existence of a ‘Dieu de la puissance’, as Berkhout notes.


form. Berkhout also read Blaise Pascal, whose books on mathematics and physics showed him to be a typical exponent of the new natural sciences. Still, his Pensées constitutes an apologia for faith, which he considered to be of an entirely diff erent order from nature; it could only be understood with the heart, and not with the mind.121

Leaving aside religious controversy, books also played a role in every-day devotional practices. Berkhout naturally read the Bible, sometimes consulting the explanatory notes written by the Delft clergyman Johan van Bleiswyk. For the rest Berkhout referred to several collections of sermons, including those by Pierre du Bosc and François Turretin. It was obviously impossible for clergymen to avoid joining in the debates of their day, and Pierre du Bosc, for instance, made frequent reference to the relationship between faith and religion when speaking of the biblical city of Ninevah. Th e story of this city, as related in the gospel of St Matthew, was intended to promote devoutness rather than to convey any historical or geographical information.122 Berkhout also read handbooks on how to live a Christian life, such as the French translation of Th e Whole Duty of Man by Richard Allestree.

Th e third subject area on which Teding van Berkhout focused, aft er his-torical and religious books, was literature. Th ere are frequent mentions of plays, partly because of his regular visits to the theatre in Th e Hague, and partly because they were among his regular reading.123 He read the tragedy Suréna by the famous French playwright Pierre Corneille, for instance, in which the eponymous protagonist is a Parthian general who elects death with his beloved Eurydice rather than bow to the king’s intrigues. Berkhout also mentions the tragedy Phaedra by another renowned French playwright, Jean Racine, in which Racine presented a new version of Queen Phaedra’s passion for her stepson Hippolytus. Th e other plays mentioned in Berkhout’s diary, like Phaedra and Suréna, revolve around fi gures from classical antiquity, thus refl ecting the clas-sicist trend in French literature. According to prevailing opinion, art

121 Israel, Radical Enlightenment, p. 473.122 Pierre du Bosc, Sermons sur diverses textes (Rotterdam: Reinier Leers, 1687),

p. 492.123 In 1671, for instance, Berkhout frequently went to the Franse Komedie in Th e

Hague, where the plays he saw included Tartuff e (20 January 1671), Misantrope (16 November 1671) and Le bourgeois gentilhomme (21 November 1671), all three by Molière.

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had to comply with a number of clear rules, which were formulated on the basis of ancient texts.

Berkhout was evidently familiar with the classical rules of poetry, since he read l’Art Poétique, a verse treatise on the subject by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux. He also mentions this writer’s epic Le Lutrin, modelled on Greek and Roman examples, a parody of contemporary epics that relates the heroic struggle between two church administra-tors about the place of a pulpit in the chapel. In spite of all the rules of art, artistic beauty nonetheless possessed an intangible quality, Boileau had written in l’Art, a view echoed by René Rapin. In Du grand ou du sublime (which Berkhout read), Rapin discussed the sublime (verhevene in Dutch), calling it ‘that overabundance of perfection that arrests the heart and fi lls the soul with amazement.’124 Th is sublimity characterised the language of the speaker or writer but could not be learned, since it was an expression of a sublime character. Th is transformed liter-ary theory into moral didacticism and biography, since Rapin’s book presents portraits of four men who seemed to represent perfection, each in his own sphere of life.125 Another moralistic work of literature mentioned in the diary is Caractères by Jean de la Bruyère, a series of sharply drawn portraits (imitating Th eophrastus) exposing fl aws in contemporary manners, although existing persons are far more clearly recognisable in his characters than in those of his classical examples.

Berkhout’s reading apparently included few subject areas other than literature and theological and historical texts. Although he took a certain interest in the natural sciences, he seldom read about the empirical side of rational thought. Th e reference to Fontenelle’s Entretiens seems to indicate his limited knowledge, since this was a greatly simplifi ed explanation, in the form of a dialogue, of the most important elements of the new, mechanistic view of the world. His family relationship and regular association with one of the most famous physicists of his day, Christiaan Huygens, did nothing to alter Berkhout’s lack of interest in physics.126 Also virtually absent from the diary are books about law;

124 René Rapin, ’t Groot en ’t verhevene in de zeden en in de verscheidene staaten der menschen (Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1686), p. 10.

125 Th ese four are the president of the parliament of Laimoignon, who exemplifi es perfection in the administration of justice; marshal Henri de Turenne, who exemplifi es perfection in weaponry; the prince of Condé, a loft y example of a life lived in seclusion; and King Louis XIV, who is seen as the acme of sublimity in general.

126 On 20 September 1670, Teding van Berkhout paid a visit to Huygens. He later described a number of outings with the Huygens family, on which they were joined by ‘don Christiano il mathematico’, as Berkhout called him. See 3 September 1677.


the only one he read was his son Paulus’s Disputatio juridica. It is a fair assumption that he was not so much fascinated by the subject as proud of his son, for whom this work was the culmination of his university education.

Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s diary reflects a clear preference for works of history and theology, and to a lesser extent for literature. In this respect he reveals himself in every respect to be a typical reader of the governing elite. But there are few signs of a classical humanist background. Berkhout’s reading list does not include the classics, and his main interest was in recent history. His preferences do not appear to refl ect erudition; he may be described as a well-informed reader who could hold his own in discussions of history and religion. He also displays the characteristics of a cultivated or well-bred reader who was more interested in entertainment than edifi cation. Th is preference did not clash with his love of history, since one of the many books containing guidelines on etiquette, La rhetorique de l’honnête-homme (1700) included a list of recommended reading composed primarily of history books.127

Reading à la mode

If Berkhout’s reading refl ects his bias towards refi ned culture and good breeding, this is truer still of his preference for French. Of the 116 titles mentioned in his diary, 81 were in French, a prestigious language among the Dutch elite.128 Some were original French texts and others were translations, such as Temple’s memoirs and Burnet’s history of the Reformation of the Church of England. Th e fact that a text appeared in French did not necessarily mean that it had been printed in France. Th e French translation of Temple’s memoirs was published in Th e Hague, as were many other French titles mentioned in Berkhout’s diary. Th is will not raise any eyebrows: the prominence of French-language books in the Dutch book trade has been well documented. It is generally seen as evidence of the international orientation of the book trade in the

127 Marco de Niet, ‘Beschavende boeken: een literatuurlijst uit 1700 voor ‘honnêtes hommes’, in J. Bos and J.A. Gruys (eds.), Vingerafdrukken: mengelwerk van medewerkers bij tien jaar Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands (Th e Hague: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1993), pp. 49–58.

128 Berkhout also read 18 Dutch, 2 Latin and 1 Italian title. In the case of 14 titles, the language cannot be determined with certainty.

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United Provinces, but Berkhout’s diary rather undermines this argu-ment, showing that there was also a domestic readership for non-Dutch works of literature.129

Berkhout’s reading preferences, besides French-oriented, were above all contemporary. Th is is clear enough from the subject-matter, which tended to refl ect contemporary issues. Since the reading notes were made in a diary, however, the topicality of his taste can be determined more accurately still, by comparing the year of a book’s fi rst edition to the moment at which Berkhout fi rst mentions it in his diary. Of the 95 works that can be identifi ed with certainty, over half – 54 titles – were at most twelve months old when Berkhout read them.130 So many books came into Berkhout’s hands hot from the press, as it were, as did Amelot de la Houssaije’s Histoire du gouvernement de Venise. Th e work was printed in 1677 and read by Berkhout the same year. Somewhat less recent was the travel journal of Johan Nieuhof. An edition of this book rolled off the press in 1670, and a year later Berkhout wrote in his diary: ‘Scarcely anything happened today. I read a [report of the] mission to China that was recently printed.’131

Berkhout evidently had little difficulty procuring recent books, which shows that even in the late seventeenth century, the book trade was capable of distributing books rapidly and easily. In book histori-cal research it is usually claimed that distribution channels could not respond to contemporary tastes in reading until the eighteenth cen-tury.132 But this may have happened earlier. Th e diff erence between Berkhout and David Beck, who mainly read older works, is in any case an indication, if a cautious one, in this direction.

Th is is not to say that Teding van Berkhout was constantly reading work that came straight from the press. One quarter of his reading, 24 titles in all, was over fi ve years old when he read it.133 Maimbourg’s Histoire du grand schisme d’occident, which Berkhout read in 1684,

129 Th is corroborates the proposition of Bert van Selm, ‘Johannes van Ravesteyn: “Libraire Européen” or Local Trader?’, in C. Berckvens-Stevelinck (ed.), Le Magasin de l’Univers. Th e Dutch Republic as the Centre of the European Booktrade (Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 252–263; esp. p. 259.

130 Berkhout read 28 books in the year of publication, and another 26 in the year aft er the fi rst edition. Seventeen books were two to fi ve years old.

131 24 January 1671: ‘Il ne se passa guerre en ce jour. Je lisaijs une ambassade vers la Chine, nouvellement imprimée.’

132 Goinga, Alom te bekomen, p. 299.133 Nine of these books were six to ten years old, fi ve were eleven to twenty years

old, and ten were over twenty years old.


had been printed as far back as 1678. Berkhout’s oldest book was Velius’s chronicle of the city of Hoorn, the fi rst edition of which was published in 1604. Berkhout read it in 1677, but possibly not in this fi rst edition. Velius’s chronicle was reissued in 1648, for instance, but it was nonetheless a relatively old text in Berkhout’s diary. Th at it was a history book is irrelevant, since Berkhout read both old and new books in almost all genres; the exception is literature, in which category no older works appear.

An unusual taste?

Were Pieter Teding van Berkhout’s contemporaries at all bemused by his preference for recent, French-language works of history, theology and literature? Th ose in his immediate surroundings probably saw nothing remarkable in this bias, since other sources suggest that they had similar preferences. For instance, the newspaper was also read at the residence of Cornelis de Jonge van Ellemeet and his wife Maria Oyens, who were Berkhout’s (and each other’s) cousins in the Berensteyn branch of the family. In her household expenditure, Oyens recorded money spent on two, sometimes three newspapers a week.134

Berkhout’s preference for French classicist literature was similar to the taste of another cousin, Coenraad Droste. Th e latter described his meeting with the poet Racine, ‘who wrote many elegant plays for the stage’.135 Th rough Racine, Droste hoped to contact Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux. Racine was willing to introduce Droste, but he would only do so if Droste was willing to be a guest at Boileau’s table, something that Droste thought inappropriate for their fi rst meeting. Th e two men therefore never met, but Droste remained an admirer of Boileau. He translated the writer’s Art poétique and followed the rules prescribed by this theoretical treatise in his own plays.

With Constantijn Huygens Jr there were also shared interests. Berkhout probably associated with him from an early age, and when Berkhout’s sister Jacoba married Constantijn’s brother Lodewijk they became related. Another common interest, although they were prob-ably unaware of it, is that both men kept a diary in the same period. Huygens wrote far less about his reading in his diary than Berkhout,

134 Muinck, Regentenhuishouding, p. 205–206, 292.135 Droste, Overblyfsels, line 5662.

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but he did occasionally mention books that corresponded to Berkhout’s preferences: he read ‘passages in [the] memoirs of Sir Will Temple’ and leafed through ‘Leti’s life of Cromwell’.136 Like Berkhout, Huygens was interested in travel accounts as well as history. He wrote about ‘Narborough’s trip to Poland, a description of Louisiana and Father d’Avril’s travel accounts’.137

Huygens, like Berkhout, had a large library that he looked aft er with great care. In 1691 he spent the best part of a morning arranging his book collection. He kept a list of his book purchases, similar to the list that Berkhout made in 1677. He did so in greater detail, however, including a ‘fair catalogue’ in which he occasionally noted down his new acquisitions. He did so in 1691 and 1694, in any case, when he wrote in his diary that he had spent the morning entering the titles of the ‘books [he] had collected in the past year or year and a half and not yet registered’ in his catalogue. Th e next day he inscribed ‘many more books in [his] alphabetical catalogue, having not done so for one or two years.’138

Huygens’s own catalogue may have been the basis for the sales catalogue that was drawn up aft er his death in 1701.139 Th is provides an even better source for identifying areas in which his interests and Berkhout’s overlapped. Huygens had a large library containing 5,689 books. Some had been collected by his father, which underscores the fact that in elite circles a library was not individual property but a family asset. Th e library contained a great many volumes not mentioned in Berkhout’s diary, such as legal titles and works of natural history. Still, it included thirty books that Berkhout does describe. Especially in the

136 Huygens Jr, Journaal, 5 January 1692; 6 June 1693. Th e former was William Temple’s Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the war begun in 1672 to the peace concluded 1679 (London 1692). Berkhout read this work in a French translation. Th e second title is Het leven van Olivier Cromwel, behelsende des selfs staatkundige en doorslepene handelingen . . . 2 vols. (Th e Hague 1697) by Gregorio Leti. Berkhout does not mention this title in his diary, although he does refer to a similar book: François Raguenet, Histoire d’Olivier Cromwell.

137 Ibid., 22 January 1695, 28 February 1695, 11 March 1695. Th e book that Huygens calls a description of Louisiana has not as yet been identifi ed. Th e other authors and titles mentioned are John Narborough, An Account of several late voyages and discoveries to the south and north (1694); Philippe Avril, Voyage en divers états d’Europe et d’Asie, entrepris pour découvrir un nouveau chemin à la Chine (1693) or in Dutch translation Reize door verscheidene staten van Europa en Asia (1694).

138 Ibid., 25 February 1691 (arranging library); 9 December 1691, 1 and 2 May 1694 (writing the catalogue); see also 4 April 1692.

139 Gruys and De Kooker (eds.), Guide, IDC cat. 848.


fi eld of history, both secular and ecclesiastical, Berkhout and Huygens had very similar tastes. Th e same applied to Huygens’s erudite brother Christiaan, whom Berkhout also knew and whose library was auctioned in 1695; the auction catalogue included seventeen titles overlapping with those read by Berkhout.140

Nor did Berkhout’s tastes diff er greatly from those of book owners outside his immediate social surroundings. History and theology were the most prominent genres in eighteenth-century probate inventories in Delft , not only in large book collections but also in the estates of those who left only a few volumes. But relatively large book collections – and this accords well with Berkhout’s preferences – tend to contain more French and classical literature.141 Th e book collections bequeathed by Hague testators in the early eighteenth century refl ect the same picture. Religious and historical books occur most frequently in the probate inventories, followed by literature and legal treatises.142 Th e study of reading in Th e Hague reveals a certain correlation between reading preferences and social status, and the image that emerges of the reader Berkhout is not incompatible with this. Th ere was a clearly identifi able group with ‘varied’ book collections, consisting largely of wealthy married Calvinists.143

Did shared preferences also apply at the level of specific titles? Aft er all, a single bibliographical category may embrace highly diverse works.144 Th is question was explored using information on thirty-fi ve book auctions held in Delft and Th e Hague in 1643–1713 and 1708–1713, respectively.145 Printed auction catalogues make it possible

140 Ibid., IDC cat. 31. Th e books belonging to Berkhout’s brother Joan were also put up for auction. According to an advertisement in the Haagse Courant his property was auctioned in March 1720 by the bookseller Jean Neaulme. Unfortunately, the catalogue of this auction has not been preserved. Otto S. Lankhorst, ‘Jean Neaulme, uitgever in Verlicht Europa’, in Spiegel Historiael 36 (2001), pp. 301–306; esp. p. 303.

141 Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, Achter de gevels, pp. 258–261.142 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 160. Th is information comes from an analysis of the

proportion of diff erent genres in probate inventories as a whole. Th is is not to say that these proportions apply to the assets of individual testators.

143 Ibid., p. 174, 175, 344–347. Th e two other groups distinguished by De Kruif were people who had only a small number of books associated with religious rituals such as bibles and psalters in their homes, and those with a large collection of primarily theological literature.

144 De Kruif ’s study does discuss the popularity of individual titles, but since she uses probate inventories from the entire eighteenth century, there is little point in drawing comparisons with Berkhout’s tastes.

145 Th e catalogues were selected from the Book Sales Catalogues, omitting auctions

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to compare titles, although these sources are certainly not without their problems. Booksellers also used auctions as a way of disposing of their own stock.146 Th e comparison given below is based on the assumption that the titles belonged to individual readers.

Of the 116 titles mentioned in Berkhout’s diary, 64 occur in at least one auction catalogue. Th is suggests that his preferences in terms of individual titles were not, in the main, very diff erent from those of other readers. History, in particular, displays a large overlap. Th e book found most frequently is Mézeray’s Abrégé de l’histoire de France, which occurs in 21 catalogues. Of all those with private libraries, eighteen, like Berkhout, owned Brandt’s Leven van De Ruyter and Aitzema’s Saken van staat. Of the seventeen titles mentioned by Berkhout that occur in nine or more catalogues, eleven dealt with historical issues. Berkhout’s penchant for biographies and travel accounts was also common. Of the seven biographies read by Berkhout, six occurred in at least one catalogue. Aside from De Ruyter, De la Brune’s life of Charles V was also popular, occurring in eight catalogues. Of the ten travel accounts mentioned by Berkhout, seven were listed in at least one catalogue, most notably those by Chardin (thirteen catalogues) and Tavernier (eleven). Nor was Berkhout exceptional in terms of his literary tastes. Of the thirteen works of literature mentioned in his diary, ten are found in the catalogues. Authors like Molière and Boileau occur in over half of all libraries, although frequently with their Oeuvres rather than the volumes mentioned by Berkhout.147 Finally, in the category of religion,

of booksellers’ stocks and those of anonymous owners. Th is yielded eight catalogues of auctions held in Delft (1643–1713) and twenty-seven held in Th e Hague (1708–1713): IDC cat. nos. 66, 80, 85, 90, 262, 800, 1035, 1156, 1390, 1617, 1619, 1622, 1637, 1850, 1913, 1935, 2004, 2074, 2080, 2577, 2603, 2659, 2690, 2726, 2731, 2735, 2737, 2742, 2760–1, 2880, 2909, 3020, 3033, 3043. Some of those with libraries in Delft were associ-ated in some way with Berkhout, including his cousins Th eodorus van Beresteyn and Johannes Boogert and the clergyman Cornelis van Bleyswijk. Berkhout moved in Th e Hague’s high society, and those who died in the specifi c decade studied had in any case lived through the same general period as he. It is not known whether they were all of the same generation as Berkhout, but they had in any case lived long enough to accumulate a substantial collection of books. It should be borne in mind that not all auctions held in Th e Hague related to persons who had lived in Th e Hague.

146 For a discussion of the scope and limitations of such studies, see Goinga, Alom te bekomen, pp. 186–188, 192–193.

147 Th e popularity of French authors such as Montaigne has been shown in the past in studies of auction catalogues: S.A. Krijn, ‘Franse lektuur in Nederland in het begin van de 18e eeuw’, in De Nieuwe Taalgids 2 (1917), pp. 161–178. Krijn studied 100 catalogues from the period 1700–1750: Boyleau occurred in 46 of them and Molière in 42, for instance.


fi ft een of the titles mentioned by Berkhout are also found in the librar-ies of other book owners from Delft and Th e Hague.

Berkhout refers to 22 titles in his diary that are not found in auction catalogues.148 Most are pamphlets: they include one on the conquest of Maastricht, the story of the ‘abominable’ murder of the Earl of Essex, and the Autentycke stucken, aengaende het gepasseerde tot Middelburgh (‘Authentic documents relating to the events at Middelburg’). Perhaps owners thought cheap printed matter of this kind was not worth keeping.149 In addition, some of the devotional books mentioned in Berkhout’s diary do not turn up in auction catalogues. Th e Traicté de l’employ des saincts pères and Schweinitz’s Méditations sur la mort did not belong to the estates of the Delft and Hague citizens whose col-lections were sold at auction. One can only guess at the reason. Th ese were certainly not obscure or for instance proscribed works.

Conversely, many books listed in auction catalogues are not men-tioned by Berkhout: twenty libraries included, in addition to Aitzema’s work, histories of the Netherlands by Bor, Van Meeteren and Hooft , books that Berkhout did not have in his bookcases. To be sure, the private libraries were many times the size of Berkhout’s reading list, some of them containing thousands of volumes. Berkhout’s modest-sized list included almost no classics, natural sciences, philosophy or law, subjects that were abundant in the catalogues: work by Descartes was listed in 21 auction catalogues, and Montaigne’s Essays appeared in twenty libraries. Th ese discrepancies are not easy to interpret. In part they suggest that Berkhout had a diff erent taste in books, but they could also arise from his habits as a diarist. Although Berkhout does not mention Montaigne, for instance, he did know the author. In the report of his grand tour, Berkhout wrote of Bordeaux, where he stayed for some time, that the ‘excellent author’ Montaigne had been burgomaster of that city.150

Th e degree to which Berkhout distinguished himself from other book owners remains an open question. Th ere is in any case a clear overlap. Th e specifi c books that Berkhout read, from secular and ecclesiastical

148 Th ese are only the titles from the diary that have been identifi ed with certainty. Four were not identifi ed until aft er the research on the auction catalogues had been concluded. Th is leaves twenty-two titles that have not been found in the auction catalogues.

149 It is possible that Ferguson’s Ondersoek . . . van de grouwzame moord was not found because it had been proscribed in 1684. Weekman, Boekencensuur, p. 387.

150 Westrienen, Groote Tour, p. 175.

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history to travel accounts and works of literature, also appeared in many other people’s bookcases. Since the owners of such libraries all belonged to the higher echelons of society, one can infer the existence of a common elite taste.

Purchases and gift s

Pieter Teding van Berkhout belonged to the country’s elite, and on his death he was one of the wealthiest people in the area of Delft and Th e Hague. His desire to purchase reading matter was therefore not curtailed by the slightest fi nancial impediment. But how did a member of the ruling class acquire his books?

Th e most obvious places to acquire reading matter, of course, were bookshops. Of these, Teding van Berkhout had plenty of choice in Delft , and otherwise he could go to one of the many shops in Th e Hague, a city he visited frequently. He must have purchased books in both these cities, but he never mentions doing so in his diary. Th e absence of any notes on this subject makes it impossible to fi nd out how Berkhout fulfi lled his desire for contemporary reading. First there is the question of how he found out what was available – whether he read newspaper items or gained information from booksellers. Th e next question is whether he could purchase new items in shops immediately or whether he had to order them.

Berkhout describes only one visit to a bookshop, where he went not to purchase books but to have texts printed there. He needed some work done on his country house, and called for tenders in posters distributed in several villages in the Rijnland and Delfl and areas. Th is was evidently an eff ective way of getting his message across, since when he arrived at his country house a few days later, he saw that a great many workmen had already arrived to apply for the job.151 So even towards the end of the 17th century, bookshops still derived part of their income from

151 4 April 1670. Discussion with surveyor: 1 March 1670. Berkhout described this discussion in conspicuously formal terms. Given his use of language in the rest of the diary, this may have been intended humorously: ‘Th e surveyor Van Swieten, whom I had summoned to my presence, enjoyed luncheon with me. We spent the aft ernoon arranging the making of the pond and plantation I had conceived.’ Th e posters were distributed on 28 March 1670. Berkhout calls them billetten. While it is not certain that they were pasted in public places, it does seem probable.


printing everyday communications, as has been established before for the eighteenth-century book trade.152

One distribution channel that Berkhout did mention was that of book auctions. Like David Beck, he visited the auctions in the Great Hall of the Binnenhof in Th e Hague on more than one occasion.153 He purchased ‘several’ books there at the beginning of April 1669.154 Somewhat later he spent a morning in the Great Hall and bought some books at the Aitzema auction.155 Berkhout returned to the Hall a month later, leafi ng through the books he bought there in his study when he got home.156

In spite of the lively production of French books in the United Provinces, the national book trade could not always satisfy Berkhout’s international taste. On one occasion, at least, he had a relative purchase books for him abroad, which evidently worked better than using the booksellers’ own international contacts. Berkhout’s cousin Coenraad Droste spent some time in Paris in 1669, and sent back a catalogue of books and booklets ‘of the present day’.157 Berkhout was evidently quick to communicate his wishes to Droste, since less than a month aft er receiving the catalogue he came home to discover a large package of books from Paris. He was able to put them with the books he had purchased that day at the Hall in Th e Hague.158

Berkhout’s diary does not reveal much about the day-to-day business at the book market, but it tells us a good deal about a diff erent mode of book distribution: many books were not purchased at all, but simply lent out or passed on as gift s. Berkhout noted down numerous gift s of this kind in his diary: they fi tted very well (better than purchases) into the narrative of his diary, which focused, aft er all, on his everyday

152 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, p. 70.153 For the book trade at the Binnenhof, see Keblusek, Boeken in de hofstad, pp.

38–42.154 1 April 1669. Th e auction (of the property of an anonymous owner) had been

organised by the bookseller Johannes Steucker. Gruys and De Kooker (eds.), Guide, IDC cat. 2370.

155 8 April 1669. Th e owner was undoubtedly the well-known historian and journalist Lieuwe van Aitzema, who had died in 1669. Th e inventory of auction catalogues (Gruys and De Kooker (eds.), Guide) does not list an Aitzema auction.

156 21 May 1669.157 2 March 1669.158 1 April 1669.

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social life. For instance, a cousin gave him Chronijck vande Stadt van Hoorn (‘Chronicle of the city of Hoorn’) and his sister Jacoba gave him Bussy-Rabutin’s Lettres.159 From his Amsterdam fellow-representative to the States of Holland, Berkhout received the gift of Brandt’s biography of De Ruyter.160

Some texts could not be purchased at a bookshop. Manuscripts, for instance, came from acquaintances. A Meerdervoort cousin lent Berkhout the manuscript that proved the existence of a powerful and merciful God ‘through natural reasoning’.161 Van Overbeke’s handwrit-ten travel account is another item that Berkhout must have borrowed, but he does not mention this in his diary. Elie Benoist’s history of the French Protestant church, which Berkhout received in manuscript form from the author himself, was a special case.

Benoist was an acquaintance of Berkhout’s who preached at the Walloon church in Delft . Th e two men met frequently in 1692. Berkhout attended services at Benoist’s church and his second marriage was consecrated there in 1707. Berkhout and Benoist shared an interest in ecclesiastical history. Benoist had fi rst conceived the idea of writing a history of the Huguenots in 1688. At that time, Berkhout noted in his diary that the clergyman had visited him at the Pasgeld estate, partly to inspect his books, ‘to see whether he could use any of them in writ-ing his proposed history’.162 As a historian, Benoist would have found libraries such as Berkhout’s indispensable. Since there were no public libraries in the seventeenth century, scholars were compelled to rely on their own and others’ book collections.

Benoist did in fact use Berkhout’s library at a later stage. He stayed at Pasgeld one evening, looking through the books, Berkhout wrote in his diary.163 Th e Histoire that Benoist fi nally published also proves that the clergyman made use of Berkhout’s library. As befi ts a good histo-rian, Benoist furnished his work with a bibliography, which included several titles that are mentioned in Berkhout’s diary. For instance, for the fi rst two volumes of the Histoire, Benoist used Mézeray’s Histoire de France and the abridged version of this work. He also consulted the

159 Chronijk: 14 June 1677. Th is must be the cousin of whose death Berkhout was noti-fi ed in 1697 in the letter discussed earlier in this chapter. Lettres: 9 October 1698.

160 30 December 1686.161 9 January 1669.162 6 January 1688 ‘Benoist ij disna et allions ensemble à Pasgeld, visiter mes livres

si d’aventure il n’ij en avait point de son usage pour escrire l’histoijre qu’il entrevait.’163 30 August 1690.


Mémoires of Vittorie Siri, De Sully and Bassompierre. Th e bibliography accompanying his third volume included Chanut’s Mémoires and the ‘works’ of Drelincourt and Du Bosc.164

Berkhout had read the content of Benoist’s Histoire de l’édit de Nantes even before it rolled off the press. Aft er Benoist had fi nished the fi rst volume of his Histoire, he took the manuscript and showed it to Berkhout.165 Th e remaining volumes followed in swift succession over the following few months. In December the entire series was fi nished, and Berkhout ‘started reading the manuscripts of the Histoire de l’édit de Nantes, which Mr Benoist had presented to me.’166 Berkhout naturally also received a printed copy of the Histoire in 1693.167

Although Berkhout’s association with Benoist’s Histoire was excep-tional, other authors also gave him printed copies of their work. Th e Delft clergyman Cornelis van Bleyswijk gave Berkhout his reading plan for the Bible.168 Philippe le Clerc de Juigné de Vrigny, one of the many French refugees in Berkhout’s circle, gave him two polemical essays. De Vrigny gave Berkhout the Défense du Parlement d’Angleterre and his Lettre with a spirited refutation of ideas such as those in a book entitled De natuurlijke religie (‘Th e natural religion’).169 Berkhout received from the clergyman David von Schweinitz the latter’s Méditations sur la mort, and Th éodore de Beringhen too gave him one of his own works.170

All these gift s undoubtedly arose from Berkhout’s social ties with the authors concerned. De Vrigny, for instance, belonged to the circle of French refugees surrounding Madame de Montigny, with whom Berkhout frequently associated. But the gift s also refl ect Berkhout’s status. It was common for writers to present or dedicate their work to men of rank, hoping for something in exchange.171 Whether Berkhout

164 Elie Benoist, Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes: contenant les choses les plus remarquables qui se sont passées en France avant et après sa publication, a l’occasion de la diversité des religion 3 vols. (Delft : A. Beman, 1693–1695).

165 16 August 1689.166 2 December 1689 ‘et commencaijs a lire les cahiers manuscripts de l’histoijre de

l’édict de Nantes, que mr Benoist m’avait communiquer.’167 27 July 1693.168 25 October 1675.169 10 September 1692; 30 January 1693.170 26 September 1700; 25 March 1692, No work by Beringhen from 1692 is known.

Th e only extant title by this author is Cinquante lettres d’exhortation et de consolation, sur les souff rances de ces derniers tems (Th e Hague 1704).

171 Spies, ‘Betaald werk?’. For an exploratory study of the role of the States of Holland as a patron, see P.J. Verkruijsse, ‘Holland “gedediceerd”. Boekopdrachten in Holland in de 17e eeuw’, in Holland 23 (1991), pp. 225–242.

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acted as a patron in this way is unknown. But he may have helped to secure the annuity of 315 guilders that Benoist received from the States of Holland, to which body the author had dedicated his Histoire.172 As a member of the States, Berkhout was in any case involved in this decision.

Th e delights of country life

Reading, as we saw in the previous chapter about David Beck, was an activity linked to specifi c times and places. So it is interesting to look at these aspects of Berkhout’s reading habits. When Berkhout had received the books from Paris in 1669, he withdrew to what he called his chambrette in his parental home (he did not acquire his own home until 1670), which served as a study. Th is is where he read Mézeray, for instance.173 Th at same year he also noted in his diary that he had spent the aft ernoon reading in his cabinet.174 It is not entirely clear whether these two words refer to the same room. It became more and more common in the seventeenth century for well-to-do households to reserve a separate room for an amateur to display his (or her) scientifi c, historical or literary collection.175 Did Berkhout have something of the kind? He did participate in the rage for collecting, albeit on a small scale. Aft er his death, relatives sold ‘all manner of objects’ related to his hobbies to the Leiden bookseller Luchtmans, including ‘four very fi ne metal sculptures, all made in Italy’ besides many commemorative medals and medallions and several scientifi c instruments such as a barometer and some microscopes.176

Whatever the case may be, in 1669 Teding van Berkhout frequently withdrew to a separate room to read. Whether he did so in other years is unclear, since Berkhout does not communicate much about the sur-roundings in which he studied his books. In any case, his Delft home and country estate each had a room that served as offi ce and library, and he will have spent many hours there. Aside from this, it is clear from diverse comments in his diary that there was really nowhere in

172 Van Deijk, ‘Elie Benoist’, p. 58.173 3 January, 6 February, 2 December 1669.174 11 November 1669.175 Van der Veen, ‘Verzamelaar in zijn kamer’. 176 NA, FA TvB, inv. no. 248: division of the esetate, including a separate list of

‘items relating to hobbies sent to Mr Luchtmans to be sold for the benefi t of the com-mon estate.’


the house where he did not sometimes open a book: he read in bed or sitting on a chair, and in his country home of Pasgeld he would read in the living room, his sale bleue, the galerie and at the fi reside.177

A book’s size would sometimes infl uence the way and place in which it was read. Mézeray’s Histoire de France was a large three-volume folio edition, of which the fi rst volume alone, according to Berkhout, stretched to more than a thousand pages.178 A work of this kind really called for serious study, and Berkhout made copious notes about it. Studying perhaps called for a certain amount of peace and quiet, and Berkhout therefore secluded himself to read the Histoire. He would have needed a desk to make notes, and in some cases to provide suf-fi cient support for an unwieldy book. Th is meant that the Histoire could really only be read in one place. Th e abridged version, printed in 1669, was a very diff erent matter. Not only had the text itself been reduced to shorter sections, the book itself was published in a far more manageable format.

Even so, Berkhout did not always need peace and quiet to study Mézeray. For instance, he described one evening on which he read Mézeray ‘as on every other evening’, with his wife sitting beside him as well as a small child, Dina van Leeuwen.179 So Berkhout sometimes read when others were in the room, although this was not very easy:

Dina van Leeuwen [was] a very cheerful young child, who kept circling around us and was restless, not only with her feet but also and more especially with her tongue, with which she babbled an incessant sort of gibberish that would have been unintelligible to even the most astute of listeners. Once, to punish her or to deliver myself from her talking and ceaseless prattling, I forbade her to speak until a clock that I showed her had sounded; which she obeyed, but not without diffi culty, since I saw her purse her lips out of fear that the fl ood of words that she had such diffi culty in stemming might escape from them.180

177 Bed and chair: 17 July 1693, 28 July 1695; chambre/sale: 8 January 1670, 24 November 1692; Sale bleue: 31 May 1695; galerie: 21 July 1692; au coijn du feu: 16 April 1688.

178 14 March 1669; the copy that is now in Leiden university library has 1,042 pages, to be precise. Th e second volume has 1,194 pages, which number Berkhout himself noted down on 20 January 1670.

179 1 March 1669.180 Ibid.: ‘Le soijr je lus Mizeraij, comme je fi s presque toutes les soijrées, ma femme

estant à coste de moij . . . et la petite Dina van Leeuwen, un très jolij et bel enfant, pirouetant et se remuant tout autour de nous, non seulement des pieds maijs surtout de la langue, don’t elle gazouijlloit incessamment un certaijn galimathias, ou les plus sensez n’eussent [sic] rien compris. Ouelquefoijs, pour luij donner une pénitence ou

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Berkhout writes more about the houses in which he read than about the rooms. As befi ts an aristocrat, he had a town house as well as a country estate. So we need to investigate the possibility that reading was specifi cally linked to one of these homes. Seventeenth-century literature frequently associates books with country life. In Petrus Hondius’s ode to a country residence, for instance, he extols ‘the sweetness of coun-try life, accompanied by books’.181 Berkhout complied with the ideal expressed in Dutch country-house poetry, in that he too described reading in his diary as a ‘regular delight of country life’.182 In the world of country-house poetry this pleasure was intended primarily for long winter evenings, but this did not apply in the world of real historical readers.183 Aft er all, country houses were summer refuges, and so it was there and in this period that the well-to-do most enjoyed the company of books, as is clear from Berkhout’s diary.

Berkhout spent most of the summer of 1670 on his country estate in Noordwijk. He set off there in May, with Aitzema’s Saecken van staet en oorlogh in his trunk, which provided a considerable diversion: he writes more than once of spending ‘a long time in Aitzema’.184 At the end of June it was ‘exceedingly hot’ in Noordwijk. Berkhout ‘did very little aside from fi nishing the fi rst volume of Aitzema’.185 In July he started on the second volume, which he read (in some cases ‘for a long time’) for several more days.186 In fact days passed on which Berkhout read nothing else. Th e 21st was one such day, on which

pour me deliverer de son parlement et caquet continuel, je luij deff endis de parler avant qu’un horloge, que j’avaijs eut sonné, à quoij elle obeijt, non sans violence, puisque je la vis serrer ses lèvres de peur qu’il luij eschappait des paroles le fl ux desquelles elle avaijt peijne a retenir.’ Dina was the daughter of Diederik van Leijden van Leeuwen and Alida Paedts, the aunt and uncle of Berkhout’s wife Maria.

181 Namely in the title of his poem. See Willemina Bertha de Vries-Schenkeveld, Wandeling en verhandeling: de ontwikkeling van het Nederlandse hofdicht in de zeven-tiende eeuw (1613–1710) (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), pp. 105–109, 128. On the ideal of country-house poetry and the reality of life in the country, or Huygens’s Hofwijck compared to Berkhout’s diary, see Cornelis Schmidt, ‘Over buitenplaatsen en de genoe-gens van weleer’, in Toïta Buitenhuis (ed.), Soeticheydt des Buyten-levens. Buitenplaatsen langs de Vliet en omgeving (Delft : Delft se Universitaire Pers, 1988), pp. 7–27.

182 16 July 1670.183 In Jacob Westerbaen’s Ockenburgh (1654) and Den Brinckhorst (1613) by Philip

van Borsselen, for instance, the descriptions of winter were largely full of books: De Vries-Schenkeveld, Wandeling en verhandeling, pp. 50, 167–172.

184 9 June 1670, 12 June 1670.185 26 June 1670.186 E.g. 10 July, 12 July, 14 July, 15 July 1670.


Berkhout advanced ‘more than 200 pages in Aitzema’.187 At the end of July, Berkhout left for Delft , where he read through the rest of Aitzema’s book in his town house.

Although Berkhout concurred with the country-house poets in seeing reading as one of the pleasures of country life, he did not read solely while on his summer retreat. In fact when the number of diary entries about reading are divided up according to the season, it becomes clear that Berkhout wrote about books far more oft en in the autumn and winter than in the spring or summer.188 So reading may well have been mainly one of the delights of life in the town. When readers spent long winter evenings with books, as described in country-house lyrics, they did so not on their country estates but in a town house.

Another question is that of time: did gentlemen of rank indeed read mostly in the evening? Berkhout notes the time of day he opened his book in about one-third of the entries about reading in his diary. At the beginning of 1669, for instance, he wrote that little had been done that day, aside from reading in the morning and writing letters in the evening.189 In 1684 he spent an aft ernoon reading Du May’s Prudent voyageur.190 Two years later he notes simply ‘read in the evening.’191 If all the entries on reading are totalled, Berkhout seems to have preferred reading in the mornings and evenings. Th ere are over 50% more entries about evening than aft ernoon reading. Th e diff erence between morning and aft ernoon sessions is a little smaller, but still over 33%.192 When the total is divided up according to the season, it provides a cautious indication that it was indeed largely winter evenings (and mornings) that Berkhout spent reading a book. By far the majority of reading notes on the evenings and mornings were written down in the winter and autumn.193

As we saw in the previous chapter, reading had to ‘compete’ with a wide range of other activities. While David Beck spent many hours walking around the countryside, Teding van Berkhout’s attention was claimed by a variety of pastimes more suited to a gentleman of rank,

187 21 July 1670.188 Table 3 in the appendix gives a comprehensive survey of Berkhout’s reading

notes.189 28 January 1669.190 29 February 1684.191 9 November 1686.192 Morning 35; aft ernoon 21; evening 49.193 Evening 42; morning 25.

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such as fi shing in his own lake, hunting on his own land, or going on trips in his carriage. He was not always reading Aitzema’s Saeken in the summer of 1670; he also enjoyed taking his carriage to the beach, where he and his wife ‘washed [their] feet in the warm water’.194 Summer and winter alike, social life was one of reading’s main ‘rivals’. Scarcely a day passed without Berkhout receiving visitors or visiting others, giv-ing or attending diner parties, or spending the evening at an organised social occasion featuring card games. Besides other pastimes and visits, Berkhout’s work as a public administrator also claimed much of his time. At the beginning of his diary he had relatively few administrative duties – which may partly explain why his diary entries were longer in these early years than later on – but as the years passed his workload steadily increased. In 1687, for instance, when Berkhout was a member of the States of Holland as well as Delft ’s vroedschap, many days were consumed by meetings.

Sometimes, however, circumstances conspired to present Berkhout with almost obligatory reading time. Th e weather would oft en keep him indoors. One entry relates that ‘it was very bad weather, wind, hail and all the rest of it, which prompted me to settle down and read some Mézeray.’195 And elsewhere: ‘feeling quite out of sorts because of the bad weather, I amused myself by reading’.196 As we saw in the case of David Beck, it may be concluded that reading behaviour was infl uenced by the weather conditions. More or less obligatory reading time was also created by illness. In 1670, for instance, Berkhout had a very bad cold and decided to stay at home. He rose late and spent the day reading Mézeray.197 In later years, Berkhout was increasingly troubled by gout. Th is affl iction kept him indoors for a long period in 1693, giving him time to read Benoist’s Histoire.198 In 1686, too, when Berkhout found himself confi ned to the house by illness, he wrote ‘Chardin’s travels occupied me for all the time I felt well enough.’199

194 17 June 1670.195 15 November 1675 ‘Il fi t tous ces jours fort mauvaijs temps, vent et gresle et ne

sçaijs, ce que je fi s . . . les lectures dans Mizeraij.’196 26 February 1669 ‘et moij tout chagrin d’un temps si misérable, m’amusaijs a

lire un auctheur nommé Mizeraij.’197 9 January 1670.198 14 September 1693.199 23 November 1686 ‘le voijage de Chardin occupa tous mes bon moments.’


Reading a book

Berkhout’s reading preferences accord more closely to the model of etiquette and good breeding than to that of the humanist reader, although the distinction is somewhat blurred in his case. Perhaps the way he read can help to clarify his position. Did he pore over the texts he read in the manner of a scholar, making notes, re-reading and com-paring texts, a mode of reading that may be called ‘intensive’ and that is associated with humanist readers?200 Or did he consume his books more rapidly, from cover to cover, without returning to them later, being less concerned with learning than with cultivated entertainment? In short, did an aristocrat such as Berkhout have diff erent modes of reading at his disposal?

Berkhout’s actual accounts of his reading display little variety. He usually writes merely that he has been ‘reading’, using the French verb lire (or occasionally the related noun lecture), besides which there are sporadic references to ‘leafi ng through’ ( feuilleter) books. Since Berkhout also frequently writes of having started or fi nished a book, it may be assumed that the act of reading, for him, meant going through a number of consecutive pages. He also oft en mentions the quantity of his reading, giving the number of pages or sometimes merely noting that he has read ‘a great deal’.

Berkhout’s reading notes give a good picture of the reading speed of a member of the seventeenth-century ruling class. For instance, he started on Aitzema in March 1670, and the book occupied his attention in any case for the months of June and July. In 1686 he received Gerard Brandt’s biography of De Ruyter as a gift . He started reading it at the end of December that year. At the beginning of 1687 he spent an evening with the book, and a few days later he spent a morning reading it. He fi nished reading it in February.201 Some books held his attention for a long period of time, as refl ected by the number of entries mentioning a specifi c title. Table 4 in the appendix gives an overview of the number of times Berkhout referred to certain titles in his diary. For instance, there are six references to the Concile de Trente. Berkhout started on the book in May 1673. A few days later he was obliged to set it aside,

200 Th is was the mode of reading favoured by the English nobleman Sir Francis Drake. Sharpe, Reading Revolutions, pp. 83–89.

201 He started reading on 30 December 1686; mentioned the book again on 14 and 27 January 1687 and fi nished it on 5 February 1687.

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possibly for lack of time. Berkhout writes that he resumed his reading in July, and he was still reading the book in September. In other words, the book occupied his time for months, although there were days that he consumed over a hundred pages in an evening.202

Mézeray’s Histoire de France depuis Faramond was another book that claimed Berkhout’s attention for a long period of time. Between 3 January 1669 and 1 April 1670 he discussed reading the book in forty diff erent entries, frequently stating which passages he had read. When we compare Berkhout’s notes to a copy of the Histoire de France, we gain a picture of the speed with which he read. For instance, on 3 January he was reading about the life of Charlemagne, which means that he had already reached page 163 of Mézeray’s Histoire by the time he made this fi rst reference to it. Th at day he reached the story about the plans to dig a canal between the Rhine and the Danube, a failed undertaking that is described on page 183 of the Histoire. So in a single day Berkhout had read about twenty pages, which at an average of 2,500 words a page amounts to at least 50,000 words. Since Berkhout unfortunately fails to mention the time at which he started and fi nished reading, we cannot calculate his reading speed in words per hour.

To what extent did the structure of the text determine Berkhout’s mode of reading? Berkhout oft en allowed the chapter divisions of Mézeray’s Histoire to dictate where he stopped: he read each of the chapters dealing with Louis the Pious, Philip I and Philip IV in a single session. Th ere are exceptions, however. Th e notes from a day at the end of January show that he read from page 425 to 533 that day, taking in the life of King Louis the Great and the beginning of the deeds of Philip II.203 Clearly his reading speed was not the same every day, although the hundred-odd pages he read that day were definitely exceptional. As a rule, his maximum was fi ft y pages in a day, amount-ing to about 125,000 words.204 It was at this pace that he fi nished the fi rst volume of the Histoire at the beginning of March, aft er which he turned to the second volume. At the beginning of 1670 he read the last

202 He started this book on 17 May 1673, read over a hundred pages of it on 23 May 1673, resumed his reading (repris) on 21 July 1673. Precisely which book is meant by ‘Concile de Trente’ is uncertain. It is therefore not possible to determine whether it was a very long book, which would partly explain why it took him so long to fi nish.

203 26 January 1669.204 While reading the second volume, for instance, Berkhout noted: ‘et ij lus ce jour

50 pages’ (2 November 1669, ‘Je continuaijs ce matin la lecture de Mizeraij et ij lus autres 50 pages’ (7 November 1669).


of this volume’s 1,194 pages, as he recorded in his diary.205 He then turned his attention to the third volume.

Th ere were other books, however, that Berkhout read a good deal faster. It took him only eleven days to read Chanut’s Mémoires and fi ve to get through Chardin’s travel account.206 Th e book’s size was obviously the main factor here. Mézeray’s Histoire consisted of over 3,000 pages in folio format, while Pitt’s letter on public administration in the East Indies was only twenty pages long. Berkhout accordingly consumed the latter, together with Brieux’s manuscript, in a single day.207 Berkhout’s reading pace was also determined by his circumstances. Th e fact that he polished off Chardin’s Journal du voyage in just fi ve days was to a large extent ascribable to that fact that he was ill. Confi ned to the house for several days, he had little else to do. His reading pace was also determined by the way in which he approached his books. Th e fact that he spent so long on Mézeray was partly because he made notes on the text. Th is mode of reading will be discussed below.

Some books are mentioned in different years of the diary. For instance, Berkhout refers to the Duke of Sully’s Mémoires in 1674, and again in 1677.208 Th is might be an indication that he re-read them. He writes at one point that he has ‘stopped’ reading Sully. Although this might mean that he had fi nished it, his use of the verb fi nir rather than the usual achevoir suggests that he may have set the book aside and resumed reading it years later. In the case of other titles, there is clearer evidence of re-reading. In 1708 Berkhout explicitly records having read Vauban’s Projet d’une dixme royale for the second time, although he does not mention when he had fi rst read it.209 Mézeray’s Histoire de France was a very frequent item of fare in 1669–1670, and in 1675 Berkhout wrote that he ‘started to read the work again’.210 So Berkhout occasionally re-read his books, though only in exceptional cases. As a rule he would read a book from cover to cover, and would not refer to it again aft erwards. All this seems to show that Berkhout did not make an intensive study of the books he read.

205 20 January 1670.206 Chanut: started on 5 January, fi nished on 16 January 1677. He read Chardin

from 21 to 25 November 1686.207 2 February 1692.208 Started on 22 August 1674; ‘stopped’ on 20 October 1674. In 1677 Berkhout

referred to the book on 17 and 25 February, 29 and 31 March and 20 August.209 8 February 1708.210 7 June 1675.

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Still, the above account does not describe Berkhout’s only way of read-ing. For the Bible he adopted a unique procedure. Th e ‘Book of books’ is mentioned throughout the diary: he read it for long periods of time and more than once. Berkhout mentions reading the Bible in 1676 and in 1692/23 and 1702/03. In June 1692 he had started reading it again from the beginning, but because of circumstances he could not really start until the beginning of July. He then read Genesis and Exodus.211 In the months aft er this he continued his reading of the Bible with some regularity, so that in June 1693 he could write that he had fi n-ished reading the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. A few days later he started on the New Testament.212 Th is was not the fi rst time that he went through the Bible in the space of twelve months. He evidently did so in 1676, when he noted in his diary: ‘Th is morning I read my daily portion of the Bible and the New Testament, which I had been unable to do the day before because of guests.’213 Although Berkhout seldom referred to reading the Bible again in 1676, it is a fair assumption that he read the book from beginning to end.

Berkhout probably re-read his Bible every year, and the note made in 1676 suggests that he had a particular method of doing so. His ref-erence to his ‘daily portion’ (portion journalière) makes it likely that he used the reading plan drawn up by Johan Cornelisz. van Bleyswijk, which divided the text up into ‘daily portions’. Van Bleyswijk published a Dagelijkse bibel-leesordre (‘Daily Bible reading plan’) in 1674, a pre-cursor of his Harmonye bouck, in which ‘each third part of the Old Testament is compared in the most felicitous way with the entire New Testament.’214 Th e comparison provided ‘over 1400 Celestial harmonies or concords’.215 Th e belief that Berkhout may indeed have used this

211 2 July 1692.212 7 June 1693, 1 July 1693. Berkhout’s diary distinguished between the ‘bible’ and

the ‘nouveau testament’.213 25 January 1676 ‘Je lus ma portion journalière ce matin dans la bible et nouveau

testament, que le gaste du jour précédent m’avaijt faict négliger.’214 Johan Cornelisz. van Bleyswijk, Een dagelijkse Bibel-lees-ordre behoudens yders

Christelijcke vrijheydt (Delft : Abraham Dissius, 1674).215 Johan Cornelisz. van Bleyswijk, Jaarlykse Bibel-balance ende dagelykse harmoye

boeck (Delft : Arnold Bon, 1675) title page. For each day, Bleyswijk gave three or four correspondences between the texts to be read that day. For 24 January, for instance, Exodus 19–21 and Luke 4–6 were on the menu. One of the similarities between these texts was ‘A noteworthy reference to two fears in human beings’. Both Exodus 20:20 and Luke 5:10 and 5:26 allude to faint-hearted/noxious fear and reverential/benefi cial fear.


book is based on more than guesswork, since Bleyswijk, a clergyman in Delft , had presented his bibel-leesordre to Berkhout as a gift .216 So Berkhout read a number of chapters from the Old and New Testament every day, by which means he read the former once and the latter four times in each twelve-month period.217

Reading aloud from the Bible (and from other books too at times) was another favourite activity. One day in 1703, for instance, the Berkhout family were at home and read a number of chapters from the Bible collectively.218 Reading aloud seems to have been mainly reserved for religious texts. Reading as a family was a good alternative to churchgo-ing. One Sunday in 1692, for instance, bad weather kept the family at home, and Berkhout recited one of Du Bosc’s sermons.219 Later that year it was sickness that kept Berkhout from going to church, and he read his family a sermon by Turretin.220 Other texts read aloud within the family were sermons by Elie Benoist and Abbadie and Schweinitz’s refl ections.221

Perhaps sermons were popular choices for reading aloud partly because they were so close to the spoken word. Th e same applied to plays, which would also have been ideal for reading aloud. But when Berkhout mentions plays in his diary, the references are generally to silent reading. He did hear one play read aloud, however, when he stayed in Dordrecht at the home of Van Beveren and his pregnant wife,

Whom I found still up, wearing a black dress. She sat at the table talking to her husband and to me until 11 o’clock, and took pleasure in reading Le Baron de la Crasse aloud to me, a new comedy, which made her burst out laughing so loudly that she went into labour and was delivered of a child three hours later.222

216 25 October 1675.217 Th e Bibel-leesorde contained a detailed reading plan, assigning certain chapters

from the New and Old Testaments to each day of the year. On 1 July, for instance, one was expected to read Psalms 1–5 and Romans 1–3. Th e Old Testament took one year to read, while the New Testament could be completed in three months and was therefore read four times a year. So Romans 1–3 was read not only on 1 July but also on 1 March (in combination with Deuteronomy 1–3) and on 1 November (with Jeremiah 1–3).

218 17 June 1703.219 5 July 1692.220 14 September 1692.221 22 March 1693, 24 July 1701, 14 September 1701, 9 October 1701, 6 September

1710.222 12 January 1672. ‘. . . laquelle je trouvaijs sur pied et habilée d’une robe noijre.

Elle demeura a table jusqu’au onze heures à causer avec monsr. son marij et moij, se

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It was probably the denouement that prompted Berkhout to record this event in his diary rather than the actual reading aloud. Even so, this account certainly describes one of the lesser-known eff ects of reading.

Berkhout’s description of his reading of the Bible underscores another reading technique that he used. One morning in 1669, reading the Bible, he was struck by the qualities of David’s soldiers. He wrote this observation down in his diary, with a reference to I Chronicles 12:8. Berkhout frequently read the Bible in this way. In June 1693 he noted that he had fi nished reading the Old Testament and making notes on it, which he had started in June of the previous year.223 However, he did not write down the notes in his diary that year. When he started on the New Testament the following month, he noted that his purpose was to make excerpts of certain passages, as he had done with ‘the Bible’ the year before.224

It was not only the Bible that Berkhout read with a pen in his hand; he did so with 25 other titles. He wrote his notes in his diary, giving the subject in the left -hand margin. Th is was evidently a common method. In any case, Elie Benoist followed the same procedure in his study for the Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes.225 It may have been a kind of reading particularly suited to historical work, since this was the main genre that Berkhout tackled in this way. Of the 31 books from which he extracted notes in his diary, 22 belonged to the category of history (ecclesiastical and secular) and geography. Berkhout generally made only or two notes, with the exception of Mézeray’s Histoire de France. His notes on this latter work are not only the most frequent – he made entries on 23 days to be precise – but also the most detailed. Th e notes made in January 1670, for instance, occupy a total of ten pages of the diary.226

divertissant a m’entendre lire le Baron de la Crasse, comédie nouvelle en ce temps, au subject de laquelle elle fi t tant d’esclats de rire, que le travaijl d’enfant la prit et accoucher 3 heures aprez.’ Th e host and hostess were Abraham van Beveren, lord of Barendrecht, and Elizabeth Ruysch, the uncle and aunt of Berkhout’s wife. Th e play they read was Le Baron de la Crasse (1662) by Raymond Poisson.

223 7 June 1693.224 1 July 1693 ‘comme l’an passé de la bible.’ When Berkhout uses the word ‘Bible’,

he always means the Old Testament.225 Van Deijk, ‘Elie Benoist’, p. 64.226 24 January 1670.


What did Berkhout think was worth writing down? He usually called these notes remarques about choses notables or evenements notables.227 Th e year in which Berkhout kept his diary in Dutch, he called his notes voorgevallene saecken or particulariteiten,228 which essentially means interesting facts or details, or, what Berkhout describes elsewhere as ‘matters of which I was not aware’.229 Th ese matters generally related to the deeds of rulers past and present. For instance, Berkhout noted the names of four kinsmen of Pope Clement XI, which he had come across in the newspaper.230 When Berkhout read the Prudent voyageur, he conceived the idea of making a summary of it, ‘especially in rela-tion to the age of princes, their children and their marriages’.231 For instance, from Baker’s chronicle of the kings of England he jotted down the names of William the Conqueror’s predecessors as well as his ancestors and descendants.232

Besides the question of who did what, Berkhout was primarily inter-ested in when something took place. When he studied Maimbourg’s Histoire du grand schisme d’occident, for instance, he made a three-page ‘concise chronological scheme’ of the events.233 Th e rest of his summary, however, was ‘somewhat more detailed than chronology demanded’.234 He did not generally make a summary at all, merely noting down isolated facts or anecdotes. From Basnage’s Histoire de la religion Berkhout extracted the observation that the Albigensians from the ninth century were the same as the Waldensians and that the Wycliffi tes and Taborites were branches of this movement.235 In the Mémoires de la cour d’Espagne Berkhout found an anecdote about an encounter between the queen and duchess of Terranova. Th e duchess had wrung the necks of the queen’s French-speaking parrots, at which the queen had boxed her ears. Th e duchess went in high dudgeon to the king, demanding compensation for this disgraceful treatment, at

227 3 January 1669, 4 January 1669.228 22 March 1670, 1 April 1670.229 15 January 1685 ‘plusieurs particularitez que je ne sçavaijs pas.’230 28 November 1676.231 19 February 1684 ‘surtout touchant l’age des princes, leurs enfants et leur mar-

riages.’232 10 and 28 May 1689.233 22 November 1684.234 24 November 1684 ‘un peu plus amplement que ne demande la chronologie.’235 12 February 1692. Th e Wycliffi tes (referred to by Berkhout as Wiclesistes) were

the followers of the reformer John Wycliff e; Taborites were the more militant followers of the reformer Jan Huss, who operated from the town of Tabor in Czechoslovakia.

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which the queen expressed her opinion that the duchess had acted out of envy of her superiors. Th e king said that if that was the case, the queen was welcome to deal out another two dozen blows.236

Berkhout also occasionally took down extracts from religious litera-ture, quoting a number of Pascal’s Pensées, for instance.237 He copied out a number of passages from the books of René Rapin, the gist of which was that theology took precedence over philosophy.238 Berkhout noted down a section to the same eff ect from Du Bosc about the town of Ninevah and the Bible as a moral guide. Du Bosc wrote that the critical study of the text neglected this side of the Bible, while such lessons in life were in fact of paramount importance.239

Berkhout’s summaries do not reflect a critical interpretation. His notes adhere closely to the text he had before him. Take the notes on Mézeray. In the fi rst place, Berkhout discusses subjects in the order in which they appear in the text. In the chapter about Charlemagne, for instance, Mézeray deals successively with the rights that this king accorded to the popes, the growing authority of the popes, a tax in England and Pope Joan. Berkhout’s notes in his diary cover the same subjects in the same order. In the second place, Berkhout’s use of language frequently refl ects that of Mézeray’s text, as is clear from a comparison of the passages:

[Berkhout] Un gentilhomme d’auprez du mans raconta comme un bon conte au roij qu’il en avoit fait boijre plus d’une cinquantaijne dans sa grande coupe. Il appeloit aijnsij son vivier ou il les faijsoit noijer pour engraijsser ses brochets.240

[Mézeray] Un certain gentil-homme, nommé René Champagne, près du Mans, advoua depuis au Roij qu’il en avoit fait boire plus d’une cinquan-taine dans sa grande coupe. Il appeloit ainsy son vivier ou il les faysoit noyer pour engraysser ses brochets.241

236 27 July 1691.237 28 May 1671.238 5 July, 5 and 10 November 1676.239 24 August 1687.240 ‘A nobleman from a place near Le Man told the king as a priceless joke that he

had drowned over 50 of them [Protestants] in his . . . fi shpond, to fatten up his pike.’ 23 January 1670.

241 ‘A certain nobleman named René Champagne, from near Le Mans, confessed to the king that he had drowned over 50 of them [Protestants] in his . . . fi shpond, to fatten up his pike.’ Mézeray, Histoire de France depuis Faramond jusqu’ a maintenant 3 vols. (Paris: Mathieu Gillemont, 1643–1651) vol. 2, p. 851.


But however faithfully Berkhout may have followed the text, he himself naturally determined what he wrote down. Berkhout’s diary passes over a great deal of Mézeray’s text in silence. Berkhout did not make any notes on Mézeray’s long account of Charlemagne’s wars against the Moors, but he did note down Mézeray’s words about the sons of Aymon in this account, namely that they owed their fame to the romances. On Charlemagne’s expedition to Spain, Berkhout noted that the knight Roland, about whom Ariosto had sung, had been murdered on the way back.242 Reading Mézeray, one of Berkhout’s key interests was noting down bon mots, as he himself says in his diary. For instance, he noted down the clever riposte of King Philippe VI of France to King Edward III of England, the humorous nicknames they gave each other, a fi ne saying attributed to Arthur, duke of Brittany, and the witty com-ments attributed to Louis XI.243 Berkhout also frequently noted down matters relating to Dutch history such as the origin of the coat of arms of the House of Orange and the account of the Nassau’s acquisition of the principality of Orange.244

It may at fi rst sight seem curious that Berkhout made no notes at all about Mézeray’s account of the Dutch Revolt.245 But this does not point to a lack of interest. Rather, since it was a subject on which he was very well-informed, we may assume that he did not consider it worth writing down. For reading with a pen in his hand was something he did specifi cally to help commit facts to memory, as he noted in 1686: ‘Th is evening I fi nished the life of Henry VIII as described by Burnet, and since this sovereign’s six wives occupied such a prominent place in it, I should like to set down the following comments about it, to assist my memory.’246 ‘Aider ma memoire’ was the reason that Berkhout gave

242 3 January 1669. Aymon’s sons are prominent characters in the Montauban novels.

243 When Edward challenged Philippe to a battle to determine the future of France, Philippe replied that he had no desire to fi ght for something he already had, but would gladly accept the challenge if Edward wished to place his own kingdom in the bal-ance. Th e nicknames: Edward called Philippe the ‘author of the Salic law’ because he had introduced a tax on salt, and Philippe called Edward a ‘wool merchant’, presum-ably because of his powerful infl uence in Flanders. Louis XI said that ‘the common people and peasants were the prey of tyrants’. 19 February 1669, 7 November 1669, 7 December 1669.

244 30 January 1669, 13 December 1669.245 Mézeray described the Dutch Revolt in the second volume of the Histoire, pp.

948–952, 991.246 20 January 1686 ‘J’achevaijs aussij ce soijr le vie de Henry VIII descrité par Burnet

et comme les 6 femmes de ce prince en font un endroijt assez considérable, j’ij voulus pour aijder de ma mémoijre en marquer ce qui suit.’

178 chapter three

Fig. 5. Page from the diary of Pieter Teding van Berkhout with his notes on Mézeray, Histoire de France dépuis Garamond (photo National Library of the

Netherlands).


on several occasions for the notes he kept. Of the three books that he read during his stay at Pasgeld in 1677 he wrote: ‘It would be a very laborious task to convey the content of these books, but to assist my memory I wish to note down a number of passages without putting them in order or including [a marginal reference to] the subject.’247

Th at Berkhout used his diary to assist his memory was noted earlier in this chapter. Th is also applied to his reading. Berkhout’s use of notes on his reading to assist his memory can be construed in two ways. In the fi rst place, writing things down meant that what had been read would be preserved. When necessary, Berkhout could always leaf back through his diary, for instance, to recall certain details of French his-tory. His habit of writing the subject in the margin was presumably to make passages easier to fi nd. In the second place, making notes was a way of learning something more thoroughly. As an early eighteenth-century advisory manual had a noblewoman say to a young girl: ‘it is not enough to read, Mademoiselle, you must also be able to write and make notes on paper about what you read, then you will impress it on your memory better and understand it more clearly.’248 So Berkhout copied out extracts to improve his recollection of what he had read. Although his reading behaviour is not indicative of intensive study, neither was he always a superfi cial reader. His reading habits do not allow him to be labelled straightforwardly either as a humanist reader or as one whose prime concerns were etiquette and good breeding.

Reading for edifi cation and entertainment

Pieter Teding van Berkhout took a great interest in historical facts and made notes about a wealth of unrelated facts, anecdotes and events. Th is thirst for isolated detail was also refl ected in the way in which he discussed his reading. On several occasions he described his notes on Mézeray’s Histoire de France as ‘noteworthy’ matters or events. A work by Varillas contained ‘diverse particulars of which I was not aware’,

247 5 July 1677 ‘Ce seraijt une chose trop police de rapporter le contenu de ces livres, maijs pour aijder à ma mémoijre j’en veux marques quelques passages sans les mettre en ordre ou en dire les subjects.’

248 C. van Laar, Het groot ceremonie-boek der beschaafde zeeden, welleevendheid, ceremonieel, en welvoegende hoff elijkheden, voorgesteld in . . . redenwisselingen; tusschen Johan, een man van ervarendheid; Carel, een jong heer, en Maria, een jonge juff rouw (Amsterdam: Bernardus Mourik, 1735), p. 87.

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Berkhout wrote in his diary.249 He was certainly not alone in taking an interest in facts of this kind. D.R. Woolf found many similarities in his study of seventeenth-century readers of historical texts.250 But it is worth trying to establish, in Berkhout’s case, whether reading was a learned pursuit or more an enjoyable but cultivated pastime.

Some of the facts that Berkhout noted down bore a certain connec-tion to his own life. In Mézeray’s Histoire, for instance, he came across the story of the struggle for the Portuguese accession at the end of the sixteenth century.251 Cardinal-King Henry having died childless in 1580, a fi erce struggle erupted between four claimants to the throne. With the aid of troops commanded by the duke of Alva, King Philip II of Spain fi nally emerged triumphant. Th e reason for Berkhout’s interest in this episode from Portuguese history is obvious. One of the four pretenders to the throne, Emanuel of Portugal, had been married to Emilia of Nassau, one of the daughters of Prince William I of Orange. Th e daughters born into this marriage continued to style themselves ‘Princess of Portugal’ in spite of the failed claims. Th ey lived in Delft , in one of the buildings of the Prinsenhof, and Berkhout saw them quite frequently. One evening when the moon was shining through the trees, he sent them a gift with an accompanying poem, ‘without giving my name, purportedly from St Nicolas.’252

Other facts were worth remembering because they might prove useful in conversation. We have already noted Berkhout’s interest in witticisms while reading Mézeray. He wanted to recall anecdotes so that he could tell them to others or perhaps repeat the bon mot him-self in a conversation. Storing up interesting material for discussion was certainly not a bad idea. Aft er all, conversation provided the best opportunity for displaying one’s good breeding. Handbooks on the culture of civilité emphasised the rules of polite discourse more than anything else.253 An entry in the diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr, an acquaintance of Berkhout’s, gives a good picture of the key infl uence

249 15 January 1685.250 D.R. Woolf, Reading History in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2000), pp. 107–108.251 13 February 1676.252 5 December 1676: ‘que j’envoijaijs sans me nommer maijs au nom de St Nicolas

aux princesses de Portugal avec quelques poésies.’ [Th is is a reference to a popular song sung on the feast of St Nicholas, 5 December, in which ‘the moon shines through the trees’ – transl.]

253 Bryson, From Courtesy to Civility, pp. 151–153.


of reading in this respect. Huygens notes that a few days aft er having lent a book to the Dutch diplomat Everard van Weede van Dijkveld, he overheard the latter relating with gusto tales of his stay at the French court and the intrigues that had taken place there. ‘Th e substance of these tales’, notes Huygens, ‘was broadly taken from a book that I had lent him . . . entitled Les galanteries des rois de France.’254

Berkhout’s diary leaves us in no doubt that he read with a view to improving his conversation. He praises the book Prudent voyageur for its detailed account of courtly life in all the continents of the world. He found it so impressive that he decided to make a summary of it, concentrating especially on the lives of rulers, their children and their marriages, because ‘this constitutes a signifi cant part of all conversations about foreign aff airs.’255 Aft er the notes that Berkhout made that day, he was evidently able to converse with ease about the rulers of Turkey, Poland, Sweden and Denmark.

Courtly life in foreign countries may perhaps have been discussed when Berkhout received guests. But the reference to ‘foreign aff airs’ may relate to subjects that arose in the course of his professional life as a public administrator. Both the States of Holland, in which body Berkhout had a seat on several occasions, and Delft ’s vroedschap oft en deliberated about international politics. It therefore seems fair to assume that Berkhout’s reading was partly inspired by his offi cial duties. According to early modern historiographical theory, history provided the lessons that politicians had to learn. History was seen as a collec-tion of examples, an endless reservoir of earlier experiences that could impart wisdom.256 Elie Benoist certainly read history in this way. Th e actions he took during the conclusion of the Peace of Rijswijk (1697) were based on the parallel he drew between his own times and the events that had culminated in the Edict of Nantes a hundred years earlier.257

254 Huygens Jr, Journaal, 10 July, 19 July 1694.255 19 February 1684: ‘ce que fait une bonne partie de la conversation quand on en

est sur les aff aijres étrangères.’256 De Schryver, Historiografi e. Th is idea was propagated not only in relation to the

theory of historiography, but also in theories about the reading of history. Readers were expected to consume history books in order to learn the lessons they conveyed. Tom Verschaff el, ‘Het lezen van geschiedenis. De traditionele theorie van de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Th eoretische Geschiedenis 17 (1990), pp. 243–255. For a treatise on the genesis of a modern conception of history, in which the past is seen not as similar to the present but as distinct from it, see Blaas, Anachronisme.

257 Van Deijk, ‘Elie Benoist’, p. 86. Benoist writes that at the end of the late sixteenth century a treaty brought to an end a period of persecution, aft er which the people

182 chapter three

Although Berkhout nowhere states explicitly in his diary that he has drawn lessons from history in his diary, this could help to explain his reading behaviour. He read a great many history books, and his main interest was in events that could be singled out as exempla.

Reading did not always mean learning. Berkhout appreciated Varillas’s La pratique de l’éducation des princes not only for the new informa-tion he gleaned from it but also because it gave him pleasure: reading was enjoyable as well as edifying. In fact Berkhout very oft en describes reading as a way of passing the time, with phrases such as that he had ‘spent the rest of the day reading’, or had ‘spent all aft ernoon reading and had not gone out’.258 During a stay on his country estate, he wrote: ‘Spent the day at Pasgeld, reading, writing and walking’.259 Earlier in the diary he was more explicit still about the function of reading: ‘Spent the day at Pasgeld, where I passed much of the time with my workers, besides which I had time for recreational pursuits, such as reading the third volume of Mézeray’.260

Th is emphasis on reading as a pleasant pastime corroborates the historian Peter Burke’s observation that the idea of ‘free time’ became increasingly well-defi ned in early modern times.261 Ever since antiquity a politician’s working life had been distinguished from his otium or leisure time. Although otium initially referred to the period aft er retirement from public life, in the seventeenth century it came to be construed as the time available to a public administrator in between his offi cial duties. Huygens used the word in this sense and included it in an inscription on one of the façades of his country estate of Hofwyck.262 So otium was linked to specifi c places and activities. Judging by the growing number of country estates built in the United Provinces, others took a similar approach.263 Berkhout’s diary also shows that the distinction

enjoyed a period of peace. Similarly, he describes the age of persecution aft er 1685 (revocation of the Edict of Nantes) as having been ended by a treaty (the Treaty of Rijswijk) that likewise ushered in an age of peace. In reality, events were not as cycli-cal as this suggests.

258 18 December 1669, 5 April 1669, 31 January 1671.259 12 June 1675.260 7 June 1675.261 Peter Burke, ‘Th e Invention of Leisure in Early Modern Europe’, in Past and

Present 146 (1995), pp. 136–146. See also the critique of this article by Joan-Llouis Marfany and Burke’s reply in Past and Present 156 (1997), pp. 174–197.

262 Vries-Schenkeveld, Wandeling, p. 154.263 Burke, ‘Invention’, p. 147.


between work and leisure time was becoming more sharply defi ned in this period. His duties as a public administrator did not occupy all his time. Enough ‘free’ time was left , which he could spend on his country estate. Th e days he spent there were fi lled not with meetings but with visits, writing and reading.

Berkhout too frequently associated leisure time with country life, in phrases such as passetemps champestres, divertissements champestres and occupations champestres.264 He includes activities such as walking, fi shing, hunting rabbits, and catching birds in this category of country pursuits.265 Reading too was one of the activities that Berkhout enjoyed while in the country. But leisure pursuits were not confi ned to time spent on country estates. Th ere were plenty of passetemps domestiques for winters in Delft , and one of them was reading.266 Berkhout sometimes deliberately took time to be alone. On one occasion, he writes: ‘since I greatly desired to spend a day inside, especially since I had been busier than usual over the past few days, I allowed myself that pleasure today and amused myself by arranging some minor matters in my study and reading Sully.’267 And in 1695 he stayed in bed reading all morning, feeling in need of a rest.268

Berkhout’s assessment of a book is frequently based on its qualities of both edifi cation and entertainment. Th is is most explicit in his verdict of Chanut’s Mémoires: ‘It is a good book, from which one may both learn and derive enjoyment, things which do not oft en go together.’269 Berkhout praises a number of books because they are curieux. He uses the word partly in the sense of exceptional, and more importantly perhaps in the sense of interesting. Tavernier’s travel account, for instance, is commended as curieux,270 and the account of the dispute between Don Juan and Cardinal Nitard is bonne et curieuse. Berkhout greatly admires Mézeray because of the ‘scrupulousness’ with which

264 14 October 1672, 8 August 1671, 21 October 1671.265 E.g. 14 October 1672, 14 October 1670.266 11 February 1675.267 31 March 1677 ‘Comme je me plaijs assez de passer un jour sans sorti, surtout

quand j’aij esté occupé plus de coustume durant les jours précédents, je mis ce con-tentement en pratique, me reposant tout le jour m’amusant à régler quelques petits aff aijres dans mon cabinet et à lire Sully.’

268 28 July 1695.269 16 January 1677 ‘C’est un bon livre, où il ij a apprender et a se diverter, ce qui

ne va pas tousjours ensemble.’270 12 March 1677.

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he describes the confrontations between the pope and the emperor,271 and Louis du May’s description of the world is commended for its wealth of detail.272

While Berkhout valued history books for the information and enjoy-ment they provided, his religious reading (aside from ecclesiastical history) had neither new facts nor interesting anecdotes to off er, and he brought entirely diff erent criteria to bear on them, his chief focus being on the author’s views. He considered Huisseau’s La réunion du christianisme a ‘very fi ne’ book.273 And Daillé’s work was ‘very good’ because it showed that the Church Fathers must not be judged by standards that were current in the controversies of the day. Th e author reasoned ‘very well’ and the book contained points that Berkhout was eager to remember, and which he therefore copied into his diary.274 Berkhout considered that Rapin’s work refl ected excellent common sense in its reasoning and gave him a good understanding of the facts. For these and other reasons, he thought it an ‘excellent’ book.275

When assessing books that did not deal with history, Berkhout’s main criterion was their persuasiveness, which he measured largely by their reasoning. Books were convincing because the points they made were well-argued, an epithet that Berkhout uses for the Tombeau des controverses.276 In the second place, he pays attention to the use of language. Charpentier’s book impressed not only by virtue of its ingenious arguments but also for its ‘very fi ne language’.277 Of Viau’s poetry, Berkhout writes that it is ‘incomparable for the fl uency of its apt expressions.’278

Th at is not to say that Berkhout was always persuaded by the author’s arguments. He praised Du Bosc’s Sermons, but considered them per-suasive largely because certain passages ‘accorded very closely with my own feelings’.279 Although Jean le Noir’s work was well argued, Berkhout found himself unable to appreciate it because it went against

271 16 March 1677, 9 January 1669.272 19 February 1684.273 2 January 1672.274 10 January 1679.275 5 July 1677.276 5 January 1672.277 5 July 1677.278 1 January 1669 ‘auctheur qui est inimitable pour la facilité des ces expressions

bien imagines’.279 24 August 1687 ‘reviennent beaucoup à mon sentiment’.


Biblical teaching.280 Berkhout had started enthusiastically on Richard Simon’s book about the Church’s revenue, but did not fi nish it. Aft er a hundred pages Berkhout set the book aside; he liked it less and less and lacked the courage to fi nish it. It was well written, but Berkhout was too unfamiliar with the material to struggle his way through it.281 In fact rather than allowing persuasive arguments to sway him, it seems that Berkhout read primarily to confi rm his own opinions. He appreciated books that expressed views coinciding with his own and rejected those that did not. For instance, he read a manuscript presenting a Cocceian-inspired view of theology, but that did not mean that he shared these opinions. He took a much more positive view of the work of Du Bosc and Rapin, who criticised the rational approach to religion.

Final remarks

As befi tted any good aristocrat, Pieter Teding van Berkhout possessed a splendid collection of books. Unlike most members of the ruling class, Berkhout kept a diary in which he described what he did with them. Berkhout’s reading was fairly varied, but it was dominated by historical and religious books. He did not display classical humanist erudition, but had a preference for recent work written in French. Th e absence of classical literature is at odds with the picture outlined in the histo-riography of the books owned by the ruling elite. But an analysis of a number of auction catalogues shows that Berkhout’s reading was not exceptional for members of the elite. He read in diff erent ways, places and times. Although he frequently mentions books in relation to life on his country estate, in line with commonplaces in contemporary poetry, he also read – possibly more oft en in fact – in the long winter evenings in his town house. Th e connection that Berkhout makes between life in the country, leisure time, enjoyment and reading shows that the model of the cultivated, well-bred reader is certainly applicable here. Th is also chimes with Berkhout’s thirst for appealing anecdotes, bon mots and interesting facts that he could introduce into conversation. Th at said, he also displays certain features of the humanist reading model, most notably in his serious study of history and the many notes he made on

280 5 July 1677.281 24 August 1687.

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his history books. Berkhout also showed himself to be a typical reader of the Bible, who was constantly re-reading the Word of God and reading religious texts aloud in the home. So it appears that aspects of both the humanist and the ‘well-bred’ reader apply to an aristocratic reader such as Berkhout, that the two models overlap and are not the sole possible models.

A striking but not unexpected detail to emerge from this account is the great infl uence of French culture on Berkhout’s everyday life. He read a great many books in the French language, wrote his own diary in French, and associated frequently with French people living in the United Provinces. Berkhout thus seems to exemplify the appeal of hon-neteté to the Dutch elite, who already stood out from the rest of the population politically, socially and economically, and whom it enabled to distinguish themselves culturally as well. Th is aristocratisation was also visible in Berkhout’s social life as described in his diary. Th e elite kept largely to themselves, with family relationships playing a key role. Th e extent to which the rules of etiquette infl uenced the nature of conversation cannot be determined from Berkhout’s diary, but it is clear that courtesy visits were the order of the day.

Aristocratisation is also visible in Berkhout’s use of writing. In the papers that he bequeathed, he shows himself primarily to be a gentle-man of rank. His diary is about his own activities, but frequently dwells on those of his family as well. In this way he documented his family life and his diary became part of his family’s collective ‘paper memory’. Th is contained countless documents that were written over the years by members of the Teding van Berkhout family and Berkhout devoted considerable care to preserving and expanding it – for instance by add-ing notes on his everyday work as an administrator – and in this way he displayed and consolidated the family’s aristocratic position.

Unlike David Beck, Berkhout reveals little in his diary about the interaction between reading, writing and conversation. Th e analysis of the text within the context of the use of media primarily underscores Berkhout’s prominent position. Still, it is possible to say a few things about the interaction between the three media. Berkhout regularly read with a pen in his hand, noting down the information he learned from books. His writing of his own family history can be seen as related to his interest in history books. He makes it clear in his diary that one reason for reading is that it provides him with topics of conversation. Although he seldom mentions the subjects addressed in everyday con-


versations, these would certainly have included historical topics, for instance when he spoke to the clergyman Benoist. His association with the cleric demonstrates the close ties that could be forged by shared preferences in reading.

Politics is one of the great blanks in Teding van Berkhout’s journal. He gives few details of his work as a public administrator and seldom describes the news he has read in print or heard in conversations. So his diary resembles a family chronicle more than a chronicle of the world around him. For Jan de Boer, a man from a diff erent environment and a diff erent age, the precise opposite applied. His daily chronicle, which is the subject of the following chapter, provides a remarkable document of the ways in which a literate person acquired information through the printed, written and spoken word.

CHAPTER FOUR

AURAL AND EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: READING, WRITING, AND DISCUSSIONS OF CURRENT AFFAIRS IN JAN DE BOER’S

CHRONOLOGICAL JOURNAL (1747–1758)

On 29 April 1747, the Amsterdam burgher Jan de Boer (1694–1764) wrote in his diary about a report from Veere in Zeeland that he had read in his local newspaper. It stated that the city council had responded to a burgher revolt by promising to nominate Willem Friso, stadholder of Friesland, Groningen, Gelderland and Drenthe, for the stadholder-ship of Zeeland. It was a striking decision, given that the provinces of Zeeland and Holland had been without a stadholder since the death of William III in 1702. For decades the local élite had managed to retain the reins of power, enjoying the ease of protecting its local and provincial interests without the interference of a stadholder – an offi ce with an inherent bias towards the concerns of central government. Yet in 1747 the tide was evidently turning.

Th e report in the Amsterdamsche Courant must have reached a good many other readers, but Jan de Boer was one of the few to document having read it. Th e report from Veere was the fi rst in a long line of entries about his reading that De Boer made in his diary from 1747 to 1758, and his daily account therefore provides a remarkably detailed picture of an eighteenth-century reader of printed news.1 Much has been written about the production of topical publications such as newspapers or pamphlets, but little is known about their consumption; sources are few and far between. What news publications were read in the eighteenth century, how did readers obtain them, and what did they do with them? Jan de Boer’s diary will enable us to answer these questions in this chapter, at least for one eighteenth-century reader.

Reading was not the only way in which De Boer kept himself informed about events in the world around him. He supplemented his daily

1 Th e ‘news’ discussed in this chapter, as in most studies of this kind, will generally be confi ned to what Dooley calls ‘political information’ in his editorial comments on a collection of articles on the news media. B. Dooley and S. A. Baron (eds.), Th e Politics of Information in Early Modern Europe (London: Routledge, 2001).

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jottings with what he learnt from ‘aural and eyewitness testimony’, as he called it himself. His diary therefore provides a good opportunity to place his daily relationship with the printed word in a wider context of communication. What were the channels through which news reached people in the eighteenth century, what news was disseminated by aural, written and printed means, and how did these various media relate to one another? Th e present chapter will explore these issues, on the basis of Jan de Boer’s sources of information for two specifi c years.

Th e diary on which Jan de Boer embarked in 1747 grew into a fi ve-volume manuscript that he entitled Chronologische historie.2 Unlike the diarists discussed in the previous chapters, Jan de Boer seldom wrote about his own everyday activities, focusing instead on the political events of his day. He fi lled his diary with newspapers and other news media, oft en quite literally since he added countless copies of newspa-pers to his text, revealing his patterns of reading in a way that rarely features in reading research. Even so, certain aspects of De Boer’s reading behaviour remain obscure. His diary tells us little about the religious, historical or literary books that he read, for instance, besides the news media, nor does it give us much concrete information about De Boer’s reading habits. What is more, aside from the diary itself, we know little about the uses to which De Boer applied his writing skills. For these reasons, the present chapter will not include an account of the way in which De Boer used the spoken, written and printed word in everyday life; instead, the primary theme will be his reception of news through conversations, written texts and printed publications.

2 KB, mss 71 A 8–12. Th e full title of the fi rst volume is as follows: Chronologische historie van alle hetgeene is voorgevallen bij de komste van Willem Karel Hendrik Friso, prince van Oranje etc. Alsmede het geen dat er is voorgevallen onder het plunderen der pachtershuijsen en verdere revolutie tot Amsterdam in ao. 1747 en 1748. Waarin gevonden worden alle de gedruckte papiere, die tot de gewigtigste zaken nodig zijn, alle de praterijen en discoursen dewelke in die tijt onder de luijden waren; en verder al het gepasseerde in Amsterdam. Alles door oor-, en ooggetuijgenisse naauwkeurig waargenomen door den schrijver dezes, Jan de Boer in Amsterdam. Journaelscher wijze geschreven door den autheur in ao. 1747 en 1748. (‘Chronological history of all that took place regard-ing the advent of Willem Karel Hendrik Friso, Prince of Orange etc., and what took place regarding the plunder of tax-collectors’ houses and the subsequent revolution in Amsterdam in the years 1747 and 1748. In which will be found all the printed papers required to comprehend the most important matters, all the rumours and debates that were current among the people, and for the rest all the events that took place in Amsterdam. All such matters observed meticulously by the present author, Jan de Boer in Amsterdam, through aural and eyewitness testimony. Written in the form of a journal in the years 1747 and 1748.)

aural and eyewitness testimony 191

Aft er an introduction to De Boer and his Chronologische historie, we shall look at the way in which these three news media kept De Boer informed about the world around him. Th e discussion then moves to a closer analysis of his reading of printed matter.

Th e life of an Amsterdam clerk

Little is known about the life of Jan de Boer beyond the biographical information in his own diary.3 He was born in Haarlem in 1694 and died in Amsterdam in 1764. His parents were Catholic, and De Boer remained a loyal member of this Church. In 1724 he married Maria Warnout in Haarlem. Whether the couple had any children is not known. Between 1742 and 1747, De Boer and Warnout moved to Amsterdam. De Boer worked a few days a week at the offi ce of the vintner Cornelis van der Burgh. Completing a tax form in December 1748, De Boer gave his occupation as ‘offi ce clerk for three days a week, or six months of the year, besides which no other income.’4 De Boer’s diary reveals that his work as an offi ce clerk oft en took him to the Exchange. How much he earned in this position is not unknown, but he did not belong to the highest class of taxpayers. De Boer refers to himself as a modest taxpayer, but he was not poor by any means. For the special capital levy imposed in 1747, the so-called Liberale Gift , De Boer estimated the value of his property at 705 guilder, 12 stuyvers and 4 cents. His property included a small house in Haarlem, which he let rent-free to ‘destitute persons’.5 In view of these fi gures, De Boer can therefore be ranked among the broad middle echelons of society.

De Boer’s part-time job left him ample time for cultural activities; he wrote poetry and read a good deal. He must have read other printed publications aside from newspapers and pamphlets, since when estimat-ing the value of his property in 1747 he included a library worth 200 guilders. De Boer’s diary gives us a picture of this library’s content. On

3 Th e biographical details in these pages are based on De Boer’s diary and on Dennis Schouten, ’k Mikte op waarheid. Jan de Boer en de Doelistenbeweging (unpublished master’s thesis, Haagse Hogeschool (now Th e Hague University), 1991) which can be consulted at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB).

4 Diary 27 December 1748.5 16 December 1747, on which date De Boer copied the tax form into his diary. One

of the assets he recorded was his outstanding salary, which amounted to 102 guilders, 6 stuyvers and 8 cents. Unfortunately he does not note down the period of time for which this sum was owed.

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Fig. 6. Page from Jan de Boer’s diary with a copy of his 1748 tax form. (Photo: National Library of the Netherlands).


the day that the new stadholder, William IV, took offi ce in Amsterdam, De Boer heard cries of Hoezee! (‘Hooray!’) all over the city. He was unfa-miliar with the meaning of this word, ‘although I diligently consulted several dictionaries, even the sayings of Father Tuinman.’ Nor could his copy of ‘Romeinsche Triumphe in ’t hoogduits vertaald’ (‘Roman triumph translated into High German’) resolve the matter. De Boer did come across a possible solution in his Dutch-Italian dictionary, which related hozen to ‘revelry’, and that was precisely what was going on in the inns from which the cries were emanating.6 It is unclear how seri-ously this explanation should be taken, but De Boer certainly owned Carolus Tuinman’s book of Dutch sayings (De oorsprong en uitleg-ging van dagelijks gebruikte Nederduitsche spreekwoorden, Middelburg 1726–1727) and a Dutch-Italian dictionary (Moses Giron’s Het groot Nederduitsch en Italiaansch woordenboek, Amsterdam 1710). As for the ‘Roman Triumph’, the reference remains unclear. His description does convey some information, however; it tells us that De Boer could read German. Did he also, in view of the dictionary, have some knowledge of Italian? Given his work in the wine trade, he can be assumed to have had some knowledge of languages. As an offi ce clerk, De Boer may have been responsible for the fi rm’s foreign correspondence.

Th e 1747 valuation reveals that De Boer was also an active musician. He owned ‘written and printed scores’ worth an estimated twenty guilders, a ‘Cremona’ violin valued at fi ve guilders and fi ve stuyvers, a violin made by Arent van Munster worth three guilders and three stuyvers, and one by Klijman valued at four guilders. For the rest, De Boer noted that he owned two boxwood fl utes, ‘each one fi ne in tone’, which he estimated to be worth three guilders. One of the places where he put his musical abilities to good use was in church; he sang and played the organ during services at De Papegaai Catholic church in Amsterdam.7

6 11 May 1747. Th e etymology of houzee or hoezee is indeed obscure, but it cer-tainly has nothing to do with revelry in taverns. Th e authoritative Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal states that it is an exclamation common among sailors, possibly derived from the English ‘huzza’.

7 On Jan de Boer’s Catholicism, W.P.C. Knuttel published ‘Uit het verleden der Amsterdamsche katholieken’, in Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis van het Bisdom Haarlem 30 (1901), pp. 258–304, with transcripts of the passages from the diary relat-ing to Catholics.

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In the preface to the fi rst volume of his chronicle, De Boer wrote that a historical parallel had inspired him to follow the events in his country with pen and paper. Th e appointment of William IV as stadholder reminded him of 1672. Th at year too had witnessed the end of a stad-holderless period, and numerous remarkable events had come in its train. De Boer expected much the same to happen again, and this was very astute. Within the space of less than two years, he would witness a revolution in the country’s form of government, tax riots, and a burgher revolution ending in a fi asco.

It was the revolution in the country’s system of government that prompted De Boer to embark on his chronicle. William IV’s appoint-ment as stadholder and the subsequent introduction of hereditary succession fi lled his notes for 1747.8 Th e tax riots took place in 1748. Long years of economic malaise and growing criticism of the govern-ment culminated in an outbreak of violence. Th roughout the United Provinces, angry mobs devastated the homes of tax collectors.9 Th e revolution and plunder were expressions of growing dissatisfaction with the political system. Frustration turned to concrete protest in mid-1748, with groups of burghers in several cities calling for the replacement of certain city councillors and demanding to be given more infl uence on the council’s decision-making. In Amsterdam the protesters became known as ‘Doelists’, aft er the place where they held their meetings, the schuttersdoelen – the guild-house of the civic militia. In the summer of 1748, this movement seemed to be heading for success. Th e city council resigned en bloc and stadholder William IV appointed a new advisory body. Burghers were given an opportunity to air their grievances and convey their wishes about administrative aff airs through the militias. It was even decided to elect representatives from the militias who would be given a permanent position in city politics. But the Doelist move-ment fl ared briefl y and then fi zzled out. Th ere were few newcomers in the new-style city council, and William IV soon reversed the infl uence granted to the militias.10

8 On the events that led to the appointment of William IV and the hereditary status of the stadholdership, see J.A.F. de Jongste, ‘De Republiek onder het erfstadhouderschap 1747–1780,’ in Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden vol. 9 (Haarlem: Fabula/Van Dishoeck, 1980), pp. 73–91.

9 On riots in early modern Holland, see Rudolf Dekker, Holland in beroering. Oproeren in de 17de en 18de eeuw (Baarn: Ambo, 1982).

10 On the popular movements of 1747, see J.A.F. de Jongste, ‘Dageraad der democra-tie? De politieke dimensie van de burgerlijke oproerigheid tijdens stadhouder Willem


Th e years 1747–1748 constitute a remarkable period of Dutch history, which has continued to fascinate later generations. Th e later Patriots, who achieved a revolution in the Dutch political system towards the end of the eighteenth century, described the Doelists in largely negative terms, branding the ‘’48 crowd’ as a low breed of individuals who had allowed themselves to be used by William IV for a small remittance. Th e movement of 1747–48 bore no resemblance whatsoever to themselves, they asserted: the Patriots were men of the Enlightenment who based themselves entirely on reason.11

Twentieth-century historical research on the Doelist movement also tended to relate it to the stadholder’s tactics. But unlike the Patriots, modern historians have seen innovative, democratic tendencies in the riots of 1747 and 1748. Nico de Voogd gives a detailed description of the development of the 1748 movement in Amsterdam and the way in which the stadholder suppressed the uprising.12 Pieter Geyl’s study does much the same, but delivers a far harsher verdict on William IV, whom he describes as ‘charming, spiritual, eloquent, woolly, wavering and weak.’13 Both historians make thankful use of De Boer’s chronicle as a source.14 Today, historians situate the Doelists in a long tradition of early modern popular resistance movements. According to Jan de

IV (1747–1751)’, in Groniek (1994), pp. 45–57. Idem, Onrust aan het Spaarne. Haarlem in de jaren 1747–1748 (Dieren: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1984). Idem, ‘Th e Restoration of the Orangist Regime in 1747: Th e Modernity of a “Glorious Revolution” ’, in Margaret C. Jacob and Wijnand W. Mijnhardt (eds.), Th e Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century: Decline, Enlightenment, and Revolution (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), pp. 32–59. On the political infl uence of militias in the early modern period, see Paul Knevel, Burgers in het geweer. De schutterijen in Holland, 1550–1700 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1994), pp. 323–367. On the Doelist movement in Amsterdam, see the fol-lowing notes.

11 Dennis Schouten, ‘De uitvaart van Hendrik Kannegieter’, in Mededelingen Jacob Campo Weyerman 19 (1996), pp. 47–57.

12 N.J.J. de Voogd, De Doelistenbeweging te Amsterdam in 1748 (Utrecht: De Vroede, 1914)

13 Pieter Geyl, Revolutiedagen te Amsterdam (Augustus–September 1748). Prins Willem IV en de Doelistenbeweging (Th e Hague: Nijhoff , 1936).

14 De Boer is seen as one of the most suitable sources because his historiographical ideas, if one may call them so, did not diff er greatly from those of De Voogd and Geyl. All three were concerned to present an accurate, reliable and objective picture of ‘the facts’. Geyl wrote that he had tried to capture the genuine revolutionary mood that prevailed in Amsterdam at that time by giving as accurate an account as possible, ‘from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour’ (Geyl, Revolutiedagen, p. 164). Consciously or unconsciously, Geyl appears here to be almost quoting De Boer, who observes in the preface to the fi rst part of his manuscript that his notes were made daily, ‘indeed, frequently from hour to hour’.

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Jongste, there was no question of an upsurge of democratic sentiment seeking political renewal in 1747–48; he sees the unrest rather as an expression of typically urban political consciousness that was charac-teristic of many towns in early modern Europe.15

Th e diary or ‘journal’ of Jan de Boer

Th e winter of 1747 was particularly harsh and lasted unusually long. Th e freezing conditions showed no sign of abating on 7 March, when De Boer wrote: ‘In the evening I fetched a small bottle containing about half a pint of ink, which had been standing at the top of my little study in the middle of my house and the bottle was frozen solid; not a drop of liquid remained.’ Th is is one of the few references in De Boer’s diary to his own writing. He apparently had a separate room to which he could retire to record what he had seen and heard that day; at least, his diary suggests that this is how he worked. For instance, in one entry he notes that he made his last observation about the weather ‘yesterday evening’, and elsewhere he concludes the description of a day with the remark that he does ‘not feel like writing any more this evening’.16 Th ese comments imply that he kept his diary on a regular daily basis, and sometimes more frequently still: at the beginning of his diary, De Boer writes that he oft en makes entries ‘from hour to hour’.

Whether the manuscript as now preserved is truly the direct result of De Boer’s daily labours, however, is open to question. Certain external features seem to belie this notion. For instance, each section of the diary has a title page, on which he inscribed details of its contents, in the manner of a printed book. He also used diff erent fonts – another feature of printed books. He added prefatory comments to the fi rst and fourth volumes. Th is too suggests that the text was a carefully written book rather than a diary scribbled in from one hour to the next. Th e appearance of the pages also corroborates this theory. Th ey are num-bered and the text is framed in lines. Th e writing is extremely neat, without a single word being crossed out. De Boer also placed the fi rst

15 De Jongste, ‘Dageraad’, pp. 56–57. De Jongste acknowledges, however, that the clamour for restoration may well have arisen from revolutionary ideas. Th e propos-als for the reform of the militia council would have transformed this body into an independent, democratic institution (De Jongste, ‘Restoration’, p. 58). De Jongste also used Jan de Boer’s diary for his study of the Haarlem militia movement (Onrust aan het Spaarne).

16 13 February 1748, 26 August 1748.


Fig. 7. Title-page of Jan de Boer’s diary (photo National Library of the Netherlands).

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word of the next page on the bottom right-hand corner of each page, another customary feature of printed books. In addition, he regularly refers back to earlier passages in the course of the diary.17

Notwithstanding such details, De Boer’s prefaces emphasise the authenticity of his work. On the title-page he records that he learned everything accurately himself ‘by aural and eyewitness testimony’, and emphasises the text’s veracity by alluding to its simple style. He apologises for the absence of a ‘historian’s style’ and literary tours de force, but then goes on to explain that this excuse is not really needed. For in the fi rst place, the diary was intended solely for his own use, so that he would be able to re-read, for the rest of his life, accounts of ‘the remarkable times he had seen and lived through’. In the second place, the diary’s value derives not from its style, says De Boer, but from the fact that all the events described in it actually happened.

De Boer again avails himself of the rhetoric of modesty in his preface to volume four. He states that he was racked by ‘inner confl ict’ as to whether to continue making his notes. One factor that inclined him to stop was his self-professed lack of ‘judgement’, which meant that he could never be a good (that is, scholarly) historian. In the second place, he was unable to write ‘in the style of a historian’. To make matters worse, he admitted to a faulty knowledge of Dutch spelling. Finally, he feared that his work might well meet with a scornful reception.

In the rest of his preface, however, De Boer turns these fl aws to his own advantage. Since he has written about his own times, his lack of scholarship does not matter, he says. He has had no need to study diverse matters, as scholars do, in old texts such as those by Caesar, Tacitus and Livy; in fact he sums up a list of 42 historians he did not have to read, from the ancients to mediaeval chroniclers such as Stoke and more recent historians such as Alkemade, Von Zesen and Ampzing. Th ese were all erudite scholars, but they concerned themselves with details such as whether Willibrord, in converting the Frisians to Christianity, had addressed them in Anglo-Saxon or in Latin, minutiae that leave De Boer cold.

Th at said, De Boer nonetheless claims to have derived inspiration from learned historians. For instance, he had read that the well-known historian Ubbo Emmius had based himself on the chronicle of a simple

17 For instance, in relating a report about a notorious agitator, he remarks that the man has already been discussed on pages 99, 267, 269 and 283. 19 November 1756.


nobleman, who like him lacked ‘judgement’ but who was extremely reliable because he wrote about his own times. In the same book, De Boer read that scholars had dismissed the work of the sixteenth-cen-tury historian Cornelis Kempius as implausible, but did consider him reliable when he discussed his own times, since he had lived through these events himself. De Boer’s source for these comments is Oudheden en gestichten van Vriesland, tusschen ’t Vlie en de Lawers (‘Antiquities and institutions of Friesland, between the rivers Vlie and Lauwers’, Leiden 1723), a work originally written in Latin by the historian Hugo Franciscus van Heussen, who published details of the antiquities of numerous Dutch towns, villages and regions.

Th e reference to the comment about Kempius can easily be con-fi rmed. In the Oudheden en gestichten van Vriesland, on the page cited by De Boer, the author states that this historian had written about matters such as the plague of rabbits on the islands of Terschelling and Ameland, which had been contained by using domestic cats. Th e veracity of such tales had sometimes been called in question. ‘It is true’, says Van Heussen, ‘that true scholars regard Cornelius Kempius as a fantasist.’ But Kempius had no desire to mislead readers; he was simply ‘incapable of distinguishing fact from fi ction’. When it came to things that he was able to see and experience, himself, however, readers need have no qualms about believing this historian’s word.18

Th e reference to the chronicle of the simple nobleman that De Boer mentions in his preface cannot be found, however, in the Oudheden en gestichten van Vriesland. On the page he cites, the author takes issue with Ubbo Emmius regarding the reliability of a mediaeval Frisian chronicle. Emmius had questioned the authenticity of an incident mentioned in this document, but Van Heussen disagrees and describes Emmius as too demanding, saying that ‘One cannot expect mathemati-cal proof for historical truths.’ De Boer will undoubtedly have agreed with these sentiments, but his reference is incorrect. Emmius did base himself on chronicles, but they were not those of a ‘simple nobleman’, and more importantly, Emmius in fact described them as unreliable. Th e point of whether or not the chronicle had been written by an eye-witness is not even raised in the piece.19

18 Hugo Franciscus van Heussen, Oudheden en gestichten van Vriesland, tusschen ’t Vlie en de Lawers 2 vols., translated from the Latin by Hugo van Rijn (Leiden: Christiaan Vermey, 1723) vol. 2, p. 303.

19 Ibid., p. 426.

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Th e view that contemporary chroniclers were reliable because they were eye-witnesses had lodged in De Boer’s mind, infl uencing his interpretation of the piece about Ubbo Emmius. Th e proposition was a perfect apologia for his own diary, and De Boer could also invoke it in defence of his poor style and spelling. To trivialise any such pos-sible fl aws even more, De Boer again pointed out, in the preface, that ‘I wrote for no one in the entire world except for myself ’. He wrote his chronicle only to fi ll his idle hours, and to be able to read later about the ‘remarkable’ times he had lived through. No one else would ever see it, and as soon as the manuscript was fi nished it was ‘immediately put away in the cupboard with the other volumes’, a cupboard to which only De Boer had the key. He also had a key to ‘the chest within the cupboard, where all my manuscripts are kept together’.

De Boer’s well-guarded chronicle accords perfectly with that of the diary ‘genre’. Many diarists were infl uenced by chroniclers’ styles, and De Boer is an excellent example. Unlike David Beck and Pieter Teding van Berkhout, De Boer does not describe the way he spends his days or his social life, and his style does not refl ect the infl uence of fi nancial administration. He merely describes the events taking place around him, in which respect he can be placed in a long tradition of diarists. His rhetoric, for instance, is similar to that used in older egodocu-ments. Many other writers of autobiographical texts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries emphasised the reliability of their accounts by citing their simple style of writing.20

Diaries that served as chronicles were not an exclusively Dutch phenomenon. Early modern autobiographies of artisans from various European countries, as James Amelang has noted, primarily describe political events, including numerous references to other documents. Th e writers quoted passages from printed publications such as pamphlets in their work, and in some cases had actual copies of them bound with their texts.21 Several ‘news diaries’ were written in seventeenth-century Britain. Th ese were daily chronicles written by people of diverse social backgrounds, which relied on printed, written and spoken sources of information.22

20 Pollman, Religious Choice, p. 35.21 James Amelang, Th e Flight of Icarus, pp. 123, 146–148.22 Richard Cust, ‘News and Politics in Early Seventeenth-Century England’, in Past

and Present 112 (1986), pp. 60–90; esp. pp. 79, 83–87.


In short, many diaries were fi lled with news, both in the United Provinces and elsewhere, a trend that endured in the eighteenth cen-tury. Th e miller Gerrit Jacobsz. Nen of Zaanstad wrote between 1713 and 1749. One of the events he recorded was the fi erce storm of 1735, which had claimed many lives, ‘such that anyone reading about it in the newspaper cannot fail to be moved to the utmost sadness’.23 Th e diary of Aleida Leurink quotes from newspaper reports on events that might aff ect her own farm. For instance, she writes: ‘N.B. from the newspaper of 15 December 1724. Severe grain shortages are reported in St. Petersburg and as far as Kronstadt.’24 Lambert Rijckxz. Lustigh, one of Huizen’s city magistrates (schepen), called his own diary a ‘Memorial or chronicle’. He wrote mainly about disasters, with special emphasis on the rinderpest. He obtained his facts from newspapers, which also provided information on possible ways of curing the disease. From the Amsterdamsche courant of 3 March 1714, for instance, he copied an advertisement by one Jacob du Manche, who described himself as a ‘French tradesman on Blaak, Rotterdam’ and announced an ‘infallible medicine’ to cure rinderpest.25

Several handwritten chronicles and diaries have survived from the period in which De Boer kept his diary. Clearly, many were profoundly impressed by the political events of the day. In Amsterdam, for instance, Abraham Chaim Braatbard recorded the events that took place in his city from 1740 onwards.26 In the same city, Jacob Bicker Raye made notes from 1732 onwards of ‘the most remarkable things known to me’, as he put it, including numerous accounts derived from newspapers or pamphlets.27

Jan de Boer was not even the only person in Amsterdam who was prompted to start a diary by the events of 1747. Th e historian Jan

23 GA Zaanstad, librar no. 10.147, fol. 10 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 191).24 Historisch Centrum Overijsssel, Collectie kopieën (no inv. no.) (Lindeman et al.,

Egodocumenten, no. 170).25 Noord-Hollands Archief, coll. losse aanwinsten, inv. no. 1527 (Lindeman et al.,

Egodocumenten, no. 192).26 Abraham Chaim Braatbard, De zeven provinciën in beroering. Hoofdstukken uit

een Jiddische kroniek over de jaren 1740–1752 van Abraham Chaim Braatbard, trans-lated from the Yiddish and edited by L. Fuks (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff , 1960), p. 50 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 249).

27 Stadsarchief Amsterdam, mss. B54. A revised selection of passages from this diary can be found in Het dagboek van Jacob Bicker Raye, 1732–1772, selected and edited by F. Beijerinck and Dr M.G. de Boer (Amsterdam [s.n.] 1960.; Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 221).

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Wagenaar also kept a diary during those turbulent years, which has unfortunately been lost. Th e Amsterdam silk dealer Daniël Lafargue also judged the events taking place around him remarkable enough, as he put it, to make ‘notes’ about them.28 In the fi rst place he did so ‘to indulge myself ’ but the chronicle also served a second essential func-tion. Should anyone later make false accusations against him, he could use his records to prove his innocence.29 For Lafargue, unlike De Boer, was closely involved in the Doelist movement. And his daily notes did indeed later prove their usefulness. Th e notes themselves have been lost, but he used them to write an account of the movement, justifying his own conduct, which account has survived.

People living in other towns in Holland likewise chronicled the events of 1747. Frans van Mieris did so for Leiden. He emphasised his own position as an eye-witness, although this is not refl ected in his style. Unlike De Boer, Mieris did not mention where he had heard or read the news items he reported. He did use printed and written sources, however, inserting copies of them in his chronicle.30 Th e political history of Rotterdam in the year 1747 was recorded by Abraham de Bruyn and Jacob Timmers. In their case, it was not an impersonal account. Th ey were two of the leading fi gures in Rotterdam’s protest movement, and their joint daily ‘journal’ focused mainly on their own activities.31

Th e chronicle written by De Bruyn and Timmers was not written solely for the benefi t of their own memories. Th ey also added a preface to their account, dedicating their manuscripts to stadholder William IV. It is possible that they actually presented the manuscript to him, in the hope of drawing his attention to their infl uence on the Orange movement of 1747. De Bruyn and Timmers had other readers in mind besides the stadholder. Th eir handwritten ‘journal’, like Jan de Boer’s, has all the characteristics of a printed book. It has a title page, which even includes the name of the printer: ‘printed for the publishers in Rotterdam by Pieter van Waesberge, 1748’ (‘te Rotterdam by Pieter van Waesberge, stadsdrukker, 1748, voor de uitgevers’). Th e manuscript even

28 F.J.L. Krämer, ‘De gebeurtenissen op den Amsterdamschen Doelen in 1748 ver-haald door een Doelist’, in Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 26 (1905), pp. 1–112; esp. p. 3.

29 Ibid., p. 46.30 Regionaal Archief Leiden, Leidse Bibliotheek no. 787 (Lindeman et al.,

Egodocumenten, no. 268).31 KB, mss 74 H 9 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 266).


includes printer’s marks showing where each quire begins. Whether the manuscript was ever actually printed is not known; no printed copy of the ‘journal’ has ever been found.

Despite De Boer’s disparaging remarks about historians in his preface, in some respects his diary refl ected the norms of historical texts. For instance, his critical approach to sources was a fairly recent trend within history; since the late seventeenth century, it had become common for historians to study the reliability of their sources. Th e work of Jan Wagenaar is seen as the fi rst milestone in this respect. Th is Amsterdam historian, who lived in the same period as De Boer, wrote several books, including a history of the United Provinces, Vaderlandsche Historie (1749–1759). Th e title-page of this book praises its content as hav-ing been based on ‘real historical records’ ( gedenkstukken) Wagenaar constantly cites his sources, to account for his text and to emphasise its reliability.32

De Boer did not only emphasise his eye-witness status. He also emu-lated historians such as Wagenaar in relying on ‘real documents’. De Boer’s diary is full of references to printed publications, which he also inserted into his own text. Th e manuscript as now preserved includes countless pamphlets, government publications, newspapers and other contemporary texts, bound with his own book. Indeed, the printed documents are such a prominent part of the diary that the manuscript might be called an annotated collection of pamphlets and newspapers. De Boer’s aural and eye-witness testimony was of importance mainly to the fi rst volume, which covered the years 1747–48. In the later volumes, De Boer tended increasingly to refer to printed documents instead of describing an event himself; he merely wrote a brief note on something that happened on a particular date, and then referred to a newspaper or pamphlet. Th ose who composed the news media could therefore count on at least one eager reader.

32 L.H.M. Wessels, Bron, waarheid en de verandering der tijden: Jan Wagenaar (1709–1773), een historiografi sche studie (Th e Hague: Stichting Hollandse Historische Reeks, 1997), pp. 100–107, 217–131.

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Historiography of the news

Little is known about the reception of news in the early modern period.33 Research has focused, ever since the nineteenth century, on its produc-tion and dissemination. Th e bibliographical research that was conducted at the time charted the newspaper production of various countries and enabled historians to argue as to which country could lay claim to having produced the fi rst newspaper. One of the pioneers in this Dutch newspa-per research was Willem Sautijn Kluit, whose countless articles covered virtually every newspaper published in the early modern period.34 Th e genesis of the modern press was the backdrop of his newspaper survey, and the modern ideal of the critical journalist infl uenced his assessment of early modern newspapers. Dutch papers came off rather badly. He describes them as dry vehicles of purely factual messages, noting that it was not until the 1780s that a political press came into being, which did not just report the facts but also included commentary.35

For the Netherlands, little has changed since Kluit’s day, either in scholars’ knowledge of the newspaper business or in their interpre-tive framework.36 The editorial policies of the earliest newspapers were charted more clearly in the mid-twentieth century, when a large collection of old newspapers was discovered in a Swedish library.37 In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the nature of

33 See e.g. Brendan Dooley, ‘News and Doubt in Early Modern Culture: Or, Are We Having a Public Sphere Yet?’, in B. Dooley and S.A. Baron (eds.), Th e Politics of Information, pp. 275–290; esp. pp. 275–276.

34 Th ese articles are reviewed in ‘Lijst der geschrift en van mr. W. P. Sautijn Kluit over 18e-eeuwse periodieken’, in Documentatieblad Werkgroep Achttiende Eeuw 39 (1978), pp. 15–22.

35 A good picture of both the content and context of nineteenth-century news-paper research in the Netherlands can be found in R. van der Meulen, De courant. Geschiedkundig en vergelijkend overzicht der nieuwsbladen van alle landen. Naar in- en uitheemse bronnen bewerkt 2 vols. (Leiden: Sijthoff , 1885).

36 Schneider and Hemels, De Nederlandse krant 1618–1978, contains little that is new regarding early modern newspapers. Th ese authors too provide a survey of emerging and failing newspapers, and concur in describing the content as ‘colourless.’ p. 66. Otto Lankhorst, too, when researching his survey of the Dutch news industry, was obliged to rely on nineteenth-century research; Otto Lankhorst, ‘Newspapers in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century’, in B. Dooley and S.A. Baron (eds.), Th e Politics of Information, pp. 151–159. He points out that there is still no satisfactory inventory of extant early modern Dutch newspapers.

37 Folke Dahl, Dutch Corantos 1618–1650: A Bibliography illustrated with 334 Facsimile Reproductions of Corantos Printed 1618–1625 and an Introductory Essay on 17th Century Stop the Press News (Göteborg: Stadsbibliothek, 1946).


reporting in early modern Dutch newspapers.38 For the rest, amid the spate of studies of the Patriot era in the 1980s, many researchers have tended to focus on the rise of current aff airs magazines in this period. Th e changes that took place in the news media at that time helped to transform the political culture. Newspapers provided the opportunity to express opinions and debate political issues openly, and anyone could join in. Th is was essentially the birth of public opinion, one of the key elements of democratic culture.39

Th e theory of the genesis of public opinion expounded by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas is one of the most important frameworks for modern historical research on newspapers. It is invoked in virtually every study in this fi eld. In Strukturwandel der Öff entlichkeit (1962), Habermas describes how the political structure in early modern times changed from one in which power was exercised on the basis of divine authority to one in which the exercise of power was justifi ed by invok-ing public opinion. Th e public domain thus became the institution in which all the citizens of a state came together to discuss such matters in a wholly reasonable way. Th is included animated discussions at coff ee-houses, for instance, but more importantly debates were con-ducted on paper, in newspapers and other printed material. According to Habermas, the public domain, in this sense, developed in England towards the end of the seventeenth century.40

38 Joop W. Koopmans, ‘Vaticaan “watchers” in de 18de eeuw. Nederlandse beri-chtgeving over de pauswisselingen tussen 1700 en 1740’, Spiegel Historiael 36 (2001) 238–245. Koopmans takes a positive view of the allegedly dry and factual nature of the newspapers, saying that they presented a great deal of accurate information about papal elections and reported impartially on them. On foreign news in Dutch newspa-pers, see also his, ‘Supply and Speed of Foreign News to the Netherlands during the Eighteenth Century: A Comparison of Newspapers in Haarlem and Groningen’, in idem (ed.) News and Politics in Ealry Modern Europe (1500–1800) (Louvain: Peeters, 2005), pp. 185–199.

39 N.C.F. van Sas, ‘Opiniepers en politieke cultuur’, in F. Grijzenhout, W.W. Mijnhardt and N.C.F. van Sas (eds.), Voor vaderland en vrijheid. De revolutie van de patriotten (Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1987), pp. 97–130. S.R.E. Klein, Patriots republikanisme. Politieke cultuur in Nederland (1766–1787) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 1995), for the press, see esp. pp. 91–127. Marcel J. Broersma, ‘Constructing Public Opinion: Dutch Newspapers on the Eve of a Revolution (1780–1795)’, in Koopmans (ed.), News and Politics in Early Modern Europe, pp. 219–235.

40 On Habermas’s theory, see Dena Goodman, ‘Public Sphere and Private Life: Toward a Synthesis of Current Historiographical Approaches to the Old Regime’, in History and Th eory 31 (1992), pp. 1–20. An exposition of the theory and of the various critical reactions it provoked: D. Zaret, Origins of Democratic Culture: Printing, Petitions, and the Public Sphere in Early-Modern England (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 5–36. Th e debate is made more diffi cult by the fact that historians defi ne

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Th is theory has prompted a great deal of historical research. Accord-ing to the British historian Joad Raymond, for instance, the press in seventeenth-century Britain did not possess the characteristics that Habermas has attributed to it.41 Other historians, on the other hand, claim that a public domain existed long before 1700. Th ey base this claim not so much on the historical development of newspapers as on that of other printed news media. From the moment the printing-press was invented, people wrote and published about society and its structural features.42

In fact the newspaper may not have been the most important printed medium that contributed to public debate. Pamphlets are generally believed to have played a more important role. In addition, historians emphasise the role of other printed matter, ranging from petitions to the documents in legal proceedings.43 In addition, a good deal of public debate took place verbally. Th e spoken word was far more important than printed matter in disseminating the news in the early modern period, as virtually every historical study of the subject makes clear. Information passed on verbally made it possible for people of all walks of life to engage in lively political debate, as is clear from studies of court cases, for instance.44

Historical studies of the channels through which news was dissemi-nated in the United Provinces have shown that political information was disseminated in print on a large scale before the eighteenth century. Although it is true that there was no real political press before 1780, news and commentary abounded in other media, such as pamphlets.45

the ‘public domain’ in diff erent ways, says Esther Beate-Körber, in Öff entlichkeiten der frühen Neuzeit. Teilnehmer, Formen, Institutionen und Entscheidungen öff entlicher Kommunikation im Hertzogtum Preußen von 1525 bis 1618 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1998), pp. 1–20.

41 Joad Raymond, ‘Th e Newspaper, Public Opinion, and the Public Sphere in the Seventeenth Century’, in idem (ed.), News, Newspapers, and Society in Early Modern Britain (London: Frank Cass, 1999), pp. 108–140.

42 Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, pp. 102–103.43 Petitions: Zaret, Origins of Democratic Culture, pp. 221–261. Court cases: Sarah

Maza, Private Lives and Public Aff airs: Th e Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

44 Dagmar Freist, Governed by Opinion: Politics, Religion and the Dynamics of Communication in Stuart London 1637–1645 (London/New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 1997), esp. chapter 5. Fox, ‘Rumour’.

45 Nineteenth-century research on pamphlets, like that on newspapers, was mainly bibliographical. Th e best-known example is the catalogue of the collection owned by the National Library of the Netherlands (KB): W.P.C. Knuttel, Catalogus van de pamfl etten-


Political information could be disseminated throughout society, partly because there was no strict censorship. It was not that the government made a deliberate, ideological choice to keep censorship mild; this was merely a consequence of decentralised power. Decentralisation also made it easier to publicise political news: so many people were involved in government that it was impossible to stop news leaking out.46 News items were disseminated in handwritten newspapers as well as printed media.47 Willem Frijhoff and Marijke Spies have described the seventeenth-century United Provinces as a society with a culture of debate. Th ere was an atmosphere of openness, a neutral space in which citizens came together voluntarily and discussed politics.48 In fact it may well have been precisely because of the prevalence of verbal debate that pamphlets made their way to such a large readership.49 So public debate existed in the Netherlands before 1700, but public opinion did not become a signifi cant factor until the end of the eighteenth century. With the fl ourishing of clubs and societies, combined with changes in the organisational structure of the book trade and the rise of new genres, write Joost Kloek and Wijnand Mijnhardt, it became possible

verzameling berustende in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek 9 vols., photomechanical reprint of Th e Hague 1890–1920 (Utrecht: HES, 1978). Th is catalogue was used by Craig E. Harline for his Pamphlets, Printing, and Political Culture in the Early Dutch Republic (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff , 1987), which is still regarded as the most extensive study of the subject. He bases his conclusion that pamphlets were widely disseminated partly on external factors such as price and size, and partly on textual factors such as language and subject-matter. Precisely because they were assumed to have been widely read, pamphlets have sometimes been used for research on the political views of large sections of society, for instance (tentatively) by G.O. Klashorst, ‘De ware vrijheid, 1650–1672,’ in E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier and W.R.E. Velema (eds.), Vrijheid. Een geschiedenis van de vijft iende tot de twintigste eeuw (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999), pp. 157–185. Pamphlets have also begun to attract the attention of literary historians, as in Paul Dijstelberge’s article, ‘Gemengde berichten. Nieuws als literatuur in de zeventiende eeuw’, in Literatuur 5 (2000), pp. 282–288.

46 De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad, pp. 42–46, 359–400.47 Marika Keblusek, ‘Nieuwsvoorziening in de Republiek. De Engelse burgeroorlog

in Haagse drukken’, in H. Kleijer, A. Knotter and F. van Vree (eds.), Tekens en teksten. Cultuur, communicatie en maatschappelijke veranderingen vanaf de late middeleeuwen (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1992), pp. 60–77.

48 Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, pp. 68, 248. Donald Haks further describes the nature of this public sphere in his study on the dissemination of foreign news in the early eighteenth century: ‘War, Government and the News: Th e Dutch Republic and the War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–1713’, in Koopmans (ed.), News and Politics in Early modern Europe, pp. 167–184.

49 Mathijs van Otegem, ‘Tijd, snelheid, afstand; de mechanica van het pamfl et’, in De Zeventiende Eeuw 17 (2001), pp. 50–61.

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to invoke the authority of a national public in the debate about the Netherlands and its future.50

Th ese historical studies have charted the news media in the early modern period quite well, and they allow us to infer a general picture of the way the news was received and the kind of infl uence it exercised. But they contain few specifi c examples of people’s responses to printed, written and spoken types of information. Jan de Boer’s diary makes it possible to study this everyday relationship with the news.

Th e fl ow of information: De Boer’s news sources

Jan de Boer drew inspiration from the historical books he read. Reliability was of course one of the most important criteria that a historian was expected to fulfi l, and the main way of achieving it was by the critical use of sources and proper citations in footnotes indicat-ing where the historian had found his information.51 Although Jan de Boer did not add any footnotes to his Chronologische historie, he did include scrupulous references to his sources, allowing us to see where his information came from.

Th ese sources were quite diverse. In the fi rst place, some of his accounts are his own eyewitness testimony. Second, he also provides ‘earwitness’ reports, that is, accounts based on what he has heard from others. Here we should distinguish between cases in which he cites an explicit source and those in which he simply notes that ‘it is said’ that such-and-such occurred. Th ird are printed media. Th en there are written

50 Joost Kloek and Wijnand Mijnhardt, 1800. Blauwdrukken voor een samenleving (Th e Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 2001 [1800: Blueprints for a National Community translated from the Dutch by Beverley Jackson (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)]).

51 Wagenaar is the foremost example in this area. To his Vaderlandsche Historie he added an astonishing 20,000 footnotes with over 31,000 references derived from 200–odd written or printed sources, writes Wessels, Bron, p. 131. Analysis of these sources reveals that the Vaderlandsche Historie was actually based primarily on a relatively small number of sources, which Wagenaar constantly invoked and used as a framework within which to insert information from a large number of other sources (ibid., p. 177). Wessel’s analysis of the footnotes can also be seen as an analy-sis of Wagenaar’s reading behaviour or use of books. Th e fact that the catalogue of Wagenaar’s library has also been preserved (see ibid., pp. 455–518) actually makes it possible to make a comparative, reading-historical study of two sources. Wessels argues that auction catalogues should be regarded as serious sources for the purposes of reading history, since a person’s library could be regarded as an accurate refl ection of his oeuvre, views and activities.


sources, the most important of which are letters. Although De Boer was in general fairly meticulous, a fi ft h category of ‘unknown’ information sources nonetheless remains. What is the relative importance of these fi ve sources of information in De Boer’s diary? To answer this ques-tion, we shall look at the records of two years in his Chronologische historie.

News in the street

Th e early months of January 1748 were a remarkable time. Rumours circulated that the French army planned to take advantage of the win-ter conditions to advance towards the United Provinces over the ice. Miraculously, however, the weather was still fi ne at the beginning of January, and there was no sign of ice on the rivers. De Boer was not sure whether this odd weather could truly be branded as a miracle, and decided ‘to observe the precise course of the winter, in order to determine whether this observation was indicative of the natural or the miraculous.’52 He proceeded to add brief notes on the weather every day. But by June 1748, amid growing unrest among the population, De Boer confi ned his remarks to political events. Th ere was certainly no shortage of these in 1748; he made entries on a total of 193 days. Th e entries relating solely to the weather will be omitted from the following analysis, leaving 112 days on which De Boer wrote about the events around him. Table 5 in the appendices summarises the number of times that De Boer cited specifi c sources of information on these days.

De Boer described a great many things in 1748 that he either witnessed or heard of from others. Th is is not surprising, since Amsterdam was the epicentre of political turmoil in the United Provinces. Clearly, personal observation, either as an eyewitness or from aural reports, was a highly suitable source of information for news from someone’s immediate surroundings, that is, the city in which the chronicler lived.

Let us take a closer look at the way in which De Boer described his diff erent sources of information. Sometimes he happened to be actually present when something occurred. For instance, he describes in detail the panic that broke out in his own street when the rioters who had started plundering the homes of tax collectors in the early weeks of 1748

52 6 January 1748.

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reached his neighbourhood.53 More frequently, however, De Boer went out on quite deliberate fact-fi nding expeditions. He went to the Doelen, for instance (the local militia’s meeting-place), and reported at length on events there almost on a daily basis. As a rule he does not give a source for these accounts, but sometimes he states that he witnessed the events himself from a distance. For instance, he writes, ‘Between 7 and 7.30 p.m. I was at Kloveniersburgwal, opposite the Doelen, of which all the windows of the main hall were open, and I saw that the hall was packed with a most diverse gathering.’54 Th e reports of meet-ings at the Doelen for which De Boer does not cite any sources also probably derive from his own observation.

De Boer clearly took his responsibility as a chronicler seriously. Plain curiosity might of course have suffi ced to send someone out to known hotspots, but it is fair to assume that De Boer also went to the Doelen to record events for his chronicle. Indeed, he can with some justifi ca-tion be described as a reporter. Th is is particularly clear in the entry for 28 June, the day on which the two main instigators of the tax riots were to be hanged. De Boer wrote ‘at 10 a.m. I went to Dam Square to study the exact situation there (while there was still enough room)’. De Boer noted that the area was blocked off quite well, except for spaces in the cordon on the Damrak side. He was convinced – or so he writes in his diary – that these gaps would lead to accidents. And these fears were borne out, De Boer heard later that day, when he saw crowds of stunned people fl ocking from Dam Square, ‘one without his wig, another without his hat, and others with injuries to their arm, leg or head etc.’. Since everyone had wanted to glimpse the execution, there was violent jostling on the Damrak side, which was exacerbated when a patrolling company of militiamen tried to force its way through the crowd. Th e guardsmen whose task it was to guard the square on that side were unable to persuade the crowd to move back, and started to fi re shots, ‘either in the air or otherwise (since I have not heard with any certainty of any deaths or injuries from the militia’s bullets’), reported De Boer, as usual clearly citing his source. Th e shots obviously caused

53 25 June 1748.54 15 August 1748. See also e.g. 23 August 1748: ‘at which he [Daniël Raap] left

us, walking straight to the Doelen. And he must have barely reached the top of the stairs when I heard a loud roar of Houzee coming from that hall. At which I went to Kloveniersburgwal, immediately opposite this hall, and saw [him] making a short speech through the open windows.’


great panic. Some people tried to escape from the area along the Damrak waterside, but the crush was so bad that several groups of people fell into the water. Some reports spoke of 1,000 deaths. At the end of the aft ernoon, 19 dead bodies were retrieved from the canal. Although opinions diff ered on the cause of the disaster, according to De Boer, he himself was in no doubt: the militia had unleashed the chaos. He writes with such assurance, he says, because ‘I know that there was perhaps no one else who had observed the events as closely and deliberately as I and who had immediately made notes on it all’. So it seems that De Boer had gone out that day, and probably on other days too, with the express intention of recording the events in his diary.55

Other entries too reveal that De Boer was more than a casual observer. Th is is clearest at moments when he was unable to fulfi l his respon-sibilities as a reporter. When a dispute arose at the Doelen about an appointment in the militia council, De Boer did not dare to enquire into the precise causes of the turmoil: ‘since I did not think today was the time to try to probe or to get to the bottom of things’56 Perhaps De Boer feared that he might provoke the protesters’ wrath if he said too much. And this may explain why he restrained himself, as when he pondered why the protesters were all sporting orange ribbons and swords: ‘I would have liked to ask them why . . . but I dared not, partly because of the time and partly because I had made a pact with my tongue to listen to everything I heard at the Doelen but never to speak a word.’57

At other times, it seems that De Boer violated the pact with his tongue and asked questions to gather information for his chronicle. He would then write up his entry shortly aft erwards. For instance, on one occasion aft er he had spent a day in the vicinity of the Doelen, De Boer later noted that he would not describe that day’s speeches, ‘since I do not feel like writing any more this evening’.58 He did not always

55 As a rule, spectators at public executions had little sympathy for the condemned prisoners, with the exception of rioters. Th e authorities deployed large numbers of guardsmen to police these judicial spectacles, precisely for fear of riots. Th e threat of violence could sometimes make the militiamen very edgy, and the disaster of 1748 was not the fi rst event of this kind. See Pieter Spierenburg, Th e Spectacle of Suff ering: Executions and the Evolution of Repression: From a Preindustrial Metropolis to the European Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 100–109.

56 9 September 1748.57 7 September 1748.58 26 August 1748.

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feel like this, however: witness the copious notes he made on speeches at the Doelen. And sometimes he did not even wait until the evening but took his papers with him. In September De Boer wrote that he was rather fearful, ‘most especially regarding my briefcase, containing this morning’s notes, which I did not trust to leave anywhere else’.59 However, these fears did not deter him from taking up his usual post outside the Doelen.

By watching and listening, De Boer acquired a good grasp of the events taking place in the town. When news came to him through a third party, he did not always name his informant. He frequently used the word ‘credible’ ( geloofwaardig) in relation to such reports in his diary.60 Only very occasionally did he record such a verbal source, as when he heard three milkmen discussing the birth of an heir to the stadholder-ship.61 Later that day it was confi rmed that Princess Anne of Hanover, the wife of stadholder William IV, had given birth to a son. Th e only such verbal source he mentioned by name was Gerrit de Jongste, who had reported the appearance of a comet.62 Apart from this, De Boer described his informants in general terms as ‘a merchant’, a ‘fellow guardsman’, or ‘some burghers’’63

But even more frequently than such vague descriptions of verbal sources, De Boer would record that information was ‘widely circulat-ing’. In some cases, these rumours concerned factual information, as on 1 September, when ‘it was said’ that stadholder William IV was coming to visit the city. Th e next day, ‘it was said’ that William IV had responded favourable to the representatives’ proposals. News about the Doelist protesters also sometimes came in the form of hearsay: ‘It is said that four Doelists (though not their leaders) have gone to the prince in Th e Hague with a newly draft ed 8-point petition’.64 Sometimes the information came from further afi eld. ‘It is also said’, wrote De Boer, ‘that the leader of the Haarlem rebels had applied to the prince for a position as tax collector and was rejected.’65

59 10 September 1748.60 28 June 1748.61 8 March 1748.62 29 April 1748.63 23–11, 14–8 and 17 December 1748.64 26 September 1748.65 20 December 1748.


Th e rejection of the Haarlem man’s application met with approval ‘among the wider public’. ‘Th ey’ said that granting the application would have cast William IV in a bad light; it would have looked as if the Prince of Orange was on amicable terms with the rebels. But De Boer added that he was uncertain as to the truth of these reports, since they were only hearsay.66 So by putting his ear to the ground, De Boer not only heard what had happened, but also what people thought about it. For instance, he heard ‘diverse terms of invective’ hurled at the tax collectors.67 De Boer also noted the opinions regarding the changes in the militia that had been introduced in the summer of 1748: ‘but take note: everything put in place by those bold senior offi cers is wrecked by the lower ranks; so disputes abounded’.68 De Boer did not always get his news from an indeterminate group. He would occasionally describe the social origins of his informants: ‘Th e respectable burghers also had plenty to say (albeit more furtively) regarding the deposition of the old government.’ Th ey said that the government had been deposed not because of poor governance, but for no other reason than ‘to please certain riff -raff .’69

De Boer’s diary makes a clear distinction between diff erent sections of Amsterdam’s population, ranging from the ‘respectable’ burghers to the rabble or ‘riff -raff ’: men of reason versus the ‘frenzied masses’.70 In his view, respectable burghers were loyal to their government, while the sole objective of the rabble was to foment unrest. In his account of the tax riots of June 1748, De Boer constantly contrasted the ‘good citizens’ (including the guardsmen) to the ‘raging, screaming rabble’. Th ese social labels had little to do with affl uence; what mattered, in De Boer’s view, was loyalty to the established order and the ability to control one’s feelings. During the Doelist unrest, he noted a division among the citizenry, among those of the same social group: those with [active] guardsmen’s duties seemed mainly to incline towards the Doelists, while those who bought off their obligation or otherwise contributed tended to favour ‘the reasonable view’.71 At this stage De Boer is still

66 20 December 1748.67 18 June 1748.68 20 September 1748.69 9 September 1748.70 25 January 1748.71 11 August 1748. Every burgher above a certain income was in principle obliged

to take part in the local militia. However, it was possible to commute this obligation

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referring to the Doelists as burghers, but not long aft erwards he calls them ‘riff -raff ’ and ‘foolish fellows’.72

It will be clear that De Boer counted himself as one of the city’s ‘respectable’ burghers. Although he seldom formulated explicit judge-ments, his opinions are clear from his tendency to identify with the positions of the reasonable burghers. Discussing a poem in which a Doelist claimed that all law-loving burghers were on his side, De Boer wrote: ‘I believe, however, that there are thousands in Amsterdam who love the law and who are yet not on the versifi er’s side (any more than I am myself ).’73

De Boer probably heard the views of ‘respectable burghers’ in the street, or possibly at the Exchange, which he frequently visited on busi-ness. Occasionally he mentions an explicit location. On 12 September, for instance, he writes that ‘respectable people, who never dared to speak out in the turbulent days for fear of the Doelist faction, now speak openly in bookshops and elsewhere.’ On 13 December he again mentions the bookshop as a place where topical matters are discussed in public: ‘But the discussions tended to follow a rather diff erent course; for today it was openly asserted in the bookshops . . .’. In the fi rst place, we can infer from this that De Boer frequented bookshops – no trivial fact, considering the large quantity of printed matter that he pasted into his diary. In the second place, we can infer from De Boer’s diary that bookshops served in part as meeting-places where the book-buy-ing public discussed politics; in eighteenth-century Amsterdam, at any rate, they had a function similar to that of coff ee-houses, inns and tow barges.74

News on printed paper

De Boer derived a large proportion of his information on events in the city from his own observation or from hearsay. But his entries for 1748 also include numerous references to printed sources. Sometimes he merely notes the publication of a printed source, together with a brief summary. In some cases he actually wrote out the text of printed publications in his own handwriting, or if he had a copy of his own, he

by paying a lump sum or by making regular contributions to avoid active guardsmen’s duties.

72 1 September 1748.73 15 August 1748.74 Frijhoff and Spies, 1650, pp. 223–224.


might paste it into his diary. Table 5 indicates that De Boer referred to printed publications 67 times. Of these, 27 references consist of a brief summary, 14 are written copies of printed matter, and on 26 occasions he pasted a copy of the publication into his diary.

News regarding the city council accounted for a signifi cant share of De Boer’s reading in terms of printed matter. He mentioned a great many publications, ordinances and warnings issued by Amsterdam’s burgomasters. He referred, for instance, to a circular calling on the people to illuminate their houses to mark the birth of Prince William V.75 He gave a brief summary of the ordinance in which the city magis-trates ordered all shops to remain closed on Sundays.76 Aside from the promulgation of ordinances of this kind, printed matter was also used for the city’s executive administration. For instance, printed forms were used for the collection of the new tax imposed in 1748. De Boer made a copy of the form he had received, including the information he had fi lled in.77 He managed to secure original copies of some government documents, for instance of the council’s notifi cation to burghers, dated 12 August, of the possibility of submitting any complaints through their militia companies. Th us, De Boer obtained his information about the authorities almost exclusively through the offi cial, printed channels. In contrast to his reports on the Doelists, for instance, De Boer almost never wrote about incidents that had occurred in council meetings. Since he had no access to sources in these circles, he was obliged to rely in this respect on offi cial publications.

Like the city council, the Doelists too made ample use of the printing press to disseminate their decisions. De Boer regularly referred to these documents. For instance, he made a copy of the pamphlet in which the Doelists declared that they had not taken the Doelen building with force.78 He also recorded the content of a number of speeches made at the Doelen,79 and pasted the Doelists’ printed petitions to the city council into his diary.80 Despite all this, however, the information that De Boer derived from printed sources was outweighed considerably by reports based on his own aural or eyewitness testimony.

75 8 March 1748.76 29 November 1748.77 27 December 1748.78 1 September 1748.79 E.g. 24–8, 28 August 1748.80 10–8, 1 September 1748.

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De Boer frequently read comments on current aff airs in the printed media. He referred to, copied or owned copies of diverse lampoons or ‘pasquinades’, as he called them. For instance, he copied out a few lines of verse commemorating the death of the Doelist Christiaan Teepken, suggesting that the rebel did not deserve a funeral but could best be hanged instead.81 De Boer had read numerous other examples of anti-Doelist propaganda, and pasted into his diary copies of De caracters der opperbaasen (‘Th e characters of the rebel leaders’; Knuttel 18071) and Zinnebeeldige grafschrift en op vyft ien in leeven zynde opperbaasen der zogenaamde muitelingen (‘Allegorical epitaphs to fi ft een living leaders of the so-called rebellion’; Knuttel 18074).82 De Boer briefl y summarises a lampoon targeting Hendrik Stadlander, a newly-elected member of the militia council, ‘which dwelt at length on his undistinguished career as a humble tobacco-seller’.83 Most satirical pamphlets directed against the Doelists appeared towards the end of 1748, when the movement had collapsed. From the period before then, De Boer mainly refers to printed documents from the pro-Doelist camp, for instance copying out the fi rst and last three lines of a poem in which a ‘Doele-man’ claims that he is not a rebel at all, but someone who is fi ghting to restore the old order.84 De Boer had not always actually read the pamphlets he quoted. For instance, he refers at one point to a pamphlet deriding the Prince of Orange with the words, ‘I heard someone read from it today (without having actually had a copy in my hands)’.85 Other reasons sometimes prevented him from discussing a pamphlet in detail: ‘Today I saw a printed lampoon, and having read it, I did not demean myself by keep-ing it’.86 Th is was a pamphlet entitled De weergalooze Amsterdamsche kiekkas (‘Amsterdam’s peerless peepshow’; Knuttel 18033), denouncing the stadholder. In 1749 the Court of Holland took legal action against both the writer and the printer of this publication.87

To sum up, De Boer’s 1748 diary was compiled from four diff erent sources: his chronological history consisted of accounts of things he

81 22 November 1748.82 Th e pamphlets cited in this chapter are accompanied by their number in Knuttel,

Catalogus van de pamfl etten-verzameling. 83 24 September 1748.84 15 August 1748.85 17 December 1748.86 18 November 1748.87 Ton Jongenelen, Van smaad tot erger. Amsterdamse boekverboden 1747–1794

(Amsterdam: Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 1998), p. 3.


had seen himself, reports on events and opinions he had heard from others, and facts and comments he had read. His diary for that year focused primarily on the events in Amsterdam, and his main sources – understandably, since the turmoil was played out virtually on his doorstep – were observation and the aural testimony of others. Th e Doelist revolt generated large quantities of printed matter on both sides. Much of it served to notify the public of decisions: the authorities published a whole series of ordinances, while the Doelists disseminated the results of their meetings. De Boer was apprised of these decisions through other channels too; he was frequently on the spot when they were announced. It was generally by reading printed matter, however, that he learned of their precise content. In assessing public opinion in the city, too, he relied partly on printed matter. Critical, satirical commentary or defamatory material was generally disseminated in printed form. But De Boer also sounded out opinions by listening to conversations in the street.

Th e news of 1755

Th e great political turbulence in Amsterdam made the year 1748 unique. It is possible that for this reason alone, De Boer drew to a large extent on his own observation that year; he experienced it all from close by. So for the purposes of comparison, we shall now look at De Boer’s sources for another year (chosen at random), namely the year of 1755 (See Table 6 in the appendices).

Th e entries for 1755 are in general far shorter and less frequent than those for the tumultuous year of 1748. De Boer made entries in his diary on a mere 46 days of 1755, as opposed to 112 days in 1748. Th is discrepancy had much to do with the lack of political news from Amsterdam. De Boer mentions few events in his home town in that year, and includes a correspondingly small number of reports based on his own eyewitness and aural testimony. Perhaps the most noteworthy event that De Boer experienced in his own surroundings was the reno-vation work at the Exchange. On 4 November work started on laying a new wooden fl oor over the existing stone fl oor. De Boer also over-heard various exchanges about the reasons for this renovation, which people seized on to make political points: of all the ‘peevish reactions and conversations’ he heard, one in particular struck him as furnishing the likeliest (or most amusing?) explanation: namely, that a hundred years ago, the merchants trading at the Exchange had been too busy to notice their cold feet. But now, times had grown so slack that they

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were suddenly aware of the cold.88 Th e authorities were naturally to blame for this economic malaise.

De Boer oft en heard comments on events that had taken place in 1755. For instance, he heard a ‘simple elderly burgher’ criticise the plans submitted by Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Schrijver for the reform of the shipbuilding industry.89 In November, De Boer heard reports of chandeliers in churches swinging back and forth as a result of an earthquake.90 He also heard people discussing the Dutch declaration of war on Algiers, as well as the apparition of a fi reball in the sky, and the motives underlying the attack on the Amsterdam church minister François.

In contrast to 1748, Jan de Boer relied for much of his information in 1755 on written sources, without exception letters to merchants. Th at Rome and Spain were supporting the Dutch in their war with Algiers was noted ‘in a good deal of private correspondence delivered to our merchants yesterday with the post from Spain and Italy’.91 Letters to merchants also noted that the French were infl icting losses on the British army on American soil, and that in December, just a month aft er the fi rst earthquake, another tremor had been felt in Lisbon.

De Boer also read about such matters in 1755 in printed sources, most notably newspapers, which accounted for twenty of that year’s entries. In the ’s Gravenhaegse Courant, for instance, he read that the crown prince of Hessen-Kassel had converted to Catholicism;92 he pasted the issue carrying this report into his diary. He also added other newspapers, most notably issues of the Amsterdamsche Courant, no. 16 of which reported that the ‘governess’ of stadholder William V (his mother, princess-regent Anne of Hanover) had intervened in the elections for Amsterdam’s city council. From issue no. 156 he learned that preparations for war were under way in Paris. Pamphlets remained regular sources of printed information for De Boer in 1755. One such entitled Het pertinent en zeer omstandig verhaal, wegens de

88 4 November 1755.89 18 July 1755.90 1 November 1755.91 26 April 1755. Th e other side of the news on Algiers, that relating to production,

has been studied by Joop W. Koopmans and Cedric Regtop, “ ‘Zeeschuimers en ver-achtelijke Barbaaren’? Nederlandse nieuwsfragmenten over Barbarije in de achttiende eeuw”, in Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 21 (2002), pp. 34–48. Th ey studied the reports published in the Europische Mercurius.

92 15 January 1755.


schrikkelyke . . . wreedheid, betoond van een bakkers-knegt, aan een Frans predikant . . . Jean Henri François (‘Th e defi nitive and most detailed story of the terrible . . . brutality perpetrated by a baker’s apprentice upon a French minister of religion . . . Jean Henri François’; Amsterdam Knuttel 18483) reported on the attack already mentioned above. De Boer read comments on Lieutenant-Admiral Schrijver’s proposals in Brief van den kunst schilder Adam Silo (‘Letter from the painter Adam Silo’; Knuttel 18482) and in Aanmerkingen over ’t plan van . . . lt. adm. C. Schryver (‘Observations regarding the plan of Lt-Adm. C. Schrijver’; Knuttel 18481), written by one Lafargue (possibly the silk dealer referred to above).

Although de Boer compiled his diary in 1755 using the same sources as in 1748, the ratio between the diverse sources was quite diff erent. In 1755 he used written and printed sources far more frequently than in 1748, partly because he included many more entries covering events beyond his own surroundings. For local reports, and for comments on the events of the day, he continued to base himself largely on his own observation and hearsay. For news originating from further afi eld, however, he relied primarily on printed sources.

News from many sides

As already noted, in 1755 De Boer heard a variety of comments about the earthquake that had occurred in November. Th is was no local matter. Th e earthquake’s epicentre was in Lisbon, and it had sent shock waves – literally and metaphorically – through the entire continent of Europe. In itself it is common enough for natural phenomena to cause public consternation, but historians view the earthquake of 1755 as marking a turning-point in European thinking. Th e philosophical optimism, which taught that one should regard the existing world as the best of all worlds and to meet adversity with equanimity, was increasingly being challenged. Pessimism became part of the Enlightenment philosophy, as exemplifi ed by the work of the philosophe Voltaire.

Th e 1755 disaster is a major reference point in the historical research on the spread of Enlightenment thinking. Th e reactions aroused by the earthquake show the extent to which Enlightened views had taken hold. Was the disaster seen in terms of divine intervention or was it explained in terms of natural causes? Th e historian J.W. Buisman has analysed the reactions in the Netherlands. Th ese tended to be traditional; most printed comments assumed that the earthquake was a punishment

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meted out by God, with very few writers advancing scientifi c explana-tions. So the Netherlands displayed little sign of Enlightenment think-ing in 1755.93

Buisman explored the mood in the United Provinces on the basis of printed reactions, but to convey the sense of agitation to which the earthquake gave rise, he used Jan de Boer’s written accounts.94 De Boer describes the events in detail, basing himself on information received from diff erent sides. Th e disaster struck on 1 November, with trem-ors being felt even in Amsterdam. De Boer did not experience them himself, but at the Exchange he heard that some of the ships in the Singel had broken free from their moorings and that chandeliers in countless churches had started swinging back and forth. Th ree days later, De Boer read similar reports in the Amsterdamsche Courant. Th e tremors continued to dominate conversations for some time, and when a porpoise was caught in the harbour of Oudewater, for instance, people linked it to the earthquake.95 On 14 November De Boer wrote that everyone was talking about the causes of the earthquake. Some saw it wholly as a natural phenomenon. De Boer accepted this up to a point, but thought that the ‘all-governing hand of God’ should not be discounted. A pamphlet discussing the earthquake was also published that day by a certain J.G.M. (as noted on De Boer’s inserted text), presenting ‘Historical and scientifi c observations on the rare earth and water quake that occurred on 1 November 1755’. Some time later, a ‘Chronicle, or Precise description’ appeared, with another interpretation of the same natural event.96

Reports on the earthquake did not, of course, stem from any single source. Th e event was the subject of animated debate, and newspaper reports triggered further discussion as well as printed comments. Th is exemplifi es the way in which information and commentary were dis-

93 J.W. Buisman, Tussen vroomheid en Verlichting. Een cultuurhistorisch en -socio-logisch onderzoek naar enkele aspecten van de Verlichting in Nederland (1755–1810) 2 vols. (Zwolle: Waanders, 1992), vol. 1, pp. 89–100. See also Vermij’s criticism, in ‘Natuurgeweld’, which questions whether responses that appeared in print can really be taken as directly refl ecting prevailing attitudes in the Netherlands.

94 Ibid., pp. 82–88.95 11 November 1755.96 Th e two pamphlets were entitled Historische en natuurkundige aanmerkingen over

de zeldzame aard- en water-schuddinge die . . . op den 1 november 1755 . . . voorgevallen is (Knuttel 18484) and Chronykje, of Naauwkeurige beschryvinge der aard-beevinge, of water-beweeginge, welke is voor-gevallen op zaturdag, den eersten november, 1755 (Knuttel 18485).


seminated and transmitted through a whole gamut of media in the mid-eighteenth century. Robert Darnton has demonstrated a similar mechanism at work in eighteenth-century Paris, where people learned of events through a variety of linked information channels.97

Subsequent entries in De Boer’s diary for November 1755 underscore the links between the diverse media. For at the end of November, the earthquake of 1 November attracted a fresh wave of interest. It was then that De Boer learned that the disaster had reduced the city of Lisbon to rubble. His source was ‘an extraordinary missive about France with diverse merchants’ letters’.98 De Boer also read of the ‘wretched state’ of the Portuguese capital in that day’s edition of the newspaper ’s-Gravenhaegse Courant. Th e reports had quickly spread through Amsterdam, and such was the thirst for more information that one could not obtain a copy of the newspaper ‘for any sum of money’. Th e reports generated great consternation at the Exchange, as De Boer saw at close quarters, especially among merchants such as Braamcamp and Hoogerwoerd, who had relatives living in Lisbon. On 27 November the Amsterdamsche Courant brought fresh accounts from Portugal, and De Boer inserted the edition into his diary. Aft er that there was a lull in reporting, but two days later the merchant Louis Michel received a letter notifying him of his son’s death. It seems unlikely that De Boer read this letter himself, but he obviously heard people discussing it at the Exchange. A few days later he also spoke to a sea-captain who had been caught up in a bad storm on setting sail from Lisbon.99 Th e following day, De Boer read the account he had heard from the lips of ‘Captain Booij’ in the Amsterdamsche Courant. Th e same paper published more news about the disaster area on 6 and 9 December. Merchants’ letters continued to fi gure prominently as sources of information, however, and one arrived with the reassuring information that the relatives of Hoogerwoerd and Braamcamp were unharmed.100 More letters arrived from Portugal a few days later. De Boer read one of them, he writes in his diary. In December 1755 the Lisbon story was summarised in De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rijder, a monthly magazine providing an overview of the most important events in the world. De Boer added

97 Darnton, ‘An Early Information Society’. 98 ‘[E]en extraordinaire post over Vrankrijk met verschijde koopmansbrieven’, 26

November 1755. 99 1 December 1755.100 6 December 1755.

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the December issue to his diary because of the disaster in Lisbon and the other ‘sad tales’ with which it was ‘crammed’.101

Conversations, pamphlets, newspapers, letters, magazines: news was disseminated in numerous and varied ways. Together these channels formed a network from which De Boer extracted information for his diary.

Reading the news: printed matter in the diary

Th e years 1748 and 1755 are illustrative of Jan de Boer’s Chronologische Historie as a whole. Year in, year out, he wrote daily accounts of any-thing of interest that he had seen, heard or read. No attempt will be made here to analyse the sources for all years of the diary. Th e rest of this chapter will focus on De Boer as a reader: what he read, how he obtained printed publications, and what he thought of them. Th is discussion will be based on the printed texts that he inserted into his diary. Table 7 in the appendix contains an overview of the diff erent types of printed matter in the fi ve volumes of De Boer’s chronicle; but it should be borne in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of his reading. In every volume, he frequently refers to information obtained from printed sources without including copies of them. Even so, the analyses of 1748 and 1755 suggest that those he did insert into his diary constitute a reasonable cross-section of the printed publications that he read.

It was primarily newspapers and pamphlets that De Boer added to his diary, besides which he sometimes pasted in a picture, booklet, government publication or magazine. These terms require a little explanation. References in this chapter to ‘newspapers’ are confi ned to those with the word courant in their title and that appeared several times a week. All other news media, such as those providing monthly surveys of the news, are classifi ed here as magazines.102 ‘Pictures’ refer to loose illustrations inserted into De Boer’s diary.

Th e precise defi nition of a pamphlet is a matter of constant debate in historical research. External features are not useful criteria, since

101 30 December 1755.102 On the problematic distinction between newspapers and magazines, see Johannes,

De barometer van de smaak, pp. 4–5.


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pamphlets appeared in diverse forms. For this reason, classifi cation is generally based on content: a pamphlet is a document informing read-ers about some topical matter or seeking to persuade them to adopt a particular point of view.103 Even these two features, however, do not yield a clear distinction between pamphlets and other printed publica-tions. For the purposes of introducing a certain order into De Boer’s collection, this chapter will simply follow the pamphlet classifi cation adopted by the bibliographer Knuttel for the National Library of the Netherlands. Th e printed matter included in this catalogue is dealt with under the general heading of ‘pamphlets’. Although this is a common approach in historical research, it is rather complicated in the present case. For Knuttel actually used De Boer’s diary for his classifi cation. It helped him to date pamphlets, for instance, and sometimes furnished him with information about authors.104 Aside from using it to supply background information, Knuttel also used De Boer’s diary to supple-ment his pamphlet collection. Th e catalogue from 1747 to 1758 contains numerous issues that Knuttel found exclusively in De Boer’s chronicle and not in the remaining collection.105 In other words, the documents referred to as pamphlets in this chapter were literally labelled as such by Knuttel.

Th ere is one kind of printed matter for which an exception has been made. Knuttel includes a great many documents in his catalogue that were issued by government bodies. Th e diverse ordinances, notifi cations and publications of this kind that De Boer inserted into his diary also ended up in the Knuttel catalogue, but these will be dealt with here as a separate category. Even then, these various headings do not cover all the printed matter that De Boer inserted in his diary. For this reason,

103 Th is is the defi nition given by H. van der Hoeven in the introduction to Knuttel, Catalogus, p. xv, which Van Otegem refers to as the ‘current criterion’ in his ‘Tijd, snelheid, afstand’, p. 51.

104 Knuttel cites De Boer’s diary as a source in numerous catalogue entries. Th at Het Roomsch Rot Goet Paater-Jot (Kn. 17726) was published on 25 July 1747, and that it was written by an apprentice of the baker’s guild, were pieces of information that Knuttel obtained from De Boer. Although Knuttel does not always refer explicitly to De Boer’s chronicle, it may be assumed that he derived details such as the publication date from the diary in other entries too.

105 Knuttel does not say so explicitly in the catalogue, however. In the copy of his catalogue preserved at the department of manuscripts and old prints at the National Library of the Netherlands, this omission is remedied by handwritten notes. Knuttel’s failure to refer to De Boer explains why so many entries of the chronicle were designated ‘missing’ when the collection was recorded on microfi ches (see e.g. nos. 18290–18295, 18464–18467).


a fi nal category of ‘booklets’ has been included, for printed matter that did not appear in Knuttel’s catalogue.

Newspapers

Th e specifi c value of newspapers as information sources is refl ected by the numerous issues that De Boer inserted into the various volumes of his chronicle. Although the fi rst volume does not include many such insertions, De Boer added more and more newspapers to his diary in subsequent volumes. Th is was directly related to his subject-matter. While the fi rst few years focus on local events, aft er the collapse of the Doelist movement his gaze widened to include events elsewhere. Amsterdam’s political scene was relatively tranquil by then; controver-sies still fl ared up, but De Boer witnessed far fewer goings-on in his own surroundings than in 1747 and 1748. For noteworthy events beyond his own gaze, the newspaper was clearly an ideal source of information.

Th e United Provinces had a good many newspapers in the mid-eighteenth century.106 Its newspaper industry was organised locally. Newspapers were published in several cities, generally with a special licence issued by local magistrates. Th is licence protected the publishers from competition and enabled the authorities to exercise a certain con-trol on matters of content.107 Th e fi rst newspapers had been published in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century. More and more were launched with the passage of time, and by the mid-eighteenth century, Amsterdam, Th e Hague, Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen all had their own local couranten. Several towns also had French-language papers, such as Gazette de la Haye in Th e Hague, for instance. Although the newspapers were produced by local businesses, their content and reader-ship spanned a far wider area. Th is is very clear from De Boer’s diary. Since he lived in Amsterdam, he read the Amsterdamsche courant as a matter of course, but this was only one of the nine newspapers of which he kept copies.

Th e Amsterdamsche courant and ’s-Gravenhaegse courant (from Th e Hague) were the newspapers that he added to his diary most frequently, with 55 and 61 insertions respectively. Both were published three times a

106 Overview of the origins of the press in a number of cities: Hemels and Schneider, Nederlandse krant, pp. 40–55.

107 Weekhout, Boekencensuur, pp. 79–83.

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week. Th e Amsterdamsche courant appeared on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Th ursdays, while its counterpart in Th e Hague appeared on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In other words, with these two, De Boer was assured of obtaining the latest news on every day of the week. Even so, he also read other newspapers. Th e Leidse courant (Leiden), which appeared on the same days as Th e Hague’s paper, is also mentioned in the diary several times, as is the Haarlemse courant (Haarlem), which was published on the same days as the one in Amsterdam. De Boer would sometimes insert copies of other newspapers, such as the Rotterdamse courant (Rotterdam) or the Gazette de la Haye. In addition, remarks in the text reveal that he occasionally glanced at other papers, such as the Groninger courant (Groningen) about which he wrote in 1749, and the French-language paper published in Cologne, to which he referred in 1750.108

How did De Boer obtain his newspapers? He purchased some of them separately in bookshops. In October 1751, for instance, he wrote that the ’s-Gravenhaegse courant could not be had at any price and that he had therefore inserted a copy of the Gazette de la Haye instead.109 Even this French paper had been diffi cult to get hold of. Th ere was a huge demand for newspapers that day because they contained detailed accounts of the death of William IV. In 1756 there was another instance of the ’s-Gravenhaegse courant selling like hot cakes. Th is time it was not a regular edition but a special na-courant or extra edition, contain-ing the news that the Prussian army had defeated the Austrian forces in Bohemia. Many people wanted to read this news, according to De Boer’s description: ‘Karel Potgieter, bookseller on Beurssluijs opposite the Exchange, had received this extra edition from Th e Hague and had sold it for a stuyver when the Exchange closed, and he would have got a guilder if he had asked for it, there was such a crowd clamouring at the door for extra editions, in fact he had to escape from the front part of his house altogether, and the crowd nearly battered his door down.’110 It is possible that a stuyver was the normal price for an extra edition, but single copies of regular editions probably cost less. Th e administrative records of the Amsterdamsche courant allow us to calculate that single

108 18 August 1749; 22 October 1750.109 25 October 1751.110 12 October 1756.


copies were sold for half a stuyver.111 De Boer does not provide any information that would confi rm or refute these calculations.

Some people subscribed to the paper rather than purchasing single copies. It is not clear whether De Boer did so, but it is entirely pos-sible, given the large number of copies of the Amsterdam and Hague papers that he inserted in his diary. Subscriptions worked much as they do today: readers paid a fi xed sum for a given period of time and either had their papers delivered or fetched them from the bookshop. One did not have to be especially rich to aff ord a subscription. One of De Boer’s contemporaries, for instance, Maria de Neufville, paid 3 guilders and 12 stuyvers for an annual subscription to ‘the paper’ in 1748 and 1749.112 She evidently had it delivered to her home, since her household accounts include, besides the subscription charges, a tip for the newsboy twice a year: she gave him a few stuyvers in the summer at kermis (fair) time and again at the beginning of January.113 Although De Boer did not belong to the upper middle classes, given his assets he could surely have aff orded a sum of around four guilders. Whether he did in fact have a subscription, however, cannot be ascertained.

Th ere were other ways in which De Boer may have read the news-paper besides purchasing single copies or subscribing. Perhaps he read them in inns or coff ee-houses. In English historiography, coff ee-houses and news are oft en discussed as two sides of the same coin. Coff ee-houses were places of animated conversation about politics, fuelled by items in newspapers that could be read on the premises.114 Lodewijck van der Saan of Leiden, who worked at the Dutch Embassy in England at the end of the seventeenth century, wrote in his notebook that the paper arrived on Mondays and Th ursdays and that he went to

111 I.H. van Eeghen, ‘De Amsterdamsche courant in de achttiende eeuw’, in Jaarboek van het Genootschap Amstelodamum 44 (1950), pp. 31–58; esp. p. 49.

112 Stadsarchief Amsterdam, FA Brandts, inv. nos. 1183–1187: Records of the expenses of Maria de Neufville 1757–1772: 8 January 1748: ‘to the newspaper-publisher, for reading the newspaper . . . 3–12–.’ 5 January 1749: ‘for reading the newspaper for one year . . . 3–12.’ Th is woman left an autobiography; see Maria de Neufville, Verhaal van myn droevig leeven, edited by Tony Lindijer (Hilversum: Verloren, 1997).

113 Ibid., 1 January 1748: ‘On New Year’s Day . . . postman . . . ditto newspaper delivery boy –11–.’ 6 July 1748: ‘[kermis money] to ditto dustman 5, to ditto newspaper boy –11–.’

114 Raymond, ‘Th e Newspaper’, pp. 114–120, mentions several examples of the pres-ence of newspapers in coff ee-houses, but questions the notion that such places were representative of the authentic public domain. In his view, the idea that coff ee-houses served as centres of public debate originates from literary accounts.

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the coff ee-house on Tuesday and Friday evenings to read it.115 In the Netherlands too, it was not uncommon for newspapers to be left lying on tables in coff ee-houses and inns for customers to read.116 De Boer may have used such facilities, but his diary does not mention the matter.

Even if De Boer shunned coff ee-houses, there were still more ways of obtaining newspapers. For instance, he might have got them from relatives or friends. On one occasion De Boer notes that he borrowed an issue of Cologne’s French-language newspaper and made a written copy of it.117 In this case he apparently returned the original, but that was not always necessary. A double edition of the Hague newspaper published at the end of October 1756 was so popular that it sold out completely before noon. Even so, De Boer managed ‘with great diffi culty’ to secure a copy from a friend, so that he could add it to his diary aft er all.118 We have already seen that people oft en exchanged newspapers. In 1624, David Beck obtained a copy of the newspaper from his uncle, who thought it not worth keeping since it had no lasting value. He was not alone in thinking so, judging by the rare references to newspapers in probate inventories and auction catalogues.119

Although newspapers may not have possessed any lasting value to De Boer as a reader, they certainly did for De Boer as a writer. Th ey furnished him with information for his chronicle and were therefore worth keeping.

115 UB Leiden, BPL 1325, fol. 36 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 163). Van der Saan had been in the newspaper business himself; he had published the Ordinaris Leidsche Courant from 1686 to 1689. Th e enterprise had been a fl op, he wrote in his notebook: ‘Trade without a proper grasp of it signifi es certain loss. He [a man who had lost money trading in grain] suff ered the same ill fortunes with his savings as I did from printing newspapers’ (fol. 144). On this man and his remarkable notebook, see Donald Haks, ‘Een wereldbeeld uit de “middelmaetigen stant”. De aantekeningen van Lodewijck van der Saan, 1695–1699’, in Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 24 (1998), pp. 113–137.

116 Th era Wijsenbeek, ‘Ernst en luim. Koffi ehuizen tijdens de Republiek’, in Pim Reinders and Th era Wijsenbeek (eds.), Koffi e in Nederland. Vier eeuwen cultuurge-schiedenis (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1994), pp. 32–54; esp. pp. 46–47.

117 22 October 1750.118 20 October 1756.119 Probate inventories do contain a certain amount of information about people’s

consumption of newspapers, however, in that they included references to outstanding debts, which frequently included charges due to newspaper publishers. See De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 78.


Newspaper reports in the diary

What did a newspaper have to contain for De Boer to consider it worth inserting in his chronicle? First, it was a primary source on decisions by the local authorities. De Boer frequently refers to newspapers in rela-tion to the promulgation of ordinances, the publication of notifi cations and so forth. In one entry, for instance, he notes: ‘Th e two ordinances enclosed here were issued today: one on wine and one on spirits.’120 Th e words ‘enclosed here’ refer to issue no. 1 of the ’s-Gravenhaegse vrijdagse courant, a copy of which he had added to his diary. Th is issue contained the text of the ordinances. So besides informing De Boer about the new law, the newspaper also possessed documentary value. Since it contained the unabridged text of the ordinance, De Boer could include a real memorial to these events in his chronicle. Th e Hague newspaper, in particular, served as documentation as well as source. Th e primary value to De Boer of the Amsterdamsche courant was as documentation, since he generally heard about the decisions made by Amsterdam’s public authorities in other ways: by hearing them pro-claimed at the town hall, for instance, or from reading posters with the text of the new decision hung up around the town. When he alluded to some new ordinance in Amsterdam, it was as a caption to the text of the ordinance that he inserted into his chronicle.

Newspapers fulfi lled another important role for De Boer: they con-tained journalistic accounts. Although they were rarely his fi rst source of information about new developments, they described the circum-stances of the events concerned in more detail than other sources. For instance, in 1751 the townspeople were well aware that William IV had died before the newspapers reported his death. Even so, the papers that appeared around this time were much in demand for their accounts of his death. So De Boer refers future readers of his diary who want to know the details of the stadholder’s demise to the newspaper article. In fact he oft en allows a newspaper to report on the events, writing the merest summary of an incident with a reference to an ‘enclosed newspaper’. A typical entry is his brief note, at the end of June 1756: ‘See today’s Hague newspaper, enclosed, for details on the island of Minorca (besieged by the French).’ More and more of the entries were

120 3 January 1750.

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written in this form over the years. Instead of long descriptions he penned brief notes with references to long newspaper articles.

Sometimes newspapers did serve as a source of entirely new infor-mation, generally in relation to events that had taken place abroad. De Boer followed the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), for instance, in which Prussia and Great Britain battled against the allied forces of France, Austria and Russia, largely by reading newspaper accounts. It is clear from his remarks, however, that he did not always view the newspaper as a reliable source of information.

Reading a newspaper did not amount to the simple consumption of information. Newspapers reported events in diff erent ways and read-ers added their own interpretations, so that ‘the news’ was far from unequivocal. Th is is illustrated by the entries for October 1756. On 12 October it was reported in print that the Austrian army had been defeated by Prussia in Bohemia. But the truth of this report was widely questioned, writes De Boer, because it had appeared in an extra edition of the paper and no one had heard anything from the Prussian envoy in Th e Hague. Th e sceptics were proved right the next day, with the appearance of another extra edition stating that Austria, not Prussia, had been victorious. Th is report too was treated with a healthy dose of scepticism. In fact it was rumoured that there was something peculiar about the newspaper: its trade-mark name suddenly looked diff erent, and it was suspected of being a pamphlet in disguise. Others rejected this theory, however.121

Th e regular editions of the newspaper were unable to dispel these doubts. For instance, the ’s-Gravenhaegse courant of 13 October carried a short communication from Prague, dated 3 October, stating that a ‘battle’ had taken place, in which the Austrians had held the fi eld.122 Th e following edition appeared to confi rm this report, but the edition of 18 October gave the victory to the Prussians. Th e Amsterdamsche courant also published contradictory reports. On 12 October 1756 it carried a report stating that the Prussians had defeated the Austrian troops. Th e report in the next edition of this paper, which appeared two days later, stated more or less the opposite, repeating almost verbatim the account published by the Hague paper on 13 October. Th e Amsterdam paper

121 12–13 October 1756. On the dissemination of foreign news in Dutch newspapers and the problems the editors at times encountered, see Koopmans, ‘Supply and Speed of Foreign News’.

122 ’s-Gravenhaegse Woensdagse Courant no. 123 (13 October 1756).


too reported from Prague that the Austrian and Prussian armies had waged a battle, ‘in which the former, it is said, held the fi eld.’123 Th e following edition did not contain not a word about the battle, but the one aft er that reported a Prussian triumph.

De Boer followed the newspapers closely, but was bewildered by the contradictory reports. He kept a copy of the Amsterdamsche courant, because it confi rmed ‘to some extent’ the report published in the fi rst extra edition.124 He took his information from the next few days from the ’s-Gravenhaegse courant; at least, he kept the three editions of this newspaper attributing victory to fi rst the Austrians and then the Prussians. ‘How one is to reconcile all these diff erent reports is quite beyond me’, writes De Boer, ‘and I shall leave it to those wiser than myself ’.125 Th e truth underlying these contradictory reports was that neither side had really emerged victorious from the Battle of Lobositz, as it would become known. Aft er a number of skirmishes, the Austrian general decided to save his troops for the actual purpose of the cam-paign: lending support to the Saxons.

Reactions to the reports of a diff erent battle provide another example of the scepticism with which readers sometimes responded to the news. On 18 June 1757 the army of the Prussian king Frederik II suf-fered a devastating defeat by troops commanded by the Austrian fi eld marshal Leopold Joseph von Daun, forcing Frederik to give up the siege of Prague. Th is eff ectively meant a double victory for the impe-rial troops.

Th e print media obtained news of the battle and Jan de Boer was one of those who read the accounts. But things were not that simple, in the fi rst place because the press distributed not one but numerous reports, and in the second place because readers had opinions of their own. We can infer from De Boer’s diary that the news of the battle reached Amsterdam ten days aft er fi ghting ceased. A pamphlet entitled Blasende postiljon (‘Th e Clarion’) informed Dutch readers that the Prussian army had taken Prague aft er a long siege. Th e reports unleashed fi erce debate, with many challenging their credibility by pointing out that the pamphlet came from ‘Kolberg’. Th e sceptics thought it unlikely

123 Amsterdamsche Donderdagse Courant no. 124 (14 October 1756).124 12 October 1756.125 18 October 1756.

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that this city, which was many miles from Prague, could have been the fi rst to provide reliable information. Others, while not disputing this line of argument, assumed that there had been a misprint: the news really came from Kolín, they assumed, which was near Prague, and was therefore reliable. Printed letters from Bremen and Hannover pinned up on booksellers’ walls told the same story. Yet De Boer was not convinced, and referred to a diff erent account that had appeared in print, in the Amsterdamsche courant. Here was not a word about a Prussian victory; in fact the paper rather aroused the suggestion that the Prussians were retreating. Th e situation was clearly extremely dif-fi cult to construe.126

Two days later, fresh accounts appeared in print, with the Hague paper reporting a Prussian retreat. Although the Amsterdamsche and ’s-Gravenhaegse courant were now in agreement, some readers, includ-ing De Boer, remained sceptical.127 Nor were they swayed by the Leydse courant that appeared on 1 July. Indeed, the general confusion only deepened, since two diff erent editions of the Leiden paper were circu-lating, one of which reported a Prussian victory while the other stated that the Prussian forces were retreating.128 In this latter respect, the Hague paper at least remained consistent: on 6 July it again reported that the Prussian army was in retreat. Meanwhile, the Amsterdamsche courant continued to exacerbate the confusion. Two diff erent editions were published and circulated on 9 July, with – as in Leiden – two confl icting versions of the events. On 12 July yet another printed news source appeared, a pamphlet that De Boer describes as a ‘letter from Nuremberg’, which also wrote of a Prussian defeat, but not everyone was convinced.129 So although the fi rst report of the battle appeared in the papers on 28 June, the true outcome was still not generally known by 12 July.

A reader who confi ned himself to newspapers and disregarded other sources would not have been any better informed. Th e fi rst newspaper reports spoke of an Austrian victory. Th e ’s-Gravenhaegse courant of 29 June 1757 wrote that the Prussians had left their camp at Kolín aft er a military encounter. But this battle had supposedly taken place on 13 and 14 June, not on 18 June. A day earlier, the Amsterdamsche courant

126 28 June 1757.127 30 June 1757.128 1 July 1757.129 6, 9 and 12 July 1757.


too had alluded to a battle, mentioning that the Prussians, commanded by August-Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Bevern, had retreated before the advancing troops of the Austrian fi eld-marshal Von Daun.130 Th e next edition of the newspaper reported that Daun had ‘defeated’ the Prussian army near Kostelec, without including any reports substan-tiating these claims.131

Two days aft er the report of Daun’s victory, the Amsterdamsche courant published a longer but entirely contradictory report on the battle. Communications had been received from Dresden and Berlin of successful military action undertaken by the king of Prussia near Kolín on 18 June. He had sent his troops into battle against the Austrians, who had seized a good strategic position on a mountain. ‘In spite of this advantageous position’, one message read, ‘our army attacked the enemy and seized two batteries and two villages that had been occupied by foot-soldiers’. However, the fi erce artillery fi re coming from enemy lines prevented the assault from being carried to completion. Th e king of Prussia had therefore ‘suspended the operation . . . and returned to Nienburg with his army in good order’. Th e Austrian forces did not pursue the retreating army, which suggested that they had suff ered large losses. ‘In the meantime,’ the report ended, ‘the king has seen fi t to end the siege of Prague.’132 In other words, this report suggested that the Prussians had not suff ered a defeat at all; rather, they had launched a heroic attack that they then suspended on their own initiative.

Th ree days later, on the other hand, news received from Vienna and published in the Amsterdam paper did suggest that the Austrians had won a victory: the reports stated that the Te Deum had been sung over ‘the twin victories of the 18th and 20th of this month over the Prussian troops in Bohemia’.133 No further accounts of these ‘twin victories’ appeared in the next two editions, but the third carried a report of the battle, stating that it had lasted somewhere between two and eight hours, and had ‘ended in complete victory for our side.’ Since the report came from Vienna, there is no doubt as to who was meant by ‘our side’.134

130 Amsterdamsche Dinsdagse courant no. 77 (28 June 1757).131 Amsterdamsche Donderdagse courant no. 78 (30 June 1757).132 Amsterdamsche Saterdagse courant no. 79 (2 July 1757).133 Amsterdamsche Dinsdagse courant no. 80 (5 July 1757).134 Amsterdamsche Saterdagse courant no. 81 (9 July 1757).

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Th is means that the fi rst reports of the battle between Prussian and Austrian forces did not appear in Dutch newspapers until over ten days later. But newspapers alone are a poor measure of the speed with which news travelled, as De Boer’s account clearly demonstrates; they were only one of a variety of news media, and certainly not the medium with most authority. Pamphlets and information passed on verbally served to test the credibility of news received through other channels.

Information and discussion in pamphlets

Let us now turn to pamphlets, and see what was dished up to their readers in the mid-eighteenth century. An overview of the pamphlets that De Boer added to his diary presents a good picture of their value as information sources, although it must be borne in mind that these are only the ones of which he managed to obtain copies and that he thought worth preserving.

Most of the pamphlets that De Boer preserved in 1747 concerned the debate on the patriotism of Dutch Catholics. Th ey were suspected of covert sympathies with the French, their co-religionists. When French forces invaded the United Provinces in 1747 and seized Bergen-op-Zoom, doubts concerning Catholic loyalties surfaced in the press, for instance in satirical poems published under the title of Het Roomsch Rot Goet Paaterjot (‘Papist hordes are good “Pat[e]r-iots” ’; Knuttel 17726–27), which De Boer inserted into his diary. Dutch Catholics stoutly rebuff ed the accusations. One wrote a poem entitled Pro Patria (Knuttel 17722), affi rming the Catholics’ patriotism, which De Boer added to his diary. He undoubtedly inserted it partly to prove that not all the poems being written about the Catholics were negative, but more importantly he did so because he himself was the author of Pro Patria; he was therefore a participant in this debate as well as its chronicler. Th is side of De Boer will be discussed later on.

Th e 1748 pamphlets that were inserted into his diary have been dealt with above. As already noted, most were pieces that had been published during the Doelist riots, such as the printed version of the Doelists’ petition to the city council and the latter’s response (Knuttel 17979, 17983). But some less restrained pamphlets also appeared, such as De caracters der opperbaasen (‘Th e characters of the rebel leaders’) (Knuttel 18071), in which the Doelist leaders were showered with abuse.

Th e Doelists’ activities continued to prompt articles in the press aft er 1748. Th ere was a spate of pamphlets commemorating the revolt


in 1749, two of which De Boer preserved in his diary (Doelzang and ’t Amsterdams buurpraatje; Knuttel 18233, 18235). Another hot topic in 1749 was the new tax. Aft er the abolition of tax farms in 1748, many people felt moved to propose new forms of taxation. De Boer was among those who read the new proposals, and he added the one entitled Plan van een generaal en classicaal familiehoofdgeld (Knuttel 18225) to his diary.

Controversy rumbled on even aft er 1749 in the aft ermath of the Doelist revolt. De Boer kept a number of pamphlets written about the former Doelist leaders, most of which were phrased in less than fl at-tering terms. Th e fi ercest invective was reserved for Daniël Raap, who was seen as the ringleader. Th e disappointment about the movement’s failure precipitated a backlash against its leaders. Rumours circulated that they had been motivated purely by self-interest, apparently cor-roborated by the fact that many had now been helped into jobs by stadholder William IV, for instance as collectors of the new taxes. One of the printed attacks was entitled Aan Jan Romans, kollecteur van ’t gemaal (‘To Jan Romans, collector of grain tax ’; Knuttel 18294). De Boer also included several pamphlets denouncing Daniël Raap, such as Daniël Raep’s patriottische bedryven (‘Daniël Raap’s patriotic activities’; Knuttel 18297) and the Brief van Henricus Wachloo, gewezen collecteur van de boter aan zyn vriend Daniël Raap, verwaanden previlegie-zoeker (‘Letter from Henricus Wachloo, former collector of butter, to his friend Daniël Raap, seeker of privileges’; Knuttel 18307). Raap died in 1754, his funeral drawing large crowds, and his death triggered a fl ood of pamphlets reviling him. De Boer added many of their titles to his diary, such as an invitation to Raap’s ‘descent into Hell’ (Knuttel 18423), one containing two letters supposedly written in Hell by Raap himself (Knuttel 18450) and the Beuls disperatie over het afsterven van Daniël Raap (‘Th e executioner’s disappointment at the death of Daniël Raap’; Knuttel 18424).

Printed documents frequently focused on a single individual. For instance, De Boer included two printed occasional poems in his chron-icle, which had been written for Johannes Wymans, the new priest of the Maagdenhuis (Knuttel 18464–65).135 Sometimes this attention was decidedly negative. For instance, De Boer collected a series of polemical

135 Th e Knuttel catalogue also includes descriptions of occasional poems; in other words, in some cases he classifi ed these as pamphlets.

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publications about the church minister Jacobus Tyken, who attracted publicity in 1753 amid rumours that a married woman had conceived a child by him; the minister had allegedly baptised the child and then buried it when it died. A pamphlet was published vigorously refuting these allegations, entitled Aan de lasteraars . . . van do. Jacobus Tyken (‘To the slanderers of the minister Jacobus Tyken’; Knuttel 18402). Both Amsterdam’s district court and the Court of Holland dismissed the case against Tyken, but the aff air found its way back to the newspapers in 1757, when Tyken blocked the reappointment of a deacon named Brouwer in the wake of a long-standing feud between them. Brouwer was the man who had started the rumours against Tyken in 1753. A fresh controversy ensued, with countless pamphlets published on both sides. De Boer read four of them (Knuttel 18641–18643).

Th e controversy that erupted in 1757 was of another order altogether. Th e ongoing debate in the United Provinces about the ideal form of government acquired a new lease of life from a historical account, Pieter le Clercq’s Het karakter van den raad-pensionaris Jan de Wit (‘Th e character of the Grand Pensionary Jan de Witt’; Knuttel 18546), which was published that year. Basing himself on letters written by a seventeenth-century French ambassador, Le Clercq presented a nega-tive portrait of the Grand Pensionary Jan de Witt, whom he accused of pro-French sentiments and a consequent lack of patriotism. Th e Amsterdam historian Jan Wagenaar rebuff ed this view with a treatise of his own, Het egt en waar karakter van den heere raadpensionaris Johan de Wit (‘Th e genuine and true character of the Grand Pensionary Jan de Witt’; Knuttel 18570), in which he rejected Le Clercq’s historiographical method. Why had the man based himself on a single source, without using De Witt’s own letters?

Th e row was about more than the proper use of sources and a mea-sured analysis of a historical period. It was also a topical debate framed in historical terms. At the root of it lay the unresolved problem of sov-ereignty: did the absolute power in the United Provinces reside in the city councils and provincial States, making the stadholder a servant of these bodies, or was sovereignty vested in the stadholder himself? Th e old confl ict had fl ared up again in 1757, when the stadholder inclined to support Great Britain in its confl ict with France while the States-General took the opposite view. Against this background, Le Clercq’s sugges-tion that favouring the French was tantamount to a lack of patriotism implied barely concealed criticism of the States; Wagenaar’s reply, on the


other hand, was a clear protestation of support. Th e crucial importance of the sovereignty issue was clear from the responses to the pamphlets by Wagenaar and Le Clercq. Many felt obliged to take a stand in the printed press. Over fi ft y pamphlets were published in a controversy that would later become known as the ‘De Witts war’. De Boer refers to a number of items in this long dispute, but kept only the piece that was written by Wagenaar and published anonymously.136

De Boer had read about the two opposing political views before, in Het gedrag der stadhoudersgezinden verdedigt (‘A defence of the con-duct of the stadholder’s faction’; Knuttel 18414), which was published anonymously in 1754 by the Leiden bookseller Elie Luzac. It was prompted by the vicious satirical tracts that had appeared aft er the death of Daniël Raap. Th ese pamphlets slung mud from every conceiv-able angle at the Doelist movement of 1747 and 1748, of which Raap was the undisputed leader. Luzac wanted to show that the movement had been justifi ed in demanding the restoration of the stadholdership. He defended the primacy of the stadholder on the grounds of natural law. Th is support for the House of Orange inevitably met with a frosty reception in Amsterdam, and the council proscribed his pamphlet on 14 May 1754. De Boer pasted into his diary both Luzac’s pamphlet and the ordinance proscribing it.137

We may recall that pamphlets are generally defi ned as documents written either to inform readers about topical events or to persuade them to adopt a particular point of view. Judging by the pamphlet reader Jan de Boer, the second of these two defi nitions appears to have predominated, given that most of the pamphlets he read and collected provided commentary on events, in some form or other.

News in pamphlets

Pamphlets mainly served a diet of controversy, but sometimes they conveyed news. Blasende Postilion (‘Th e Clarion’; Knuttel 18549) from 1757, for instance, informed De Boer about the battle between the Austrian and Prussian armies. Th at same year, he read in Naaukeurig

136 Th e pamphlets that made up the ‘De Witts war’ are discussed at length in P. Geyl, De Witten-Oorlog: een pennestrijd in 1757 (Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandse Uitgevers-maatschappij, 1953). On those written by Le Clercq and Wagenaar, see pp. 5–19.

137 On controversies in 1754 and 1757 and specifi cally on the dispute between Wagenaar and Luzac, see Wessels, Bron, pp. 339–376. Geyl, Witten-oorlog, pp. 64–72.

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verhaal (‘Precise story’; Knuttel 18546) an account of the failed attempt to assassinate Louis XIV by Robert François Damiens. Very occasion-ally, De Boer’s diary alludes to a sensationalist, ‘man-bites-dog’ type of report, such as ‘Th e defi nitive and most detailed story of the terri-ble . . . brutality perpetrated upon a French minister of religion . . . Jean Henri François’ (Knuttel 18483). Th e brutal act had been perpetrated on 12 October 1755, when a French baker’s apprentice fi red at the minister in the middle of a busily attended church service, wounding but not killing him.

Th e way in which De Boer discussed the attempted murder and the availability of other sources make it possible to describe the news conveyed by pamphlets in greater detail. At the same time, De Boer’s notes on this extraordinary incident also illustrate the way in which a range of news media, including pamphlets, supplied readers with information.

De Boer fi rst heard what had happened by word of mouth. While not necessarily the most accurate medium, this was certainly the fast-est. Th ese verbal reports contained many inconsistencies, as De Boer writes:

[People] construe [the events] very diff erently in many ways with many falsehoods, but the following appears the most probable: Th e baker’s apprentice is said to be a refugee from France, of the Reformed Church and born of genteel parents. He had previously worked as a gardener and had taken up baking here, being a young man who lived an unassuming and chaste life, who had never been heard to utter curses or other foul language. It is said that he had taken an interest in the daughter of the merchant De Costa la Maistre, and although the young lady would not allow him to press his suit, he nonetheless took to daydreaming about her. It is also said that he read a good deal in Holy Scripture, including obscure passages that he found diffi cult to comprehend and about which he had frequently consulted the reverend Francois. In short, aft er some time he was consumed by a powerful inner struggle, such that those who know him suspect that it was professing as much that led him to this reckless deed.138

Th e printed account spread more slowly than verbal rumours, but had the advantage of consistency. Th e Amsterdamsche courant of 14 October devoted a few lines to the incident:

138 13 October 1755.


Amsterdam 13 October. Yesterday morning, while the minister was say-ing the opening prayers in the Oude Waal church, a rash person fi red a snaphance at him; the perpetrator has been taken into custody. It is said that he is not in his right mind.

A fairly plain, factual account, as De Boer noted. Th is may well be why he decided to insert it into his chronicle. For having read another version of the incident in the Delft sche Historische Courant, he judged the Amsterdam report to be ‘closer to the truth’.139 By this he prob-ably meant that the Amsterdamsche courant did not speculate as to the background circumstances, as De Boer had heard in conversations. But the Delft and Amsterdam newspapers were not the only printed media that reported the incident on 14 October. Th e pamphlet referred to above also appeared that day, and De Boer relates that it was sold by street vendors all over town. Th e pamphlet contains a far more detailed account than the cursory newspaper reports, which made it interesting to De Boer the chronicler. He included it in his diary.

Yet the verbal accounts of the circumstances were less inaccurate than De Boer thought, as is clear from the extant records of the pro-ceedings.140 Th e marksman was indeed a baker’s apprentice, one Jean Langel. Th e interrogation does not note whether he was actually a French refugee or whether his parents were genteel, as De Boer had heard people say. But the witness statements do make it clear that the apprentice had been behaving strangely for some time: ‘he would get up in the middle of the night, and he walked around the house night and day, sometimes going up onto the roof on the Burgwal side, sometimes crying, sometimes singing, saying that he had two hearts in his body and that one of them must melt.’141

Th is mystical use of language suggests that bible study was one of the causes of Langel’s problems. In that respect the rumours were indeed correct, for one of the witnesses stated that the apprentice had thrown his New Testament into the fi re one day, ‘saying that he could dispose of his books as he wished’. Not long aft erwards he also burnt a stick

139 14 October 1755.140 Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Rechterlijk Archief, inv. no. 414: records of confession;

11/2/1755 – 5/10/1756), fol. 119–121v, 131v–133, 158.141 Th e records of confession include, aft er fol. 133, a minute of a notarised deed

(dated 13 November 1755, notary Benjamin Phaff ), in which several people testify concerning Langel’s behaviour. Th is and the following quotations from witness state-ments are taken from this (unfoliated) deed. Th e deed was drawn up in Dutch; the notary adds that he has translated it himself ‘from the French language’.

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that he said had done evil, and he acted ‘as though he was Christ and the Messiah.’

Th e rumours De Boer had heard about the factor of unrequited love were also correct. Langel was smitten by the daughter of the church elder Paul le Maistre (whom De Boer refers to as Da Costa La Maistre), a girl far above him in station. She did not return his love at all, but this had not stopped Langel from knocking on Le Maistre’s door sev-eral times – once in the middle of the night – to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Th e rumours that had circulated about the Walloon minister were not entirely correct. Th e baker’s apprentice had not consulted him about obscure biblical passages, but had asked him to mediate in his proposal of marriage. When François refused, Langel concluded that he and Le Maistre were conspiring against him. Worse still, he believed that the two men had ‘bewitched’ him and ‘would have caused his death, had God not prevented it.’142 Murder was the only way of ending this ‘devil’s work’, and it had to be done during prayers, since ‘the company of sorcerers had appointed this time themselves’.143 Th e reports that De Boer heard by word of mouth were essentially correct, in that the baker’s apprentice was evidently suff ering from a ‘powerful inner struggle’.144

A sensationally written pamphlet such as the one reporting on the French apprentice is a rarity in De Boer’s collection, but it does illustrate that pamphlets supplemented information conveyed through verbal channels, and to a lesser extent that reported in the newspapers. Information passed on verbally was more detailed, but De Boer tended to reserve judgement as to its reliability. He regarded the printed accounts of this incident to be more reliable, although in retrospect it may be concluded that the verbal rumours were not very far from the truth in this case.

142 Ibid., fol. 133.143 Ibid., fol. 132.144 Th e magistrates too concluded that Jean Langel ‘was not in his right mind’ and

decided to send him to the rasphuis (house of correction), where he would be locked in confi nement ‘in the large room’ for the time being until the magistrates decided what to do with him. Langel was still there at the beginning of 1757, according to a postscript in the records (in the confessieboeken). Th e magistrates had visited him there and concluded that he was ‘still greatly troubled in his mind’. Ibid. fol. 158.


‘Only an oortje’: the distribution of pamphlets

De Boer was well versed in the pamphlet culture and had numerous examples in his collection. How did he obtain them? Although he sel-dom mentions explicitly where he obtained a copy of a pamphlet, he does provide information of a more general nature. In fact De Boer’s diary provides a good picture of the distribution of pamphlets in the eighteenth century, a subject that has scarcely been researched to date. Pamphlets were sold in the street and in bookshops. Some were kept under the counter and others disseminated free of charge by being posted on walls around the city or left lying around surreptitiously. Finally, De Boer obtained a number of pamphlets from acquaintances. Th e rest of this chapter will look at these diff erent distribution chan-nels in more detail.

Th e distribution method that De Boer mentions most frequently in his chronicle is that of street sales. In countless places he refers to the vendors who roam the streets loudly commending their wares: ‘Th e street vendors shriek and bellow like madmen all over town: “Only an oortje for De vrij-geboren Hollander or De Oranje patriot.” ’145 Concerning a piece in which a company of the civil guard vented its grievances, De Boer noted that the street vendors were fl ogging it for ‘only an oortje’.146 So the street vendors shouted out the title of the pamphlet they were selling and its price. Th e most common price seems to have been an oortje, a quarter of a stuyver. A few vendors literally sang the praises of their wares, such as the one trying to sell Waaragtige beschryving of droevig verhaal uit Steenwyk (‘True description or sad tale from Steenwijk’; Knuttel 18270), a pamphlet consisting of three songs. Although De Boer never mentions having bought pamphlets in the street himself, it is clear from the many descriptions of printed matter off ered for sale ‘for an oortje’ that street sales were a major distribution channel for pamphlets.147

145 28 August 1749.146 13 August 1748.147 Little research has been done on street and doorstep sales in the Netherlands.

Th ere is a survey of sources for research into pedlars and a classifi cation of diff erent groups of traders in Jeroen Salman, ‘Vreemde loopers en kramer.’ De ambulante boekhandel in de achttiende eeuw’, in Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis 8 (2001), pp. 73–97. Salman shows that pamphlets were only one type of pedlars’ mer-chandise, which also included other printed matter and a variety of utensils. See also Salman’s ‘Between Reality and Representation: Th e Image of the Pedlar in the 18th

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Pamphlets were also distributed by being placed ‘publicly on sale’, as De Boer put it, meaning that booksellers displayed them conspicu-ously in their shops, for instance outside the building or on the shop door. Th e bookseller Jacob Hofman, who lived on the street known as Rusland, publicly advertised the sale of a sermon by attaching it to his door. De Boer writes, ‘I have inserted it here, because I cannot think of anyone else who has ever publicly displayed such things for sale in this country since the Reformation.’148 Th e text in question was a Predikatie gedaan ter gelegenheid van ’t vieren van ’t Amsterdamse wonder . . . 13 maert 1754 (‘Sermon to mark the celebration of the Miracle of Amsterdam . . . 13 March 1754’) by Jacobus de Roeper, which was remarkable in that it was a sermon by a Catholic priest, a kind of text that was rarely advertised so openly. In 1748, when speculation again ran rife about a new tax system, De Boer saw ‘numerous plans and projects’ displayed for sale at the bookshops.149

By advertising pamphlets prominently, bookshops attracted buyers and assured the texts of a wide readership. For pamphlets displayed like this were read by far more people than purchased them. De Boer writes: ‘Around the same time I passed the bookshop of Gillis Barbou on Oude Leliestraat as well as that of Jacobus Hoff man on Rusland, at both of which shops I saw publicly displayed the enclosed Loon na verdienst (‘Pay according to merit’) I read this item while standing outside said two shops, as did hundreds of other people with me.’150

A third type of marketing, at the opposite extreme of the public-ity scale, consisted of sales made ‘noiselessly’, as De Boer puts it. He probably means that such pamphlets were sold without being displayed openly. De Boer writes of certain sheets ‘fl ying off the press noise-lessly’.151 Perhaps the news of such publications was passed on solely by

Century Dutch Republic’, in Van Delft , De Glas and Salman (eds.), New Perspectives in Book History, pp. 189–202.

148 6 June 1754.149 4 July 1748. Th e Amsterdam silk merchant Daniël Lafargue described the distribu-

tion of printed matter in the city in similar terms: ‘But when I went to the Exchange the next day, I was not a little surprised to see hanging outside the bookshops a certain “Declaratoir Request en Protest” . . .’ (Krämer, ‘De gebeurtenissen’, p. 10). Lafargue also mentions another mode of distribution. He was evidently on good terms with his bookseller, since the latter sometimes sent copies of printed sheets to his home: ‘But the next day, 20 August, my bookseller sent me a copy of “Aenmerkingen en antwoord op de 3 articulen”.’ (Ibid., p. 13).

150 7 September 1748.151 23 July and 9 August 1754.


word of mouth, and they were obtainable only in certain bookshops. In any case, they would have been far more diffi cult to obtain than those sold in the street or advertised openly: ‘All manner of lampoons have appeared against them [i.e. the Doelists], but they were kept so quiet that they are impossible to obtain. One is said to show a drawing of a gallows from which hang the heads of Doelists . . . but try as I may, I cannot get hold of this gallows picture.’152 De Boer did eventually man-age to see this cartoon, but unfortunately omits to mention where. Th e picture was sold ‘noiselessly’, wrote De Boer.

It is possible that De Boer saw the gallows picture in a bookshop. In any case, he writes that he could have bought a copy that day but chose not to do so. Th e price was out of all proportion to the quality: ‘it was only a clumsy woodcut . . . that any untutored peasant boy could have made’.153 Yet the print was being sold for 30 stuyvers, which De Boer thought far too much. It was certainly very expensive, given that most other sheets were being sold in the street for an oortje. Th e pamphlet that De Boer purchased in 1754, Het overloopend opgekropt hert (‘Th e proud heart, full to overfl owing’; Knuttel 18420) was marketed at a more normal price; De Boer paid 2 stuyvers for it.154 He oft en paid this amount for a pamphlet: ‘Th is aft ernoon I saw the enclosed ‘klugtige inval’ (‘Th e comical inspiration’) at the shop of the bookseller Abraham Graal . . . displayed openly for sale, read it while standing in front of the door and bought it for 2 stuyvers.’155 Perhaps the gallows print was so expensive precisely because it was sold ‘noiselessly’. Pamphlets sold more or less in secret were oft en expensive. De Boer notes that a ‘second peepshow’ was sold for 48 stuyvers, adding: ‘for me that is far too many stuyvers to spend on such rubbish.’156

Th e price of printed sheets was one of the factors that determined their dissemination. Th ose wanting to reach a large readership could do so by keeping prices down – in the most extreme case by distributing publications free of charge. De Boer mentions this mode of distribution now and then. On one occasion, ‘all manner of lampoons were printed

152 7 November 1748.153 4 December 1748.154 3 April 1754.155 5 September 1748.156 17 December 1748. Th e pamphlet concerned was De weergaloze Amsterdamsche

Kiekkas (‘Th e inimitable Amsterdam peepshow’, Kn. 18033, 18034).

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and scattered at the roadside’, one of which he copied.157 One summer night in 1754, ‘a great many satirical pamphlets were scattered in the street, at least Mr Kuijper Burgers, captain of the night watch, had several copies, which had doubtless been picked up by his guardsmen in the early hours of the morning.’158 Free pamphlets were not always distributed in secret. Th e silk merchant Daniël Lafargue describes hav-ing seen ‘a person leaving sheets of paper in diverse places with great haste’. Th is mode of distribution made it possible to distribute printed communications very fast. Th e paper that Lafargue picked up was still wet from the press.159 Pamphlets were even delivered to people’s houses, although in some cases perhaps inadvertently. De Boer writes that dustmen came round with kermis circulars, wishing people fun at the kermis (fair), for which they undoubtedly hoped to be given a tip. But the announcement also contained criticism levelled at the Doelists, and it was therefore classifi ed as a defamatory pamphlet. Th e authorities later proscribed the circular, but by then it had already been handed out to hundreds of houses around the city, notes De Boer.160

Another form of free distribution was pasting posters up in public. In 1751 De Boer saw a poster displayed near the Oude Brug, announc-ing the conditions under which Catholics might celebrate their Holy Year, a year during which members of the Catholic Church could be granted special indulgences.161 And amid the commotion surrounding the death of Daniël Raap, De Boer wrote: ‘Th is morning, until 9.15, hanging on a sheath-tree162 . . . behind the town hall, was the enclosed odious defamatory pamphlet’, of which many people made copies.163 Posters displayed in this manner were not always illegal. Th e authorities sometimes publicised their own announcements by hanging them in

157 25 August 1749.158 3 June 1754.159 Krämer, ‘De gebeurtenissen’, p. 19.160 23 September 1754. Th e printer of the pamphlet was arrested in December that

year and spent a night in prison. A warrant was issued for the arrest of its writer, but he was not apprehended (Jongenelen, Van smaad tot erger, p. 14 -no. 42).

161 29 April 1751.162 A tree with a sheath around its trunk. Th at such sheaths were oft en used to display

posters is clear from a quotation from a poem by Pieter Langendijk (approx. 1720) that appears in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal in the entry for ‘kokerboom’: ‘Ik zal by al de acteurs van ’t hiele land omgaan, Ja plakken ’t in de stad op hoeken van de straaten, En kokerboomtjes.’ (‘I shall visit all the actors throughout the land, Indeed I shall paste it at street corners and on sheath-trees’.)

163 17 January 1754.


public places. In 1748, for instance, ‘the gentlemen of the judiciary had reminders composed of diverse past ordinances displayed around the town’, to remind shopkeepers of the law requiring them to remain closed on Sundays.164 Th e following year, De Boer wrote that an ordinance that had been proclaimed from the steps of the town hall was subsequently ‘pasted to trees, lampposts etc. in the vicinity of Leliegracht’.165

Finally, De Boer notes that pamphlets were sometimes distrib-uted by being passed on to friends and acquaintances. He may have acquired copies of newspapers, too, in this way, although this cannot be confi rmed from the diary. In the case of pamphlets, De Boer does describe several occasions on which one was brought to his attention in the course of his daily social round. In 1748 he sometimes copied the content of pamphlets into his diary, because he had to return the printed copies to their owners.

De Boer almost never mentions the names of those who lent him printed matter in this way. Th ere is one exception to this rule, however. His neighbour, who frequently slipped pamphlets to him, is mentioned explicitly. Cornelis Kleerbezem was the brother-in-law of the notorious Doelist leader Daniël Raap, and for that reason alone he would have been well informed of goings-on in Doelist (or former Doelist) circles. In any case, he frequently supplied his neighbour with printed matter from these quarters. In 1748 it was still possible to purchase Doelist literature in the street or in bookshops, but aft er that stricter censor-ship was introduced.166 Pamphlets denouncing the incumbent regents in unduly harsh terms were generally proscribed. Most of those that Kleerbezem passed on to De Boer fell into the category of proscribed literature. Obviously they could not change hands too openly. One aft ernoon in 1754, writes De Boer, ‘I met my neighbour Cornelis, whom I have oft en mentioned, and he asked me if I had read the Vijfl eedige aanmerkingen (‘Five refl ections’). And when I replied “What is that?” he slipped me the enclosed (Doelist) Vijfl eedige Beschouwing, saying “Don’t tell anyone you got it from me”.’167 Th e air of mystery in which Kleerbezem cloaked himself was not entirely unjustifi ed, given that a servant from the bookseller’s guild had visited all the town’s bookshops that day to inform that they were forbidden by law to sell the pamphlet

164 29 November 1748.165 5 June 1749.166 Jongenelen, Van smaad tot erger, pp. xii–xiv.167 19 February 1754.

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whose full title was Onzydige vyfl edige beschouwing van het gepasseerde omtrent het lyk . . . van Daniël Raap (‘Impartial fi ve-part consideration of the events regarding the body. . . . of Daniël Raap’, Knuttel 18444). Th e ban was presumably inspired by the pamphlet’s veiled criticism of Amsterdam’s sheriff , for failing to deal fi rmly with those who had disrupted Raap’s funeral.168

A little later that year, Kleerbezem became more cautious and jittery still. When De Boer left his house, he met his neighbour, who asked him if he was acquainted with Het gedrag der stadhouder gesinden (‘Th e behaviour of the stadholder’s party’). De Boer replying that he had never heard of it, Kleerbezem pressed a copy into his hands, saying ‘put it away, put it away! Don’t say that you got it from me and don’t show it to anyone in the world outside your house.’169 Kleerbezem’s fears of becoming known as a distributor of subversive literature were perfectly understandable. The pamphlet published by Elie Luzac, discussed earlier, had been proscribed by Amsterdam’s city council. According to the text of the proscription, it contained ‘diverse propositions incit-ing [the people to] the revolutionary transformation of the state and the violation of all the government’s orders and measures’.170 All the copies that had been found in bookshops had been confi scated, and De Boer wrote that they had been publicly burned by the executioner in front of the town hall two days before Kleerbezem slipped him the pamphlet.171 It was not only politically sensitive writings about which Kleerbezem was well informed. Th e pamphlet that De Boer described as ‘possibly the most impious piece of writing that has ever seen the light of day’ had also been loaned to him by his neighbour. Th is was the pamphlet Lied der Liefde (‘Song of Love’) that was published amid the controversy surrounding the minister Jacobus Tyken. Kleerbezem not only possessed a copy of this publication, but he was also able to inform De Boer that it had been written by one Pieter Bakker.172 Unlike many of the other pamphlets obtained by Kleerbezem, this one was not proscribed.

168 Jongenelen, Van smaad tot erger, p. 13 (no. 34).169 17 April 1754.170 Quoted in Jongenelen, Van smaad tot erger, pp. 13–14 (no. 40).171 15 April 1754.172 8 November 1757. Th e pamphlet could not be found in the course of this research,

so that the nature of its impiety must unfortunately remain obscure for the present.


Th e anonymous author of the pamphlet ‘Pro Patria’

In his diary Jan de Boer comes across as a virtually impartial observer of the controversies that raged around him. Still, he knew more about the workings of the pamphlet culture than he would perhaps have wished to suggest. For besides his handwritten Chronologische Historie, Jan de Boer was also the author of a number of printed pamphlets, which were published anonymously. Th ree poems rolled off the press in the course of 1747, which proved to have been written by De Boer. As was customary in pamphlet controversies, his name did not feature on the printed document. In his chronicle, however, De Boer discussed their publication and sale at length. His diary therefore also gives us a picture of the way in which pamphlets were produced.

De Boer’s fi rst poem, published in 1747, was entitled Pro Patria. Th e joy surrounding the election of William IV as stadholder spawned a fl urry of publications. Amsterdam’s bookshops were bulging with poems in such numbers that it seemed ‘as if a hurricane . . . had washed them ashore from overseas’.173 Th e sight of all these verses inspired De Boer to set about versifying himself. In sixteen alexandrines, he called on all unattached men of fi ghting age to promote the stadholder’s cause, in deeds as well as words. He exhorted them to join the army of the ‘Orange hero’ and to help to defend their country from the French aggressors. Although De Boer styled Prince William IV a hero, his poem did not extol the prince’s election to the stadholdership. De Boer’s priority was to protect his country’s interests. It was only his hope that the new stadholder might allow these interests to guide his hand fuelled De Boer’s enthusiasm for the political revolution. His Pro Patria was to some extent a criticism of the countless poets who praised William IV. He felt that instead of fl attering the stadholder as a sovereign they should be worrying about their country’s survival.

In print his message could be widely disseminated, and getting it printed was not diffi cult. De Boer simply sent his text to a printer, Arent van Huytsteen.174 Th e printing press had a low threshold in the

173 9 May 1747.174 Arent van Huytsteen was in any case a member of the booksellers’ guild from 1730

onwards. Little is known about him. According to the electronic Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands, he ran a shop on the Amsterdam street Rokin in the 1740s. His varied list ranged from travel journals (Engelbert Kaempfer, De beschryving van Japan, 1733) and historical treatises (J.L. Schuer, Algemeene Nederlandsche geschiedenissen, 1742) to novels (Eliza Haywood, De anti-Pamela, 1743). In 1737 he applied for the necessary

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Netherlands, as historical research has demonstrated and De Boer’s story corroborates.175 He did not need any special network to reach a printer. He simply had to write a letter, although he did not sign with his own name. De Boer wrote the poem ‘in an unknown hand’ and had it delivered to Van Huytsteen by a delivery-boy, ‘as if it had come from Haarlem.’ Anonymity was the rule rather than the exception in the pamphlet world. In 1756, when Jan Wagenaar sought to inter-vene in the debate about Britain’s request for military assistance, he also wrote a ‘letter’ and sent it to the printer’s, likewise disguising his handwriting.176 Th is anonymity did not always imply that the author was not known to the printer, but it did in some cases, as the story of De Boer’s pamphlet makes plain.

De Boer hoped that Van Huytsteen would print his poem in a broad-sheet edition, but this hope was crushed. On the contrary, the printer did not place the text on the press at all, but merely ‘pasted it into his collection with all the other rubbish.’ So although it was easy enough to reach a printer, it was not always so simple to get a piece printed: the printer and no one else decided its fate. In fact Dutch printers exercised far more infl uence on the political debate through such decisions than in other countries.177

De Boer was more successful the following month. He produced another poem entitled Pro Patria, which repudiated the accusations of treason that had been levelled in print at Dutch Catholics. In this poem, De Boer, himself a Catholic, called on all such accusers to aban-don their ‘doggerel’ and to off er their services to their country, like the ‘Papist’ from whom De Boer quoted a verse. To make his message

privilege to publish a translation of the Talmud. He belonged to the company that published Antoine Pluche’s Schouwtoneel der natuur, besides which he was involved in the publication of the magazine De algemeene godtgeleerden . . . schatkamer. Van Huytsteen died in 1751. See I.H. van Eeghen, De Amsterdamse boekhandel, 1680–1725 5 vols. (Amsterdam: Scheltema & Holkema, 1960–1978), vol. 4, pp. 156–157 and vol. 5, pp. 228, 331, 345.

175 Jeremy D. Popkin, ‘Print Culture in the Netherlands on the Eve of the Revolution’, in Margaret C. Jacob and Wijnand W. Mijnhardt (eds.), Th e Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century: Decline, Enlightenment, and Revolution (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), pp. 273–291; esp. p. 286.

176 Knuttel notes in his Catalogus at no. 18508 (Brief van een koopman te R. aan een zyner vrienden te A.) in reference to the eighteenth-century biography of Wagenaar by the latter’s brother-in-law Pieter Huisinga Bakker, that the said Huisinga had copied the text ‘in distorted script’. As an additional precautionary measure, Wagenaar had it produced by a small printer.

177 Popkin, ‘Print Culture, p. 289.


heard, De Boer needed to ensure that it appeared in print. Once again, he entrusted his work to Arent van Huytsteen. He followed the same procedure he had used the last time, sending his Pro Patria to the printer with an accompanying letter by delivery-boy (again as if it had come from Haarlem). ‘In the letter I wrote in an unknown hand, and without giving my name: “My dear Arent, I believe that it would be in your best interests to print this Pro Patria in broadsheet and to hang it up for sale on your door.” ’178 Th e ‘best interests’ may be assumed to refer to the profi t De Boer expected Van Huytsteen to make on these sales, and this seems to have been a shrewd assumption, since this time Van Huytsteen did decide to print the Pro Patria, in broadsheet as De Boer had proposed. On 9 June the poem was ‘displayed for sale at almost all the bookshops in town.’179 So it took only two days to print a broadsheet and to distribute it around the city. Th e printing history of De Boer’s Pro Patria demonstrates that the printing press was able to respond to events quite rapidly.180

De Boer’s assumption that his poem would yield a profi t for his printer proved well founded. De Boer noted ‘a steady stream of cus-tomers buying Pro Patria’ in the days that followed. Some of them bought 25 or 50 copies at a time, he noted. Th is surge of interest was repeated in every shop where the poem was sold: ‘everyone was enquir-ing aft er Pro Patria more than any other poem.’181 A few days later, Van Huytsteen made it known that he had already reprinted the poem six times.182 It is diffi cult to estimate the degree to which De Boer may have been exaggerating here. Aft er all, this was his own text, although no one knew it. Th e only way in which De Boer could claim success was to write it down in his chronicle: then Jan de Boer’s infl uence on the course of history would at least be clear to posterity. And future readers would have no way of verifying whether the poem had really reached such a large readership.

As we have seen, a pamphlet’s success did not depend entirely on sales, since it was common enough to read without buying. In the case of Pro Patria, many people stood and read it in the street. De Boer himself

178 7 June 1747.179 9 June 1747.180 Cf. Van Otegem, ‘Tijd, snelheid, afstand’, p. 52.181 9 June 1747.182 13 June 1747.

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says that ‘fi ft y or indeed a hundred people were reading it’ outside some bookshops.183 And even buyers did not keep the pamphlet to themselves. De Boer writes that his Pro Patria ‘was hung on the wall in the public sitting-rooms of diverse inns, decorated with orange rib-bons and bows, so that all might read it.’184 Th e success of Pro Patria, according to its author, went beyond mere readership numbers. Th ose who read it responded exactly as De Boer had hoped, with general expressions of admiration regarding the patriotic sentiments of the country’s Catholics.

De Boer may have approached his printer anonymously in this case, but he was by no means unknown to Van Huytsteen. He wrote that he went to the latter’s bookshop ‘as I am wont to do’, suggesting that he was a regular customer.185 Th e bookseller even spoke to De Boer about the pamphlet, showing him the anonymous letter and asking De Boer if he happened to know the author. De Boer gave a non-committal answer, but did venture to suggest that the person concerned appeared to have disguised his handwriting.186 De Boer’s familiarity with the world of book production is also clear from a request he received from another printer. A month aft er the publication of his Pro Patria, the bookseller Th eodorus Crajenschot asked De Boer to contribute to a volume of poetry he planned to publish. Taking advantage of the large number of poems that were being written in praise of the new stad-holder, Crajenschot wanted to publish a volume entitled Dightkundige lauwerbladen, gestrooijd voor zijne doorluchtige hoogheid Willem Karel Hendrik Friso &c. (‘Poetic laurel wreaths, strewn for his serene highness Willem Karel Hendrik Friso etc.’). Crajenschot evidently knew that De Boer wrote poems; perhaps the identity of Pro Patria’s author was no longer a secret by this time.

In response to Crajenschot’s request, De Boer wrote yet another poem entitled Pro Patria. Even more vehemently and explicitly than in the fi rst two, he rejected the notion that Catholics were in any sense

183 9 June 1747.184 13 June 1747.185 9 June 1747. Th at De Boer was one of Van Huytsteen’s regular customers is

clear from other entries in his chronicle. For instance, in 1750 he describes an incident in which a former Doelist picked a quarrel with one Rudolph Oosting. Th is Oosting had refused to take the bait, but had walked away, ‘and entered the shop in a fuming rage, where he related the incident to Arent van Huytsteen, Jan Beudiker and myself.’ (6 March 1750).

186 13 June 1747.


unpatriotic. Religion was entirely unrelated to civic responsibility, his verses avowed. Catholics were just as ‘loyal to their city and country, their state and prince’ as other Dutch citizens.187 De Boer insisted that his poem must not be used for any purpose other than inclusion in the proposed anthology, but once again events demonstrated that it was the printer, not the author, who had the last word. For Crajenschot printed this third Pro Patria in a broadsheet version, like the previous one, and sold it separately. According to De Boer, he did so solely because of the profi t he expected to make, ‘as is frequently the case with booksellers.’188 Although De Boer was incensed at this breach of verbal contract, it did not prompt him to sever his business relations with Crajenschot. With De Boer’s knowledge, Crajenschot purchased from Van Huytsteen the rights to the earlier Pro Patria poems, the written one as well as the broadsheet, and included them in his anthology.189

Once a pamphlet had been published, both author and printer lost control of the text, as De Boer discovered to his regret. A year aft er the poem was printed, the second Pro Patria was printed again without his knowledge and with minor changes, as he discovered on one of his walks: ‘Today I saw my second Pro Patria reprinted and displayed on sale at Vlier’s bookshop on Rokin, with phrases inserted such as ‘I am of Dutch papist blood’ and a Latin device. What might have been the reason for reprinting it in this mutilated form and selling it at this time I did not deign to investigate.’190

Pamphlet readers and their responses

Many debates were conducted in pamphlets, with each new publica-tion seeking to win people over to its point of view. How responsive readers these were to such persuasion is another matter. Let us look, in particular, at Jan de Boer’s views of the many pamphlets that came to his attention.

187 Th e poem also testifi es to De Boer’s interest in historiography. He quotes some lines from Sir William Temple’s Remarques sur l’etat de Provinces Unies (1674), stat-ing that Catholics accounted for a large proportion of the population and constituted a ‘good, sound part of the state’, who like all other groups put up a stout resistance when foreign troops invaded the Republic.

188 24 July 1747.189 No copy of this anthology is listed in the electronic catalogues of the libraries

in the Netherlands.190 4 October 1748.

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With the events of 1747 and 1748, the political debate moved out into the street. Many people discussed political issues, and the debate was constantly being fuelled by printed publications that were produced in large numbers. From our modern vantage point, this might be viewed as a positive development, in that it was an initial step on the road towards democratic administration.191 In the eyes of many contemporaries, however, popular infl uence was an abomination. A government ruled by public opinion would lead to disaster, since the man in the street was moved solely by irrational impulses. It was all too easy to stir up popular sentiment using pamphlets.192 While the Orangist Elie Luzac had written in defence of the right to oppose the authorities in 1754, he had done so only because the people had spoken out in favour of the stadholder.193 Luzac himself saw the freedom of the press as a great good, but only if it was confi ned to political debate between scholars who wrote with restraint and based themselves on rational thought.194 To Jan Wagenaar, too, a historian who inclined to the States party, a situation in which anyone could broadcast their views in writing or in print was far from ideal. In many of his own publications he disparaged the impulsive and easily manipulated ‘masses’ as well as the calibre of newspapers and pamphlets that appeared in his day.195

Th e views expressed by Jan de Boer were much akin to those of Luzac and Wagenaar. Although De Boer presents himself as an impartial witness to the events around him, he frequently expresses conservative opinions. De Boer was a loyal follower of the regents who held the reins of power, describing them as ‘my good friends and fathers, to whom I am bound to profess obedience and to display respect for their hon-

191 Th is is the way in which the historian Pieter Geyl viewed the events of 1747/48. He consequently condemned the actions of the stadholder William IV, who, although he owed his power to the infl uence of the people, did not go on to anchor this infl u-ence in the constitution; Geyl, Revolutiedagen, p. 157.

192 Orangists and Patriots alike viewed the concept of the ‘sovereignty of the people’ in this way. Th e Orangists obviously saw the Patriot movement as the best example of the disastrous infl uence of the people. But the Patriots’ proposals for reform were not intended in any way to give power to the masses. Klein, Patriots republikanisme, pp. 216, 222.

193 His views regarding the infl uence of the people changed completely in the 1780s, when people invoked the right of popular resistance precisely to depose the stadholder. Wyger R.E. Velema, ‘Elie Luzac and Two Dutch Revolutions: Th e Evolution of Orangist Political Th ought’, in Jacob and Mijnhardt (eds.), Th e Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 123–146; esp. pp. 125–127.

194 Ibid., p. 130.195 Wessels, Bron, pp. 321–324.


our.’196 He adhered manifestly to the republican form of government, believing that sovereignty resided with the States, not the stadholder. Although he never wrote disparagingly of William IV, his opinion of this new stadholder was not wholly positive either. Amid the festivi-ties held to celebrate William’s election, he wrote that his spirits had remained ‘sombre, melancholy and dejected’ in spite of all the candles, lamps and bonfi res. Aft er all, the country was still in a perilous plight, with French armies massing at his borders. A new stadholder would only be something worth cheering about if he were to place himself in the service of this ‘beloved country’.197

De Boer’s aversion to popular infl uence has already been discussed above. He had little sympathy for the 1748 rebellion and described the Doelists as ‘rabble’ and ‘ignorant folk.’198 Th e changes they had helped to bring about had only aggravated the country’s precarious circumstances. Th e people’s actions had led to a system that reeked of despotism and injustice. Although De Boer did not actually use such abstract terms, he certainly complained of them in practice. Th e new mode of taxation proved particularly vexatious. In 1748 the old system of tax farming was abolished, partly through the intervention of stadholder William IV, in favour of a system in which taxes were paid to government-appointed collectors. De Boer mentions numerous examples in his chronicle of these collectors’ disgraceful conduct. One could scarcely walk down the street carrying a small can of oil without being accosted by one of them, prompting De Boer to lament ‘Oh precious, crushed freedom’.199 Th e levying of the heerengeld, a form of property tax, he saw as another restriction of freedom. Th is tax was assessed on the basis of the number of servants one employed. In 1750 De Boer received a form in which he was required to fi ll in these details. He did not employ any domes-tic staff , but nonetheless recorded the incident ‘because such plagues were once unknown in this country. And if a tax farmer were to have come and asked, “how many servants do you have?” one would simply have answered such-and-such, or none, and that would have suffi ced, without the need for one to commit one’s name to paper for such a purpose.’200

196 25 January 1748.197 11 April 1748.198 9 September 1748, 1 September 1748.199 22 August 1752.200 19 June 1750.

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De Boer’s conservatism coloured his ideas about pamphlets. He read a great many of them, but seldom allowed himself to be swayed by what he read. In De Boer’s eyes, pamphlets were ‘rags’ ‘bits of rubbish’ and ‘slanderous writings’,201 in the fi rst place because they generally attacked the incumbent regents. And if there was one thing that a law-abiding citizen should not do, it was to criticise the lawfully constituted govern-ment. In the second place, pamphlets served only to infl ame the masses and to incite them to revolt: ‘Th e people who haunt the streets go around shouting and screaming like madmen “De vrij-geboren Hollander” or “the Oranje patriot for an oortje.” All this shouting and screaming at the roadside is highly objectionable to peace-loving burghers in these troubled times, since such rubbish generally falls into the hands of the common people and always does harm, never good.’202 He had expressed similar sentiments before, saying that ‘these lampoons cannot be of the slightest usefulness or edifi cation, but may, on the contrary, cause considerable harm.’203

Given these views, De Boer never writes about the possible func-tion that pamphlets may have in providing constructive criticism. He believes that most of them are simply full of slander.204 In fact that was the defi nition, as he construed it, of a pasquil, a pasquinade or lampoon, a word that he frequently used to describe pamphlets: a piece of off ensive, slanderous writing. Th e authorities had proscribed such material, and De Boer expressed his revulsion for all writers and printers who stooped so low: ‘While it was already common for slanderous communications and papers to be printed and distributed to the public, those appearing today are more slanderous and malicious than ever; all of them directed against the government. I would be mortifi ed to include any such here or to quote from one; for I believe that it will be to the eternal shame of the citizens of the Netherlands that they ever lent themselves to such off ensive practices.’205 It is therefore with an air of baffl ement that he writes about the secretive distribution of the cartoon showing Doelist leaders hanging from the gallows. Th is print, aft er all, only concerned ‘private citizens’, while not so long ago writings had been openly published in which ‘ruling burgomasters, councillors

201 31 December 1748, 17 and 21 September 1748.202 28 August 1749.203 31 December 1748.204 6 June 1747.205 29 August 1748.


and city councils’ were held up to mockery. ‘I am well aware that the ordinances of this land prohibit lampoons and attacks upon the good name and reputation of all private citizens; but I am also aware (unless I am very much mistaken) that if the ordinances prohibit lampoons and abusive language directed against private citizens, that it is a far worse off ence to direct such language against one’s lawful government.’206

De Boer did not see all pamphlets as lampoons. He reserved his condem-nation for ‘rubbish’ and attacks on the government. He did appreciate, on the other hand, documents expressing sentiments that were the same as own. For instance, about Het egt en waar karakter van den heere raadpensionaris Johan de Wit (‘Th e genuine and true character of the Grand Pensionary Jan de Witt’; Knuttel 18570), which defended the person who had devised the stadholderless system, he wrote that this piece was ‘highly commended by all sincere Dutch patriots [and] doubly worth being carefully read by all sincere, obedient subjects of the state and of . . . Orange, most especially from page 77 to the end.’207

Political content was not the only criterion on which De Boer based his approval or disapproval. He sometimes expressed irritation at the universal urge to rush one’s views into print. He described with a certain weary irony the fl ood of poems that appeared on the market to mark the election of Stadholder William IV. And in 1757 a fresh deluge of pamphlets again moved him to despondency. Th is time the subject was the struggle involving the minister Jacobus Tyken.208 On 3 September Tyken published his Volzekere betooginge van rechtmae-tige bezwaer (‘Staunch protestation of lawful objection’), which the church council then rebutted in a pamphlet of its own. When Tyken published a response to this rebuttal, on 18 October, De Boer wrote: ‘Since I believe that this controversy is likely to persist for some time yet, I shall stop attending to it, partly to save the expense of purchasing the papers published on both sides, and partly because reading them (and all those which are likely to ensue) would in due course be insuf-ferably tiresome.’209 Yet he did not apparently fi nd the controversy so very tiresome aft er all, since he mentioned subsequent responses and added some of them to his diary.

206 7 November 1748.207 18 February 1757.208 See p. 159.209 18 October 1757.

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De Boer went so far as to express his aversion to pamphlets in a poem, thus himself contributing to the ‘deluge’ of pamphlets that he had so harshly condemned. In the very fi rst lines of his fi rst printed Pro Patria he had denounced ‘all those lampoons that are not worthy of the night, / let alone the heavenly light.’ It was unseemly to criticise the government, since ‘the duty of each and every subject / Is to treat the state of the land and its estimable gentlemen burghers / With all due respect and deference as befi ts subjects.’ Writing such pamphlets was not only a crime against the government, but it also had a bad eff ect on the common people. In his Pro Patria, De Boer called on all his readers to desist from publishing pamphlets that ‘do no good and serve no end / Other than incite the rabble to fury and dissent.’

Th us Jan de Boer revealed his distaste for pamphlets in both his public and his more personal writings. Even so, he cheerfully produced ‘doggerel’ of his own and was an avid collector of those odious pub-lications. Th is apparent contradiction stems from his self-appointed task as chronicler. Th is aspect of De Boer’s reading will be discussed presently.

Other informative publications: ordinances, periodicals and prints

Readers keen to follow current aff airs focused mainly on newspapers and pamphlets; this much may be concluded from the number of copies that Jan de Boer preserved of this kind of material. He also occasionally preserved other printed matter in his daily notes, in which he had read supplementary information. For instance, he frequently added measures announced by the public authorities, such as the Notifi catie issued by the city’s magistracy in 1749 against the organisation of meetings and a proclamation forbidding conventicles, published earlier that year.210 Th e fact that De Boer should have preserved these particular notices was a logical consequence of his interest in the local rebellion. In 1750–51 he wrote a great deal about the new tax laws and added numerous publications on the subject to his diary, such as two ordinances issued by the States of Holland and West Friesland on the levying of excise duties on tea and coff ee, and on the tax on tobacco.211

210 Notifi catie of 26 August 1749, Publicatie of 5 July 1749.211 Ordonnanties of 1 January 1750.


A year later, De Boer added a tea and coff ee tax assessment (Quotisatie biljet) to his diary. Th is folio sheet had been delivered to his home, with a note scribbled in between the printed lines of text that he owed three guilders in tax. He frequently kept printed matter of this kind that he received from the public authorities. In 1751 he preserved the Biljet sent out to collect the temporary tax introduced aft er the abolition of tax farming in 1748, and in 1753 he inserted the printed notice ordering him to pay the sum owed in tea and coff ee tax into his diary. While it is obvious how De Boer obtained tax notices – they were delivered to his home – it is less clear how he came by the many announcements of government measures that he inserted into his diary. Ordinances were hung in numerous places around town, and it is possible that De Boer sometimes removed them. But they were also sold in bookshops.212

Eighteenth-century news media appear to have consisted largely of words, since De Boer seldom mentions any images of current events. Th e largest number of prints is at the end of the fi nal volume of his chronicle. But these were not sources of information or pictures refl ect-ing someone’s opinion, but visual images of news items that De Boer wrote about in his diary. Some of them depicted an event, and in other cases De Boer kept a print because it portrayed the protagonists of some event. All the portraits that he preserved depicted persons of high rank. He inserted pictures of members of the House of Orange, and pasted a whole series of portraits of the protagonists of the Seven Years’ War into the back of his diary. Pictures of this kind did not convey news or commentary; De Boer saw them as ‘true memoirs’. Of the portrait series, for instance, he noted that each picture was reportedly a superb likeness.213 One of the events that De Boer preserved in pictorial form was the explosion of a gunpowder mill in 1758. He described this picture too, which is scarcely realistic to modern eyes, as very lifelike: ‘as far as the ground, the trees and the rest of the scene are concerned, it is a fi ne likeness (though of the time aft er the event itself ).’ However, De Boer disapproved of the craving for sensationalism to which the picture pandered: ‘that the artist should have depicted this at the time when it happened (while one could see everything being hurled into the air) I see as a grave error of judgment.’ Here as in the case of pamphlets,

212 For instance, Daniël Lafargue notes that on 12 October 1748 he received from his bookseller a ‘Notifi cation and Publication issued by the burgomasters’. Krämer, ‘De Gebeurtenissen’, p. 9.

213 Th e notes accompanying the prints are undated.

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De Boer presented himself as a civilised, restrained and stable member of society, who disliked publications that were all too outspoken or immoderate. Still, he kept the picture all the same.

Th e fi nal category of printed matter to which De Boer refers in his diary is that of magazines. He inserted more and more issues of maga-zines, especially in the fi nal volumes of his chronicle. It is useful to distinguish between news magazines and ‘Spectatorial’ publications. Th e latter had sprung up in the early eighteenth century, and were modelled on the English Spectator published by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In these magazines, which were generally weeklies, an anonymous ‘spectator’ would deliver light-hearted criticism of the manners and customs of his fellow-countrymen, frequently in response to real or imaginary readers’ letters. Th e spectatorial magazines did not present their criticism for pure entertainment. Th ey had a defi nite educational purpose and sought to improve the morals of their Dutch burgher readers.214

De Boer seems to have read a variety of spectatorial magazines. In any case he added two copies of the Nederlandsche Spectator (fi rst published in 1749) and an issue of the Philantrope to his diary. It is not known whether he was a regular reader of these periodicals or if he only read these issues because they contained something remarkable. De Boer inserted the three magazines because he completely agreed with their comments. When the Nederlandsche Spectator poked fun at the fashion of ‘slashed sleeves’, De Boer heartily agreed, since he too hated this new caprice. And the commentary that this same spectatorial magazine expressed in 1758 prompted De Boer to say that it was ‘doubly worth reading’ for all those who loved their country.215 De Boer did not insert a complete copy of the Philantrope, but only the ‘letter to Pieter le Clerq’ included in its fi rst 1757 edition. Th is magazine thus became involved in the controversy surrounding the ‘De Witts war’ on the side of the States parties, with which De Boer too sympathised.

De Boer treated Spectatorial magazines in much the same way as pamphlets. He read and kept them to convey a picture of the war of

214 For a clear survey of the Spectatorial genre, see P.J. Buijnsters, Spectatoriale geschrift en (Utrecht: HES, 1991). Another general introduction is given in Dorothée Sturkenboom, Spectators van de hartstocht: sekse en emotionele cultuur in de achttiende eeuw (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998), pp. 31–70, leading into a study of the way in which these magazines wrote about emotions.

215 19 July 1758.


words that was raging around him. He added the copies of the Boekzaal for the same reason. From the August 1757 issue he kept the warning against the work of the minister Jacobus Tyken, which Amsterdam’s church council had published in this magazine the week before. De Boer’s interest in this aff air has already been noted. Another controversy that developed in response to a piece in the Boekzaal revolved around Cornelis Schrijver. In 1755 this lieutenant-admiral had made certain new proposals for the Dutch fl eet in the magazine, inspired by the British and French navies. Th is reliance on foreign examples aroused a fl urry of indignation.

While De Boer saw the spectatorial weeklies as comparable to pam-phlets, he treated other magazines more like newspapers. He inserted several issues of four diff erent news magazines into his diary: nine cop-ies of the Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, one of the Europische Staatssecretaris, a double issue of the Staatkundige Historie/Maandelijke Nederlandsche Mercurius and one of the Nederlandse Jaarboeken. All four magazines provided a monthly survey of the main events at home and abroad, and it was because of such reports that De Boer kept them. He sometimes merely referred his readers to them, as he did with newspapers, instead of describing the news himself. Th us, the Post-rider that appeared in December 1755 was important because it was ‘crammed full’ of descriptions of the disastrous events that had taken place in various parts of Europe. Th e January 1758 issue gave a picture of the suff ering in Lisbon in the aft ermath of the earthquake and of the skirmishes between Britain and France. In providing surveys of this kind, the magazines eff ectively did much the same as De Boer set out to achieve with his chronicle. Th ey provided a survey of remarkable events and some of them, the Nederlandsche Jaarboeken in any case, included copies of government publications or pamphlets. Since they appeared only monthly, magazines probably contained little news. Th e initial reports of events came from verbal sources or newspapers. On the other hand, magazines off ered a concise overview of the news, providing readers with a picture of contemporary history.216

216 Monthly news magazines sometimes referred explicitly to the historical value of their accounts. Th e authors of the Europische Mercurius, which appeared from 1690 to 1756, and of its successor Maandelijksche Nederlandsche Mercurius, noted that it was their express aim to record history for the benefi t of posterity. Th ey wanted only to register and not to judge. One of the ways in which they cultivated impartiality was by including original documents. Nicole van der Steen, ‘De Europische Mercurius en de

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News as history

De Boer followed current aff airs in and around his home town very closely. Th rough verbal accounts as well as written and printed com-munications, he kept abreast of developments and of the kind of public response they aroused. He was probably not unusual in this respect; we can assume that many people in Amsterdam kept themselves informed by reading newspapers and pamphlets, or by keeping their ear to the ground. But De Boer went one step further. He recorded the infor-mation he learned in his chronicle. Th is invested the news with extra signifi cance, making it part of history.

Keeping his chronicle must also have made De Boer a specifi c kind of reader. He read to inform himself, to remain abreast of the things around him, but he also read in order to be able to write an account. For all his repeated denunciation of lampoons, he continued to write about them. Although he may sometimes have been ashamed of the content of pamphlets, he took his task as a historian seriously.217 Shame or no shame, he included the pamphlets in his diary for the benefi t of posterity. Th at is how De Boer thought, for instance, about the Onderrigting (communication) that had been read out at the Doelen: ‘posterity must know that this revolting object was printed and displayed for sale openly at many booksellers.’218

Th e primary importance of news was to inform, but it also acquired a second, historical function. Research on news media in Britain has clearly demonstrated their historical value.219 Th is value is exemplifi ed most clearly by those who had the habit of collecting newspapers or pamphlets, such as one George Th omason. He bound his pamphlets in chronological order and noted the date of publication on each one. Th is painstaking labour produced what is now the basis of the pamphlet collection of the British Library.220

Maandelijkse Nederlandse Mercurius. De evolutie van een periodieke kroniek tot ‘de’ Mercurius’, in Ex Tempore 15 (1996), pp. 211–235; esp. pp. 213–216, 223–224.

217 29 August 1748: ‘I am ashamed to include one here . . . but whosoever may desire to see odious things may read the malicious text . . . entitled “Th e necessity of forming a new government”.’ De Boer inserted another ‘malicious’ tract that same day, the Articulen bij de zogenaamde welmenenden (‘Articles regarding the so-called well-intentioned’).

218 28 August 1748.219 Michael Mendle, ‘News and the Pamphlet Culture of Mid-Seventeenth Century

England,’ in B. Dooley and S.A. Baron (eds.), Th e Politics of Information, pp. 57–79; Joad Raymond, Th e Invention of the Newspaper: English Newsbooks 1641–1649 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 256–258, 295–302.

220 Mendle, ‘News and the Pamphlet Culture’, p. 59.


Collecting and binding papers was a popular pastime in other coun-tries too. Th e largest extant collection of pamphlets in the Netherlands – the one owned by the National Library (KB) – arose from the col-lection of one of De Boer’s contemporaries. Joan Duncan lived from 1690 to 1753. Not much is known about him beyond the fact that he served as councillor and master of petitions (rekwestmeester) to the Frisian stadholder. But he must have spent a large part of his life collecting and arranging his pamphlets. On several occasions he said that he planned to bequeath his collection of ‘political treatises’ to the stadholder. Although his will failed to mention the matter, Duncan’s sister nonetheless managed to ensure that this wish was fulfi lled. Th e collection of pamphlets, in chronological order and kept in portfolios bound with orange ribbons, was incorporated into the stadholder’s library in 1753. It consisted of some 20,000 pamphlets that took up roughly thirty metres of shelf space.221

Seventeenth-century writers too mentioned the link between news reporting and historiography. The seventeenth-century journalist Abraham Casteleyn ascribed historical value to his own product. For years he supplied news for the newspaper owned by Jan van Hilten (Courante uyt Italiën, Duytsland etc.) and aft er Van Hilten’s death in 1656 he started up a paper of his own, the (Opregte) Haerlemse courant. Casteleyn sent copies of this new paper to Van Hilten’s subscribers, enclosing a note in which he commended his own work by pointing to his long years of service reporting the news and claiming to have good sources of information, guaranteeing weekly reports. What is more, if his readers were to save his weekly publications and combine them, they would possess a history of ‘the most important events in Europe’.222

Th ere were certainly people who collected and bound newspapers and pamphlets, but in the eighteenth century, readers did not actually have to do this for themselves. Th ey could subscribe to a news maga-zine, which to some extent did what Casteleyn referred to in his letter. For instance, readers might have chosen to collect and arrange all the printed matter that was disseminated in 1748 in connection with the Doelist movement, but they could also simply await the publication

221 J.A. Gruys, ‘De Bibliotheca Duncaniana’, in Marieke van Delft et al. (eds.), Verzamelaars en verzamelingen: Koninklijke Bibliotheek 1798–1998 (Zwolle: Waanders, 1998), pp. 30–33.

222 Quoted in Van der Meulen, De courant, p. 28. He writes that the letter is pre-served in the archives of the company Enschede. Van der Meulen does not record the year in which the letter was written.

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of the Nederlandsche Jaarboeken. Th e August and September editions described the events in Amsterdam and reproduced in their entirety certain texts including petitions, ordinances and speeches held at the Doelen.223 Later on, these editions could be bound together in a vol-ume. Th e publishers of magazines like these saw their work as a book in progress rather than a periodical. Th at explains why they added a preface to each year’s fi rst issue, for instance, and compiled an index at the end of the year.224 It provided readers with a handsome volume of history containing the events of the previous year in chronological order. So magazines exploited the historical value of news even more than newspapers.

Final remarks

In spite of the existence of printed reviews of the news, the Amsterdam burgher Jan de Boer nonetheless thought it necessary to keep a written record of the noteworthy events that took place around him. Although he wrote little about his own activities, so that his reading behaviour is largely concealed from our view, his diary is nonetheless an interesting source of reading historical research, since it provides a unique insight into the way ephemeral printed matter was treated.

De Boer’s diary shows clearly that people’s dealings with the printed word were very far from being confi ned to reading books. A great deal of topical printed matter circulated in everyday life. Th e world of the early modern reader included newspapers, pamphlets, magazines and government publications. Jan de Boer picked up the newspaper to read the latest news, or to read more detailed accounts of events he already knew about. He also frequently found the full texts of govern-ment measures there, although these were generally superfl uous to him since he saw them when they were distributed separately. For the rest, he read numerous comments on events and contributions to political debates in pamphlets. Th e diary provides further proof of the vibrant pamphleteering culture that existed in the United Provinces.

223 Nederlandsche jaerboeken, inhoudende een verhael van de merkwaerdigste geschie-denissen, die voorgevallen zijn binnen de omtrek der Vereenigde Provintiën (Amsterdam: Frans Houttuyn, 1748), pp. 668–706.

224 Johannes, Barometer, pp. 77–85.


Th ese ephemeral publications were easy to get hold of, as is clear from the Chronologische historie. De Boer oft en simply came across them in the street, where they were either advertised loudly by street vendors or displayed on bookshop doors. In the latter case he could read them without having to buy them fi rst. Th en there were other publications that were not sold so openly. Many documents were published ‘noiselessly’, as De Boer called it, but he was generally able to get hold of them. He was evidently acquainted with the clandestine distribution channels. He was sometimes given texts by his neighbour. Th e question of whether the constant stream of pamphlets created a public domain has been left out of consideration in this chapter. Th e importance of all this printed material in the life of a simple clerk such as De Boer proves, in any case, that these products of the printing press were widely disseminated. Th ere was plenty of reading material, even for people who perhaps had no access to books or never looked inside one.

We can also infer from De Boer’s diary that while printed publications informed, they did not always persuade. Although De Boer followed the pamphlet controversy closely and in 1747 even contributed to it with his Pro Patria poems, he seldom described it in positive terms. Rather the opposite; he generally vented his disapproval of the fl ood of pamphlets and of the subjects about which people dared to write. If pamphlets may be defi ned as printed matter that seeks to persuade, De Boer was immune to such persuasion. Th e only pamphlets he appreciated were those venting opinions that corresponded to his own – in other words, favourable to the States parties rather than to the stadholder.

However important printed material may have been to De Boer, it was certainly not the only channel through which information reached him. His chronicle shows that news spread in a variety of ways in the mid-eighteenth century. At the local level, one could remain abreast of the news by going out and observing, and listening, as is clear from the diary entries for 1748. As long as De Boer kept his eyes and ears open, he found out a great deal about the goings-on in the city. Of course, 1748 was a remarkable year, one in which the political confl icts were literally played out in the street. But even in less turbulent years, plenty of news and commentary could be gleaned from the street. De Boer had a variety of information sources at his disposal, and none of them functioned in isolation. Discussions, letters and printed publications all infl uenced each other.

Th ere were many eighteenth-century readers like Jan de Boer, for whom current aff airs accounted for much of their reading. As the

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century drew on, printed material became if anything a more important factor in public debate. In any case, more and more magazines appeared on the market addressing political and ethical themes. Newspapers gradually changed from news sources to political weapons. With the spread of literacy and improvements in book distribution, more and more people were able to join in the culture of the printed word. Still, not all those who could read allowed themselves to be swayed by the issues of the day. Th e following chapter focuses on the diary of a reader for whom books were fi rst and foremost objects of religious contemplation.

CHAPTER FIVE

A DEVOUT READER AND WRITER: LITERACY IN JACOBA VAN THIEL’S ‘ACCOUNT-BOOK OF THE SOUL’ (1767–1770)

When the clergyman’s daughter Jacoba van Th iel (1742–1800) had found herself unable to make any entries in her diary for two weeks, she started to doubt the usefulness of her daily writing endeavours. She soldiered on, wanting to document her noteworthy recent experiences, but these doubts signalled the end. Sixteen days later she made the fi nal entry in her diary, concluding a task that she had performed faithfully for over two years, from the end of 1767 until the beginning of 1770.1 Jacoba van Th iel’s diary is fairly unusual, fi rst because it is one of the few diaries kept by a woman in the early modern period, and second because it consists of daily entries that dwell at length on her reading.2 It therefore provides a good picture of an eighteenth-century burgher and her use of books.

Jacoba van Th iel was a highly devout woman, and her religious prac-tices were very similar to those of the Pietist tradition within Protestan-ism. Th is means that there is ample reason to suppose that her reading consisted primarily of the Bible and devotional literature and that she can therefore be classifi ed as someone whose reading was ‘intensive’.3 Th is would by no means be exceptional in the late eighteenth century. Historians believe that even if one may speak of a reading revolution in this period, this certainly does not imply that every reader used the new possibilities that had become available. Traditional modes of reading persisted, and in some religious circles, in particular, they

1 Th e diary is preserved in GA Rotterdam, mss. 1264.2 Few egodocuments written by women in early modern times have been preserved.

Of all surviving texts, ten per cent at most were written by women (Dekker, ‘Dat mijn lieven’, p. 16). Th is fi gure includes 21 diaries: Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, nos. 140, 170, 200, 236, 264, 277, 282, 290, 336, 327, 329, 342, 360, 424, 463, 520, 528, 537, 539, 573 and 578.

3 Pietists were also known in the eighteenth century as the boeckjesvolck (‘people of the book’). On their reading preferences, see F.A. van Lieburg, ‘Piëtistische lectuur in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Documentatieblad Nadere Reformatie 13 (1989), pp. 73–87.

266 chapter five

remained the norm for a very long time.4 Th is chapter will look at the entries about reading in Jacoba van Th iel’s diary and will seek answers to a variety of questions: can Van Th iel be termed a traditional reader? Did she read only religious material, or was the world of this devout Christian broader than that? Did she have a uniform mode of reading or did she read in diff erent ways: in short, how, where and when did she read her books?

Another, separate question relates to the matter of gender. Many eighteenth-century writers considered reading to be a dangerous activity for women. On the one hand, books provided an ideal pastime in the domestic setting, where women were expected to focus their energies. On the other hand, books also provided an escape route from that set-ting: by reading, women could enter into regions that many deemed entirely inappropriate for them. To limit the dangers of reading, much was written about proper and improper reading material for women.5 In the Netherlands such admonitions appeared for instance in so-called ‘Spectatorial’ periodicals (modelled on Addison and Steele’s Spectator in England), which provided alarming examples of what might happen if a woman were to acquire too much book learning or allow herself to become intoxicated by novels that overstimulated the imagination.6 It is interesting to see how women dealt with these views and prejudices in their everyday lives. In Jacoba van Th iel’s diary we can study one individual response. Did she conform to the prescribed norms? To what extent was her reading regulated? Can any gender-specifi c aspects be identifi ed in her reading?

Besides an analysis of Jacoba van Th iel’s reading behaviour, this chapter will also give an account of the role played by the spoken and written word in her everyday life. According to the Dutch scholar Els Stronks, who has published an article on Van Th iel’s diary, books gave her an opportunity to develop her own opinions on religious matters. Th is serves to illustrate the individualization of religion that took place in the eighteenth century, in which clergymen were gradually losing their leading role as interpreters of the word.7 But information – whether

4 For a historiographical analysis, see chapter 1 of this book. 5 Pearson, Women’s Reading.6 Sturkenboom, Spectators, pp. 189–192, 235–237; W.R.D. van Oostrum, Juliana

Cornelia de Lannoy (1738–1782) ambitieus, vrijmoedig en gevat (Hilversum: Verloren, 1999), pp. 47–57.

7 Els Stronks, ‘Private Devotion in a Protestant Diary: Jacoba van Th iel’s “Rekenboek van de Ziel met God” ’, in F. van Ingen and C. Moore (eds.), Gebetsliteratur der

a devout reader and writer 267

about politics or religion – did not come only from printed sources, as the previous chapters have shown. So it is fair to ask whether it was only Van Th iel’s reading that helped her develop greater insight into religious matters. Were there also frequent conversations and written exchanges about religion, or did these other media tend to focus on entirely diff erent areas of life? Everyday conversations will be dealt with fi rst, aft er a brief biographical sketch and a discussion of the diary. Th e rest of the chapter will focus fi rst on Van Th iel as a writer, and then on her reading.

A life lived amid the clergy

Jacoba van Th iel was the third daughter of Roeland van Th iel and Helena Rijser. She was born in 1742 in Muiderberg, where her father had started preaching in 1727. Five years later, Roeland van Th iel gave up the ministry aft er his wife’s death, retiring to Leiden.8 Leiden’s tax records for 1749 show that he was a man of some wealth, who could aff ord to live as a retired clergyman. Th e tax offi cials estimated his annual income at over 2,000 guilders, placing him in the highest tax category.9

Jacoba van Th iel was thus born into a well-to-do family,10 and when her father died in 1756, he left his children a fortune of almost 100,000

frühen Neuzeit als Hausfrömmigkeit: Funktionen und Formen in Deutschland und den Niederlanden (Wiesbaden: Harrossawitz, 2001), pp. 179–192.

8 F.A. van Lieburg, Repertorium van Nederlandse hervormde predikanten tot 1816 2 vols. (Dordrecht [s.n.], 1996) vol. 1: Predikanten, p. 250. Roeland van Th iel was born in Th e Hague. In 1716 he registered as a student of history and theology at the University of Leiden: Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae, 27 July 1716. When he later moved back to Leiden in 1747, he registered at the university again, probably to claim a tax exemption. Album studiosorum, 30 August 1747.

9 Roeland van Th iel’s household consisted of one man, two children aged between four and ten, and two older children. Th ere were two servants, but Van Th iel did not keep horses or carriages. His income was listed as ‘retired clergyman’ (Regionaal Archief Leiden [RAL], Stads Archief II, inv. no. 4092: notebooks kept by tax collectors). It was on the basis of these details that tax offi cials decided the amount of tax payable, assigning people to one of six tax groups. On Leiden’s taxation and the extant sources in this area, see H.J.H. Mooren, ‘De heffi ng van het provisioneel middel in Leiden in 1748’, in Jaarboek der sociale en economische geschiedenis van Leiden en omstreken (1992), pp. 18–76.

10 For purposes of comparison, families living in this neighbourhood were assigned as follows to the six tax groups: 20 in group 6 (income above 2,000 guilders); 10 in group 5 (1,000–2,000 guilders); 31 in group 4 (600–1,000 guilders); 54 in group 3 (less than 600); and 5 in groups 2 and 1 (no sums of money given). Source: RAL, Stads Archief II, inv. no. 4129: tax register of the provisioneel middel, a temporary assessment

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guilders.11 To draw up the inventory of the family’s home in Leiden, the notary, assisted by Van Th iel’s two eldest daughters, had to go through twenty rooms, starting in the voorhuis (front part of the house) and ending up in the ‘dark attic’. In one of these rooms, the ‘upper front room’, stood a walnut cupboard containing Jacoba van Th iel’s clothes. So this may have been her bedroom. Since Roeland’s children continued to live in the Leiden house, the value of the estate was not calculated. When Johanna van Th iel, as the eldest daughter of the family, left the house in 1757, the fi nancial assets were divided up, and in 1763 the other three children were each given their portion.12

Jacoba van Th iel’s distinguished family background means that she can be assumed to have received a good education. In any case it is clear from her diary that she was taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Other aspects of her upbringing are mentioned in the notarised account signed by the guardians of the Van Th iel minors. Th us, in February 1757 they had paid six guilders ‘to Marijtje Kool for six months of instruction to Miss Jacoba in making woollen garments’. Th e guardians also paid Johannes Oyers eight guilders a month ‘for instruction on the harpsichord’ and ‘musical instruction’. Jacoba van Th iel’s educa-tion was sound but typical of what was deemed appropriate for girls. While she was mastering needlework and music, her brother Jan was receiving ‘instruction in the Latin language’ from the tutor Van Akeren, for which the guardians paid six guilders in addition to four guilders for Jan’s school fees.13

Jacoba van Th iel must have been familiar with books from an early age, since her father possessed a large library: so large, in fact, that

to replace the common means. On the basis of the 1749 tax records, Tjalsma refers to the city centre, where the Van Th iel family lived, as ‘in every respect the most affl uent quarter of the city’. H.D. Tjalsma, ‘Een karakterisering van Leiden in 1749’, in H.A. Diederiks, D.J. Noordam and H.D. Tjalsma (eds.), Armoede en sociale span-ning. Sociaal-historische studies over Leiden in de achttiende eeuw (Hilversum 1985), pp. 17–44; esp. p. 41.

11 RAL, Notarieel Archief, inv. no. 169: notary Nicolaas Wolff , 1756, fol. 337–415: probate inventory of the estate of Mr Roelandus van Th iel.

12 Ibid., 1757, fol. 207–292v: partition of the estate; ibid., 1763, fol. 326–409v: parti-tion. In 1757 the inventory was valued at 92,037 guilders. Johanna van Th iel received her portion of 23,009 guilders, while 69,027 guilders were reserved for the other three children. Th e value of the estate had not diminished in 1763: at this time the inheritance of the three children amounted to 74,137 guilders, so that Jacoba van Th iel inherited 24,712 guilders.

13 Ibid., 1757, fol. 135–204v: account of the estate.


in 1757 the executors of his will decided to put it up for auction.14 Th ey evidently considered it unnecessary to keep the books for the children. Th e auction catalogue contained almost 1,000 items, over half of which were written in Greek or Latin; the rest were in Dutch. Th eology understandably accounted for the largest proportion of Van Th iel’s collection, but historical works were also much in evidence. Several authors from Roeland van Th iel’s library were later represented on his daughter’s bookshelves, such as the clergyman Nicolaas van Leeuwarden and the poet Hubert Cornelisz Poot. Roeland also had a long series of issues of the periodical De Boekzaal in his library. But his gaze was not always fi xed on the higher regions. With books such as De nieuwe Nederlandsche hovenier (‘Th e new Dutch gardener’) or the Nauwkeurige bloemist (‘Th e meticulous fl orist’), Roeland was closer to earthly concerns.

Th e education of girls was generally tackled informally and was oft en under the father’s direct supervision.15 Th e young Jacoba van Th iel was undoubtedly dependent on the books in her father’s library. She may have made her fi rst acquaintance with the Bible in a book she found there. In any case, her father owned a book ideally suited to this purpose: De Kleine print-bijbel: waar in door verscheide afb eeldingen een meenigte van bijbelsche spreuken verklaart werden, tot vermaak der jeugd, en om te leeren elken zaak naauwkeurig af te schetzen en bij haar regte naam te noemen, ook de spreuken der H.Schrift bijna zonder moeite in de geheugenis te brengen (‘Th e small picture bible: in which, through a variety of pictures, a host of biblical sayings are explained for the enjoyment of the young, and to teach them to describe every thing accurately and to give it its rightful name, also to help them commit the sayings in Holy Scripture to memory almost eff ortlessly’; Amsterdam 1736).

From the diary we learn that Roeland van Th iel’s children possessed an extensive circle of friends and family in Leiden. Th is circle included a number of aspiring clergymen, since Leiden was the city in which

14 Catalogus Bibliotheca . . . Roelandus van Th iel . . . 7 martii 1757 (Leiden: Abraham Kollewier, 1757). KB Verz. Cat. 5384. Also available on microfi che in Book sales cata-logues of the Dutch Republic 1599–1800, IDC cat. no. 1079. Th e auction raised 2,474 guilders and fi ve stuyvers, as described in the ‘account of the estate’ (see note 13).

15 Brita Rang, ‘ “Geleerde vrouwen van alle Eeuwen ende Volckeren, zelfs oock by de barbarische Scythen”: De catalogi van geleerde vrouwen in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Tineke van Loosbroek et al. (eds.), Geleerde vrouwen Jaarboek voor vrouwengeschiedenis 9 (Nijmegen: SUN, 1988), pp. 36–64; esp. p. 55.

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future ministers of the Reformed Church were trained. Th e clergyman’s son Gijsbert de Brouwer was one such trainee minister. In 1757 he gave notice of his intended marriage to Johanna, the eldest daughter of the Van Th iel family.16 Th e theology student Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery – another clergyman’s son – had his eye on another of Roeland van Th iel’s daughters. Petrus was called to the ministry in Overschie in 1763,17 and one year later, he married Anna Catharina van Th iel.18 So these two sons of ministers married two daughters of ministers, while the sons followed in their fathers’ footsteps. Th is will have seemed an entirely natural state of aff airs to Jan, the third child in the Van Th iel family. He too had decided on a career in the Church and had studied theology at the University of Leiden.19 He had to wait some time before securing a position as a clergyman: not until 1769 was he fi nally called to the ministry in Spanbroek.20

Surrounded as she was by Protestant ministers, the youngest member of the Van Th iel family naturally gravitated to the same circles. Still, the path she followed was diff erent from that of her two sisters. Jacoba van Th iel did not marry a clergyman or indeed anyone else; she remained single her entire life. She did move in with a minister’s family, however: in 1765 she moved from Leiden to Overschie, to take up residence with her sister Anna Catharina and brother-in-law Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery. She recorded the fi rst few years of her stay in Overschie in her diary.

16 RAL, Kerkelijke ondertrouwboeken RR, fol. 48 (24 March 1757). Johanna and Gijsbert were married on 12 April that year, which event was celebrated in print in occasional poems by Johanna’s cousin Susanna Borstius, P. Gallé (another cousin), and W.A. Lette (relationship to the couple unknown): Ter bruiloft e van den wel-eerwaarden en geleerden heer, den heere Gysbert de Brouwer; geagt leeraar in de christelyke gemeinte van Jaarsveld. En de deugdryke jong-vrouwe Johanna van Th iel. In den echt verbonden binnen Leiden, den 12e van grasmaand 1757 (n.p. 1757). Brouwer was a clergyman in Jaarsveld in 1757 and later became the minister of the church in Haarlem: Van Lieburg, Repertorium, p. 38.

17 Petrus’s father was Johannes de Fremery, a clergyman in Berkenwoude and later in Groot Ammers. Lieburg, Repertorium, 69. In 1751 Petrus registered as a student at the University of Leiden (Album studiosorum, 24 September 1751). During his university years he wrote inscriptions in several of his fellow students’ alba amorica. See KB ms. 75 A 2/8, ms. 74 H 48, ms.128 E 35 and ms. 132 G 13.

18 RAL, kerkelijke ondertrouwboeken SS, fol. 142 (18 October 1764). Petrus’s brother, who was also a minister, acted as witness to the registration of his intended marriage, with Jacoba accompanying her sister Anna Catharina.

19 Album studiosorum, 27 September 1754. Jan was only 14 years of age at the time. It was not uncommon for such young boys to enrol at university, but they were required to complete Latin school fi rst.

20 A year later he ascended the pulpit in Warmond. His ministry was short-lived, however: Jan van Th iel died on 28 December 1770.


Since her fi nal entry was written on 8 January 1770, there is no mention of a major event in the De Fremery family: a few days aft er the fi nal entry, Anna Catharina gave birth to her fi rst and only child.21

Keeping house was a labour-intensive business even before 1770, and aft er Nicolaas was born the work will have multiplied. Th is may have been one of the reasons why Van Th iel stopped keeping her diary, as a result of which the rest of her life is something of a blank. In 1773 the De Fremery family moved to Goes, where Petrus Isaäcus had been called to the ministry.22 A year later the minister and his family settled in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.23 Petrus Isaäcus became the pastor of the Reformed congregation there, besides which he taught Greek at the Latin school. In 1797, Anna Catharina van Th iel died, but Jacoba van Th iel did not abandon her brother-in-law; she continued to live in his home for the rest of her life. Both were well-to-do, as Petrus’s brother Johannes de Fremery observed when visiting them in 1799. He too kept a diary, although his entries were very brief: ‘I found my brother P.I. de Fremery and my sister Miss Jac[oba] van Th iel living in very comfortable circumstances.’24 But this prosperous life was not to last. Less than a year aft er Johannes’s visit, at just 58 years of age, Jacoba van Th iel died, and was buried in the graveyard of St John’s Church on 18 October 1800.25

21 Nicolaas Cornelis de Fremery was baptised on 14 January 1770. Petrus’s brother and sister, Nicolaas and Catharina, were the intended witnesses to the baptism. However, the baptismal register records that this brother and sister from Gorinchem ‘were prevented from travelling by the extreme cold, and were therefore represented by Jacoba van Th iel.’ GA Rotterdam, DTB Overschie, 14 January 1770.

22 In 1774 the family of the Leiden professor Nicolaas Hoogvliet lodged with De Fremery in Goes for some time. Th e eldest son, Frans Cornelis Hoogvliet, wrote a report of his trip to Zeeland, noting that he had met with ‘worthy friends the Reverend De Fremery, with his esteemed wife and sister Miss van Th iel, living in agreeable prosper-ity’. J.H. Kluiver, ‘Een reis door Zeeland in 1774’, in Archief. Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen (1980), pp. 134–158.

23 From 1775 to 1778 the family lived on Vughterstraat, district H, at no. 191, and from 1778 until at least 1785 they lived on Weversplaats, district F, at no. 80. In 1800 they lived in Weeshuisstraat, district E.

24 Zeeuws Archief, FA Mathias-Pous-Tak van Poortvliet, inv. no. 383: Diaries of Johannes de Fremery (Lindeman et al., Repertorium, no. 529), 11 June 1799.

25 Stadsarchief ‘s-Hertogenbosch, DTB 190. On 16 October a six-foot coffi n was purchased for the deceased. Th e surviving relatives paid 35 guilders for the coffi n itself, an additional 5.05 guilders for its lining and another 3.12 guilders for the carrying rings (Stadsarchief ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Archief van het Gereformeerd Burgerweeshuis inv. no. 910: register of coffi ns sold). Jacoba’s brother-in-law Petrus continued to live in ‘s-Hertogenbosch until 1809, when he retired and moved to Utrecht. He was actively involved in local Bible Societies and missionary work until his death in 1820

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Daily register or ‘account-book of the soul’

According to the fi rst entry in her diary, Jacoba van Th iel had long been racked by doubt as to whether she should start writing at all. A discussion with her ‘cousin’ Catharina de Fremery, her brother-in-law’s sister, had persuaded her of the advantages of doing so, which she detailed as follows:

In the fi rst place: to keep a precise record of myself and all my activities. In the second place: so that if my sins are set down, they cannot slip from my memory, and when I see the entire path I have followed, my sins thus set down in the past will bring me before God in the deepest of shame, while if I see on the other hand God’s grace, it may lighten my heart at moments of despondency. In the third place, it seems to me that this, together with the guiding hand of God, may be a blessed way of living in the full consciousness of the Most High and Omnipresent Lord.

Van Th iel’s words make it crystal clear that her diary was to be a record of her day-to-day religious self-examination. In this respect, she displays a close affi nity with the Pietist school within the Reformed Church.26 From the earliest beginnings of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, there had been believers who maintained that religious practice must go beyond mere participation in church rituals. It was necessarily an inner experience, signifying that someone had been converted to the ways of God in the very depths of his soul.27 Th is ideal of devoutness had been primarily a matter for the ecclesiastical elite in the seventeenth century, but in the eighteenth century it acquired a new lease of life in the Republic – as in the rest of Europe – and was embraced by ordinary Protestants.28 Th ose concerned were the true

(J.P. de Bie and J. Loosjes, Biographisch woordenboek van protestantsche godgeleerden in Nederland 6 vols. (Th e Hague: Martinus Nijhoff , 1919–1949).

26 On the terminology, see C. Graafl and, W.J. op’t Hof and F.A. van Lieburg, Nadere Reformatie. Opnieuw een poging tot begripsbepaling [special issue Documentatieblad Nadere Reformatie 19] (Amsterdam: SSNR, 1995), pp. 119–122.

27 Th ere was nothing specifi cally Dutch about the call for more emphasis on inner experience in religious faith. Movements had sprung up (and sometimes vanished again) in numerous parts of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which focused on the emotional experience of religious faith. See Ted A. Campbell, Th e Religion of the Heart: A Study of European Religious Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991).

28 F.A. van Lieburg, Levens van vromen. Gereformeerd piëtisme in de achttiende eeuw (Kampen: Kok, 1991), pp. 189–192 [Living for God: Eighteenth-Century Dutch Pietist Autobiography translated from the Dutch by Annemie Godbehere (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006)].


Fig. 9. First page of Jacoba van Th iel’s diary. (Photo: Rotterdam city archives).

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Christians, in their own view, since they had undergone genuine con-version. Th ey secluded themselves as much as possible from the rest of society, met frequently with kindred spirits, dressed diff erently and even had their own distinctive style of speech.29 Th eir beliefs aroused a certain antipathy; the Pietists were oft en mocked as fi jnen (roughly: puritans) and derided for their exaggerated religious fervour, which sat ill with the self-image of enlightened burghers, based as it was on reasonableness, moderation and restraint.30

According to the Pietists, true faith must be based on inner experi-ence, and even that was no simple matter. ‘Human nature is entirely dead to and estranged from the life of God’, wrote Wilhelmus à Brakel – the ‘spokesman of the fi jnen’31 – in his Redelyke godsdienst.32 From birth, the human soul had a tendency to live by the body. Th is path led irrevocably to an eternity spent in hell. God showed some people mercy, but this was not easy to achieve. One had to be reborn, as it were, aft er which one’s soul was no longer focused on earthly matters but was solely oriented towards heavenly virtue. Only then could one truly call oneself a believer and be sure of having been chosen by the Lord. Even those who had been born again, however, might have the feeling that God had abandoned him: ‘Th ose who at fi rst were weak-hearted, so that they could weep sweetly in the face of the Lord . . . now have frozen hearts; their eye cannot shed a tear.’33 Since doubt and relapse were always possible, Christians must continue their self-examination aft er conversion. By constantly accounting for the sins they committed and the mercy bestowed on them by God, believers gained a better picture of their progress on the way to grace. Th e written word could prove its worth here. If one’s daily soul-searching were recorded in writing, one could derive all the more benefi t from it.

29 C. van de Ketterij studied the Pietistic use of language from 1900 onwards. In his view, this ‘language of Canaan’, as it is sometimes called, is what distinguished true from false believers. Van de Ketterij gives a systematic overview of words used to describe the road towards conversion. De weg in woorden. Een systematische beschrijving van piëtistisch woordgebruik na 1900 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1972).

30 Sturkenboom, Spectators, pp. 168–183. Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, pp. 8–13, 175–199.

31 Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, p. 95.32 Wilhelmus à Brakel, Logiké latreia, dat is redelyke godsdienst in welken de goddelyke

waerheden des genade-verbondts worden verklaert 2 vols. (18th edition, Rotterdam: widow Hendrik van den Aak, 1767), vol. 2, p. 683.

33 Ibid., p. 687.


Jacoba van Th iel was among those believers who were constantly concerned about the security of faith and who kept a meticulous record of their spiritual progress and relapses. She would never have called herself a fi jne, but her conduct places her close to this kind of faith.34 Since Van Th iel wrote her diary to keep track of her spiritual progress, all the day’s events were described in this spiritual light. She did not describe the day’s events, but noted the state of her inner being in the course of the day. She wrote down, for instance, whether her thoughts had been constantly focused on God, or whether she had committed certain sins that day or been too absorbed in her earthly life.

Van Th iel’s spiritual life was always connected to concrete events or situations, so her diary also contains a description of her everyday life. Th is followed a fairly standard routine. In the morning, she would do various household chores, generally together with her sister, and spent a good deal of time sewing and mending clothes. Around noon, Van Th iel would withdraw to her room and spend an hour absorbed in spiritual contemplation, endeavouring to open up her soul to God. In the aft ernoons she would do other kinds of work or go visiting. At the end of the aft ernoon, the De Fremery family would have tea, in the garden summer-house when the weather was fi ne. Th ey generally spent the evenings together: sometimes just the three of them (Van Th iel, her sister and her brother-in-law) but frequently with friends in the village, whom they called on or entertained at home. A few times a year, the daily routine would be interrupted by short trips that Van Th iel undertook alone or with her sister and brother-in-law. For instance, they spent a few days every year visiting friends and family in the vicinity of Gorinchem. Th eir acquaintances in Leiden, too, were favoured with visits several times a year. Finally, Van Th iel lodged with her sister in Haarlem for a few days each year.

Although Pietism was a highly personal approach to religious faith, there was nonetheless a clear norm when it came to self-examination and keeping a diary. Th is was described in countless advisory books on

34 Miriam Wijnen discusses many typically pious features of Van Th iel’s diary in her ‘Och, mogt ik altyd bedagtzaem wandelen’: leven en lezen in een meditatief-piëtistisch kader: een analyse van het dagboek van Jacoba Van Th iel (1767–1770), met behulp van theorieën van Schön, Engelsing, De Certeau, Buisman en Post (unpublished master’s thesis, Utrecht University, 1997). According to Wijnen, p. 35, Van Th iel’s self-examination was not that of a faithful Christian who had not yet been experienced spiritual rebirth, but that of a Christian whose conversion was complete, and who wished to examine the extent to which she behaved as a truly converted Christian.

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religion, and English devout religiosity, which had provided a major impetus to the writing of spiritual diaries in the seventeenth century, was highly infl uential. Many Dutch translations appeared of English devotional handbooks, such as the one by the clergyman Benjamin Bennet.35 His Christian oratory or devotion of the closet displayed was translated into Dutch in 1744 (entitled De godsdienstige christen in zyn binnekamer: of, Verhandeling van de godvrugtige huisoeff eningen eenes Christens’).36 According to Bennet, a true Christian should seclude himself for an hour every day to refl ect on his actions. So the ‘closet’ of the title refers both to the secluded location where these refl ections should take place and to the prescribed activity itself: the devout believer must lose himself in inner contemplation. In the ‘most isolated and hid-den place in his dwelling’, the Christian must follow a set programme composed of Bible readings, sacred contemplation, self-examination, prayer and off ering up thanks, and the singing of hymns or psalms.37 Bennet’s book contains advice on each of these separate activities.

To derive more benefi t from the daily self-examination, Bennet urged the devout Christian to keep a diary, in which he should ‘record the state of his soul, from one day to the next, and of the paths of divine Providence’.38 In this ‘daily register’, as Bennet also called it, Christians should write down the results of their refl ections in their ‘closet’.39 In the fi rst place, writing down the stirrings of their soul would make it easier for them to draw up the balance sheet of their good and bad actions and feelings. Aft er all, Bennet wrote, that was what one did in

35 Jan van der Haar, From Abbadie to Young: A Bibliography of English, most Puritan Works, translated into the Dutch Language 2 vols. (Veenendaal: Kool, 1980). On English devout diaries, see Effi e Botonaki, ‘Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen’s Spiritual Diaries: Self-Examination, Covenanting, and Account Keeping’, in Th e Sixteenth-Century Journal 30 (1999), pp. 3–21.

36 Th roughout this chapter, works written in English will be referred to by their original titles, and works written in French or German will be referred to by the title of the published English translation, where such exists. It should be borne in mind, however, that Van Th iel did not have any knowledge of foreign languages; she read all such works in Dutch translation. For these Dutch titles, and for the original titles of French and German works referred to in the text by their English titles, see the bibliography.

37 Benjamin Bennet, De godsdienstige christen in zyn binnekamer: of, Verhandeling van de godvrugtige huisoeff eningen eenes Christens, translated into Dutch by Marten Schagen (Haarlem: J. Bosch, 1744), p. 21.

38 Ibid., p. 673.39 Ibid., p. 426.


commerce.40 In the second place, the notes in the diary could serve as a point of departure for future refl ections in the ‘closet’. Th ere was no need for the diary to become a literary masterpiece. It suffi ced for the words to be ‘committed to paper impromptu’.41 As far as the notebook’s format was concerned, Bennet held that the diary should be written ‘not on loose sheets, but in a bound writing-book, in whatever size one may prefer, though it should be properly foliated or numbered at the top of the pages.’42

Jacoba van Th iel’s diary fulfi lled Bennet’s criteria to the letter. She described her life in an elongated, bound notebook, each page numbered neatly in one of the upper corners. Van Th iel employed the same terms as Bennet, referring to her ‘diary’ or ‘daily register’, to ‘making notes’ and her ‘closet’.43 She used the term ‘closet’ (binnenkamer) consistently to refer to her own room at the parsonage in Overschie. She withdrew to this room for an hour each day to examine her spiritual state, an activity she called ‘the hour of seclusion’, ‘my hour’ or ‘my solitude’. Th e similarities between Bennet’s rules and Van Th iel’s diary might lead one to suppose that she was actually following his advice. She did in fact read his Christian oratory, but by then she had already been keeping a diary for some time. So there is no question of any direct infl uence, but the similarities do demonstrate that the spiritual diary was a well-defi ned genre.

In contrast to Bennet’s advice, Van Th iel generally wrote up her diary not in her hour of seclusion, but at other times of day. In July 1768, for instance, she generally wrote in the morning, aft er breakfast. Nor did she make entries every day; she sometimes described the day’s activities some time later, although this is not apparent from any discrepancies of

40 Ibid., pp. 24–25: ‘Gy houd op uwe comptoire of in uwe winkels eene nette aentek-ening van de staet uwer handels oft uwer tytelyke zaken in memoriaelen, journaelen, grooten ander reken- oft notitie-boeken; zoo voegt het u van gelyken . . . dat gy uwe geestelyke rekenen aenteken boeken houd.’ (‘In your offi ces or shops you make proper notes on the state of your trade or of your secular aff airs in daybooks, ledgers and other account-books or notebooks; in the same manner, . . . you should keep spiritual account-books and notebooks’). Th is comparison with trade was quite common, as is clear from Botonaki’s article ‘Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen’s Spiritual Diaries’, pp. 14–15.

41 Ibid., p. 357.42 Ibid., p. 673.43 Th e term ‘daily register’ (dagregister) is used on 15 and 19 October 1767. For

‘diary’ (dagboek) and variants on this word, as well as ‘making notes’ (aentekeningen houden), see the quotations in the rest of this chapter. Th e term ‘closet’ (binnenkamer) occurs, for instance, in the diary’s opening passage.

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content or style. Th e only indication that some of the entries made on 30 August 1768 were not written up straight away is a comment in the text that she had ‘fallen behind a little’ with her notes. Van Th iel was unable to make any notes from 4 to 24 December 1769, ‘because my trunk, containing the book, took so long to arrive’. Until the third day of that month she had been helping her brother to put his new house in Spanbroek in order. Even so, the description of, say, Wednesday 6 December did not diff er very much from other Wednesdays in her diary, even though it was written up two weeks later. So Van Th iel’s daily entries are clearly not always fresh accounts.44 But the notes for the period 4 to 24 December also reveal that two weeks’ failure to keep her diary was exceptional. She evidently took her diary with her wherever she went, for instance on this trip to Spanbroek.45

Th e question arises of whether Jacoba van Th iel was representative of her contemporaries. In any case, the style she used for her diary does not correspond to any of the modes of writing that have been distin-guished in earlier chapters. For instance, her text was not a chronicle, nor was it connected, other than in a metaphorical sense – the diary as the account-book of the soul – with fi nancial administration. Her devout approach is clearly in a class of its own. Van Th iel was not the fi rst Dutch diarist to use a style infl uenced by Pietism. Others had felt a similar urge to commit the stirrings of their soul to paper, but it is illustrative of the history of the Pietist school that all these diaries date from the eighteenth century.

Th e diary that is attributed to Johanna Maria van Goens revolves primarily around inner contemplation. Events are scarcely mentioned. Johanna described only the condition of her heart, one that gave her little occasion for merriment, since the diary is full of mournful com-ments on the imperfect state of her soul.46 Another book dedicated to refl ections was the diary kept by the Amsterdam merchant Daniël Delprat in 1773 and 1774. He did not describe the various things that had taken place on a given day, but merely recorded the méditations he

44 See also 26 October 1767. Van Th iel lived in Leiden and among her visitors was the Reverend Hoogvliet: ‘. . . we had a useful exchange. Th e Reverend also gave a brief outline of Isaiah 54, but due to the time that has elapsed since then most of it has gone from my memory [italics mine], I remember only that the Reverend interprets verses 11 and 12 to mean nothing more than a change in the decoration of the church. . . .’

45 Van Th iel also had her diary with her when she stayed in Leiden: 9 August 1768.

46 KB, mss. 130 D 7/C 3 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 342).


had had ‘dans le silence de mon cabinet’.47 Th e diary of Maria Bagelaar, kept between 1718 and 1720, was also full of religious refl ections. Her notes were initially an account of her conversion, which she eventually underwent while listening to a sermon.48 Bagelaar started doubting her election aft er hearing certain conversations in a religious company, and the diary later became that of an uncertain believer who meticulously registered the signs of God’s grace. Th e Hague shopkeeper Johannes Wassenaar was also fi xated on the signs of God’s grace. In 1745 he started ‘noting down the Lord’s deeds and recording them in a book to preserve their memory.’ He described numerous religious refl ec-tions, frequently using a style that was much like that of a sermon. Still, these refl ections were always rooted in concrete events, such as a report that had appeared in the newspaper, a song that someone had been whistling, or the growth and blossoming of a tree.49

In her style as a diarist, Van Th iel was therefore closer to Johannes Wassenaar than to Johanna Maria van Goens. Van Th iel too described religious refl ections arising from events in everyday life. Th e language in which she did so corresponded to that in the diaries already mentioned. In her refl ections, Van Th iel availed herself of a typically pietistic choice of language. Th is vocabulary, heavily infl uenced by the Bible, was used in countless writings, from handwritten diaries to printed collections of poetry. Van Th iel used it most when describing the stirrings of her soul. In one of her hours of seclusion, for instance – having fi rst planted some French beans – she opened up her soul to the Lord, ‘praying earnestly and persistently before the throne of grace [and] at the same time achieving a certain expansion of the spirit . . . Oh, how blessed it is to be able to pray and to crawl before God like a worm, to persevere

47 NA, FA Delprat, inv. no. 31–32: Méditations of Daniël Delprat (1729–1795) (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 362). On the covers of his diaries, Delprat wrote the word ‘méditations’. Quotation: 6 February 1774.

48 NA, FA Berg, inv. no. 620: Diary of Maria Bagelaar, 14 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 200).

49 UB Utrecht, mss. OE 42–45 (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 256): 10 June 1745, 11 July 1745. In 1770 a revised version of the text was published in print by Johannes van Diesbach, an acquaintance of Wassenaar’s: Eenen wandelaar naar den Heemel, of het heilig leven en zalig sterven van Johannes Wassenaar . . . voornamelijk uit deszelfs gedenkschrift en opgemaakt en in’t licht gegeeven door Johannes van Diesbach (Th e Hague: Pieter Brouwer, 1770). Diesbach did not publish the diary in unabridged form, but wrote a thematically arranged biography strewn with abundant quotations. Although Diesbach noted in the ‘Foreword’ that he had made only minor stylistic changes, comparison of the manuscript and book reveals that he took a great many liberties in his edited version.

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to achieve grace through the blood of Christ.’50 Pious refl ections of this kind fi lled many of the diaries that have come down to us from eighteenth-century women. Where religious matters were concerned, women did not shrink from putting pen to paper, whether in diaries, poetry or other literary genres.51

Not all women’s diaries were dominated by Pietism. Th e diaries of Elisabeth van der Woude and Aleida Leurink displayed far greater similarity with the chronicle genre. Th e diary of Elisabeth Agnes Jacoba, countess of the empire of Nassau la Lecq, consisted largely of brief daily notes on the places where she stayed and the people she met in the months following her marriage in 1749 to Baron Alexander Sweder van Spaen.52 Everyday social life was also the central concern of Aafj e Gijsen’s diary. Th is daughter of a timber merchant from Zaandam kept an almost daily record from 1773 to 1775 of the visits she received and made and the activities that had taken place on these occasions. She wrote religious refl ections only at the beginning of the year, which season prompted her to refl ect on the passage of time: she wrote that she viewed the coming year in a spirit of hopefulness, ‘sustained by the succour of the Lord and the light of reason’.53 Her invocation of Reason as well as God signals the diff erence between Gijsen and Van Th iel. While the latter displayed a devout sensitivity, the former inclined towards a religion enlightened by reason.

Like Jacoba van Th iel, Clara Cornelia van Eijck and Magdalena van Schinne expressed the deepest feelings of their heart in their diaries.54 Unlike Van Th iel, however, there was nothing pietistic about these two writers’ feelings. Th ey both refl ected on their own behaviour and feel-ings, but without explicitly invoking God’s judgement. Th e introspec-tion practised by Van Schinne and Van Eijck was far closer to modern notions of a person’s individuality. In this sense, the diaries of these two

50 8 October 1767.51 De Jeu, ‘t Spoor der dichteressen, pp. 224, 272. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.),

Met en zonder lauwerkrans, p. 18.52 Hoge Raad van Adel, FA Van Spaen, inv. no. 190 (Lindeman, Egodocumenten,

no. 277).53 Aafj e Gijsen, Het dagverhaal van Aafj e Gijsen, 1773–1775 edited by J.W. van

Sante (Wormerveer: Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, 1986) (Lindeman et al., Egodocumenten, no. 360) 1 January 1775.

54 Clara Cornelia van Eijck, Mijn waarde vrindin. Een Gents journaal (1790–1791) edited by Joost Rosendaal (Hilversum: Verloren 2000); Het dagboek van Magdalena van Schinne (1786–1795) translated from the French and edited by Anje Dik (Hilversum: Verloren 1990).


women represented a new development in the genre. Th e diary became a ‘journal intime’, a paper ‘friend’ to whom one confi ded one’s personal feelings. Still, this trend did have its origins in the Pietists’ practice of diary-keeping. Th e conversation that Pietists conducted with God in their diaries developed into a conversation with a real or imaginary interlocutor, and at length into a conversation with oneself.55

Pious conversation

For all the frequent references in Van Th iel’s diary to her love of solitude, she spent most of the day in the company of others. To begin with, her sister and other members of the household, including the De Fremery family’s maidservant, were nearly always close by. Van Th iel also met with others outside the immediate family circle – she entertained fre-quent visitors, for instance – on a daily basis. Her diary gives a good picture of her busy social life. In 1768 she recorded meetings with at least 104 people.56 Let us take a closer look at the people she met and the subjects that were discussed in her surroundings.

Since physical proximity was a prerequisite for conversation, most of the people named in Van Th iel’s diary were fellow-villagers. Th e De Fremery family, to which she essentially belonged, were on terms of friendship with Van Kuijk, the schoolmaster and precentor in Overschie.57 None of Van Th iel’s relatives lived in the village, but there

55 Sybille Schönborn describes this development for diaries written in German in Das Buch der Seele. Tagebuchliteratur zwischen Aufk lärung und Kunstperiode (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999). See also her article ‘Der Dialog met den stummen Partner. Literarische Tagebücher zwischen Aufk lärung und Kunstperiode’, in Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 18 (1993), pp. 1–28, in which she notes that ‘Das Gebet, der fi ktive Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch . . . bildet das Urbild und Grundmuster aller Tagebuchliteratur’ (p. 14).

56 Every encounter recorded by Van Th iel has been classifi ed here as a conversa-tion. Such encounters would sometimes involve more than two people. Van Th iel was frequently accompanied by her sister or brother-in-law, for instance. Th e analysis does not take this aspect of her social life into account. In addition, Van Th iel frequently met more than one person; there was generally a group. Married couples have been counted as single contacts in the analysis. Relatively large groups of people have been listed under the heading of the person hosting the gathering.

57 In 1768 the church gave him a salary of 132 guilders a year for his work as a schoolmaster and 33 guilders for his work as a precentor (GA Rotterdam, Oud Stads Archief, inv. no. 924: church book of accounts). Van Th iel’s diary reveals that Van Kuijk also ran a boarding school. Among those boarding with him was a son of the Rotterdam estate agent Hendrik Baelde.

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were frequent overnight stays at each other’s homes to make up for the lack of daily contact. Th e eldest sister of Van Th iel’s brother-in-law, for instance, Catharina de Fremery, was a regular guest in Overschie.58 Th ere was also regular contact with various relatives and acquaintances from Leiden. Johannes Oyers, an organist in that city, who had tutored the Van Th iel children in music and the harpsichord in 1756, oft en came to stay in Overschie for a few days. Jacoba van Th iel regarded her former music teacher as her spiritual mentor and he was a close friend. Van Th iel herself also travelled to other parts of the country to stay with relatives and acquaintances. Examples include a stay of a few days with the Leiden minister Nicolaas Hoogvliet and his family, a visit to her sister and brother-in-law in Haarlem, and an extended stay with the Van der Stels, two sisters who hailed from Leiden but had settled in Heukelum aft er one of them had married in 1768.59 Th e bond with the Van der Stel sisters was underpinned by their shared religiosity, as were several other friendships. But the conventicles that were so common among Pietists played no part in this. Aside from attending church and catechism, Van Th iel did not attend special gatherings organized by Christians to strengthen each other in living devout lives, which was the basic function of conventicles.60 She was acquainted with them, since while she was staying with Mrs Hoogvliet in Leiden she once took part in such a meeting organised by her hostess ‘for mutual edifi cation’.61 Th e company invited by Mrs Hoogvliet certainly met the requirements, since Van Th iel noted that ‘many useful and edifying matters were discussed’ there.

Religious subjects also came to the fore in numerous other conversa-tions recorded by Van Th iel. Practising piety in one’s own daily life was a frequent topic. Van Th iel spoke to her sister, for instance, about the stirrings of the soul that they should feel and those they actually felt.62 On another occasion, she scolded herself for having been insuffi ciently

58 In 1768, this ‘cousin’, as Van Th iel called her, was living with her brother Nicolaas in Gorinchem. Nicolaas de Fremery, a physician, was a member of the local vroedschap (the body of townsmen from among whom the city council was elected).

59 Johanna Maria van der Stel was one of the four daughters of Simon van der Stel and Maria Anthonia van Roeverooij. She was born in 1737 and married Laurens de Groot of Heukelum in 1767 (RAL, DTB).

60 Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, pp. 128–135; Els Stronks, Stichten of schit-teren. De poëzie van zeventiende-eeuwse predikanten (Houten: Den Hertog, 1996), pp. 117–125.

61 12 August 1768.62 12 February 1768.


engaged during the sermon. Her sister off ered comfort, saying that this disappointment might well be a good thing, since God had intended it to be so.63 Van Th iel’s ‘cousin’ Catharina de Fremery, who had urged Van Th iel to keep a diary, frequently discussed the state of her own soul when visiting Overschie and served as a shining example to her.64

Discussions of the state of one’s soul alternated with conversations about faith and the Church in general. Van Th iel spoke to Catharina de Fremery about divine Providence, for instance, and the importance of adhering to the obligation of prayer.65 With the Van Kuijks she dis-cussed ‘Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ’, while the subject of ‘our daily bread’ was broached with the minister Nicolaas Hoogvliet.66 Reverend De Fremery frequently entertained fellow ministers at the parsonage in Overschie, and the conversation naturally turned to ecclesiastical aff airs. Reverend Emijs, for instance, discussed ‘Church matters’ when he came to Overschie.67 Th e minister of Delfshaven, Henricus van der Bank, told Jacoba about the state of the church in Raamsdonkveer, where Johannes de Fremery preached.68

Sermons were also frequent topics of discussion. Not frequent enough for Van Th iel, however, who earnestly wished that there would be more talk of ‘what one had heard’ aft er attending a church service, and was oft en moved to express her disappointment at the lack of it.69 She found it incomprehensible that on a day as important as Sunday, Christians were willing to shift their attention so quickly to the aff airs of everyday life. ‘I was astonished that we had all heard so many precious things, and that nothing was said about them,’ she wrote on one occasion regarding the conversation aft er an aft ernoon sermon.70 Great was her satisfaction, then, when visiting Mr and Mrs Van Kuijk, to note that the sermon of that day was the main topic of conversation, especially

63 27 November 1768.64 1 October 1768.65 11 September 1768.66 25 December 1768; 15 August 1768.67 12 April 1768.68 23 May 1768.69 7 December 1768: ‘In the evening we went to the home of Mr and Miss V. Kuijk,

where little was said of the sermon or of other weighty matters, which oppressed my soul when I thought of it.’ See also e.g. 20 January, 12 June 1768.

70 11 September 1768. Th e company consisted of Mr and Mrs Van Alphen, the Misses Westrene and Ram, and Reverend Serrurier (who had been a minister in Th e Hague since 1767) with his wife.

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‘the morning sermon and the plague of leprosy, which is a wondrous symbol of our sinful nature’.71

Discussions aside, the sermons themselves, of course, were of great importance to Van Th iel as media for the transfer of information. It has oft en been pointed out that the sermon was one of the most important means of communication in the early modern period. It has even been called the only true mass medium of the age.72 Whether people fl ocked en masse to the church services in Overschie is unknown. Van Th iel, in any case, was a faithful member of the congregation, attending not only the two services held on Sunday but also those held occasionally on weekdays. She therefore learned a great deal from them about articles of faith, biblical interpretation and theological refl ections. Such matters took up much of her diary. She always noted down the biblical text that was the subject of the day’s address, the words from Holy Scriptures that had been spoken to introduce it, and the essential message of the sermon, frequently giving a lengthy summary of the entire address.73 Van Th iel would then describe the eff ect of the words on her soul.

Sometimes social matters were addressed from the pulpit. Van Th iel recorded a number of sermons, for instance, in which the minister had adopted a position in the debate on the essential importance of religion as the guardian of morality. Radical, enlightened philosophers consid-ered religion to be unnecessary, believing that every right-minded – which in their view meant inclined to be guided by reason – would see the vital importance of living a virtuous life and behave accordingly. Such ideas were far too extreme for a man like Nicolaas Hoogvliet and for many others in the Netherlands. Although enlightened ideas were starting to spread in the United Province, they tended to assume a moderate form, in interpretations that sought to reconcile ideas about

71 26 June 1768.72 Jelle J. Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand. De invloed van de Verlichting

op de in het Nederlands uitgegeven preken van 1750–1800 (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1997), pp. 81–82.

73 E.g. on 7 February 1768. Her brother-in-law preached on Matthew 16:39. ‘Th e Reverend took the general position that in Christ’s prayer one must make a clear distinction between the will as a human being and that of the true God and took the view that when the Lord Jesus came to earth as a man, all the circumstances of the divine decree were not known, and so it was unavoidable that his human form would abhor such affl iction, and so that . . . there was nothing untoward about his having deployed every possible means to avert such pain while accepting holy submission to the will of the Father etc.’


reason and virtue with the Christian faith.74 Reverend Hoogvliet, for instance, gave a sermon on Acts 17:31, in which he argued to his con-gregation that a system of moral values and standards of behaviour based wholly on reason was superfl uous, since the virtues needed to perfect society had already been laid down in Holy Scripture. Happiness was to be attained not in spite of the Christian faith, but through it. ‘A free thinker’, Van Th iel wrote in her extensive notes on this sermon, had therefore no basis for criticising ‘evangelical ethics’. Th e Reformed variant of Enlightenment thinking was also broached in the sermons of Van Th iel’s brother-in-law, for instance in one on ‘Th e proof that the divinity of the bible is apparent from its ethical teachings in com-parison with those of the pagan philosophers,’ or on the ‘excellence of Christian teachings in comparison with pagan morality’.75

Social and theological issues were also topics of everyday conversa-tion. One subject that came up quite frequently was the behaviour of Pietists, who were known as the fi jnen. Many saw the piety of these Christians as exaggerated and irrational and poked fun at it.76 Such views were oft en expressed by people belonging to Van Th iel’s circle of acquaintances. Once, when visiting her cousins of the Oosterdijk branch of the family, she heard the company disparaging the fi jnen.77 Her sister Johanna may have instigated this conversation, since Van Th iel had heard her scoffi ng at this group in the past.78 Van Th iel found it extremely ‘troubling’ that ‘the so-called fi jnen were thus derided,’ but she generally refrained from comment.79 Th e only person she dared criticise for such views was her eldest sister. While in the fi rst few days of her visit she had exercised self-restraint, at length it became too

74 Sturkenboom, Spectators, pp. 35–38.75 18 October 1767; 6 December 1767. Two years later, De Fremery gave these

sermons afresh. Van Th iel wrote on 9 April 1769: ‘My brother discussed . . . the proof that the divinity of the bible is apparent from its moral teachings compared to those of the pagan philosophers.’ She used virtually the same words here as she had used two years before. Th ere is nothing remarkable about this, since she wrote aft er this sentence: ‘Th e Reverend interpreted this . . . in the same way as I have described on page 4 of this book.’ So Van Th iel had apparently leafed back in her diary, seen that she had already given a detailed summary of the sermon, and therefore kept her account short this time. Th e second sermon was repeated on 28 May 1769, and here too Van Th iel described it in the same terms: ‘On the excellence of Christian teachings in comparison with pagan morality’.

76 Sturkenboom, Spectators, pp. 168–183.77 6 August 1768.78 1 June 1768.79 29 March 1768.

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much for her and she tried to convince her elder sister that the fi jnen were admirable people.80

Other social topics broached in the conversations recorded by Van Th iel included the new inoculation against smallpox,81 which had been invented in England in the early eighteenth century and began to be applied on a limited scale in the Netherlands in the 1750s. Th is preven-tive action was controversial, since it was seen in Reformed circles as tampering with God’s plans for human destiny.82 Van Th iel’s opinion is not clear from her entry on the discussion. Children’s upbringing was another popular topic, in particular the ‘moral decay that is in evidence in the raising of children’.83 Decay was also seen in agriculture. Th e prevalence of rinderpest was brought up on many occasions.84 In the fi nal months of 1768, modes of preaching became a popular theme. A dispute was raging, in which the Leiden minister Hollebeek had argued in favour of a diff erent, more English style of preaching. He believed that a sermon should not be a learned biblical analysis but a simple lesson in life.85 Given the proliferation of clergymen in Van Th iel’s surround-ings, it is not surprising that Hollebeek’s ideas were discussed in these circles. For instance, during a visit to Reverend Rietveld in Delft , there was ‘much discussion about the English manner of preaching.’86

Van Th iel and her family and acquaintances naturally oft en spoke about themselves and each other. Meetings with friends and acquain-tances provided opportunities to catch up with each other’s news. In June, Van Th iel’s brother and the brothers and sisters from Haarlem and Gorinchem came to visit in Overschie. ‘We had much to say on all sides,’ wrote Jacoba, ‘about what one had seen and heard, in addi-tion to which we discussed the events that each had experienced.’87

80 4 June 1768.81 11 July 1768.82 Willibrord Rutten, ‘De vreselijkste aller harpijen’. Pokkenepidemieën en pokken-

bestrijding in Nederland in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw: een sociaal-historische en historisch-demografi sche studie (Ph.D. dissertation University of Wageningen, 1997), pp. 24–25, 184–189.

83 Th e quotation appears in the entry for 13 March 1768; see also 18 May, 27 May, 19 September 1768. On children’s upbringing in Van Th iel’s diary, see Gaasbeek, ‘Opvoeding en kindbeeld in de achttiende eeuw. Jacoba van Th iel en haar dagboek’, in Opossum 24 (1997), pp. 32–38.

84 21 June, 22 June 1768.85 Bosma, Woorden van gezond verstand, pp. 265–69.86 7 November 1768 and 21 October 1768.87 9 June 1768.


What these events were, Van Th iel does not reveal. Conversations did not become really interesting for her diary until they prompted her to engage in religious contemplation. Aft er all, she had embarked on her diary to record refl ections on the state of her soul. Mr Kool related, for instance, that his wife had broken her arm falling off a chair, on which he had been standing while trying to open a hatch. Van Th iel recorded the incident in her diary, because it taught her how quickly one may become unhappy and one’s immense reliance at all times on ‘the preserving hand of God’. ‘Teach me, dear God, to walk thought-fully and circumspectly, constantly praying to you for preservation and guidance.’88 Th e soul could learn from even the most mundane of events.89

An analysis of the conversations that Jacoba van Th iel recorded in 1768 shows that the spoken word was essential to her religious life. Th rough verbal communication she learnt about a wealth of religious matters, from piety in one’s personal life to the best way of delivering sermons. Where moral guidance was concerned, it appears that Van Th iel was a highly capable speaker. In theological and ecclesiastical matters, however, she was mainly a listener. Th is was probably because of her youth and her position as a woman. On both counts, she would have been expected to display modesty. Her passive role was certainly not attributable to any defi ciency of understanding, since the elaborate notes she made on sermons she had heard refl ect a clear grasp of the essence of theological issues.

Although religion was the dominant conversational theme, it was not the only one. In the discussions around her, Van Th iel also learned about secular matters such as political and social issues. Th at she does not write about such subjects more frequently may be seen as further evidence that women were not expected to concern themselves with them. But the relative dearth of more worldly material also stems from Van Th iel’s view of her diary, which she intended to serve a religious purpose.

88 26 April 1768.89 See e.g. also 25 March 1768: ‘. . . in the aft ernoon the two young gentlemen Mees

and Baelde came to us, whom we were obliged to entertain in a manner appropriate to their understanding. In their actions and play I saw a curious refl ection of myself, [in that I] behave in just as childlike a manner regarding these worldly matters, diverting myself with trifl es that should be far beneath the attention of a Christian, whose refl ec-tions should be directed towards heaven.’ A visit to the beach was recorded in the diary because Van Th iel, ‘mused, when there, on the omnipotence of God’. (8 June 1768).

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A devout Christian woman with a pen

Although literacy levels were rising among women towards the end of the eighteenth century, even by 1800 one could not take it for granted that a woman could write. In any case, far fewer women than men signed their names on their marriage licence.90 In this context, Jacoba van Th iel’s fl uent pen was out of the ordinary. Gender was not the only factor that infl uenced literacy, of course. Learning to write was a stan-dard part of the education of girls such as Van Th iel, who were born into well-to-do families, this in marked contrast to lower social classes. What did a burgher woman do with this skill, which she had acquired in her youth? Jacoba van Th iel, in any case, deployed her literacy in two ways: by conducting correspondence and keeping a diary.

In comparison to the male diarists discussed in previous chapters, Van Th iel’s writing was relatively narrow in scope. She did not produce any poems, political treatises or historical notes, for instance. Gender is certainly a signifi cant factor here, if only because women were gener-ally less well educated. Most female writers were hampered by a lack of knowledge that excluded them from circles of scholars and literati.91 Clara Cornelia van Eijck, for instance, who lived in exile, wanted to write letters as elegant and learned as those produced by one of her friends, but sighed in her diary in 1790, ‘Where would I have learned to do so? What are we girls taught more about: knitting and sewing, or the areas of knowledge that would improve our understanding and supply the mind with pleasurable nourishment?’92

Sometimes women’s proverbial lack of learning actually gave female writers an opportunity to express themselves. Religion, at least in matters of practical devoutness, was a sphere of life in which women could write with a certain authority, since it was believed that divine truth could be revealed even to those of limited understanding. It was entirely permissible for a woman to seek to edify her fellow human beings through her writing, although protestations of modesty oft en accompanied such writings when they appeared in print.93 Letters

90 Of all women who signed a marriage licence in 1780, 64 per cent did so by actu-ally signing their name, which historians regard as the key criterion of literacy. Th e corresponding fi gure for men was 85 per cent. Van der Woude, ‘De alfabetisering’, p. 262.

91 Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.), Met en zonder lauwerkrans, pp. 35–39.92 Van Eijck, Mijn waarde vrindin, pp. 99–100 (30 June 1790).93 De Jeu, Spoor der dichteressen, pp. 272–3.


were another genre accessible to women, since the eighteenth-century theory of correspondence required – more than in the past – that let-ters must be spontaneous, sincere and natural.94 Although these too were conventions, they required no knowledge of classical rhetoric, for instance, and it is therefore not entirely a matter of chance that the fi rst epistolary novel in Dutch was written by two women, Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken.95 Clearly, then, Van Th iel’s gender also infl uenced the subject-matter that she addressed in her writings.

Pious correspondence

None of Jacoba van Th iel’s letters have been preserved, but they must have been very numerous. Her diary for the year 1768 contains 144 references to correspondence: in 65 cases to letters she had written herself and in 79 to letters received. Th ese references related to a total of seventeen diff erent correspondents, most of whom were relatives or acquaintances from Leiden. Since she and others had moved to other cities, everyday exchanges had become impossible, but the old ties were preserved through correspondence. Van Th iel corresponded a great deal with her sister in Haarlem and her brother in Leiden, for instance. Other frequent correspondents included Johannes Oyers and the Van der Stel sisters.

Letters were not necessarily exchanges between two people only; they were frequently links in a wider social network. For instance, the letters that Van Th iel sent to Haarlem were not addressed exclusively to her sister, but always to ‘brother and sister De Brouwer’.96 Conversely, those from Haarlem were always from the married couple, not from either spouse alone. Th is means that their content was not always intended solely for the recipient: Miss Luchtmans’ letter to Van Th iel included greetings for Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery.97 What is more, Van Th iel

94 Van de Berg, ‘Briefrefl ectie’, pp. 13–14; Konstantin Dierks, ‘Th e Familiar Letter and Social Refi nement in America 1750–1800’, in David Barton and Nigel Hall (eds.), Letter Writing as a Social Practice (Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2000), pp. 31–42; esp. pp. 34–35. Dierks comments that the criterion of sincerity meant that let-ters were a suitable genre for ordinary people with little education.

95 Whether this meant that letters were also a typically female genre is a question that continues to provoke debate among literary historians to this day; see Rebecca Earle, ‘Introduction: Letters, Writers, and the Historian’, in idem (ed.), Epistolary Selves: Letters and Letter-Writing, 1600–1945 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 1–14; esp. pp. 6–8.

96 E.g. 25 January 1768.97 6 April 1768.

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frequently uses the pronoun ‘we’ in references to letters, indicating that the ‘correspondent’ was frequently the De Fremery family as a whole. On one occasion when a cousin had dropped in at the Overschie home to fi nd that everyone was out, Van Th iel wrote her a letter apologising for the fact that ‘we’ were not at home.98

Let us turn to the subject-matter of Van Th iel’s correspondence. A large proportion of the correspondence she recorded in 1768 was directly related to her social life. People wrote to announce an impend-ing visit, or to ask whether a visit would be convenient, besides which occasions such as birthdays and New Year’s Eve always prompted a fl urry of greetings. Johannes de Fremery wrote to set a date for a visit in a letter that Van Th iel read on 21 July, and Johannes Oyers wrote on 4 August to say that he would be coming to Overschie on the 22nd of that month. Van Th iel in turn wrote to Mrs De Groot (née Van der Stel) in Heukelum ‘to ask whether it would not be inconvenient for her to receive me on 9 or 23 May.’99 Two weeks later she received a reply in which Mrs De Groot said she would be happy to receive her whenever she wished.100 On 17 June, Van Th iel sent birthday greetings to her ‘cousin’ Catharina de Fremery. A little over a month later, a let-ter arrived in Overschie from this cousin, ‘thanking me for my good wishes’, wrote Van Th iel.101 In one of the letters to Johannes Oyers, Van Th iel thanked him for his good wishes, and sent New Year’s greetings, as Oyers had done in his own letter.102

Letters were also written to arrange practical matters. Van Th iel wrote to her brother in Leiden ‘to ask him to bring certain items with him’.103 Such letters frequently concerned clothing. Van Th iel wrote to Johanna Elizabeth van der Stel, about a piece of muslin ‘which she was to procure for us’ and sent a letter to her cousin of the Galli branch of the fam-ily, ‘asking her to have a loose corset made, as well as a pattern I sent her’.104 Th e corset arrived in Overschie two weeks later, accompanied by a letter from her cousin.105 Other items too were frequently sent by post, sometimes on request, as in the case of the corset, and sometimes

98 6 May 1768. 99 12 April 1768.100 27 April 1768.101 20 July 1768.102 7 January 1768.103 28 June 1768.104 25 February 1768; 3 March 1768. 105 19 March 1768.


as expressions of friendship. On one occasion the De Brouwers sent Van Th iel (or rather Van Th iel and her sister and brother-in-law) a gift of four small rabbits, while another time they sent a fi sh.106

Th e subject-matter described above shows that letters played an important part in social relations, and that their use therefore accorded closely with the theory of correspondence, which accorded a key role to ‘informal’ letters. Still, Jacoba van Th iel did not confi ne herself to such friendly exchanges. Correspondence also fi gured prominently in her religious life, serving both as an aid for her own religious refl ections and as a channel through which to express them. On one occasion, for instance, Van Th iel wrote a letter to Miss De Jongh, trying to ‘rouse both her spirit and my own to transfer our sins in faith to the Lamb of God’.107 Th is same lady received a letter couched in similar terms, intended to convey comfort, at the end of 1768.108 To Miss Luchtmans, Van Th iel wrote in mournful terms of the diffi culties attending the struggles of earthly existence, and she corresponded frequently with Catharina de Fremery about the state of the soul.109 Th ese women appear to have been kindred spirits with a devout view of life, their thoughts dominated by the earnest desire for certainty about their faith. Supporting each other in religiosity, addressing edifying words to fellow-believers in spoken or written form, were characteristic features of Pietism.110

Just as Van Th iel tried to provide moral support to De Jongh, she herself sought comfort and edifi cation from Mr Oyers. Almost their entire correspondence was taken up with aff airs of faith. Van Th iel oft en found fault with her spiritual state in letters to Oyers, and the latter counselled her in return. When she wrote to him on ‘the sorry state of my spiritual being, that I have so long been compelled to wander in the dark’,111 Oyers replied with an account of his own attitude to worldly aff airs, possibly as an example for Van Th iel, and provided ‘counsel and guidance’ for her soul. He also drew her attention to a section in a collection of sermons that might help her.112 Van Th iel

106 17 July, 1 December 1768.107 29 January 1768.108 6 December 1768.109 To Luchtmans: 22 September 1768. Catharina de Fremery to Van Th iel: 24 June,

25 October, 13 December 1768. Van Th iel to Catharina de Fremery: 28 October 1768, about her ‘inner state’.

110 Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, pp. 128–135. 111 6 December 1768.112 19 December 1768.

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described the letter as a great blessing, as were many of the letters she received from Oyers.

Van Th iel was able to confi de in people like Oyers and Miss De Jongh, but she did not do so to everyone. In the letters she wrote to her cousin Alberti, she seemed rather to be practising a kind of missionary work. She tried to the best of her ability ‘to impress upon her that she was abandoning her heart to the vanities of earthly concerns and to urge her to see the grievous damage this was infl icting upon her soul.’113 Th is letter evidently had little eff ect, since Van Th iel wrote again later that year ‘to convince her of her sinful existence before the Lord, and [to enquire] whether there might not yet be a way to persuade her to fl ee from the wrath to come.’114

Letters were very suitable as vehicles of religious expression. Like poetry and tales of conversion, they could be used for moral or religious edifi cation. Th ere was apparently no objection to a woman engaging in such activity, provided she confi ned her spiritual counselling to other women. It is striking that she only addressed such words of guidance to women, whereas when she wrote to men, she might ask for comfort and guidance but would never give it, a distinction that again refl ects the hierarchical relations between the sexes.

Letters enabled Van Th iel to express her religious feelings, and in this sense they were linked to her diary. So the letters about religious matters understandably received a great deal of attention in her daily entries. Others, which could not in any way give rise to or be the object of contemplation, are described in less detail. While Van Th iel did not specify the ‘tidings’ that Van Th iel’s brother had conveyed in one of his letters in 1768, she did note that they led her to wonder at the ways of divine Providence.115 Only very occasionally did she refrain from describing a letter because she thought it indelicate do so. Th is was not said explicitly in 1768, but regarding a letter she received from her sister Johanna and her brother-in-law in 1767, she commented: ‘I cannot repeat the content of these letters because they are of a personal nature.’116 Th is is a curious remark in a text that one might suppose to be highly personal. Aft er all, Van Th iel’s diary served as a balance sheet of the stirrings of her soul. Even so, it seems that the

113 7 January 1768.114 29 November 1768.115 14 January 1768.116 26 November 1767.


intimacy of her diary did not mean that all matters could be recorded in it indiscriminately. Some things could not be broached, even in this personal text. Th e fact that Johanna and her husband had seen fi t to convey this personal information in a letter shows that in this period, letters were viewed as more intimate forms of communication. Th is hypothesis is confi rmed by eighteenth-century novels, which were writ-ten primarily in the epistolary form. Th e best way for authors to portray their characters as real individuals was to have them write letters.117 So Van Th iel did not record truly intimate matters in her diary. Even so, keeping this diary was of great personal importance to her, as is clear from her own comments on the subject.

‘Somewhat free from the earth’: on keeping a diary

‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.’ Van Th iel took these words uttered by the apostle Paul (II Cor. 13:5) very much to heart, as did countless believers before and aft er her. Keeping a diary was a matter of crucial importance to her. It was pre-cisely this writing about her own actions that enabled her to practise self-examination, since it forced her to record her precise behaviour. As Van Th iel noted in the fi rst few lines of her diary, writing helped her by subjecting ‘myself and all my behaviour to meticulous attention’. She sometimes needed this obligation to keep a diary: she made her notes in solitude, ‘an activity that, especially if the household is busy, is most satisfying and useful, since it compels me to refl ect on how I have behaved and to see what I have achieved in so many precious hours and I then have frequent cause to feel great humility before God on high.’118 [It was only by writing about herself that she became able to really examine herself.

Writing was also a way of keeping things from getting lost. If she wrote her sins down, they would not ‘slip’ from her memory; these are the words with which she opens her diary. At the same time, she could record the blessings that God had given her. Th at was important,

117 John W. Rowland, Th e Letter Form and the French Enlightenment: Th e Epistolary Paradox (New York: Peter Lang, 1991), pp. 76–101. According to Roland, the con-notation of authenticity shift ed to the ‘journal intime’ in the nineteenth century; pp. 174–175.

118 12 July 1768.

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since ‘otherwise one would forget one’s actions’.119 She would be able to refresh her memory with these sins and blessings, for instance to provide some good cheer in ‘a melancholy hour’. Th ese were the terms in which Van Th iel’s friend Oyers discussed keeping a diary. If her refl ections shone a light into her soul, she should write down the causes and consequences of this, ‘so that in times of darkness or suchlike I could profi t from it’.120

Van Th iel did in fact reread her diary from time to time. On the ser-mon that her brother-in-law De Fremery gave at the beginning of 1769, she wrote: ‘Th e reverend construed the substance of this commandment in the same manner as I have noted on page 4 of this book’.121 At the end of 1768 she refl ected on the ways of divine Providence in her life. Her diary had recorded them: ‘Every month, week and day, as my diary bears witness, the Lord has given me abundant blessings.’122 On her 27th birthday, Van Th iel refl ected on the grace she had received all that time, but without progressing a single step. Her diary proved it: ‘how many sermons have I not heard that were a true blessing for my soul, as my diary records, but oh, how it does oppress me not to be able to say that I have advanced a little further on the path to heaven.’123

At other times, writing did help Van Th iel move one step further to heaven. Keeping her diary, and sometimes even writing letters, fre-quently had a positive eff ect on her soul. It induced in her that state that was so desirable for a true believer, in which her mind was focused more on the superlunary than the sublunary realm. Th is was indeed more or less the expectation expressed at the beginning of her diary; she noted that writing could be ‘a blessed means of living more in the awareness of His sublime omnipresence’. And it did sometimes work like that. Aft er visiting Mrs Van Kuijk one evening, Van Th iel wrote that she ‘zealously made notes, thus prying my mind somewhat free from earthly matters.’124 On countless occasions she described writing as a ‘boon’ or recorded that she had made notes ‘with much delight’.125 She also wrote that her notes were ‘through God’s goodness a way of bringing me closer to myself and of making this solitude agreeable.’

119 5 July 1767.120 9 March 1768.121 9 April 1769.122 31 December 1768.123 29 December 1769.124 15 December 1768.125 E.g. 22 July, 28 July 1768.


Th us, writing was clearly a vehicle that enabled her to achieve the state of mind she so fervently desired.

Th e many benefi ts of keeping a diary had been listed by Benjamin Bennet in Th e Christian oratory or devotion of the closet displayed, and they were echoed in Van Th iel’s comments. Th e same applied to her observations on the diary as a balance-sheet. In her diary, Van Th iel weighed her ‘sins’ against the ‘grace of God’. In one entry from the middle of 1768, for instance, she wrote: ‘I made notes in solitude, with much pleasure. Oh, how good it is to refl ect on one’s ways; one learns on the one hand to be more observant of God’s grace, and on the other to be more conscious of one’s own shortcomings.’126 Th e benefi cence of God and one’s failings could be weighed up against each other, to reach a conclusion on the spiritual progress one had made. Van Th iel described this as one of the ‘gift s’ that writing a diary gave her. She compared these judgments to a court case, in which she refl ected on her deeds each day, ‘thus calling myself to account as before a tribunal.’127 Bennet’s comparison with the world of commerce is also found in Van Th iel’s diary. In a conversation with her sister, she recorded: ‘My soul was a little invigorated by speaking to my sister about this book, which she believed should be confi ned to the workings of the spirit and thus serve as an account-book of the soul with God; I agreed with her.’128

Th ese passages show that writing a diary was signifi cant to Jacoba van Th iel in a variety of ways. It heightened her concentration, mak-ing it possible for her to truly refl ect on her actions, it ensured that her refl ections could not fade from her memory, it brought her soul closer to heaven, and it enabled her to draw up a balance of her prog-ress. Van Th iel’s description of the signifi cance of writing is similar to the account written by Sara Nevius, the wife of the leading Pietist Wilhelmus à Brakel. Th e latter published a posthumous edition of his wife’s meditations, in which she had noted that writing dispelled her spiritual lassitude, that rereading her notes lift ed her spirits, and that writing helped to keep her on the path of righteousness.129

Although Van Th iel’s diary was not published, as were (albeit post-humously) Nevius’s refl ections, she did not keep it entirely to herself. Several people knew about it and discussed it with her. It was her

126 5 July 1768.127 5 December 1767.128 4 December 1767.129 De Jeu, Spoor der dichteressen, p. 232.

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‘cousin’ Catharina de Fremery who had persuaded Van Th iel that it was possible to keep a diary. Catharina probably had one of her own and had discussed it with her. Later on, Van Th iel would compare herself to this cousin. While Catharina was visiting Overschie, the two discussed ‘the labour of making notes’, and Van Th iel concluded that ‘this, like all my actions, is highly defective’.130 Her sister too had a very defi nite opinion on what a diary should be: as we have seen, she felt that it should be confi ned to ‘the workings of the spirit.’ It is unclear, however, whether Anna Catharina was discussing diaries in general, or if she had read Van Th iel’s diary and sought to correct her sister’s mode of writing. Th e latter is entirely possible, since Van Th iel certainly showed her diary to others at times. Once, when Mr Oyers was visiting the family, she wrote:

My sister had . . . mentioned this book in my absence and asked me to show it to him, which I was eventually not inclined to refuse, since he has frequently given me much salutary counsel and guidance. He gave it his approval, but said that if possible I should record my thoughts more, and that if there had been some widening out or affi rmation in my spirits, or some light had been shone into my soul, I should record the causes and consequences in more detail, so that in times of darkness or suchlike I could profi t from it.

It is striking that both Oyers and Van Th iel’s sister emphasized that a diary should revolve around the workings of the soul. Th ey evidently took a slightly diff erent view of this from Van Th iel, or rather from the way in which she actually wrote. Both believed (and Van Th iel agreed) that descriptions of everyday matters such as washing, preserving food, encounters and conversations, did not belong in a diary, which should be confi ned to one’s inner life.

Th e fact that Van Th iel showed her diary to Oyers underscores the fact that it was not a completely intimate, confi dential text. So it is understandable that she did not reproduce the content of the letter from her sister in Haarlem in her diary. Still, there was evidently a certain ambivalence in her feelings concerning the nature of her diary, for she had to be earnestly persuaded to show it to Oyers. It was not unusual in Pietist circles for religious texts – especially those written by women – to circulate in manuscript form. A great deal of religious poetry by women was not published until it had already been found

130 4 August 1769.


to be spiritually uplift ing within a small circle of readers.131 Personal refl ections such as those of Sara Nevius and autobiographical accounts of religious conversion were also read in handwritten form in small groups,132 but these were accounts written by people who had already achieved security of faith. Th is did not apply to Jacoba van Th iel, which may have been one of the reasons why she preferred to keep her diary to herself.

In comparison to male diarists, Jacoba van Th iel could only use her writing aptitude in a limited number of areas, but she exploited what scope she had to the full. She wrote almost every day and expressed herself profi ciently in matters relating to religious faith. She presumably acquired this skill partly from her extensive reading.

Piety with books: Van Th iel’s reading

Th e fi jnen were sometimes referred to in the eighteenth century as the ‘book people’ (boeckjesvolck), and in this respect too Jacoba van Th iel could hold her own with true Pietists. Reading took up much of her daily life, as she records in her diary. Leaving letters out of con-sideration, there are 664 references to reading in her diary between 4 October 1767 and 8 January 1770. Did she constantly return to the same small corpus of religious texts or read more widely? Where did she obtain her reading, and what did she do with what she read? Th e rest of this chapter will look at these and other aspects of Jacoba van Th iel’s reading.

A religious glutton

Given the large number of books to which Jacoba van Th iel refers in her diary, she cannot be described as an intensive reader of a limited number of books. In a little over two years, she read at least 98 titles, 24 of them handwritten and 74 printed.133 Let us take a closer look at her reading preferences.

131 De Jeu, Spoor der dichteressen, pp. 272–3.132 Ibid., pp. 165–166; Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, p. 165.133 Th e appendix to this chapter lists these titles in full.

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Jacoba van Th iel was a very frequent churchgoer and heard a great deal about the faith at the services she attended, but she also oft en read written versions of sermons she had heard. Most of these – nineteen in total – were those delivered by her brother-in-law Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery. For instance, she refreshed her memory on the sermon he had given at the beginning of October 1767 by reading it the week aft erwards.134 De Fremery did not write out his sermons to be deliv-ered from the pulpit; he preached as far as possible from memory. On the day aft er Christmas day, De Fremery would give the morning sermon and his brother-in-law Jan van Th iel the aft ernoon sermon in Overschie. On the previous evening it had been very quiet in the village parsonage: Jacoba van Th iel read a book ‘while the brothers commit-ted their texts to memory’.135 Writing out a sermon may have been an aid to learning it off by heart and might save work in the future. For instance, the sermon on the second commandment that De Fremery gave in April 1769 was undoubtedly based on the sermon on the same subject that he had given in October 1767. In any case, the content of the address was the same in both cases, writes Van Th iel.136 Aside from her brother-in-law’s sermons, Van Th iel also read three sermons deliv-ered by the Leiden clergyman Nicolaas Hoogvliet while she was staying in his house. She also read an address delivered by another minister in her circle of friends, De Koning of Th e Hague. Finally, Van Th iel refers in her diary to a ‘written statement on the faith’ by the minister Th eodorus van der Groe of Kralingen,137 one of the leading fi gures in the Pietist movement.

In printed texts too, Van Th iel displays a clear preference for religious works. Historical studies have frequently explained the expansion of the female reading public in reference to the rise of new genres of reading, but recent studies have shown that it was primarily the traditional, religious genres that benefi ted from the growth of literacy. Jacoba van Th iel is a perfect illustration of this trend, since her diary refl ects a formidable quantity of religious reading. Of the 74 identifi able titles she mentions, 57 belonged to the standard corpus of religious texts.

Foremost among these texts were numerous collections of sermons. She read eighteen of these in total, including the collected sermons of

134 14 October 1767.135 27 December 1767.136 9 April 1769; 18 October 1767.137 15 August 1768.


Johannes van der Kemp and of Johannes van Schelle – who had preached from the pulpit in Overschie a few years before De Fremery – as well as a sermon by Petrus Hofstede and another by Wilhelmus Peiff ers. Historians have suggested two ways of further classifying collections of sermons. Th e fi rst is that between Cocceian and Voetian addresses.138 While Cocceian clergymen built up their sermons in the manner of reasoned philosophical arguments, Voetians appealed more to religious experience.139 Another distinction is that between orthodox clergymen, who sought to uphold the Reformed tradition while steering a middle course between Reformed Pietism and the Protestant Enlightenment, and enlightened ministers.140 While orthodox ministers preached on matters of religious doctrine and proclaimed an essentially pessimistic view of human nature, their enlightened brethren saw religious faith as providing reasonable guidelines for human action. While orthodox sermons were highly analytical and linguistic – expounding the mean-ings of separate biblical terms systematically and at great length, for instance, enlightened sermons were more concerned to convey a mes-sage and were therefore more contemplative.141

One might expect Jacoba van Th iel to have displayed a preference for Voetian or orthodox sermons. And up to a point this is true: she read Appelius, for instance, who may be classifi ed as a Voetian, and Van der Kemp’s sermons are clearly orthodox in style. But Van Th iel also demonstrates that readers would not necessarily be constrained by such genre labels. Although most of the sermons she read were orthodox, she also read enlightened ones by ministers such as James Fordyce and Philip Doddridge. Th at both were British is no coincidence, since the new manner of preaching had scarcely been adopted by Dutch ministers before 1780.142 Although Van Th iel was sympathetic to the

138 As discussed in chapter 3 of this book, a vehement controversy was being waged between theologians who believed that the biblical text must be construed literally (Voetians) and those favouring an allegorical interpretation (Cocceians). Th is dispute was fought out on paper most notably towards the end of the seventeenth century, but the two groups continued to exist well into the eighteenth century.

139 A.T. van Deursen and G.J. Schutte, Geleefd geloven. Geschiedenis van de protes-tantse vroomheid in Nederland (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1996), pp. 39–40.

140 Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand, p. 382.141 Ibid., pp. 265–269, 368–386.142 Ibid., p. 389. While Fordyce’s sermons refer to religion, they also deal with

numerous other aspects of life. For this reason, Bosma calls this and similar collections ‘handbooks on ethics cast as sermons’. ‘Th ey adopt a calm, judicious and moderate tone, designed to transform their readers into honourable citizens and sincere Christians.’

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pietistic leanings of Voetian ministers, most of the sermons she read were Cocceian.143 All in all, Van Th iel cannot be said to have exhibited a clear preference for any particular type of sermon.

In addition to collected sermons, Van Th iel read many books relat-ing to everyday religious practice, such as Bennet’s practical handbook Christian Oratory, discussed earlier in this chapter, and Isaak Watt’s Guide to Prayer. Th en there is a group of four books with advice on the observance of ecclesiastical rituals. Th us, Van Th iel owned a Dutch copy of La communion devote ou la manière de participe . . . à l’eucaristie by Johan la Placette and read about the right way to conduct oneself on days of prayer in a work by Jacoba Petronella Winckelman, entitled Samenspraak tusschen eenen min ervarenen en meer geoeeff enden chris-ten over de betamelijke geschiktheid des harten voor, rechte werkzaamheid op, en behoorlijke betrachting na het houden van een plechtigen dank-, vast- en bededag (‘Colloquy between a less and a more experienced Christian on the appropriate spiritual state before, the proper way to act during, and the due observance aft er a solemn day of thanksgiving, fasting and prayer’). Th e book was initially published anonymously. Not until later editions, which appeared aft er Winckelman’s death, was her name attached to the text.144

Winckelman also wrote numerous poems on Pietist religious practice, which were not entrusted to the printing press until aft er her death.145 Devotional poetry, which could generally be sung, was a highly eff ec-tive way of reaching the faithful and was also used by many ministers of religion. In 1676 the cleric Jodocus van Lodenstein published his

Ibid., pp. 185, 243. Th e blurred dividing-line between enlightened ministers and clergy-men from the middle group is illustrated, in Bosma’s view, by the work of Doddridge, whose ideas were infl uenced by enlightened ideas but not wholly determined by them. For instance, he still wrote about classical articles of faith such as the Resurrection, but did so in a highly reasonable tone. Ibid., p. 386.

143 Of the authors on Van Th iel’s booklist, those who can be regarded as Cocceian include Van den Honert, Van Schelle, Peiff ers, Immens, and Van Leeuwarden. See their biographical entries in J.P. de Bie and J. Loosjes, Biographisch woordenboek van protestantsche godgeleerden in Nederland, and the comments in Johannes van den Berg, ‘Die Frömmigheitsbestrebungen in den Niederlanden,’ in Martin Brecht (ed.), Der Pietismus im achtzehnte Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995), pp. 542–587.

144 One of the reasons for adding Winckelman’s name to the title page of the later editions was that her authorship had become generally known. At least, this is the explanation given in the Preface to a second edition of Samenspraak (Amsterdam: M. de Bruyn, 1769).

145 Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (ed.), Met en zonder lauwerkrans, pp. 503–507.


Fig. 10. Page from Jacoba van Th iel’s diary, February 1768. Among the books she mentions are Winckelman’s Samenspraak, which she reads every

day, and Boddaert’s Stichtelyke gedichten (12 February). (Photo: Rotterdam city archives).

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collection of hymns Uytspanningen, in which he expressed the relation-ship between God and the faithful believer in simple terms, each time taking a verse of the bible as his point of departure.146 Many other clerics, and lay writers too, followed in the footsteps of poets such as Lodenstein in the eighteenth century. One was Pieter Boddaert, who published poems describing refl ections that arose during self-examination. Th e clergyman Rutger Schutte wrote poetry on the same aspects of pietistic religious faith, and furnished his poems with copious annotations.147

Devotional poetry was popular among religious believers, and this is a prominent category on Van Th iel’s book list. She refers to eighteen books of devotional poems in her diary, including work by Schutte, Boddaert, Johannes Voet and Winckelman. Van Th iel also read James Hervey’s contemplations, which were inspired by observing the natural world. Hervey’s poems were enormously popular and were reprinted again and again. Th ey exemplifi ed the rise of physico-theology, which sought to reconcile natural science with Protestant devoutness. Th is philosophy taught that God’s greatness was indispensable to the contemplation of the wondrous workings of His creation.148 Mathias Engelberts, whose work is also mentioned in the diary, was one of Hervey’s Dutch followers.149 He wrote contemplations on each of the four seasons, sprinkled with devotional poems from numerous other works, including Winckelman’s.

A fi nal group of religious books mentioned in Van Th iel’s diary con-sists of four historical works. One was a history of the Jews by Prideaux, and another was a Dutch translation of Archibald Bower’s Th e History of the Popes. Th e other two works were biographical: one on the life of Philip Doddridge and a posthumous edition of the letters of James Hervey. Van Th iel also read several other books by Doddridge, a British clergyman with many contacts in the Netherlands. While adopting a pietistic tone in his work, he showed himself at the same time to be a supporter of the Enlightenment cast in a Protestant mould.150

146 Stronks, Stichten of schitteren, p. 115.147 S.D. Post, Pieter Boddaert en Rutger Schutte: piëtistische dichters in de achttiende

eeuw (Houten: De Graaf, 1995), pp. 102–103, 239–241.148 J. Bots, Tussen Descartes en Darwin. Geloof en natuurwetenschap in de achttiende

eeuw in Nederland (Assen: Van Grocum, 1972), pp. 117–118.149 Described in the Boekzaal as ‘our Dutch Hervey’, Boekzaal July 1768, p. 44.150 J. van den Berg and G.F. Nuttal, Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) and the Netherlands

(Leiden: Brill, 1987), p. 94.


Although Jacoba van Th iel’s diary refers primarily to religious books, her attention did not focus exclusively on spiritual matters. Seventeen of the titles on her list may be classifi ed as secular. Most of the peri-odicals that Van Th iel read were on the borderline between secular and religious. She refers to four in her diary: the Boekzaal, Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen and the Denker dealt with secular as well as ecclesiasti-cal aff airs. Th e Artz was a periodical that popularised a form of medical science infl uenced by physico-theology.

Th e Boekzaal fi rst appeared in 1692, and was the fi rst periodical to be published in Dutch. Like the foreign examples on which it was based, it was a scholarly journal, but reached out to a somewhat wider educated readership, with information about new books and scientifi c advances, and obituaries on prominent scholars. In the eighteenth century, the Boekzaal became the favourite magazine of clergymen, focusing on theological scholarship.151 Th e Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen published regular reviews of theological publications, but was wider in scope than the Boekzaal. It is regarded as one of the Netherlands’ fi rst gen-eral cultural magazines, the fi rst to provide information, opinions and entertainment, the three pillars of the magazine sector.152 Finally, the Denker was a ‘Spectatorial’ weekly that commented on social trends.

Of the other secular items on Van Th iel’s reading list, three were political and one historical. She oft en refers to reading the newspaper, but it is not clear which one she read. Th e second political item was the Deductie by Onno Zwier van Haren. Th is Frisian nobleman defended himself verbally and in writing against accusations of incest levelled at him by his daughters. Another work with a political subject, but which also dealt with religious and historical matters, was the ‘Protestation’ (Aanspraak) that the Frenchman Jean Calas had made before his execu-tion. Th e Protestant Calas was convicted of his son’s murder and broken on the wheel in 1762; it was alleged that he had acted to prevent or punish his son’s conversion to Catholicism. Th e case attracted interna-tional attention when the philosopher Voltaire took it as an example in his fi ght to curb religious intolerance and to urge the reform of the legal system.153 Th e historical book on Van Th iel’s list was a biography of another victim of political oppression, Hugo Grotius.

151 Johannes, Barometer, pp. 5, 100, 118.152 Ibid., pp. 118 ff .153 Voltaire believed that the conviction had been inspired solely by a blind hatred

of Protestants. He wrote persuasively and managed to mobilise public opinion behind

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Th e largest group of books in the secular category dealt with ethics; their authors sought to improve the general moral standards of society. Some went about it quite directly. Van Th iel read a Dutch version of Sermons to Young Women, for instance, in which the British clergy-man James Fordyce provided advice in areas ranging from clothing to religion. Other texts inculcated moral standards in a more oblique fashion. In the Satirical Letters of the German writer Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener, for instance, satire was used ‘to display the failings of human beings and their absurd and foolish behaviour . . . and to instil an aver-sion to [such behaviour].’ Th e Moral Tales of the French author Jean François Marmontel were based on the same principle, except that Marmontel’s examples were intended not as deterrents but quite the contrary, to show behaviour worthy of emulation. Van Th iel also read his Belisarius, in which Marmontel allows his enlightened views on virtue to be expressed by the Roman general Belisarius, in his advice to the future emperor Tiberius. Concealed in the footnotes was the comment that one could quite well live a moral life without any inter-ference by ecclesiastical authorities, a radical message that unleashed a fi erce controversy on religious tolerance.154 Th e Belisarius is rather a remarkable title to encounter on a list with such a distinct religious bias, and demonstrates that radical works were not read exclusively in progressive circles.

Looking at Jacoba van Th iel’s reading as a whole, we cannot classify this devout woman unreservedly as a traditional, intensive reader. She was conservative, in the sense that she read primarily religious works, but the number of books mentioned in her diary is fairly large. It is by no means an undiff erentiated body of texts: on the contrary, the entire religious spectrum, from orthodox to enlightened Protestant, was represented on Van Th iel’s reading list. Furthermore, her reading was not restricted to spiritual topics. Th e list includes seventeen titles

him. He managed to get the case reviewed by a committee, which concluded that Calas had been the victim of a wrongful conviction. Th e Calas case was one of a number of famous court cases that generated great controversy in France and helped to develop public opinion as an infl uential force. Maza, Private Lives and Public Aff airs.

154 Th is controversy was triggered by a passage stating that people such as Socrates, who had lived before the coming of Christ, had gone to heaven because they had lived virtuous lives. Here Marmontel was essentially declaring Christian doctrine to be redundant. Th is unleashed a controversy on the question of the extent to which the Reformed Church should be the only recognised church in the United Provinces. See Ernestine van der Wall, Socrates in de hemel?: een achttiende-eeuwse polemiek over deugd, verdraagzaamheid en de vaderlandse kerk (Hilversum: Verloren, 2000).


that can be described as secular, including some that have acquired a permanent place in the historiography of the Enlightenment.

Old or new?

Eighteenth-century commentators would oft en complain about the infl ux of foreign novels fl ooding the Dutch market.155 Th ey might just as well have directed their attacks at other genres, since translations were abundant everywhere, as Jacoba van Th iel’s diary makes clear. Although Van Th iel read only in Dutch, a large proportion of her list, 29 titles in all, consisted of translations. She refers to 21 titles by British authors, including Benjamin Bennet, Philip Doddridge and James Hervey. Th is large proportion of British authors in the diary of a devout Dutch reader underscores the close relations that existed between the British and Dutch Pietist movements.156 Van Th iel also read six French authors in translation, including the two books by Marmontel mentioned above. Finally, the list of translations includes one work originally written in German and one written in Latin. Th ese were Rabener’s Satirical Letters and Stephanus de Brais’s comments on the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.157

De Brais’s work had been translated and printed in 1738. Van Th iel read the book on 15 December 1768, in other words thirty years aft er it had fi rst appeared. Since her notes on her reading are dated so precisely, we can compile an accurate picture of the ‘age’ of this eighteenth-century diarist’s reading. Was Van Th iel unusual in reading work that was so old? When we compare the year in which the fi rst edition of a book appeared with the time when Van Th iel read it, we discover that her reading contained a great deal of relatively old material. Of the sixty titles that can be identifi ed with certainty, almost half – 26 in total – had fi rst appeared over twenty years earlier. Over two-thirds of her reading (44 titles) was at least fi ve years old. Most of the devotional poetry that Van Th iel read can be classifi ed as ‘old’ work. Th e volumes of poetry

155 Kloek and Mijnhardt, 1800, pp. 490–491 [Kloek and Mijnhardt, Blueprints for a National Community, chapter 22].

156 Campell, Religion of the Heart, pp. 71–75. A great many Pietist works were translated from English into Dutch, as is clear from Van der Haar’s bibliography, From Abbadie to Young.

157 Th e work of Hans Kaspar Hirzel, De wysgeerige landman, has been included here among the French authors. In fact it is a Dutch translation of a French translation (Le Socrate rustique) of a German work: Die Wirthschaft eines philosophischen Bauers.

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by Sluiter, Vollenhove and Lodenstein, for instance, dated from the late seventeenth century, while those by Poot and Boddaert had been printed in the early eighteenth century.158 Th e oldest book on her list (not counting the Bible) was a volume of sermons by Th omas Watzon. Th e collected sermons of this British clergyman, who lived from 1620 to 1689, were fi rst translated into Dutch in 1666. Still, while the text itself was dated, Van Th iel may well have read the fourth edition, which was published in 1744.

Judging by the books that Van Th iel mentions in her diary, she was fi rmly entrenched in tradition. In part, this tradition was very literal: nine of the titles that Van Th iel read were also found on her father’s bookshelves.159 Th e catalogue drawn up of the 1756 auction of his library includes the works by Prideaux, Moulin, Van den Honert and Van Leeuwarden. Roeland van Th iel also owned Dutch translations of Beveridge’s Private Th oughts upon a Christian Life and La Placette’s La communion devote ou la maniere de participe . . . à l’eucaristie.

But not all Jacoba van Th iel’s reading was work that had been pub-lished many years earlier. Eight of the titles were very recent and she read them in the year in which they had appeared, while four were one year old. Th e age of the books had little to do with their genre: she read poetry and sermons both old and new. Winckelman’s poems, for instance, were four years old. Th e fi rst few volumes of Peiff ers’ Th e Unfaltering Faith of a True, though Illiterate, Christian were published in 1766, and Van Th iel read them only one year later. Th is was an excep-tion in her recent reading, however, which included very few religious works. Almost all of the works that Van Th iel read within a year of their publication were secular. Periodicals were by their nature topical. Van Th iel kept herself informed about recent developments by reading the Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen, the Denker and the Boekzaal. Th e ethical treatises she read were also recent. Van Th iel read Hirzel’s Th e Rural Socrates, being Memoirs of a Country Philosopher and Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women in the year of publication, while Young’s

158 Th is is not to say, of course, that Van Th iel read seventeenth-century books. Th e poetry volumes mentioned on her list ran through many editions, so she may well have read a recent one. Lodenstein’s Uytspanningen were fi rst printed in 1676, for instance, but another twenty editions appeared before 1780, including one in 1760. Stronks, Stichten of schitteren, pp. 107–108.

159 Catalogus Bibliotheca . . . Roelandus van Th iel (Leiden 1757).


Th e Centaur Not Fabulous and Marmontel’s Belisarius were not a year old when Van Th iel fi rst looked at them.

It has long been assumed in historiography that eighteenth-century readers were interested in a constant fl ow of new books, but it is now believed that this applied to only a limited proportion of readers, while there was a large market for books of enduring value.160 Van Th iel’s diary justifi es the proposition that one cannot speak of two diff erent reader-ships, one for topical and one for more enduring literature. A reader such as Van Th iel moved in both market sectors and her preferences were neither exclusively old-fashioned nor exclusively modern.

Readers of pious literature and readers of novels

Was Van Th iel’s taste in books unusual? Most of the titles to which she refers were probably widely read. De Kruif ’s study of eighteenth-century private libraries in Th e Hague includes several of the titles read by Van Th iel in the list of the most popular books. Johannes van der Kemp’s collected sermons, for instance (De christen geheel en al het eigendom van Christus) was mentioned in 16% of Hague probate inventories.161 Th e works of Johannes d’Outrein were also very popular in Th e Hague, as were the poems of Lodenstein and the works of the English puritan John Bunyan.162 When we look at genres rather than specifi c titles, we fi nd even more eighteenth-century readers in Th e Hague exhibiting a taste similar to Van Th iel’s. People with a medium-sized private library (11 to 100 titles) included a clearly identifi able group that was primarily interested in theological literature. Th ese people’s bookshelves were largely full of Bibles, psalters, volumes of sermons and devotional literature. Interestingly, women accounted for a relatively large propor-tion of this group.163

Genres such as collected sermons and devotional poetry are fre-quently mentioned in other eighteenth-century egodocuments. ‘In short, biblical knowledge, book ownership and scholarship . . . were highly important to the Pietist way of life’, concluded Van Lieburg aft er studying eighteenth-century autobiographies of converts.164 Lodenstein’s

160 Baggerman, Een lot, p. 351.161 De Kruif, Liefh ebbers, p. 212.162 Ibid., pp. 203–204; 216, 219.163 Ibid., pp. 175–179.164 Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, p. 96.

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hymns were frequently quoted in eighteenth-century diaries and auto-biographies, as Stronks has shown. Both Johannes Wassenaar and Maria Bagelaar, mentioned above, quoted from the Uytspanningen.165 Th e minister’s daughter Johanna Maria Nahuys also wrote in her diary from 1799–1801, which is larded with religious refl ections, that she frequently read devotional poetry. She sang hymns from the collections compiled by Schutte and Voet, for instance, books that Van Th iel had read thirty years earlier.166 Like Van Th iel, Nahuys read work by Hervey and Van der Kemp.167 Th e egodocuments that mentioned books com-parable to those on Van Th iel’s list generally refl ected the same devout background: those who recorded religious refl ections tended to read similar religious material.

Even diaries that were less strongly infl uenced by Pietism sometimes referred to titles similar to Van Thiel’s. Johannes de Fremery, for instance (the brother of Van Th iel’s brother-in-law) wrote in his diary that he read sermons by Ewaldus Kist and Pieter Hendrik van Lis.168 Although his diary was not very devout, he had a certain affi nity with Pietism in practice. On one occasion he wrote: ‘From 8 to 9 o’clock I was alone, and read Sheppard’s Th e Sound Believer’.169 So De Fremery sometimes secluded himself with books about spiritual rebirth. Th e genres mentioned by Van Th iel seldom occur in less devout diaries. Aafj e Gijsen, the daughter of a merchant from Zaandam, kept a diary between 1773 and 1775 that focused mainly on her social life. One entry records that a relative had called to bring her the periodical De Denker.170 Although Van Th iel was familiar with this publication, she did not know any of the other books mentioned by Gijsen. She does not mention any novels, plays or travel accounts in her diary. Gijsen’s reading, in contrast, included the novel Th e History of Sir William

165 Stronks, Stichten of schitteren, pp. 128–132.166 Westfries Archief, coll. Verloren, inv. no. 694: 5 February 1800, 9 February 1800.167 Ibid., 19 January 1800 (Hervey). Th e collected sermons of the said clergymen are

mentioned in countless entries in the diary.168 Zeeuws Archief, FA Mathias-Pous-Tak van Poortvliet, inv. no. 383: 22 March

and 6 December 1801 (Van Lis); 3 May, 17 May 1801 (Kist).169 Ibid., 5 November 1799. Th e book was written by Th omas Shepard and its full

title was: Th e Sound Believer: a treatise of evangelical conversion, discovering the work of Christ’s spirit, in reconciling of a sinner to God. First edition printed in 1686.

170 Aafj e Gijsen, Het dagverhaal, 8 March 1773.


Harrington by Anna Meades, plays by the Danish playwright Ludvig Holberg, and the travel stories of Cornelis de Bruijn.171

Novels were also mentioned in other eighteenth-century diaries. Clara Cornelia van Eyck, who lived in exile, wrote of having spent an evening in 1790 ‘leafi ng through’ Sara Burgerhart, an epistolary novel by the Dutch writers Wolff and Deken.172 It should be noted that this fi rst Dutch novel did not appear until Van Th iel had stopped keep-ing her diary. But Gijsen’s notes show that plenty of foreign novels had appeared in translation before that, besides which many readers could read them in the original version: Magdalena van Schinne, the daughter of a Hague offi cial, frequently read novels in other languages, including Le nègre comme il y a peu des blancs by Joseph Lavallée.173 Wennemar Hendrik Dröghoorn, who was studying in Utrecht, purchased a French translation of Richardson’s Pamela besides the books needed for his study.174 Van Th iel would not have been able to read such books herself, even if she had been interested in novels, since she did not know any foreign languages.

Van Th iel’s inability to read French was partly due to the inacces-sibility of higher education to women, but social factors also played a role. In higher social groups, it was customary for women to be taught French. Isabelle Agneta Elizabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken was virtually a contemporary of Jacoba van Th iel’s – she was born in 1740 and died in 1805 – but she was born into the nobility, and was highly fl uent in both French and other languages. Belle van Zuylen, as she is also known, therefore had access to a completely diff erent range of books. In her letters from 1767, the year in which Van Th iel started keeping her diary, Voltaire’s L’ingenu and Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man were just two of the many literary works mentioned by this gift ed and enlightened woman.175

171 Ibid., 30 January 1774, 8 January 1774, 2 February 1775. Several collections of Holberg’s plays were published from 1757 onwards under the title of Aardige en vermakelyke blyspeelen. Cornelis de Bruijn wrote two books about his travels in Asia Minor and Russia: Reizen . . . door Klein Asia (Delft 1698) and Reizen over Moskovië (Amsterdam 1711).

172 Clara Cornelia van Eijck, Mijn waarde vrindin, 5 September 1790.173 Magdalena van Schinne, Het dagboek, 7 February 1792 (Lavallee); 8 March 1786,

29 August 1788, 9 January 1792 (unnamed novels).174 W.H. Dingeldein, ‘Een Ootmarsums burgergezin in de Patriottentijd’, in Uit leven

en werk van W.H. Dingeldein (Enschede: Van der Loeff , 1988). Note made in 1774.175 Belle van Zuylen, Ik heb geen talent voor ondergeschiktheid. Belle van Zuylen in

briefwisseling met Constant d’Hermences, James Boswell en Werner C.W. van Pallandt

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Th e parsonage library

Comparisons between Van Th iel and other book owners only hold good up to a point, since the fi gures used here relate not to the number of books that Van Th iel owned but to the number mentioned in her diary. We have no knowledge concerning what she read before 1767 or aft er 1770. Moreover, we cannot be sure that she actually owned all the items that are mentioned. Who owned the books that were read in the De Fremery household – Van Th iel, her sister or her brother-in-law?

One thing is clear: Overschie’s parsonage was well supplied with books. In April 1768, during a big spring-cleaning operation, Van Th iel wrote that she had spent the morning ‘cleaning some books’. It seems that she did not get much done that day, since the following day she was obliged to write: ‘As soon as we had fi nished breakfast, we went back to cleaning books, which occupied our time until luncheon and we were still not fi nished. We did the rest aft er luncheon.’176 Some of the books were undoubtedly kept in her brother-in-law’s study.177 But books were also kept in other rooms of the house. During the spring-cleaning operation of 1769, wrote Van Th iel, the family ‘set about cleaning the books from the downstairs room’.178

How did books end up in these other rooms? Th e diary gives some indication of the answer. As has been noted earlier in this chapter, Van Th iel, her sister and her brother-in-law had a large circle of acquain-tances in Leiden. Mietje and Stansie Luchtmans were two of Van Th iel’s women friends from her childhood in Leiden, whom she still visited on a regular basis,179 and with whom she frequently corresponded. Th e let-ter she wrote to Mietje in September 1768 included a discussion of ‘the adverse eff ects of the struggle on this earth’, though it was mainly about books.180 Mietje, whose maiden name was Maria Johanna Reijtsma, was married to Johannes Luchtmans, one of the city’s leading booksellers. Johannes and his brother Samuel had taken charge of the bookshop and publishing-house, which had been founded in 1683. Besides their joint

translated and edited by Greetje van den Bergh (Amsterdam: Van Oorschot, 1987), letters of 29 May 1767 and 8 July 1767.

176 14, 15 April 1768.177 26 April 1768: ‘we straightened out the study’. 178 17 April 1769.179 She stayed there from 26 October to 16 November 1767, and from 19 September

until 16 October 1769.180 22 September 1768.


ownership of a company, the two brothers also had the same mother-in-law, since Samuel Luchtmans had married Constantia (‘Stansie’) Elisabeth Reijtsma, Mietje’s sister.181 Where books were concerned, one could scarcely have hoped for better friends.182

In the course of the eighteenth century, Luchtmans developed into one of the fi rst wholesale companies for booksellers all over the coun-try.183 Meanwhile, the brothers were still running their own bookshop in Leiden.184 Jacoba van Th iel may well have visited it whenever she was staying in Leiden, but she could also easily order books from Overschie, with the help of her friend Mietje Luchtmans. So some of the books that Van Th iel dusted off had been purchased at Luchtmans by Van Th iel herself.

Do we know anything about which books were cleaned during the spring-cleaning operation? Van Th iel’s diary unfortunately does not give the titles of any the books that she ordered from Mietje Luchtmans. Even so, it is possible to gain an idea of the printed matter that fi lled the bookshelves in the house at Overschie, since we also possess some sources on the reading history of its male owner.

Like his sister-in-law, Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery was well-acquainted with the Luchtmans family and had been a regular customer of their business since his student days.185 We know this because the bookshop’s records have been preserved. Petrus Isaäcus was registered as a customer from 1758, when he was still a student, until 1805, by which time he was a retired professor.

De Fremery’s fi rst purchase is registered on 17 October 1758: it was a ‘Logica’ by Hollmann, probably the introduction to rational philosophy

181 RAL, Leidse Bibliotheek 6050: Luchtmans family tree. Th e Van Th iel sisters were contemporaries of the Reijtsma sisters. Constantia was born in 1738, like Anna Catharina van Th iel, and Maria was born in 1742, the same year as Jacoba. Constantia Reijtsma died in 1786, while Maria died in 1798.

182 Luchtmans dominated Leiden’s academic book market in the eighteenth century. Th e business had cultivated the image of a scholarly publishing-house ever since its beginnings in 1683. Luchtmans’s presses turned out countless editions of classical texts. In 1730 the company also became the offi cial printer’s of the city and the university. At that time it was still being run by Samuel I, ‘old Mr Luchtmans,’ as Van Th iel called him in her diary later on. Samuel’s sons took over in the mid-eighteenth century.

183 Van Goinga, Alom te bekomen, p. 83.184 On Luchtmans, see Arend Smilde, ‘Lezers bij Luchtmans’, in Negentiende eeuw

14 (1990), pp. 147–158.185 For instance, Mietje Luchtmans sent De Fremery a letter with birthday wishes on

6 April 1768 (‘and [a letter] from Miss Luchtmans with good wishes for Brother’).

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written by the German Samuel Christian Hollmann.186 Th is purchase identifi es De Fremery as a typical Luchtmans customer, as defi ned by Arend Smilde. Most of Luchtmans’ customers were classically trained academics, whose purchases were still inspired by the humanist ideal.187 De Fremery certainly bought a good many books in Latin, mostly the-ology but a number of historical and philosophical works as well. In 1761, for instance, he purchased Calvin’s Opera Omnia, Augustine’s De Civitate Dei and a book on the origins of ecclesiastical law.188 One of the purchases made by ‘Mr Fremery of Overschie’ in 1764 was Zimmerman’s Opuscula.189 Latin was certainly not the dominant lan-guage of his books. De Fremery purchased numerous theology books in German, French and Dutch, French translations of Humphry Ditton’s anti-deist work, Discourse concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Samuel Clarke’s Discourse concerning the Being and Attributes of God, and the Sittenlehre der Heiligen Schrift by Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, an author of whose work he would purchase much more later on.190 De Fremery purchased large numbers of theology books in Dutch, including a translation of Th e divine legation of Moses by William Warburton, the Beschouwende godgeleerdheid (‘Contemplative Th eology’) by Adriaan Buurt and Herman Venema’s Redevoeringen over Mattheus (‘Addresses on Matthew’).

It is easy to imagine that it took more than a day to dust all the books in 1768, now that we have a good picture of De Fremery’s purchases from Luchtmans. He spent an average of 37 guilders a year there between 1758 and 1769, which would defi ne him as a ‘major purchaser’ in the terms of Han Brouwer’s study of eighteenth-century bookshops in the town of Zwolle.191 De Fremery purchased mainly specialist litera-

186 BVHB, AL: PG 1756–1769 [Luchtmans Archive, Account books], p. 136. Th e book referred to as ‘Hollmanni Logica’ may have been Samuel Christian Hollmann, Philosophia rationalis, qvae logica vvlgo dicitvr, mvltvm avcta et emendata (Göttingen 1747).

187 Smilde, ‘Lezers bij Luchtmans’, p. 156.188 BVHB, AL: PG 1756–1769, p. 183.189 Ibid., p. 263.190 Th ese works included Versuch einer unpartheiischen und gründlichen Ketzerge-

schichte; Kurze Anweisung, die Gottesgelahrtheit vernünft ig zu erlernen; Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen. Problems in understanding the German text could be solved by consulting Kramers’ Dutch-German dictionary, Het nieuw Neder-Hoog-Duitsch en Hoog-Neder-Duitsch woordenboek, which De Fremery purchased in 1761.

191 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 80–81. In this book, Brouwer divides the custom-ers of the bookshop Tijl in Zwolle for the period 1777–1787 into groups according to the money spent. Of the 392 customers listed in the shop’s records, the majority spent


ture for use in his work in the ministry. Th ese included several books on Christian ethics, including subjects that he oft en addressed in his sermons.192 Other purchases appear to have had more to do with his private life, such as a Dutch copy of Miller’s Gardener’s Calendar in the year that major renovations were carried out on the parsonage’s summer-house.193

De Fremery’s account at Luchtmans included numerous titles men-tioned in Van Th iel’s diary. Dutch translations of Moulin’s Treatise on Peace of Soul and Content of Mind (Vrede der zielen) and Hirzel’s Th e Rural Socrates (De wijsgerige landman) are two of the twelve books read by Van Th iel that her brother-in-law had purchased from Luchtmans. At least, this is what the accounts suggest. In fact, the truth was rather diff erent, as the diary makes clear. Women’s purchases are generally invisible in the records of bookshops, since accounts would be listed under the name of the male head of the family.194 In November 1767, Luchtmans sold him works by Du Moulin, Hirzel and Fordyce. But this was the precise period in which Van Th iel was staying in Leiden – in the home of Luchtmans himself. In her diary, Van Th iel refers to reading one of these books. Aft er her brother-in-law and sister had returned to Overschie, Van Th iel stayed behind in the home of her friend Mietje Luchtmans, ‘reading a little in the book entitled Sermons to Young Women by Mr Fordyce.’195 Th e next day she browsed through the book again and that evening she read aloud from it to Mietje

less than fi ve guilders a year, while a small minority of 17 customers spent more than 25 guilders a year in the shop.

192 18 October, 6 December 1767.193 Philip Miller, Th e gardener’s kalendar [sic], directing what works are necessary

to be performed every month, in the kitchens, fruit, and pleasure gardens; and in the conservatory and nursery; Dutch title: Maandelykse tuin-oeff eningen, aantoonende, wat werk noodzaaklyk te doen is in ieder maand van het jaar, zoo in de moes- vrugt- en bloem-tuin, als in de stook- en broei-kassen, en de kweekery (Haarlem 1767). Th at the garden was being overhauled is clear from sources other than the diary. Th e records of Overschie church council list a number of payments made in 1768: ‘To Jan van ’t Hof, carpenter, 85 guilders for renovating the summer-house; Cornelis Hackwater, bricklayer, 14 guilders for renovating the steps of the garden-house; Isaac van ’t Hof 18 guilders for painting the summer-house . . . Hendrik Beiseveld for tarpaulin for the summer-house and parsonage 27 guilders and 5 stuyvers. For the purchase of orchard tax, 3 guilders, 2 stuyvers and 8 cents.’ GA Rotterdam, Oud Stads Archief inv. no. 924: Overschie church book of accounts.

194 For this reason, there are almost no references to married women in the eigh-teenth-century records of booksellers in Zwolle. Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, pp. 42, 216.

195 6 November 1767.

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Luchtmans, prompting an enjoyable conversation.196 It seems reason-able to conjecture that Mietje may have urged Van Th iel to take the book with her and have said that her husband would charge it to De Fremery’s account.

In 1771 we see a change in the records. From 1771 until the end of 1775, Jacoba van Th iel had her own account at Luchtmans,197 although it does not include a great many purchases. She spent an average of thirteen guilders a year in this fi ve-year period, an average that was boosted by expenditure amounting to almost fi ft y guilders in 1773. In 1771 she bought only one book – Johannes Voet’s rhymed version of the psalms. In 1772 she subscribed to the regular instalments of a Biblical commentary, but cancelled her subscription again a year later. Th at year she did buy a number of other books: the works of Hervey,198 Peiff er’s Th e Unfaltering Faith of a True, though Illiterate Christian, and one or more books each by Watts and Bennet.199 In 1775, Van Th iel paid slightly over eight guilders for Boston’s A view of the covenant of grace and Human nature in its four-fold state, and Booth’s Reign of grace.200 Finally, in 1775 Luchtmans charged two small Bibles to Van Th iel’s account. One of these items referred merely to the binding of a Bible, a service for which she had called on Luchtmans before. In 1773 she had bindings made for a whole series of books of diff erent sizes. Possibly the old bindings were worn, or she may have bought the books unbound.

Th e purchases of 1771–1775 show that Van Th iel did not radically alter her taste in books aft er abandoning her diary. Religious books continued to make up the largest proportion of her reading. Some of the records are puzzling, nonetheless. Van Th iel bought a number of items from Luchtmans that she had already mentioned in her diary several years earlier. In other words, she bought books that she had

196 7 November 1767.197 BVKB, AL: PG 1770–1780, pp. 124, 206.198 It is not known which title is referred to here.199 Th e reference does not make it clear whether the reference is to a single book by

Watts and Bennet or to two books, one by each of these authors.200 Th e translations she read were Th omas Boston, Eene beschouwing van het verbondt

der genade, uit de heilige gedenkschrift en (Leiden 1741); idem, Des menschen natuur in des zelfs viervoudige staat van eerste opregtheyt, geheele bederving, begonne herstelling en voltrokke gelukzaligheit of elende. Vertoond in verscheyde praktikale redenvoeringen (Leiden 1742). Abraham Booth, De heerschappy der genade, van derzelver oorsprong tot aan derzelver vervulling, nagespeurd en overwoogen door Abraham Booth, bedienaar van’t H. Euangelium in London (Utrecht 1774).


already read. In the case of Th omas Boston, this was because she had previously looked at one of his books while visiting an acquaintance.201 But this was not always the case. For instance, although she received James Hervey’s Contemplations as a 27th-birthday present, and read his other work in 1768 and 1769, she nonetheless purchased his ‘works’ in 1773.202 Had she been enticed by the ‘pictures’ that went with the work, as Luchtmans noted down? Did she want to possess the books in a standard edition? It is unclear. But the fact that Van Th iel possessed Hervey’s work and Peiff er’s Unfaltering Faith in several diff erent editions refl ects something of the respect she evidently felt for these authors.

Relatives and women in Luchtmans’ shop

Th e clientele of the Leiden bookseller Luchtmans included several people from Van Th iel’s circle of relatives and acquaintances. His records therefore give us a picture of the book culture in which Van Th iel moved.

Van Th iel’s brother Jan made far fewer purchases at Luchtmans’ shop than his brother-in-law De Fremery, but he too favoured theology,203 and like him possessed copies of specialist literature such as Lilienthal’s Archivarius and Bachiene’s Kerkelijke geographie (‘Ecclesiastical Geo-graphy’). Th ree of the titles he purchased were also mentioned in his sister’s diary: Rabener’s Satirical Letters, Van Merken’s Het nut der tegenspoeden (‘Advantages of Adversity’) and the periodical De Boekzaal. Th e fi nal item noted down on Jan van Th iel’s account struck a rather bitter note. It was for the purchase of ‘135 sheets of writing-paper with wide black borders’, a few days aft er Jan van Th iel’s death.

Two of De Fremery’s brothers, Johannes and Jacobus, also belonged to Luchtmans’ clientele.204 Jacobus was one of the few non-clergymen among Van Th iel’s relatives. His (modest-sized) account at Luchtmans accordingly contained no specialist theological literature, although like Jacoba van Th iel he did purchase a translation of Booth’s Reign of Grace. He had also been able to converse with his brothers about the

201 5 March 1769.202 29 December 1769.203 BVHB, AL: PG 1756–1769, pp. 272 and 391; Ibid.: PG 1770–1780, p. 9.204 Johannes: BVHB, AL: PG 1756–1769, pp. 269, 342, 461; PG 1770–1780, pp. 28,

248; PG 1781–1794, pp. 70, 222, 274; PG 1795–1828, p. 25. Jacobus: PG 1770–1780, p. 185.

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works of Mosheim, which he purchased in 1778 and 1779. Johannes de Fremery, the other brother, was a clergyman, and he purchased much the same books as Petrus Isaäcus. Both owned books of theol-ogy by Lilienthal, Bachiene, Mosheim, Venema and Vitringa. Like Jacoba van Th iel, Johannes de Fremery too read Boekzaal and the Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen. He also read De Brais’s book about the Epistles of the apostle Paul, the only diff erence being that he read them in Latin. In 1775 Johannes purchased Dutch copies of James Hervey’s Contemplations and Refl ections and a year later he also bought a Dutch translation of Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. Finally, Johannes appears to have ordered faithfully the consecutive volumes of Doddridge’s Family Expositor (also in Dutch translation).

Several of Van Th iel’s acquaintances from Leiden also had accounts at Luchtmans. Constantia Reitsma, ‘Stansie Luchtmans’, bought a handful of devotional works there in 1763 and 1764, for instance, including the poems of Jacoba Petronella Winckelman. Th is title was also purchased in 1764 by a ‘Miss Van der Stel’. It is unclear which of Van Th iel’s two Leiden friends is referred to here, but it is certain that their friendship was buttressed by shared preferences in literature. Th e records show that ‘Miss Van der Stel’ bought work by Du Moulin, Van Schelle and Van Velzen. But she also purchased a French translation of Richardson’s Pamela, so it seems that her interests were wider than spiritual improvement. Th e mother of Stansie and Mietje Luchtmans was another good acquaintance, whom Van Th iel frequently visited in Leiden; on one occasion she even recorded having an edifying conversa-tion with ‘old Miss Reijtsma’ (she was a widow) that had cheered her up.205 Th is elderly lady would oft en visit the shop run by her sons-in-law to purchase religious literature. Her purchases included work by Voet, the sermons of Van Schelle, and a Dutch copy of Hervey’s Letters. In short, Van Th iel’s family, friends and acquaintances all shared similar preferences for literature.206

205 28 November 1767.206 Van Th iel also knew the Luchtmans sisters. On 27 October 1767, for instance,

‘Young Miss Luchtmans’ came to welcome Van Th iel in Leiden. Th is must have been Cornelia Luchtmans, who was born in 1734. On 9 November 1767, Van Th iel went on a day trip to Th e Hague with ‘young Miss Luchtmans with her brothers and sisters’. Johanna Catharina Luchtmans, born in 1731, must have accompanied them. Johanna Catharina and Cornelia Luchtmans also bought books in their brothers’ shop. In 1759, for instance, they purchased a Dutch translation of Bennet’s Christian Oratory and in 1762 Appelius’ Aanmerkingen . . . of regt gebruik van ’t evangelie (‘Observations . . . or


It is clear that Van Th iel’s tastes were far from unusual. Many other women visited Luchtmans looking mainly for devotional literature. Th ey constituted a characteristic group of women readers, though they certainly did not refl ect the shop’s entire female clientele. Also listed in the shop’s accounts for 1756–1769, for instance, is a Miss Rijcke, whose purchases at Luchtmans were confi ned to newspapers such as the Europische Staatsecretaris and the Postrijder. Th en there was a Miss Jacobi, who delighted in tales of adventure, both fi ctional and non-fi ctional. In the years 1756 and 1757 nearly all her purchases had expres-sive titles such as De zwervende Hollander, of de gevallen van een geboren Hagenaar, door hem zelfs beschreven (‘Th e Wandering Dutchman, or the adventures of a man of Th e Hague, described by himself ’), Het ver-ruilde kindt, of de gevallen van Benjamin Knobbel (‘Th e changeling: or the adventures of Benjamin Knobbel’) and De standvaste Africaensche Adelaide (‘Th e faithful African Adelaide’).207 A widow named Van Dorp confi ned herself to highly-regarded epistolary novels in French. Her purchases included French translations of Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison and Clarissa, and Degraffi gny’s Lettres d’une Péruvienne. Th ese ladies clearly had very diff erent preferences from those of Jacoba van Th iel and her circle.

Purchases and gift s

Th e Luchtmans’ records show only one of the ways in which Jacoba van Th iel acquired her reading material. She may have visited other bookshops, for instance in Rotterdam, where she frequently did her shopping. As we have already seen, however, Van Th iel did not neces-sarily have to visit the bookshop in person. Her friendship with Mietje Luchtmans provided an excellent opportunity to order books without

the right use of the gospel’) in addition to De la Touche’s l’Art de bien parler français and three volumes of Sonates pour le clavecimbel.

207 Other tales of adventure charged to this lady’s account were: De gevallen van Robbert Ridder, bygenaamd Van Beauchéne, die . . . zich . . . onder de wilden in America begeven hebbende, onder hen opgevoed is, en vervolgens in zyne omzwervingen de zonderlingste ontmoetingen zo ter zee als te land wedervaren heeft . . . Benevens verscheide andere lezenswaardige gevallen en aanmerkenswaardige gebeurtenissen (Amsterdam 1757); De te water en te lande reizende Robinson van den berg Libanon (Leeuwarden 1757); Historie van den ridder-baronet Karel Grandison (Harlingen 1756–57). Th ese books were hot off the press when she bought them. If one can speak of a reading revolution, then this Miss Jacobi was certainly a prototype of a modern, ‘extensive’ reader, whose main interest was in entertainment.

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leaving her desk. Just how signifi cant were Van Th iel’s own purchases in determining the composition of her reading-list is not easy to ascertain. Th e Luchtmans’ records for 1771–75 show that she was not a big buyer of books, in that she purchased only seven titles in that period.

If the bookshop’s records were the only surviving source on her reading, Jacoba van Th iel would be classifi ed as a reader who contented herself with a very small number of religious books. Th anks to the diary, however, it is clear that this conclusion would have been wholly inac-curate. Van Th iel did in fact read widely, but buying books was not the only way of acquiring them. Recent historical research has pointed out that nineteenth-century readers widened their interests by using diverse channels to acquire literature. Jacoba van Th iel shows that this was also possible in the eighteenth century, although the channels used may have been diff erent ones.208 For instance, Van Th iel oft en acquired reading matter from relatives and acquaintances. Two of the titles mentioned in her diary were given to her as birthday presents. On the morning of her 25th birthday, her sister and brother-in-law greeted her with a translation of Doddridge’s Practical discourses on regeneration.209 Two years later, when she turned 27, she received James Hervey’s Refl ections as a gift .210 Th e morning of her 26th birthday was another such joy-ous occasion. Her diary records that she found herself ‘surrounded by testimony to the sincere happiness of my friends, which they showed by presenting me with a delightful gift .’211 It will undoubtedly have been another book.

Van Th iel also acquired reading material by borrowing it from rela-tives and acquaintances, though books were seldom actually moved to a diff erent house. Van Th iel’s brother-in-law sometimes gave her a book to read, such as Winckelman’s Samenspraak.212 And she frequently read other people’s books when she was visiting or staying with them. She would sometimes read them to herself, but more commonly books were read aloud together. For instance, on one occasion when Van Th iel was

208 Brouwer, Lezen en schrijven, p. 240.209 29 December 1767.210 29 December 1769.211 29 December 1768.212 10 February 1768: ‘but later brother brought that little book by Miss Winckelman

(although it did not bear her name), being a discussion between a less and more expe-rienced [believer] on what should be done before, on and aft er a day of prayer.’ Th is corroborates the claim made in later editions of the Samenspraak that Winckelman’s authorship was universally known.


out visiting in Leiden, she read part of Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible. It is a fair assumption that she had not brought this book with her but taken it from the shelves of her host and hostess.213 While staying in Heukelum in 1769, Van Th iel read a number of sermons writ-ten by the Reverend Paludanus. She had never mentioned this cleric’s sermons in her diary before her visit, nor did she do so aft erwards. So the volume was probably in the library of Mr and Mrs De Groot, with whom she was staying at the time.214 Conversely, when guests came to stay at the parsonage in Overschie, they would oft en read the books they found there. It was very rare for any publication to be actually lent out, but the villager Mr Verboon, who was a frequent guest at the parsonage, took a copy of the Boekzaal away with him once, and on another occasion he came to return a book he had borrowed.215

Reading and the daily struggle

Browsing in books required time and space, and therefore had to be fi tted into other everyday activities. David Beck and Pieter Teding van Berkhout had to divide their time between (among other things) read-ing and work. Jacoba van Th iel had no offi cial responsibilities. Did that mean that she had unlimited time on her hands to devote to books?

It is certainly true that Van Th iel could always fi nd an opportunity to read. She would frequently open a book at various times of the day. On one occasion she started the day with ‘some lines’ from Boddaert, then read a little from Peiff ers, followed aft er luncheon by another poem by Boddaert, and fi nished in the evening by reading some of Van Schelle’s Sermons.216 But she did not always have so much time for reading. Aft ernoons were oft en fi lled with other activities, as table 8 of the appendix (on reading times) makes clear. Van Th iel read more frequently in the morning and evening than in the aft ernoon.

Th ere was certainly plenty to be done. Th e household tasks were very time-consuming, and limited the time available for reading. Not a day passed without Van Th iel doing some needlework, besides which

213 6 November 1767.214 Paludanus is mentioned every day from 14 to 20 July 1769. No printed volume

of this cleric’s sermons appears in the present library catalogues. Paludanus preached in the vicinity of Heukelum. Perhaps the sermons Van Th iel read were in the form of a manuscript.

215 6 April 1768. On 25 May 1768 he came to return a book that is not named.216 22 October 1767.

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much time was devoted to washing, cleaning, preparing meals and other domestic chores. Washing was a particularly arduous business. Seven days of April 1769 were spent washing, drying, wringing, ironing and folding. When Van Th iel fi nally had time to open a book, Poot’s poems, she wrote that it ‘swift ly refreshed me . . . my mind being starved since I had read almost nothing for several days.’217

Reading also had to compete with numerous social obligations. Van Th iel made countless visits and received many visitors at home, which left little time for reading. Th e week of 9 to 16 July 1768 may serve to illustrate these constraints. Th e clergyman Johannes Mess and his young daughter had come to stay at the parsonage. On the fi rst Saturday, Van Th iel wrote: ‘I sewed a little and started to read the Sunday in Van der Kemp that had to be preached the next day, but dressing the young lady and the subsequent meal prevented me from doing so.’ Th e next day, Sunday, was devoted almost entirely to churchgoing, leaving no opportunity to read a book. Th e following days were similarly occupied. Van Th iel and her sister visited Mrs Van Kuijk, went out walking to call on Miss Van der Kemp in the nearby village of Zweth, and attended a dinner party given by Mrs Van Hogendorp, to mention just a few of the week’s activities.218 Entertaining the young house-guest was also time-consuming. ‘Racket-ball’, taking a tour of the parsonage, serving tea: a wide range of distractions were devised for her. On Friday, Van Th iel and her sister attended the church service held to mark the end of the synod – the meeting for which the Reverend Mess had come to stay in Overschie. Th e next day Van Th iel fi nally had time to fi nish reading the book she had started the week before: ‘Having had breakfast, I read some of Van der Kemp, the Sunday that had been preached the week before.’219

217 13 April 1769.218 As far as is known, Miss Van der Kemp was not related to the Van der Kemp

whose sermons Van Th iel read. Mrs Hogendorp was Carolina Wilhelmina van Haren, the wife of Willem van Hogendorp and the mother of the later politician Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp.

219 16 July 1768. Many examples could be given of the obstacles, as Van Th iel oft en saw it, that were created by social obligations. On one occasion she wrote: ‘I did not read anything, because of the presence of cousin F.’ (10 September 1768). And later on: ‘In the morning, aft er we had stretched our legs, we sat together in Peijff ers wanting to read, but as soon as we had started doing so, the harpsichord tuner arrived, and remained until nearly 12 noon, which greatly dismayed us and which aroused in me a sinful irritation that saddened me’ (28 September 1768). On the way to Delft by barge,


Like the male readers discussed in the previous chapters, Van Th iel too had to fi t her reading in between work and a busy social life. In fact her work consumed far more time. Beck was not at school every day, and Teding van Berkhout’s attention was not constantly claimed by political affairs, but Van Thiel had to attend to her household responsibilities every day. If she wanted to read, she had to fi nd a way of combining her activities. Sometimes she did so quite literally: ‘In the morning I did a good deal of sewing, but I read Van der Kemp at the same time.’220 Th is was no exception, Van Th iel noted. Th e next day she again spent the morning ‘as usual’ sewing and reading.221

Later, in January 1769, Van Th iel described another way of combining work and reading: ‘I spent much of the morning ironing the starched linen, while my sister occasionally read to me from Van der Kemp, and sometimes I read to her.’222 Th e Van Th iel sisters would oft en read to each other: this reading-while-working, or working-while-reading, was also practised in the company of other women. When visiting Mietje Luchtmans, Van Th iel alternately helped her with the ironing and read to her while she carried on with this work.223 Combining household tasks and reading was a gender-specifi c mode of reading, since women were expected to do all the housework.

Reading aloud was also a way of overcoming the obstacles to read-ing that were erected by social obligations. Van Th iel and her sister had long enjoyed reading to each other, and later they encouraged their female house guests to join in: ‘Aft er breakfast . . . my sister and I went up to the attic to take down some linen from the line, and thus we spent the time until noon, while our cousin [De Fremery] had the goodness to read a little to us again from Bennet.’224 Teatime – a fi xed part of the family’s daily routine – provided another ideal occasion for reading aloud. ‘Aft er . . . we had done what needed to be done, we took tea in the summer-house. It was truly delightful there. While drinking our tea, my sister and I took turns to read some refl ections on spring, aft er which I read a little in Cats.’225

the church elder Akkersdijk was with them, ‘who chattered so much about trivialities that I was unable to read at all fruitfully’ (7 November 1768).

220 3 January 1769.221 4 January 1769.222 13 January 1769.223 23 September 1769.224 10 August 1769.225 27 May 1769.

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One could hardly have chosen a better place to read ‘refl ections on spring’. Seated in their summer-house, amid the garden’s burgeoning growth, the sisters read Engelberts’ religious refl ections, in verse form, on the world of nature. Van Th iel loved sitting in the summer-house and oft en went there to read. Another book she read there – and another example of theme coinciding with location – was Hervey’s Refl ections on a fl ower-garden.226 But inclement weather very oft en ruled out the summer-house, and Van Th iel therefore did most of her reading in the rooms of the parsonage. November 1768 gives an overview of the diff erent rooms in the house used for reading. One was a breakfast room, besides which both Van Th iel and her brother-in-law had rooms of their own. Th en there was the attic, where the washing was hung to dry, as well as a ‘basement’ or ‘downstairs’ room where the family would sometimes have tea, and a ‘large side room’.

Th e fact that Jacoba van Th iel had her own room is a matter worthy of some attention. Th e ideology of middle-class domesticity as proclaimed in any case in English treatises on the subject rejected the idea of women having their own private rooms. As the British historian Jacqueline Pearson has written, having ‘a room of one’s own’ was seen as posing a danger, since it gave women an opportunity to be independent and to withdraw from family life, while they were expected to be at its centre.227 In the United Provinces too, the virtues of domesticity were vigorously proclaimed, for instance in Spectatorial publications.228 How sharply they condemned the notion of women having their own room is not known. In any case, Van Th iel’s diary shows that this rule was not observed in what can be described as a fairly conservative milieu.

While private rooms for women were rejected in the discourse of domesticity, they were a central feature of Pietist thought. Aft er all, self-examination was expected to take place in one’s ‘closet’, as expressed by Benjamin Bennet in the title of his advisory handbook on the subject. For self-examination, Bennet recommended a quiet room, which should be furnished with such books as could serve as aids in the special areas of the Pietist’s religious devotion, most notably a Bible and a psalter. He further recommended having a concordance of the

226 13 May 1769.227 Pearson, Women’s Reading, p. 153.228 Sturkenboom, Spectators, pp. 317–320.


Bible, a concise exegesis of the Bible and a few theological treatises at one’s disposal.229

Van Th iel certainly possessed such a ‘closet’. She withdrew to it for an hour at a time very frequently, preferably every day, to devote herself to spiritual matters. To this extent she adhered to the practice described by Bennet. Did she also read the books that Bennet considered suitable there? Van Th iel certainly read theological treatises such as those by Appelius, Van Leeuwarden, Van Schelle and Immens in her private closet. But her diary records that she also sometimes took other kinds of reading there, such as Winckelman’s poems or the biography of Boddaert. And contrary to Bennet’s recommendations, Van Th iel never read the Bible during her sessions of spiritual contemplation. In fact – again departing from Bennet’s advice – Van Th iel did not in fact read much of anything while she was secluded; she appears to have done so only sporadically. One occasion always used for reading was when she was travelling. On journeys to Rotterdam or Leiden, for instance, Van Th iel always took a book along with her. Once when she had done some shopping in Rotterdam, for instance, Van Th iel was pleased to see that she had little company in the barge on the way back, so that she had an opportunity ‘to read a little of the Letteroefening’.230 Magazines might have been considered ideal reading matter for a journey, perhaps, since they contained short articles. In fact, however, Van Th iel seldom took this genre with her when she was travelling. She spent much of her time in the barge reading Pierre du Moulin’s Treatise on Peace of Soul and Content of Mind. Right at the beginning of her diary Van Th iel describes a journey to Leiden during which she read this book. She took Du Moulin with her on a number of diff erent trips in 1768 and 1769, and indeed referred to it as her ‘usual travelling book’.231

Daily books: Van Th iel’s modes of reading

Given the number and types of books that Van Th iel read, she cannot be classifi ed as a traditional, intensive reader of a small number of texts. What about the way she read? Let us examine her reading behaviour to see if it was uniform or varied.

229 Bennet, Christian Oratory.230 22 March 1768.231 8 August 1768.

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Van Th iel does not use many diff erent terms to describe her read-ing; she invariably uses the single verb lezen [to read]. She oft en writes down how much she has read, however: ‘a little’, ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’. In one entry she notes that a lack of time, caused in this case by the need to make currant jelly and raspberry purée, had prevented her from reading much of a work by Hervey: she could read only one letter.232 Another day, on the other hand, she had read ‘quite a lot’ of Van der Kemp. From tea-time, which was in the mid-aft ernoon, until 8 pm, she alternated between her needlework and reading this work.233 So there were days on which Van Th iel might read brief passages of a book, and others on which the same book might keep her occupied for a longer uninterrupted period.

Th ese two modes of reading, in snatches and for a more extended period, can also be distinguished by the number of days for which a book claimed Van Th iel’s attention. Some titles are mentioned only once or twice in her diary, while others recur constantly. Table 10 in the appendix gives an overview of the titles to which Van Th iel refers several times in her diary.

Although Van Th iel’s notes are clearly infl uenced by the Pietist tradi-tion, it is striking that she seldom mentions the Bible. She did not follow the recommendations on reading the Bible in Pietist handbooks.234 In fact this was actually very common among Pietists, for whom practical devotional works were regarded as more important than the written word of God.235 Jacoba van Th iel confi rms this picture, since the works mentioned most frequently in her diary are collections of sermons and of poetry. Th e work mentioned most oft en, by far, is Van der Kemp’s book of sermons (Christen geheel en al het eigendom van Christus), but the sermons of Appelius and Van Schelle crop up very frequently too. Volumes of devotional verse by poets including Schutte, Voet and Boddaert also belonged to Van Th iel’s staple diet.

Frequent mentions of a particular title refl ect Van Th iel’s habit of constantly reading in small portions. In this way, it could take her a very long time to get to the end of a book like Van der Kemp’s sermons. She would oft en read a number of pages, then set the book aside and return to it a few days later. Volumes of sermons could easily be read

232 29 July 1768.233 28 June 1768.234 Th is point is also made in Stronks, ‘Private Devotion’, p. 188.235 Van Lieburg, ‘Piëtistische lectuur’, pp. 81–82.


like this. Th ey consisted of individual sermons, which were in turn composed of clearly distinct sections. Van der Kemp’s Christen, for instance, consisted of 52 sermons, each of which was subdivided into the exegesis of a biblical passage and an application. Van Th iel would read part or all of one sermon and then return to the book at some other time. Th at did not mean that she found these sermons dull or too heavy going. She read them quite intentionally according to a set schedule, which was closely connected to the church service. Th e 52 sermons of the Christen dealt with the questions of the catechism, subjects that were dealt with in every Sunday aft ernoon church sermon. In the week before or aft er the discussion of a particular question in the church service, Van Th iel read the sermon on the question concerned in Van der Kemp. Th is meant that she read a section of this book every week and completed the book in a year. Th e other volumes of sermons she read were not as closely related to church services as Van der Kemp, but she read them in much the same way.

Volumes of poetry also lent themselves to being read in sections. Van Th iel would read one or more poems and then return to the collection a few days later. Th us, while staying in Gorinchem she read ‘some of Miss Winckelman’s poems’, and did so again two days later.236 As a rule, she did not read volumes of poetry from beginning to end, as in the case of collections of sermons. She would occasionally choose one at random, but more frequently for a special reason. Aft er the aft ernoon service at the church in Overschie, Van Th iel opened her volume of Schutte to look up how one should behave ‘when one has been listen-ing to the word of God’.237 At the end of the years 1768 and 1769 she read poetry that was ‘appropriate to the time’.238 Th e same lines of verse were undoubtedly meant in both cases.239 At Easter in both these years she read poems from Voet that were ‘relevant to the season’.240

Books like volumes of poetry were mentioned relatively frequently in the diary, because Van Th iel sometimes read them more than once. Th ere were some poems, such as Schutte’s ‘evening hymn’, to which

236 10 May, 12 May 1768.237 28 August 1768.238 31 December 1768, 31 December 1769.239 Schutte’s Stichtelyke gezangen 4 vols. (Amsterdam: Covens, 1762–87) contained

two poems entitled Nieuwjaarszang, vol. 2, p. 163. 240 25 March 1769 (quotation), 2 April 1768.

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she returned again and again.241 She also re-read volumes of sermons, but in this case she would read them in their entirety. Van Schelle’s volume, for instance, was consulted from the end of 1767 until March 1768. Van Th iel returned to it extremely oft en. Aft er March 1768 Van Schelle disappeared from the picture for a while, but by the end of the year Van Th iel was writing: ‘I started reading Van Schelle again’.242 Van Schelle was mentioned frequently again until the end of the year, and there are again several references to it from early June until the end of September 1769. Van Th iel may have been reading it for the third time in this period, but this is not certain. Besides Van Schelle, she also read Peiff er’s Unfaltering Faith and Van der Kemp’s volume of sermons twice. As far as the latter was concerned, re-reading was a logical consequence of using the book in conjunction with church services.

Periodicals such as the Boekzaal and the Letteroefeningen are also mentioned very oft en. But this has nothing to do with reading brief passages or re-reading; in this case, the references are to separate issues, each of which Van Th iel consumed quite rapidly. Other items too were read in a brief space of time. On Watts, Van Th iel wrote: ‘I secluded myself and started reading Watts’s Guide to Prayer’.243 And four days later, in the evening, ‘we sat together. I was sewing, in between times reading a little of Watts, which I fi nished.’244 Th e books by Spaller and Marmontel and the biographies of Doddridge and Boddaert were read in the same way. Occasionally Van Th iel merely leafed through a book, without really reading it. De Brais’s treatise on the Epistle to the Romans, for instance, is mentioned only once. She certainly did not read it from beginning to end in a single session: on the contrary, she read only ‘a little’ of it. Van Th iel only looked once at the poems of Poot and Vollenhove between 1767 and 1770, which also suggests that she did not read them in their entirety, in any case not at that time.

Since Van Th iel read in these two distinct ways, sometimes reading only fragments and at other times working her way through an entire book, her reading behaviour might be described variously as monoto-nous or diverse. Viewed in the longer term, she frequently returned to the same material, given that the volumes of sermons and devotional

241 Schutte, ‘Avondzang, of de aannaderende nacht geloovig bespiegeld’, in Stichtelyke gezangen, vol. 1, 104.

242 26 October 1768.243 26 October 1768.244 31 October 1768.


poetry constantly recurred. In the shorter term, however, Van Th iel’s reading exhibited great diversity. On one occasion she consulted a section from a volume of sermons, looked up a poem and read a pas-sage from another book all on the same day. And during her hour of voluntary seclusion on a summer’s day in 1768, she read a few lines of verse from Lodenstein, aft er which she sang a hymn from Schutte; in the evening she read a passage from Hervey’s Contemplations, and ended with some ‘fi ne hymns’ from Lodenstein.245 Later that year, Van Th iel started the morning by reading Van der Kemp and studied Watts’ Guide to Prayer in her hour of seclusion, aft er which she moved on to Rabener’s Satirical Letters at tea-time and spent the evening reading fi rst Van der Kemp and later Van Schelle.246 Th us, Van Th iel would quite oft en spend her time on a number of diff erent books in one day.247

When it came to volumes of poetry like Schutte’s, she had another mode of reading at her disposal aside from fragmentary study. Aft er all, these poems had generally been set to existing melodies, and Van Th iel liked to take advantage of these tunes: there are frequent mentions of singing in her diary. Singing and reading sometimes merged eff ort-lessly. Aft er a conversation in the summer-house, writes Van Th iel, ‘we sang from Schutte and Mr Oyers read several more verses from this volume’.248 Oyers was a welcome guest: ‘Went to see Mr and Miss van Kuijk, who received us most cordially. Mr Oyers also played superbly on the organ and we sang a psalm’.249 Th e parsonage also possessed an organ, and perhaps he played on that one too. One Sunday aft er Van Th iel’s brother-in-law De Fremery had preached in Pijnacker, they ‘sang and played the organ once again, concluding with a hymn from Voet and a verse of a psalm’.250 Van Th iel’s sister also played the organ at times: ‘when the candles were lit, my sister and I sang together while she played psalms and hymns’.251 Van Th iel does not seem to have been able to play the piano, since she never mentions doing so. Singing, on the other hand, was something she did with great frequency.

245 25 June 1768.246 26 October 1768.247 Four titles a day appears to have been the maximum, however. Th ere are seven

days in the diary with references to four titles, another 34 with three, and another 125 days mentioning the titles of two books.

248 15 March 1768.249 31 August 1768.250 17 April 1768.251 22 April 1769.

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Another variation in Jacoba van Th iel’s reading behaviour was the fact that she sometimes read in company and sometimes did so alone. She would oft en withdraw with a book; in her hour of seclusion she did so quite literally, but she also found other opportunities during the day to ‘read to herself ’.252 To what extent she was able to withdraw from the company of others at such times is unclear from the diary. She could do so sometimes, as when, having taken a walk in the parsonage garden, she seated herself on a bench there and browsed through Van Lodenstein’s poems.253 One thing is certain: Van Th iel did not have to be alone to read to herself. At Spanbroek she spent an evening in the company of her brother and the maidservant, ‘alternately sewing and reading’. To be sure, this was an ideal company for silent reading, since everyone was as quite as a mouse ‘since my brother was sitting there studying’. No one dared to disturb him when he was preparing his fi rst sermon, if only because he himself was very nervous about it.254 Van Th iel did not always fi nd her surroundings quiet enough. Seated in the barge on her way from Overschie to Leiden, she tried to read some of Du Moulin, ‘but the chattering made it impossible for me to read profi tably’.255 On a diff erent journey, the conditions were fortunately better: ‘In the barge to Delft it was very quiet, so that aft er doing some sewing, I was able to read my usual travelling book, Du Moulin.’256

Reading silently in the company of others was not impossible, but when other people were in the vicinity Van Th iel generally read aloud, as is frequently noted in her diary. In her sister’s company she did so with such frequency that she scarcely bothers to mention it. Although Van Th iel frequently writes ‘we read’, even when she wrote ‘I read’ she may have been referring to reading aloud. On one occasion she wrote, ‘In the evening I fi rst read some of Van der Kemp, in between times having a constructive conversation with my sister’.257 Does this mean that she occasionally spoke to her sister while she was reading, or did the two sisters discuss what Van Th iel had read aloud? Th e latter cer-tainly applied on one other occasion. Van Th iel read from Appelius

252 3 December 1767.253 24 June 1768.254 21 November 1769. Encouragement did not help the nervous new minister, who

seemed to have lost all hope. He believed that there would be no divine miracles and said that he had entirely lost his memory, Van Th iel recorded in her diary.

255 26 October 1767.256 8 August 1768.257 3 December 1768.


while she was working, ‘and my sister and I conversed a good deal about it in between times.’258

Th e prominent position of reading aloud in Van Th iel’s everyday life also highlights the importance of books as part of her social life. For instance, on one occasion when her ‘cousin’ Catharina de Fremery was visiting Overschie, she adapted eff ortlessly to the everyday living and reading rhythm of the Van Th iel sisters. Th e three women ‘took turns reading Van der Kemp about the Sunday that had been the sub-ject of the sermon’.259 Th e reading company could easily be expanded. When not only her cousin but also her sister Johanna and her husband were staying in Overschie in the early summer of 1768, they made up a virtual reading club. Th e four women sat together in the morning and evening for three days, taking turns to read from Marmontel’s Belisarius.260 Th is reading aloud in company corresponded to recom-mendations in prescriptive manuals such as James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. ‘What is there to prevent them from taking turns to read to one another’, this author demands rhetorically, ‘when they are sitting doing their work together according to custom, or because it is convenient to do so?’261

Fordyce refers to reading aloud as a suitable accompaniment to work, thus indicating that women must not engage in intellectual activity to the detriment of their domestic duties. In this respect too, Van Th iel’s reading behaviour accords with his recommendations: reading aloud is mentioned so frequently in her diary because it was the only way to read without neglecting her other responsibilities. On one occasion when the washing had to be stretched, Van Th iel and her sister took advantage of the presence of their cousin, who had the ‘goodness’ to read to them from Bennet while they were doing their work.262

Jacoba van Th iel is not exceptional in describing reading-aloud sessions of this kind. According to Pearson, late eighteenth-century English diaries are full of such accounts.263 Much the same applies to Dutch diaries from this period. Aafj e Gijsen of Zaandam made numer-ous notes on her reading, all but one of which refer to reading aloud.

258 23 December 1768.259 25 July 1769.260 11, 15 and 16 June 1768.261 James Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women (Amsterdam: Yntema and Tyboel,

1767).262 10 August, 11 August 1768.263 Pearson, Women’s Reading, pp. 170–172.

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She and her friends would read the novels of Richardson and Meades together, for instance.264 Magdalena van Schinne of Th e Hague also frequently read aloud in her domestic circle, and indeed complained in one of her diary-letters that she had tired her lungs ‘reading aloud from a fairly foolish novel’.265 Johanna Maria Nahuys’s diary describes reading habits almost identical to Van Th iel’s. ‘In the aft ernoon I kept my aunt company and read the fi rst Sunday from Van der Kemp to her,’ Nahuys noted, for instance, at the end of 1800.266 Clara Cornelia van Eijck amused herself in company by reading aloud from a work on the history of Ghent, where she was living in exile at the time.267 So the rules prescribed by handbooks corresponded to the practice of many women readers.

In the life of Jacoba van Th iel, reading aloud was not the exclusive province of women. Men joined in too, but if present they would always read, never listen. So the hierarchical relations between the sexes were expressed even in reading aloud.268 When Johannes de Fremery was staying in Overschie for a few days, he read to Van Th iel and her sister several times from Peiff er’s Unfaltering Faith.269 Mr Oyers read aloud from the same book, but he also read from Schutte and Sluiter.270

Were certain books more likely to be read aloud than others? In gen-eral there was little diff erence. Books that Van Th iel read to herself were also read aloud, both by the women together and by men to women. Th ere were a few, however, that Van Th iel only heard read aloud. She read sections from the work of Eenhoorn and from Van Merken to Mrs Reitsma and Mrs De Groot, respectively. In both cases Van Th iel was out visiting and was therefore reading books that she did not possess herself. Doddridge’s unidentifi ed ‘Uittreksel’, Lannoy’s Aan mijn geest

264 Aafj e Gijsen, Dagverhaal, 30 January 1774: ‘Impie Bon also came to see cousin Aagtje but Tryntje Visser and Tryntje Bynema, who had also been invited, did not come, so that there were only three of us, but we amused ourselves by reading from Sir Charles Grandison & William Harrington.’

265 Magdalena van Schinne, Dagboek, 87 (9 January 1792). It was a ‘poor imitation of Werther’.

266 Westfries Archief, coll. Verloren, inv. no. 694, 2 November 1800.267 Clara Cornelia van Eijck, Mijn waarde vrindin, 31 October 1790. Th e book

concerned was P. Bernardus de Jonghe, Gendsche geschiedenissen oft e kronyke van de beroerten en ketterye binnen en omtrent de stad van Gend sedert het ajer 1566 tot het jaer 1585 . . . (Ghent 1781).

268 Pearson, Women’s Reading, p. 172: ‘But generally the stereotype approvingly depicted the husband reading, while the womenfolk listen (and oft en sew).’

269 20 October, 22 October 1767.270 1 September 1768; 15 March 1768; 12 March 1768.


and Calas’s ‘Protestation’ were other works that she only heard read out. She referred only once to each of these. In the case of other titles, however, several reading sessions were described. Marmontel’s Belisarius was always read aloud, as were the biography of Hugo Grotius and the Dutch versions of Prideaux’s Th e Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, and Bower’s History of the Popes. Th ese three books were all read by men to women. Th is is noteworthy, since all three were historical works. In fact, if we classify the biographies of Doddridge and Boddaert as religious rather than historical literature, they were the only historical works that Van Th iel read between 1767 and 1770. In other words, the only times at which Van Th iel read books on secular or ecclesiastical history were when a man read them to her.

Van Th iel’s habit of reading aloud with her family sheds a diff erent light on her choice of books. Th e titles mentioned by Van Th iel cannot always be seen as direct refl ections of her personal taste or interests; sometimes they were other people’s choices. Van Th iel apparently took little interest in ecclesiastical history, given that she never read books about it on her own. It is also striking that the two canonical Enlightenment works mentioned by Van Th iel, Belisarius and Calas’s ‘Protestation’, were not of her own choosing. Both were read during visits by her sister Johanna de Brouwer. Th e Van Th iel family’s eldest daughter obviously held quite diff erent opinions from her younger sisters. It was she who belittled the religious zeal of the fi jnen, as she derisively called the Pietists.271 Johanna undoubtedly preferred reli-gious movements that were based on reason, in keeping with typical Protestant thinking in the Enlightenment period. Th is preference, and the literary sensibility that went along with it, were not always easy to reconcile with a devout lifestyle and the role of reading for those with a religious cast of mind. When Jacoba and Anna Catharina van Th iel visited Johanna in Haarlem, a confrontation ensued. Van Th iel later wrote in her diary that during that visit she had:

a salutary conversation with my sister F [Anna Catharina de Fremery] about our situation. We also did a little more reading, but this led to my sister De B [Johanna de Brouwer] becoming a little vexed and informing us of it. As a result, we had a serious conversation with her, to convince

271 1 June 1768.

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her of the need for seclusion, reading, and prayer. We were very sad to learn that she disagreed with us.272

Th e books that the younger Van Th iel sisters thought worth reading were little appreciated by their eldest sister.

Johanna’s outburst reminds us that some women readers preferred very diff erent books from Jacoba. Johanna did not read much religious material, but that does not imply that her reading was more varied. As the overview of Van Th iel’s modes of reading has shown, even some-one who largely focused on religious books could read them in a great variety of ways. What is more, she could shift eff ortlessly from one way of reading to another, something that became clear once again in the summer of 1769, when Catharina de Fremery was staying in Overschie. Van Th iel, her sister, and their cousin ‘took it in turns to read from Bennet. In the evening we took a pleasant walk in the garden, sang a little, and then we each did some reading on our own.’273

Nourishing the soul

Jacoba had told her sister Johanna that reading was an imperative. What necessity did she see for books? Under what circumstances did she turn to them and with what expectations, and did her books always meet those expectations? As noted elsewhere in this study, even diaries do not allow us to leaf through another person’s mind. Th ough this holds true in Van Th iel’s case, her daily jottings do aff ord some insight into her motives for reading.

For Jacoba van Th iel, reading was oft en intimately linked to certain religious obligations. A book might put her in the right frame of mind for going to church, celebrating Holy Communion, or searching her soul. For instance, she read Van Schelle prior to her hour of seclusion.274 A month later she wrote that she ‘slowed her heart in preparation for religious observance by reading a line or two of Voet.’275 While visit-ing Leiden she reread the fi rst few chapters of Corinthians, because Reverend Hoogvliet planned to preach on this passage.276 Once in a while, reading took the place of a religious duty; because there was no

272 6 October 1768.273 9 August 1769.274 19 January 1768.275 3 February 1768.276 4 November 1768.


time for the hour of seclusion, her sister read aloud from a book.277 Sometimes she was simply not in the mood for other forms of reli-gious devotion: ‘I, too, found that my heart was not much inclined towards seclusion, and because time was very short, I read a few lines of Boddaert.’278

Not only religious duties called for a particular attitude. True believers dwelt on heavenly matters at every moment of the day. Books helped Van Th iel to live up to this ideal, a fact which she refers to in her diary in various ways. Reading a book brought ‘edifi cation’ and ‘blessedness’, made her feel ‘inspired’, or was ‘useful’. It made Van Th iel feel ‘high-spirited’, ‘more cheerful’ and ‘invigorated’. Reading Van Leeuwarden seomtimes made her feel ‘profoundly inspired’.279 On a tiring journey from Haarlem to Overschie, Van Th iel slept now and then, and spent the rest of the time reading Christian Oratory: ‘Th is I did most notably on the boat to Overschie, and it was most edifying.’280 Van Th iel spent one December evening ‘in a blessed state’, in part because she read Voet’s poems ‘to great eff ect’.281 On another occasion, Van Th iel had an equally joyful time during her period of seclusion, when ‘it was a blessing to read Peiff ers’.282

Edifi cation and blessedness were, at bottom, emotional matters. What was important to Van Th iel was for her heart to be moved by what she read. For instance, she once read Bennet in a state of ‘extraordinary blessedness’ in which she felt ‘every word distinctly in my heart’, which grew ‘weak when I contemplated its wretched state’. She saw a clear distinction between the mind and the heart, the faculty of reason and the soul. When she read Winckelman’s Samenspraak, for example, her reason was at work but her heart was not.283 A metaphor used by Van Th iel in relation to Van Velzen’s sermon sheds a good deal of light on what reading meant to her: ‘my reason thought it very beautiful, but my soul did not receive the same nourishment.’284 Here, in a nutshell, is what Van Th iel sought in her reading: nourishment for the soul.

277 20 September 1769.278 1 February 1768.279 24 October 1767.280 21 October 1768.281 18 December 1768.282 13 January 1769.283 13 February 1768.284 30 March 1768.

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Van Th iel was certainly not alone in distinguishing between read-ing for the mind and for the heart. Bennet wrote about reading in the same terms in Christian Oratory, arguing that a Christian must do his best to understand what he read, making use of a ‘Concordance and Commentator’ while reading Scripture. Still, reading was not merely a question of understanding, he added. Ultimately, the reader had to ‘endeavour to get the Heart impress’d by the Scriptures’, so that God’s law could be written ‘more and more in the Heart of the Believer’.285 In Sermons to Young Women, Fordyce places even more emphasis on the emotional aspect of Bible reading, telling young ladies that passages from Scripture should be ‘perused and pondered at leisure, fi rst with-out any commentary at all . . . in doing which, you should with awful reverence and childlike simplicity lay your minds open to the native impressions of the truth.’286

Although Van Th iel oft en remarked that her reading had made her feel ‘inspired’ or ‘blessed’, it is not always clear precisely what its spiritual impact was. Nor was she always certain about her own feel-ings, and reading gave her the opportunity to express these feelings, or at least to fi nd examples of what and how a Christian should feel. For instance, one of Van der Kemp’s sermons evidently captured Van Th iel’s feelings perfectly: ‘It seemed for a moment as if he had seen into my heart.’287 Van Th iel tried to gain some certainty about her election by God. Was she really among the converted? To fi nd out, she turned to books for theological explanations and practical examples of what was involved in a Christian life. She read the work of Van Velzen, mentioned above, in order to compare her own feelings with ‘the tokens of grace that are found in all God-fearing people.’288 Appelius taught Van Th iel that religious certainty was experienced more in the body than in the spirit.289

Other writings provided insight into the emotional life of a converted Christian. In one of Lodenstein’s poems, Van Th iel found a descrip-tion of a spiritual state that she hoped to attain herself one day.290 Avondgedachte (‘Evening Th ought’), a poem by Boddaert, expressed ideas

285 Bennet, Christian Oratory, pp. 21 and 47–8.286 Fordyce, Sermons to Young Women, p. 78.287 7 December 1768.288 1 April 1768.289 21 December 1768.290 7 September 1768.


that Van Thiel would have liked to contemplate every evening.291 Sometimes she could only express her thoughts in the literal words of a book. For instance, commenting on her imperfect ability to think constantly about spiritual matters, she wrote, ‘Like Moulin, I have wings that can carry me to the heights, but not keep me there.’292 Her feelings during one of her hours of seclusion were best expressed by the poet Voet: ‘Voet is right to say in his devotional verse, “It is a heavy burden for me or you to drag ourselves before God’s throne; what do we feel but fear when approaching God?” ’293 Not only the words, but also the lives of pious individuals served as models for Van Th iel. Aft er read-ing the biography of Jacoba Petronella Winckelman, printed by way of introduction to her posthumously published poems, Van Th iel wrote, ‘My heart was deeply moved to learn of the works of the godly Miss Winckelman,’ and she hoped that one day she would live her own life with the same ‘tender and steadfast’ devotion.294

Van Th iel read secular works for the same purpose: to fi nd models of good conduct, though in the domain of virtue rather than piety. For instance, she considered Marmontel’s Belisarius ‘exceptionally beautiful . . . especially in its moral lessons.’295 Th e book was ‘ideally suited for improving the conduct of members of government,’ she noted in her diary.296 She was also very pleased with Fordyce’s book of advice, ‘I felt that young ladies should read this book in their early childhood, for the purpose of self-improvement.’297 Th e Centaur Not Fabulous would ‘inevitably convince any unbiased person’ of the evil of unbelief and self-indulgence.298 In this respect, Van Th iel made no distinction between religious works and secular volumes of moral instruction, see-ing both as guides for living. But unlike in the case of religious books, Van Th iel did not relate these moral teachings to herself.

291 8 October 1767.292 21 January 1768.293 11 February 1768. Pietist autobiographies often included quotations from

religious poems, most notably those by Lodenstein. Stronks, Stichten of schitteren, pp. 128–132.

294 1 July 1768. Th e way in which Van Th iel discussed Winckelman corroborates Van Lieburg’s ideas on Pietist autobiographies; he says that the people whose lives were described in this genre functioned as ‘models’. Van Lieburg, Levens van vromen, pp. 197–198.

295 15 June 1768.296 11 June 1768.297 7 November 1767.298 8 May 1769.

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Th ere is nothing particularly surprising about the way Van Th iel talked about her books. Her reasons for reading oft en coincided with the reasons given in the books themselves. Belisarius was a treatise on enlightened politics in fi ctional form, about which the Dutch translator wrote in the foreword: ‘the government and the people will fi nd very apposite warnings in this little work.’ He added that the work contained ‘a brief, but not incomplete moral system.’299 Van Th iel felt that her volumes of poetry had edifi ed her, and that was just what their authors had hoped to achieve. In fact, many such books included the word stigtelyk [edifying, religious or devotional] in their titles. Her collections of sermons were intended to provide instruction in matters of faith, and sure enough, Van Th iel read these homilies to learn the answers to religious questions, such as what it was to obtain God’s grace.

So Van Th iel did not in general adopt a very critical attitude, even when recording her assessment of a book she had read. When she ventured an opinion on her reading, it was generally in terms such as ‘beautiful’ or ‘superb’. Th e book by Henry and Stackhouse, for instance, ‘satisfi ed me greatly’.300 One of Doddridge’s sermons was classifi ed as ‘glorious’, Lodenstein was ‘uncommonly fi ne’, Watts ‘truly delightful’ and Appelius ‘uncommonly superb’.301 Th ese assessments were inspired primarily by the edifi cation or ‘blessedness’ that Van Th iel had derived from her reading. On one occasion she included a few words on the style of writing. In the Boekzaal she read a letter from an eighteen-year-old woman to her brother, who had just taken the examinations for his ordination: ‘it was superbly beautiful, in terms of both style and content.’302 Here too, Van Th iel scarcely departed from the text, given that the editor of the letter in the Boekzaal had written an introduction to the text praising it in precisely the same terms.303

Van Th iel sometimes delivered a less than glowing appraisal of a work’s style. On one of Van der Kemp’s sermons, for instance, she wrote: ‘It seems to me that the writer expressed himself in very sum-

299 Belisarius, naar het Fransch van den heere Marmontel (Amsterdam: P. Meijer, 1768).

300 6 November 1767.301 22 December 1767; 1 July 1768; 16 October 1768; 28 March 1769.302 6 October 1767.303 ‘Brief van een jonge juffer’, Boekzaal September 1767, 335–341. ‘The style,

substance and mode of reasoning in the following letter do such credit to the young woman’s spirit that we cannot withhold it from our readers.’


mary terms on this Sunday, though it is edifying.’304 In other words, the eff ect was salutary but the style was open to improvement. While in this case Van der Kemp had been too concise, Van Th iel considered that his sermon on the fourth commandment was ‘not concise enough.’305 Th ere was cautious criticism of another sermon in this book. Van Th iel felt that one of the sermons on prayer was ‘beautiful’, but it puzzled her that he had dealt with the fi rst question in the catechism last.’306 Van Th iel dismissed other works out of hand. Formey’s treatise on happi-ness – probably a piece from the Letteroefeningen – ‘had no appeal to her’.307 Th is philosopher’s ideas were probably not religious enough in her eyes. Spaller’s work too failed to win her approval. Aft er a com-munal reading session in the parsonage, Van Th iel wrote that Spaller’s work ‘was not greatly to our liking’.308 Who this Spaller was cannot be ascertained, so it is impossible to ascertain precisely what it was in his work that Van Th iel disliked.

Van Th iel wrote that Spaller was not greatly to ‘our’ liking. In other words, the verdict had been formed during a discussion of the work aft er it had been read aloud. Reading aloud obviously created an ideal situation in which to talk about books. Van Th iel talked about Peiff er’s sermon for the day of prayer to her sister: ‘who also thought it a splendid treatise.’309 Reading and the spoken word are oft en mutually related. Reading fuelled conversation, which could in turn infl uence the assess-ment of a book. Van Th iel’s diary includes references to a great many conversations about books or that were prompted by reading a book, for instance in an entry on one of her many visits to Mr and Mrs Van Kuijk.310 Magazines frequently provided topics of conversation. An article on ‘refl ections on death’ in the Letteroefeningen, prompted a ‘serious discussion’ between Van Th iel and her sister, and an exposi-tion on the omnipresence of God in the Denker led to another salutary conversation.311 Talking about a book could generate more enthusiasm about it. While reading Winckelman’s Samenspraak, Van Th iel and

304 27 February 1768.305 29 April 1769.306 26 January 1768.307 21 March 1769.308 30 December 1768.309 30 March 1769.310 24 October 1768.311 28 January 1768. Letteroefeningen also discussed on 9 January 1768. Conversation

on a treatise about the omnipresence of God in De Denker: 12 November 1768.

338 chapter five

her sister derived such a feeling of blessedness ‘that our hearts became infl amed.’312 Reading Van der Kemp constantly generated new food for spiritually uplift ing conversations.’313

It is not easy to determine to what extent Van Th iel allowed her opin-ions to be swayed by others: in any case, she did not necessarily concur with other people’s verdicts. While dining at the home of the Reverend Hoogvliet, the gentlemen had talked at length about ‘Doddridge and his feelings, including those regarding toleration’. Th eir appraisal was unfavourable, but Van Th iel did not dismiss Doddridge’s books out of hand for that reason: ‘Doddridge stirs many feelings in me, because I cannot understand how a person with such feelings can write in such a way.’314 For Van Th iel, the point was that whatever opinions the writer may have had, a book aff ected her heart, and that was something she could only feel herself.

Final remarks

Th e specifi c way in which Jacoba van Th iel kept a record of her everyday life between 1767 and 1770 has made it possible to provide a detailed portrait of an eighteenth-century reader. Th e assumption that her devout religious background made her a traditional reader is partly borne out by the facts. Her reading did indeed consist largely of religious books, which she read and re-read with concentrated attention, so that in the three years in which she kept her diary, the same limited corpus of titles constantly recurred. She read intensively in the sense that she expected books to arouse an emotional response. But this traditional reading behaviour is only half of the story. Besides these and other, less stan-dard, religious works, there was also non-religious reading, including new genres such as periodicals and works of moral improvement. In between the handful of books that she read and re-read, she browsed through many others, as a result of which her reading behaviour pres-ents a varied picture.

Jacoba van Th iel’s reading preferences were not very unusual, as is clear from other eighteenth-century diaries and the records of the

312 10 February 1768.313 30 October 1768.314 4 July 1768.


Leiden booksellers Luchtmans. In fact her reading behaviour is a good illustration of reading history as described in recent historical research. Changes in production and distribution brought books within the reach of more people in the eighteenth century, but that did not mean that everyone was carried along in the current of the new Enlightenment culture. Most readers benefi ted from the expanding market for books to satisfy their need for religious reading: that much is clear from the records of bookshops and from probate inventories. In other words, reading led to a deeper and more individualised religious life, more than it helped to spread Enlightenment thinking. Th at was certainly the role it played in Jacoba van Th iel’s life.

The diary underscores the findings of recent reading historical research, while at the same time warning us that it would be artifi cial to posit a distinction between a large religious reading public and a smaller group of general readers. Even those who belonged to pious circles such as that of Jacoba van Th iel would sometimes take in enlightened works. Her diary illustrates superbly the proposition that the reading of historical individuals cannot be inferred exclusively from the books they are known to have owned or purchased. Jacoba van Th iel frequently listened to works that were read aloud, so that some of her reading consisted of material presented to her by others.

Th is frequent reading aloud was not unrelated to Van Th iel’s situation as a woman. While a minister of the church like De Fremery could easily devote part of each day to the scrupulous study of theological reading, his wife and her sister had no such option. In general, their reading had to be fi tted in between − or combined with, by reading aloud − a wealth of domestic chores. So to some extent, the ways in which Jacoba van Th iel approached her reading were gender-specifi c.

Reading aloud while doing domestic chores was a mode of reading that eighteenth-century moralists propagated for women. So in this respect, Jacoba van Th iel did not depart from the norm. Nor would the moralists have disapproved of her reading preferences, since she did not display the slightest signs of erudition or of a love of novels, the two trends that attracted condemnation in Spectatorial magazines. But whether this means that Van Th iel’s reading behaviour can be explained as having been regulated by middle-class standards is open to question. Devout believers also condemned novels and erudite reading, not because of the putative danger they posed to women’s virtue, but because they were too worldly. Van Th iel’s reading preferences seem largely to have been determined by the norm of religious purity.

340 chapter five

Jacoba van Th iel developed a devout view of religious matters by reading books, but printed matter was not the only useful medium in this respect. She also learned about religion from conversations and letters, which gave her an opportunity, besides, to express her own spirituality. Van Th iel’s pious framework provided eff ectively for a close relationship between speech, writing and reading. Th us, books off ered examples of a Christian life that were worthy of emulation, but Van Th iel also found fl esh-and-blood examples in her own surroundings. For instance, reading enabled her to pry herself ‘free from the earth’, as she called it, but writing letters and keeping her diary did the same.

Reading, writing and conversation: in the eyes of Jacoba van Th iel, it could all provide food for the soul. Th at was not an unusual view to take, and corresponded entirely to her devout ideas. And however she may have learned of such ideas, through these three channels, Van Th iel imbued them with meaning herself. Notwithstanding all the books, discussions and letters, she never attained the inner confi dence that she was a true believer. At the beginning (on 30 March 1768) she had written: ‘I grieved in my soul for the infi nite distance between what I was and what I must become.’ Reading, writing and conversation are three of the ways in which this gap can be bridged, but in the two subsequent years they never made the intense impression on her heart that she desired. On 29 December 1769 she wrote: ‘How many sermons have I not heard containing true blessed nourishment for my soul and copied down in my diary without delay, but ah, how it does oppress my spirit not to be able to say that I have advanced any steps further to heaven etc.’ By this time Jacoba van Th iel had come to question the benefi ts of writing down yet another lament on her shortcomings, and allowed a mere ‘etc.’ to sum it up. Not long aft erwards, she stopped recording the details of her spiritual struggle.

CHAPTER SIX

LITERACY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

When Lammetje Jansz. van Sittert wrote a poem in honour of her father’s birthday in 1689, she thanked and praised him, among other things, for an important decision he had made during her upbringing: ‘You did not scrimp and save, but allowed me to learn to read’. As a result, this Haarlem lady, about whom little else is known, possessed a skill that for her mother, for instance, had been unattainable. In Van Sittert’s words, her mother had ‘never felt the sweet comfort, in this woeful life, of reading the word of God’.1 Th is story illustrates the spread of literacy in the United Provinces. While reading and writing were still an unknown territory for many in the early seventeenth century, in the early modern period these skills came within reach of more and more people, until by the end of the eighteenth century they were taken for granted by a large section of the population.

What did it mean to be able to read and write in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? How did people use these skills in their everyday lives? In this study, these questions have been answered by allowing four literate individuals to speak for themselves: three men and one woman who left a written record of their everyday lives and included copious notes about their reading. Literacy is examined here in the wider con-text of communication. Reading and writing are two important ways of processing and conveying information. How did they relate to other modes of communication? In the present book, the transfer of informa-tion through the spoken word was chosen as a means of comparison. From this study of four literate lives, a picture emerges of a diversifi ed use of reading, writing and speech in everyday life.

A qualitative approach of this kind obviously has certain limitations. Th e four diarists in this study cannot be assumed to be representative of literate people in general in the early modern period. But neither

1 Noord-Hollands Archief, Archief St. Elisabeths of Groote Gasthuis, inv. no. 579: notebook and book of poems of Lammetje Jansz. van Sittert. Her name is not listed in the index of patients of the hospital. Th ere is no documentation of either Lammetje or her father or mother in Haarlem’s church of municipal registers.

342 chapter six

are they wholly unique: numerous similarities are identifi ed between the four diarists and other individuals. In any case, these four examples demonstrate the uses that people could make of their literacy in the early modern period and the possibilities aff orded them by literate culture.

Speech, writing and reading

Literacy – reading and writing – has been contrasted in this study with speech as a mode of communication. Th e diaries provide an interesting slant on the writers’ everyday social lives; they show that quantitatively at least, the spoken word was a far more important information chan-nel than written or printed texts. While it is obviously true that dif-ferent subjects arose in conversations than in books, for instance, the analysis of everyday conversations (insofar as recorded in the diaries) reveals a considerable overlap with handwritten and printed texts. Especially where religious topics and the dissemination of news were concerned, there was a constant interplay between speech, reading and writing. Protestantism was not merely the religion of the printed word. Believers heard sermons, spoke to one another about matters of the faith and their religious feelings. Where information on local and national politics were concerned, the printed word was important, but at least as important was the fact that people related items of news and exchanged opinions on topical events in the street. So in many situations, speech, reading and writing were interrelated. Information from letters was passed on in conversation, for instance, just as letters were used to convey information acquired from a verbal source. Books prompted conversations, which helped to form opinions about the text concerned. So when studying early modern readers, we must bear in mind that their world consisted of more than books alone; information was acquired from many diff erent sources.

But unlike conversations, the written information has been preserved. Th e four authors made the best possible use of this aspect of writing: they created a ‘paper memory’, a fi ne and perhaps central metaphor for this daily record. Writing enabled them to preserve the memory of their own lives. Th e detailed way in which Beck did so was fairly excep-tional. Brief notes on one’s social life, such as those made by Teding van Berkhout, were more common. Jan de Boer adopted a diff erent approach, inspired by the genre of the historical chronicle, while Jacoba van Th iel’s diary recalls the key signifi cance of Pietism and related forms

literacy in everyday life 343

of devout Christianity in the historical development of egodocuments. Th e written word as recollection clearly underpinned the diaries of the four persons studied here. Beck, Berkhout and De Boer wrote quite deliberately about their own lives, family events and the events in the surrounding world to record them for posterity. While Van Th iel did not write explicitly in order to leave a record for others, the diary was an important aid to her own memory. She re-read her daily notes later in order to be convinced of her spiritual progress.

Th e ability to write also enabled people to communicate at a distance. Th e diarists all maintained substantial correspondence networks and wrote letters on a daily basis. Relatives and acquaintances kept each other informed of their daily lives, and Van Th iel’s diary shows that the content might include matters of a highly personal nature. Letters also played an important role in disseminating news. De Boer received information about events in Portugal in letters from merchants, and Beck read letters containing accounts of events in Germany. In both cases, the sources were not their own correspondence but letters sent to others, who passed on the news.

Letters were regarded as conversations at a distance, a fi gure of speech that underscores the interaction between writing and speech. Th e two modes of communication were certainly linked in daily life. Th e correspondence and conversational networks refl ected the same social composition and addressed the same subjects. What is more, Beck favoured a jovial tone that enhanced the conversational tone of his letters. But writing also had specifi c qualities that distinguished it from speech. Letters had to fulfi l a host of formal requirements, as Berkhout’s correspondence makes clear.

Letters were not only a means of communication. Like diaries, they helped signifi cantly to preserve memories. Berkhout devoted great care to his family’s written heritage and left a great many papers in his estate, thus creating a family memory on paper. David Beck kept his fi nances in order with handwritten records, and earned money by teaching people to write.

Th e analysis of the diaries studied in this book has certainly not resulted in an exhaustive list of all the possible applications of writing. But the fi ndings may prompt further studies of the use of writing, a subject that has been rather neglected in research on literacy. Identifying the many diff erent ways in which writing was used in everyday life may help to clarify the factors that infl uenced the spread of literacy in early modern times. Th is development is generally explained in terms

344 chapter six

of religious and economic factors, a hypothesis that is certainly not undermined by the analysis of diaries presented in this book. But this study also highlights other reasons for learning to write: it enabled people to record personal memories, for instance, and to sustain or consolidate social ties.

Forms of reading behaviour

In describing the four readers presented in this book, I initially attempted to classify them according to the types of readers defi ned in previous historical research. However, these classifi cations proved inadequate. Th ere is no neat division between scholarly readers and Bible readers in the seventeenth century: people such as David Beck and Pieter Teding van Berkhout display characteristics of both types, and the latter might be defi ned, alternatively, as a reader inspired by the ideal of good breeding. Similarly, the two eighteenth-century readers in this study rebut the assumption that in this period there were only readers with a traditional religious cast of mind or those whose views were more up-to-date and enlightened. Jacoba van Th iel resembles the former, but does not fi t the mould entirely. Jan de Boer cannot be considered under either of these headings. Th e present study therefore leads us to conclude that such classifi cations are more applicable to types of reading behaviour than to types of individual readers. Some readers confi ned themselves to one mode of reading, but many evidently felt free to vary their approach, with all sorts of factors such as competence, prosperity and gender aff ecting their behaviour.

Th is conclusion is not just borne out by the detailed picture of the books that they read. Th e use of egodocuments as a source reveals how people read in the past, and precisely this reading behaviour proves diffi cult to classify. Beck and Berkhout read the Bible systematically and intensively, but their reading behaviour can also be placed in a humanist framework. Beck read in accordance with the rules of classi-cal rhetoric, while Berkhout read historical texts studiously. Van Th iel reread texts repeatedly and hence intensively, but sometimes adopted a more extensive mode of reading. Jan de Boer seems to have skimmed through some of his material extremely rapidly, and yet he subjected all the ephemeral printed matter that presented itself to careful scrutiny.

Th e four early modern readers show that people might avail them-selves of diverse modes of reading. Reading books was not always an


individual pursuit; sometimes it was a social occasion, since solitary reading alternated with reading aloud. In the historiography it is assumed that the spread of silent reading was a major development in the early modern era, and this assumption is corroborated by studies of this period. In addition, Van Th iel’s diary justifi es the proposition that reading aloud also gained in importance in this period, in any case for female readers. For the rest, readers might read some books from cover to cover and leaf through others in a more desultory fashion. Some printed texts were sung – another form of communal ‘reading’ – while others were studied intensively, pen in hand, read in the street, or ‘nosed through’, in Beck’s terms. All the readers studied here were found to employ diverse styles of reading, showing that this diversity existed both in the early seventeenth and late eighteenth century. So it is untenable to suggest that this variety in reading behaviour increased as time went on.

Reading is an activity that requires time and space. Th e use of diaries as sources in this study made it possible to describe the places and times at which historical readers picked up their books. Th e Dutch saying about reading ‘a book in a nook’ might lead one to suppose that readers preferred to closet themselves away. To some extent this is true, in that the diarists read at home, and had rooms to which they could retreat if necessary. Further study may show to what extent this preference infl uenced the history of reading. Were the available styles of reading more limited for people who did not have any such enclosed space at their disposal? Were such people unable to adopt certain kinds of reading behaviour, such as close, studious scrutiny? In any case, this study shows that reading was not always confi ned to the home: people took books along on walking trips and when travelling further afi eld, a preference exploited by booksellers, who would describe some publications as ideal ‘diversions’ for travellers. But material ranging from magazines and devotional books to volumes of French poetry was considered suitable to read on barges, as the diaries of Beck and Van Th iel make clear.

On the one hand, reading was an occupation without strict con-straints of time, an activity that people could take up when they chose. Th e readers studied here did display personal preferences for certain times of day, although the need for daylight does not appear to have played a role. On the other hand, reading had to compete with other activities, and however obvious this may seem, it is an aspect of reading behaviour that is seldom mentioned in historical research. For both men

346 chapter six

and women, the time available for reading was infl uenced by work and by social obligations. Jacoba van Th iel’s work even infl uenced the way in which she read. An interesting detail that emerges form this study is the infl uence of the weather on readers. In fi ne weather there were numerous other claims on one’s time (such as walks in the country or day trips) that could take precedence over reading.

Th e way in which readers divided up their time will have been dif-ferent from one person to the next, but in any case the diarists all had time to open a book. Th is may not have applied to everyone in the early modern period, and people’s reading behaviour was undoubtedly infl uenced not only by the time at their disposal but also by factors such as their fi nancial position. Did simple craft sman tend to read little, perhaps, because of a lack of time? Did time as well as competence help to determine the way in which poorly educated people read? And did the expansion of the reading public in the nineteenth century stem not only from technical advances in the printing process but also to some extent from the clearer demarcation that was developing between working hours and leisure time?

What did people read in the early modern period? Th is study has not did not set out to provide a comprehensive picture of the reading of these four diarists. It does show clearly, however, that a reader’s world consisted of more than printed books, and included ephemeral printed matter and handwritten texts. Another important point is that readers did not only read books they actually owned. Th e diaries reveal that people came by their reading material in diff erent ways. Bookshops were obviously important distribution points and are frequently men-tioned by the diarists. In this respect it is striking that Beck, Berkhout and Van Th iel were not limited to the local bookshop, but sometimes made purchases further afi eld. Th e second-hand book trade was also important, as is clear from the purchases made by both seventeenth-century readers at auctions held in Th e Hague. People’s reading was widened through mutual loans and gift s, or by perusing texts while out visiting. Jan de Boer read a great many pamphlets simply out in the street, or for instance while standing outside the door of a bookshop. Th ese modes of acquiring reading material are not visible in the usual sources of research on the history of books, which focus primarily on book ownership. It should be borne in mind that book ownership provides only a minimum indication of the material read by literate people in the early modern period.


Th e diaries contain traces of the reception of books, but even with sources like these, one cannot hope to browse through the mind of a historical reader. Th is study has shown that a reader might open a book for a variety of reasons: to prepare for – or to replace – a church service, to learn more about the surrounding world, to gain inspiration for his work or material for conversation, or merely as a delightful and useful pastime, and this is by no means an exhaustive list. Sometimes the diaries allow us to glimpse the interaction between book and reader. Both Teding van Berkhout and De Boer disapproved of texts that did not correspond to their own views. In the case of David Beck, one suspects that his view of certain pastoral poems was infl uenced by the circumstances in which he read them, namely, amid dramatic events such as mourning the death of his wife or when stung by the rejection of his marriage proposal. Conversely, the poetic discourse aff ected Beck’s view of everyday life. For Jacoba van Th iel, the need for ‘food for the soul’ was inspired by the devout literature she read, and these ideas also provided an important framework for her interpretation of books.

Th is study has thus allowed readers themselves to answer the ques-tions of what, where, when, how and why they read. Egodocuments prove to be ideal sources for an exploration of reading behaviour in early modern times.

Th e diaries of the four historical readers were selected because of their many notes on reading, but the information they provide goes well beyond an account of the readers themselves and their books. In recent research on the history of reading, it has been urged that the reading of books should be viewed as an element of media history.2 Th is contextual view has been elaborated in the present study. In the fi rst place, the diverse material consumed by historical readers, ranging from thick folios to single-sheet pamphlets, has been looked at from this perspective, along with the diverse ways in which people used their reading. In the second place, the framework of media history makes it clear that books constituted only one element of everyday written communication. Letters, posters, government forms, sermons or poetry in manuscript form all belonged to the culture of writing, in which the four diarists were producers and consumers alike. Finally, considering reading in the context of media history has helped to clarify the place

2 Brouwer, ‘Een min of meer onweerstaanbare passie’, p. 24.

348 chapter six

of books. Th e four diarists’ association with the printed word, and the infl uence it had on their lives, were determined in part by other media such as manuscripts or conversations. Precisely by not focusing on a specifi c kind of product but by placing the individual reader at the heart of this study, it becomes possible to gain a picture of the diverse media of the early modern period and of their interaction. Th e media-histori-cal perspective widens and nuances the social and cultural history of communication through printed matter – the object of study in book history. Th is study has shown that early modern readers, both male and female, used a variety of written and oral means of communication in their everyday lives. Silent reading and reading aloud, writing and copy-ing, listening and speaking: all these were aspects of a literate life.

APPENDIX I

READING BEHAVIOUR IN FIGURES

Table 1. Number of references to reading made by David Beck in 1624 by time of day.

Time of day Total Winter Spring Summer Autumn

Morning 22 3 6 11 2Aft ernoon 103 24 29 34 16Evening 81 36 14 9 22

Table 2. Number of references to reading made by David Beck in 1624 by title (> 1).

Title No. times mentioned in diary

Bible 62Poupo, Muse chrestienne 10Héroet/Guevara, Mespris 10Newspaper 8Ronsard 6Estienne, Apologie 5Verdier, Bibliothèque 5Bandello, Histoires tragiques 5Taffi n, Boetveerdicheyt 5Vauquelin, Poésies 4Bertaut, Oeuvres 4De la Roque, Oeuvres 4Marot 4Mexia, Verscheyde lessen 3l’Uranie ou chansons chrestienne 3Zamariel, Octionaires 3Historio Continuatio 3Cats, Mannelicke achtbaerheyt 2Cats, Selfstrijt 2Montaigne, Essays 2Udemans, [on Communion] 2Croix du Maine, Bibliothèque 2Van Mander, Schilderboeck 2

350 appendix i

Table 3. Number of references to reading made by Pieter Teding van Berkhout between 1669 and 1712 by season.

Year No. notes on reading in autumn/winter

No. notes on reading in spring/summer

No. book titles mentioned

1669 43 16 111670 12 15 31671 5 2 71672 7 1 71673 – 6 21674 2 1 21675 9 5 61676 8 1 61677 13 10 141678 1 1 11679 4 – 21684 9 3 61685 5 1 41686 4 1 61687 4 7 91688 2 1 11689 3 4 31691 – 1 11692 18 17 161693 7 8 101694 1 – 11695 – 1 11697 1 3 21698 3 2 21699 1 – 11700 4 5 91701 3 4 51702 3 1 31703 – 2 21704 4 – 11705 3 – 11708 1 – 11710 1 1 21711 – 1 11712 – 3 2

NB Th e years in which Teding van Berkhout did not include any references to reading in his diary have been omitted from the table. In the number of book titles mentioned by Teding van Berkhout, the reference is to the number of diff erent titles each year. A title mentioned in several diff erent years is counted each year afresh. Th is explains why the column’s total exceeds 116.

reading behaviour in figures 351

Table 4. Number of references to reading made by Pieter Teding van Berkhout between 1669 and 1712 by title (>2).

Name No. times mentioned in diary

(Unknown 79)Mézeray, Histoire de France 39Newspaper 13Aitzema, Saken van staat 13Bible 13Sully, Mémoires 7Larrey, Histoire d’Angleterre 7Mézeray, Abrégé 7Concile de Trente [by Pierre Polan?] 6Burnet, Histoire réformation 5Brandt, Leven De Ruyter 4Brandt, Historie Reformatie 4Baker, Cronyke 4Schweinitz, Méditations sur la mort 3Bassompierre, Mémoires 3Benoist, Histoire de l’Édict de Nantes 3Chardin, Journal du voyage 3

Table 5. Information sources in Jan de Boer’s diary for 1748.

Information source No.

Seen by Jan de Boer himself 36Heard by Jan de Boer himself 74

Explicit source 33Hearsay (no explicit source) 41

Reading of manuscript 2Reading of printed matter 67Source impossible to ascertain 50

Table 6. Information sources in Jan de Boer’s diary for 1755.

Information source No.

Seen by Jan de Boer himself 7Heard by Jan de Boer himself 21

Explicit source 9Hearsay (no explicit source) 12

Reading of manuscript 9Reading of printed matter 32Source impossible to ascertain 12

352 appendix i

Table 7. Types of printed matter inserted in Jan de Boer’s Chronological History (1747–1758).

Year Newspaper Pamphlet Picture Govt. publ.

‘Book’ Periodical

1747 3 11 3 7 2 –1748 1 13 3 9 – –1749 21 12 1 11 1 11750 12 11 1 2 – –1751 23 22 – 5 1 11752 1 3 3 – – –1753 19 7 – 2 – –1754 13 28 2 1 2 –1755 17 5 – – 1 21756 20 5 – – 1 41757 8 11 1 1 – 51758 11 5 19 – 2 6Total 149 133 33 38 10 19

Table 8. Number of references to reading made by Jacoba van Th iel in the period 1767–1770 by time of day.

Year Total Morning Aft ernoon Evening Unknown

1767 64 26 13 24 –1768 366 154 73 103 361769 205 79 39 70 171770 3 2 – 1 –

Table 9. Number of references to reading made by Jacoba van Th iel in 1769 and 1768 by season.

Year Winter Spring Summer Autumn

1768 100 75 70 1211769 39 65 72 29

reading behaviour in figures 353

Table 10. Number of references to reading made by Jacoba van Th iel in the period 1767–1770 by title.

Author, title [Titles given here are the actual Dutch titles read by Van Th iel]

No. times mentioned in diary

Kemp, Christen geheel en al het eigendom 112Schelle, Voortreff elykheden van Messias 47Appelius, Aanmerkingen . . . evangelie 42Bennet, Binnekame; Bespiegelingen 37Peiff ers 33– Geloofs-vastigheit 27– Sodoms ongerechtigheit 6Schutte 29– Stichtelyke gezangen 28– Bundeltje 1Letteroefeningen 26Voet 23– Stigtelyke gedichten 21– Godelief vertroost 2Boddaert 19– Stichtelyke gedichten 16– Mengeldichten en levensbeschryving 3Bible 18Doddridge, Huis-uitlegger; Leerredenen, Systema; Leven, Predikatiën

16

Moulin, Verhandelinge van de vrede derzielen

16

Lodenstein, Uytspanningen 15Leeuwarden, Bevestigde christen 14Winckelman 13– Samenspraak 6– Stichtelijke gedichten 7Fordyce, Vriend der jonge juff rouwen 11Boekzaal 10

APPENDIX II

TITLES OF BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE DIARIES

David Beck (Diary for 1624)

[Author, Title (date of publication). Title description as in the diary, date]

Aubigné, Th eodore Agrippa d’, Les Tragiques: donnez au public par le larcin de Prométhée (Au Dezert: L.B.D.D., 1616). ‘de Tragicques van Aubigné’ 4 May 1624.

Bandello, Matteo, XVIII Histoires tragiques, extraictes des oeuvres italiennes de Bandel et mises en langue françoise, les six premières, par Pierre Boisteau, surnommé Launay, . . . les douze suivans, par Franc. de Belle-Forest (n.p., 1568–1616). ‘2 historyen uijt de Tr[a]gedische’ 1 March 1624.

Baudartius, Willem, Veelaus vastel-avond-spel, oft e Cort verhael van den alarm die op vastel-avond in de Veelau gheweest is (Zutphen: A.J. van Aelst, 1624). ‘Veluws Vastelavont-spel van Baudarti’ 31 March 1624.

Bertaut, Jean (évêque de Séez), Les Oeuvres poétiques de M. Bertaut (Paris: T. Du Bray, 1620). ‘Oeuvres Poeticques van Bartaut’ 17 January 1624.

Bible. ‘france bijbel’ 21 January 1624.Buchanan, George, Paraphrasis psalmorum Davidis poetica (1546). ‘Buchanans latynsche

paraphrasis op de 150 psalmen Davids’ 11 January 1624.Caedimus, inque vicem praebemus crura sagittis. Medice cura te ipsum, oft e, Spotters

ontbreeckt gheen rijm. Ghestelt . . . teghen het Nootsaeckelick-mal van Jacob Westerbaen (Delft : J.P. Waelpot, 1624). ‘een antwoorde (off Apologie voor de Delff sche schut-terije, in het ander mede geraeckt zijnde) op het zelve [= Nootsakelyck Mal], gedicht ende gedruckt in delft .’ 14 June 1624.

Catalogus librorum diversorum: quorum auctio habetitur Hagae-Comitis op de Saele, apud Iacobum Elzevirum bibliopolam, die 8 ianuarij 1624 (Leiden: I. Elzevier, 1624). ‘de catalogus der boecken die den 8 dito alhier op de sael zouden vercocht werden.’ 5 January 1624.

Catechismus, welcke inden gereformeerden evangelischen kercken ende scholen der keur-vorstelijcken Pfaltz ende deser Nederlanden, gheleerdt ende gheoeff endt wordt. Midtsgaders, sekere maniere van catechisatie. Wt-ghegheven door Gellium de Bouma (Kampen: Roelof Dircksen Worst, 1631) [earlier ed. unknown]. ‘Breckerfelt . . . zijne Cathechisatie op den heydelbergschen Catechismus gedruckt ao 1621, uytgegeven door Gellema Bouma.’ 7 January 1624.

Cats, Jacob, Maechden-plicht oft e ampt der ionck-vrouwen, in eerbaer liefde, aenghewesen door sinne-beelden. = Offi cium Puellarum in castis Amoribus, Emblemate expressum (Middelburg: H. vander Hellen, 1618). ‘las . . . de poësyen van J. Catz, zonderlinge in den Maegdenplicht.’ 27 September 1624.

——, Self-stryt, dat is Crachtighe beweginghe van vlees en gheest, poetischer wijse vert-hoont in den persoon ende uytte ghelegentheyt van Joseph, ten tijde hy by Potiphars huys-vrouwe wiert versocht tot overspel: Mitsgaders schrift matighe beschrijvinghe van de heymenisse ende eygenschap des Christelijcken self-strijts, met corte verclaringhe op de selve (Middelburg: Hans vander Hellen, for Jan Pietersz van de Venne . . ., 1620). ‘den Self-strijt van J. Catz’ 24 November 1624.

Tooneel van de mannelicke achtbaerheyt, aen-gewesen in de voor-sprake, teghen-sprake, ende uyt-sprake, gedaen over de weygheringhe van de Koninginne Vasthi, aen de

356 appendix ii

ghesanten des Konincx Assuerus: Tot verbeteringe van de huys-gebreken deser eeuwe (Middelburg: Hans vander Hellen, for Jan Pieterss van de Venne . . ., 1622). ‘de Mannelijcke Achtbaerheijt van J. Catz’ 29 November 1624.

Courante uyt Duytschland, Italien &c. ‘courant’ 12 January 1624.Courtin de Cissé, Jacques, Les oeuvres poétiques de Jacques Courtin de Cisseé (Paris

1581). ‘J. de Courtin’ 19 December 1624. Croix du Maine, Francois de la, Premier volume de la bibliothèque du sieur de la Croix

du Maine: Qui est un catalogue général de toutes sortes d’autheurs, qui ont escrit en francois depuis cinq cents ans et plus. . . . (Paris: Abel l’Angelier, 1584). ‘Bibliothècque van Francois de la Croix du Maine’ 6 December 1624.

Cruitboecken. ‘cruijtboecken’ 25 September 1624.De beschrijvinghe Heliodori vande Moorenlandtsche gheschiedenissen. Vert. uit het

Frans door C.K. [= C. Kina] (Amsterdam: H. Barentsz. bsr, 1610). ‘Historie des Moorenlantschen geschiedenisse, beschreven ende gedruckt door Hiliodorum.’7 March 1624.

Deimier, Pierre de, L’Académie de l’art poétique, où par amples raisons, démonstrations, nouvelles recherches, examinations et authoritez d’exemples sont vivement esclaircis et déduicts les moyens par où l’on peut parvenir à la vraye et parfaicte connoissance de la poésie françoise . . . par le sieur de Deimier (Paris: J. de Bordeaulx, 1610). ‘Académie de l’art poéticque de Deymier’ 11 July 1624.

Den Italiaenschen waersegger, dat is wonderlijcke prognosticatie . . . (1624). ‘de nieuwe Italiaensche Waerzegger oft e Almanack’ 1 February 1624.

Der Francoysen ende haerder naeghebueren Morghenwecker: d’Welcke is een somme van het gene dat den genoemden Lutheranen oft e Hugenooten in Franckrijck wedervaren is, zedert den tijt Francisci de eerste, tot de veerthienstde jare Caroli de IX: vervatende voornamelick zijn grouwelicke ongehoorde Moort, veel secreten van coninghen ende potentaten . . . eerstmael in Lat. ende Francoysche tale . . . Ghemaeckt door Eusebius Philadelphus; ouergheset door Jan Fruytiers (Dordrecht: P. Verhaghen, 1608) [transl. of: Le réveille-matin du François]. ‘den vertaelden morgenwecker des françoisen ende haerder naerbueren’ 26 September 1624.

Dialogisme auquel sont entreparliers l’Empire, la France, l’Espagne, l’Union des Estats du Pays-Bas, Rome, Bonne-Raison, Le Hérault et le Philosophe Juge. Contenant suc-cinctement l’Estat d’Allemagne, de France, d’Espagne, des Provinces unies des Pays bas, et du Siège romain, depuis le commencement des guerres pour la religion jusques à présent. Et quelques sonets à l’Infante d’Espagne et autres: avec un cantique d’action de grace pour la victoire obtenue des Espagnols par le prince Maurice de Nassau, le second de Juillet 1600 (Dordrecht: J. Canin, 1600). ‘eens frans boeckgen op dicht, geintituleert Dialogisme entre l’Empire, la France, l’Espagne, les Pays-Bas et Rome etc, gedruckt ao 1600’ 6 March 1624.

Du Monin, Jean-Édouard, Nouvelles oeuvres de Jan-Édouard Du Monin . . . contenant discours, hymnes, odes, amours, contramours, églogues, élégies, anagrames et épigrames (Paris: J. Parant, 1582). ‘Oeuvres van du Monin’ 11 December 1624.

Du Verdier, Antoine, La Bibliothèque d’Antoine Du Verdier, seigneur de Vauprivas, contenant le catalogue de tous ceux qui ont escrit ou traduict en françois et autres dialectes de ce royaume . . . avec un discours sur les bonnes lettres servant de préface, et à la fi n un supplément de l’Épitome de la Bibliothèque de Gesner (Lyon: B. Honorat, 1585). ‘Bibliotèque françoise van A. du Verdier’ 2 December 1624.

Du Verdier, Antoine, ‘Verscheijdene lessen’. See Mexia, Pero.Equicola, Mario, Les Six livres de Mario Equicola. . . . de la nature d’amour, tant humain

que divin, et de toutes les diff érences d’iceluy . . . mis en françoys par Gabriel Chappuys (Paris: J. Housé, 1584) [1589, 1597]. ‘het frans boeck vertaelt door Chapuis uijt het Italiaens van Mario Equisola, de la nature de l’amour’ 20 June 1624.

titles of books mentioned in the diaries 357

Estienne, Henri, L’Introduction au Traité de la conformité des merveilles anciennes avec les modernes, ou Traité préparatif à l’Apologie pour Hérodote. L’argument est pris de l’Apologie pour Hérodote, composée en latin par Henri Estiene et est ici continuée par luy-mesme . . . (Geneva 1566). ‘het boeck van Henri Estienne geintituleert discours préparatif sur l’apologie pour Hérodote’ 12 June 1624.

Guevarra, Antonio – see Héroet.Habert, Isaac, Oeuvres poétiques d’Isaac Habert . . . (Vers par I. A.D.L.M. Du Perron)

(Paris: Abel l’Angelier, 1582). ‘Oeuvres de N. le Digne ende van Isaac Habert’4 January 1624.

Hebreeuws Psalmboek. ‘hebreeusch psalm-boeck’ 28 December 1624.Héroet, Antoine et al., Le Mespris de la court, avec la vie rusticque [par Antonio de

Guevara]. Nouvellement traduict d’espagnol en francoys [par Antoine Alaigre]. L’Amye de court [par le seigneur de Borderie]; la Parfaicte amye [par Ant. Héroet]; la Contreamye [par Charles Fontaine]; l’Androgyne de Platon [par Ant. Héroet]; l’Expérience de l’amye de court contre la contreamye [par Paul Angier] (Paris:J. Ruelle, 1545). ‘het boeck Mespris de la Cour ende uijt de parfaite Amye vanA. Heroet’ 31 January 1624.

Jodelle, Étienne, Les Oeuvres et meslanges poétiques d’Estienne Jodelle, sieur du Lymodin, reveues et augmentées en ceste dernière édition [par Charles de La Mothe] (Paris:R. Le Fizelier, 1583). ‘oeuvres poéticques de Éstienne Jodelle’ 20 April 1624.

LeDigne, Nicolas, Recueil des premiêres oeuvres chrétiennes de N. Le Digne, sieur de l’Espine-Fontenay. Rassemblées par A. de la Forest, écuyer, sieur du Plessis. (Paris:J. Perier, 1600). ‘Oeuvres de N. le Digne ende van Isaac Habert’ 4 January 1624.

Les Marguerites poétiques, tirées des plus fameux poètes françois, tant anciens que mod-ernes, et réduites en forme de lieux communs et selon l’ordre alphabétique, nouuel-lement recueillies et mises en lumière par Esprit Aubert, auec un Indice très-ample de chasque matière (Lyon: B. Ancelin, 1613). ‘Marguerites Poéticques’ 4 January 1624.

Les Muses en deuil. ‘Les muses en dueil’ 10 January 1624. L’Uranie ou nouveau recueil de chansons spirituelles et chrestiennes, comprinses en cinq

livres et accommodées pour la pluspart au chant des Pseaumes de David (Geneva: Jaques Chouët, 1591). ‘l’Uranie ou recueil des chansons chrestiennes’ 3 August 1624.

Luthers gezangboek.Mander, Carel van, Het schilder-boeck waer in voor eerst de leerlustighe iueght den grondt

der edel vry schilderconst in verscheyden deelen wort voorghedraghen. By Carel van Mander (Haarlem: P. van Wesbusch, 1604). ‘mijne Vermander’ 12 February 1624.

Marguerite de Navarre, Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses, tres illustre royne de Navarre (Lyon: Jean de Tournes, 1547). ‘Oeuvres van . . . ende van la reine Margarite de Navarre’ 11 December 1624.

Marnix van St. Aldegonde, P., Het boeck der psalmen (Middelburg: R. Schilders, 1591) [with Datheen’s psalms: 1617]. ‘psalmen van Marnix’ 9 June 1624.

Marot, Clément, Cinquantedeux Pseaumes de David, ‘Marots gedichten an de france joff rouwen voor de Psalmen’ 5 February 1624.

Marot, Clément, [probably: Oeuvres] ‘Ick las . . . veel in Marot’ 24 May 1624.Marot, ‘de gedichte van de cluchtige Marot’ 17 May 1624.Mercator, Gerard, Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricata

fi gura (Duisburg 1595). ‘Atlas major van G. Mercator’ 20 February 1624.Mexia, Pero, Het tweede deel Petri Messiae dat is de verscheyde lessen Antoine Duverdier,

heere van Vauprivas. Vervolgende die van Pieter Messias; overgeset uyt de Franssche in onze Nederd. tale door I.L.B. (Rotterdam: J.L. Berewout, 1613). ‘verscheijdene

358 appendix ii

lessen van Pierre Messie’ 2 June 1624, ‘verscheydene lessen van du Verdier’ 6 June 1624.1

Montaigne, Michel de, Essays (1580–95). ‘Essais de Montagne’ 4 July 1624.Montenay, Georgette de, Emblèmes, ou deuises chrestiennes, composées par Damoiselle

Georgette de Montenay (Lyon: Jean Marcorelle, 1571). ‘Emblèmes de G. de Montenay’ 16 December 1624.

Montreux, Nicolas de (anagram: Olenix du Mont-Sacré, Abbé) Les Premières oeuvres poétiques chrestiennes et spirituelles de Olenix du Mont-Sacré . . . divisées en sonnets en forme d’oraison en plaintes chrestiennes et sonnets moraulx (Paris: G. Beys, 1586). ‘Oeuvres poéticques chrestiennes de Olenix du Mont-Sacré’ 6 February 1624.

Muller, Hant boecxken vande voorbereydinghe ter doodt. Hant boecxken vande voorbereydinghe ter doodt. In ’t Hoogh-duyts beschreven, door Martinum Mollerum in onse Nederduytsche sprake overgeset, door Mathias Hazaert. Waer by gevoecht is, een seer uytnemende godsalich tractaet; Ottonis Casmanni aengaende de selfde materie (Groningen: by Nathanael Rooman, 1635). [earlier edition unknown]. ‘Voorbereijdinge totter doot, door Mullerum beschreven in hoogduits ende in Nederlants vertaelt doir M. Hasaert’ 20 July 1624.

Peletier, Jacques (Peletier du Mans), L’Art poétique de Jaques Peletier du Mans, départi an 2 livres (Lyon: J. de Tournes G. Gazeau, 1555). ‘Art poétique de Jaques Pelletier’ 4 July 1624.

Petrarch, [no title mentioned]. ‘gedruckte wercken’ 9 March 1624.Poupo, Pierre, La Muse chrestienne de Pierre Poupo (Paris: B. Le Franc, 1590–1592).

‘de Muse Chrestienne’ 11 January 1624.Prevost, Jean, Les Tragédies et autres oeuvres poétiques de Jean Prevost (Poictiers:

J. Th oreau, 1614). ‘Tragédies et autres oeuvres poéticques de Jean Prevost’ 10 January 1624.

Relationis Historicae Semestralis Continuatio, Jacobi Franci Historische Beschreibung aller denckwürdigen Historien, so sich hin und wider in Europa, in hoch und nider Teutschland, auch in Franckreich, . . . hierzwischen nechstverschiener Franckfurter Fastenmessz biß auff Herbstmessz dieses 1623. Jahrs verlauff en (Franckfurt am Main: Jacobus Francus, 1624). ‘historia continuatio van de Oosterfastenes tot de voorleden herbstmis anno 1623’ 8 January 1624.

Ronsard, Pierre de, [no title mentioned]. ‘Ronsard’ 23 October 1624.Roque, Siméon-Guillaume de la, Les Oeuvres du sieur de La Roque, . . . (Paris: widow

C. de Monstr’oeil, 1609). ‘Oeuvres du sieur de la Roque’ 7 July 1624.Sleidanus, Johannes [no title mentioned]. ‘Sleidanum’ 27 June 1624.Stam of liedboekje. ‘R. moeder . . . haer out stam of lietboeckien’ 24 November 1624.Starter, J.J. [no title mentioned]. ‘Starters dicht op de triumph-wagen van den ouden

prince van Orangie’ 20 September 1624.Taffi n, Jean, Boetveerdicheyt des levens: vervaet in vier boecken. . . . hier is noch by ghe-

voecht een corte ende schone onderwijsinghe, inhoudende ghewisse vertrostingen in alderhande beswaernissen ende angst der conscientien, genomen uyt de boecken van Jan de l’Espine transl. J. Crusius (Amsterdam, 1600). ‘(in het boek van de boet-veer-digheyt Tafi ns, daert bij gedruckt is) de Troost des benouden conscientien (getrocken

1 A number of editions exist of Mexia’s Verscheyden lessen published earlier than 1613. Since Beck refers on 6 June 1624 to Du Verdier’s Verscheydene lessen, it is likely that he read the title given here on 2 June 1624. It cannot be ruled out that Beck read the French version of this book, given that he wrote ‘Pierre Messie’ and not, for instance, ‘Pieter Messias’. Many editions circulated of Les diverses leçons d’Antoine Du Verdier, sieur de Vauprivas, suivans celle de Pierre Messie.


uijt de boecken van J. de l’Espine) 19 January 1624; ‘Taffi ns Boetveerdigheyt’ 19 March 1624.

Udemans, Godefridus [no title mentioned] ‘het boeckgen van Godefridus Udemans op de voorbereydinge tot de heylighe avontmaele’ 12 January 1624.

Valentius, D., Tractaet teghen de pestilentie (Delft : J. Andriesz, 1604). ‘het boeckgen tegen de pest (uijtgegaen 1604 door Gerardum Vinshemium)’ 7 November 1624.

Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, Jean, Les Diverses poésies du sieur de La Fresnaie, Vauquelin (Caen: C. Macé, 1605). ‘les diverses poésijes du sr. de la Fresnaye’ 3 August 1624.

Veluanus, Joannes Anastasius, Een corte onderrichtinge van alle de principale puncten des chrsite geloofs . . . bereyt voor den simpelen ongheleerden christenen, en is daeromme ghenaemt der leecken wech-wijser (Th e Hague: H. Jacobs, 1555). ‘der Leken weg-wijser van J. Anastasius’ 2 February 1624.

Virgil, Georgica.Virgil, L’Eneide de Virgile, . . . translatée en françois par Louis des Masures (Lyon 1560).

‘de Eneide van Virgilius vertaelt door L. des Masures’ 3 July 1624.Westerbaen, Jacob, Sic soleo amicos, satyra, oft e ’tNood-saeckelick mal (Th e Hague:

A. Meuris, 1624). ‘een satyr-dicht (eerst uijt de druck van Arent Meuris gecomen) gheintituleert ’t Nootsakelyck Mal’ 14 June 1624.

——, O pulchra capita, si cerebrum haberent! Oft e Lege tonnen rasen meest . . . geschreven aen de naeme-loose schrijvers van de Noodsaeckelijcke verandwoordinge van de schut-teren van Delff tegen’t Nood-saeckelick mal. By Jacobus Westerbanius (Th e Hague: A. Meuris, 1624). ‘het 2e gedicht van Westerbanis tegen de Delff sche 2 dichters die zig aen zijn Nootsakelyck Mal hadden gestoten’ 18 June 1624.

Zamariel, Octonaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde . . . [fi rst printed in Meditations sur le Psalme (1583)2]. ‘Octionaires . . . de A. Zamariel’ 14 December 1624.

Pieter Teding van Berkhout (Diary for 1669–1713)

Manuscripts and unidentifi ed books——, ‘un livret escrit a la maijn . . . contenoit une probation (par raijsonnement naturels)

qu’il y avoit un dieu de la puissance . . .’ 9 January 1669.——, ‘un grand journal qui contenoit les voijages et occupations de mon frère’

2 September 1669.mss: contis. ‘copier d’une contis[?] pour le frère de Slijdrecht’ 4 February 1692.Benoist, Elie, hss histoire de l’edict de Nantes. ‘les cahiers manuscripts de l’Histoijre de

l’Édict de Nantes’ 2 December 1689.Brieux, mss Amour divine. ‘un manuscript de Brieux de l’amour divine’ 2 February

1692.Overbeke, Arnout van, hss: travel journal (1668). ‘un grand journal que Nout Overbeeck

avoijt envoije des Indes’ 16 November 1669.——, ‘un livre traduit de l’anglois que m’apporta le ministre van Schije’ 2 July 1697.——, Lettre of admiral. ‘la lettre de nostre . . . admiral touchant la prise du noorthol-

landois’ 7 July 1702.——, Catalogue of books form Paris. ‘le cataloge des livres et livrets du temps’ 2 March

1669.

2 See Antoine de Chandieu, Octionaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde edited by Françoise Bonali-Fiquet (Geneva 1979).

360 appendix ii

——, Pamfl ets. ‘un des livrets de traduction d’angloise remarque fort bien la resultat des conciles sanquinaires qui ordonnent l’extirpartion des hérétiques ou la disposition de ces princes’ 5 August 1687.

——, Sermons. ‘Nous lusmes des sermons’ 12 October 1692.——, ‘Brieven en saecken van Vrieslandt en Groeninghen’. ‘brieven en saecken van

Vrieslandt en Groeninghen’ inventaris 1677.——, Newspaper. ‘les gazettes’ 5 October 1674.——, Le concile de Trente [probably Pierre Soave Polan, Histoire du Concile de Trente

(1621)]. ‘de concile de Trente’ 22 September 1672.——, Nouvelles publiques. ‘les nouvelles publiques’ 23 October 1700.——, Pamphlets. ‘plusieurs livrets contenants des intriges, guerrieres, politiques et

amoureuses du temps’ 13 February 1677.——, Description du Danemark [possibly Robert Molesworth, De vrye staats-reger-

ing, geschetst in een beschrijvinge van Denemarken, zoo als ’t was in den jare 1692 (Rotterdam 1694)]. ‘la description du Danemark’ 22 October 1694.

——, l’Histoijre des Tempeliers [possibly Pierre Dupuy, Traitez concernant l’histoire de France, sçavoir la Condamnation des Templiers, avec quelques actes; l’Histoire du schisme . . . en Avignon, et quelques procèz criminels (1685)]. ‘l’Histoijre des Tempeliers’ 22 February 1692.

——, Histoire de Portugal [possibly Lequien de la Neufville, Histoire générale de Portugal (Paris 1700)]. ‘une histoire moderne de Portugal’ 3 January 1702.

Abbadie, Jacques, sermon [possibly Les caractères du chrestien et du christianisme, marqués dans trois sermons sur divers textes de l’Evangile avec des réfl exions sur les affl ictions de l’Eglise (Th e Hague 1696)]. ‘un sermon d’Abadie’ 14 September 1701.

Benoist, Elie, sermon. ‘un sermon dont monsr. Benoist, autheur, m’avoit fait présent’ 22 March 1693.

Beringhen, Th éodore de, [no title specifi ed]. ‘Beringen, qui m’avoit envoije son livre’ 25 March 1692.

Brandt, Gerard, speech. ‘traduire la harangue fl amens de Brant en français’ 7 February 1695.

Leur [?], Histoire eclésiasitique et Romain. ‘l’histoijre eclésiastique et romaijn de monsr. le Leur’ 8 June 1678.

Pitt, brief over bestuur van Indie. ‘une lett[r?]e de feu monsr. Pitt, d’une vingtaine de feuijlles, touchant la direction des Indes’ 2 February 1692.

Taurberus, Prestres et moijnes [possibly Gabriel d’Emiliani, Histoire des tromperies des prestres et des moines où l’on découvre les artifi ces dont ils se servent pour tenir les peuples dans l’erreur et l’abus qu’ils font des choses de la religion (Rotterdam 1693) [Dutch translation appeared in the same year]. ‘Taurberus des prestres et des maij-nes’ 21 January 1693.

Book titles[Author, title (fi rst edition). Title description as in the diary, date]

[B.H. de Neuville = Adrien Baillet], Histoire de Hollande depuis la Trêve de 1609, où fi nit Grotius jusqu’à nôtre tems (Paris 1698). ‘le 4triesme de l’histoire d’Hollande par Neuville’ 9 January 1700.

[Adrien Th omas Perdou de Subligny/ Robert Chasles?], La fausse Clélie histoire françoise, galante et comique (Amsterdam 1671). ‘Fausse Clélie’ catalogue 1677.

[Jean Tronchin Du Breuil], Relation de la campagne de Flandre et du siège de Namur en l’année 1695 (Th e Hague 1696). ‘un livre du siège de Namur’ 18 July 1697.

[Nicolas Gueudeville], L’esprit des cours de l’Europe, où l’on voit tout ce qui s’y passe de plus important touchant la politique, et en général ce qu’il y a de plus remar-


quable dans les nouvelles pour le mois de . . . (Th e Hague 1699–). ‘un esprit des cours Guedeville’ 9 January 1700.

[Duijkerius, Johannes], Het leven van Philopater, opgewiegt in Voetiaensche talmer-yen, en groot gemaeckt in de verborgentheden der Coccejanen. Een waere historie. (Groningen [= Amsterdam] 1691). ‘Philopater en Flaman contre Voetius et Coccejeus’ 22 February 1692.

[Ferguson, Robert], Ondersoek en ontdekking van de grouwzame moord. begaan tegens den gewesen grave van Essex oft e een bevryding van die edele heer van de schuld en schandvlek, van zig zelfs te hebben omgebragt (n.p. 1684). ‘Traduction Angloise 145 pages, touchant la mort du comte d’Essex’ 13 December 1684.

Abbadie, Jean, Défense de la nation Britannique ou les droits de Dieu, de la Nature et de la Societé clairement etablis au sujet de la révolution d’Angleterre, contre l’auteur de l’Avis important aux réfugies (Th e Hague 1693). ‘Défense de la nation Brittanique par l’Abadie’ 24 January 1693.

Aitzema, Lieuwe van, Saken van staet en oorlogh (Th e Hague 1657). ‘Aijtzma’ 6 March 1670.

Allestree, Richard, La pratique des vertus chrétiennes, ou tous les devoirs de l’homme (Amsterdam 1672). ‘la pratique des vertus chrestiennes’ 9 October 1698.

Amelot de la Houssaije, sr, Histoire du gouvernement de Venise, avec le suplement (Paris 1677). ‘de gouvernement de Venise’ 24 July 1677.

mad. D** [Marie Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville d’Aulnoy], Mémoires de la cour d’Espagne (Th e Hague 1691). ‘des mémoires de la cour d’Espagne’ 27 July 1691.

Autentycke stucken, aengaende het gepasseerde tot Middelburgh in Zeelandt, in de maendt van December, 1676. Ontrent de saeck van do. Guiljelmus Momma (1676). ‘Aucthentijcke stukken van ’t gepasseerde in Zeelandt ontrent de saeck van Momma’ catalogue 1677.

Baker, Richard, Cronyke van het leven en bedryff van alle de coningen van Engeland: beginnende vande regeringe der Romeynen totte regeringe van Carolus I (Amsterdam 1649). ‘l’histoijre de Baker des roijs d’Angeleterre’ 10 May 1689.

Basnage de Beauval, Jacques, Histoire de la religion des églises réformées: dans laquelle on voit la succession de leur église, la perpétuité de leur foy . . . avex une histoire de l’origine et du progrès des principales erreures de l’église Romaine: pour servir de réponse à l’histoire des variations des églises protestantes, par m. Bossuet . . . (Rotterdam 1690). ‘un livre de mr. Banage, de la perpétuité de la foij réformée’ 12 February 1692.

Bassompierre, François de, Mémoires du maréchal de Bassompierre contenant l’histoire de sa vie et de ce qui s’est fait de plus remarquable à la Cour de France pendant quelques années. (Cologne 1665). ‘Bassompierre’ 22 January 1669.

Bayle, Pierre, Dictionaire historique et critique (Rotterdam 1697). ‘dictionaire de Baijl’ 5 February 1710.

Benoist, Elie, Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes: contenant les choses les plus remarquables qui se sont passées en France avant et après sa publication, à l’occasion de la diversité des religions et principalement les contraventions, inexécutions, chicanes, artifi ces, violences et autres injustices, que les reformez le plaignent d’y avoir souff ertes, jusques a l’Édit de Révocation, en octobre 1685; avec ce qui a suivi ce nouvel édit jusques à présent 3 delen (Delft 1693–1695). ‘les deux premiers volumes de son [=Benoist] histoijre de Nantes’ 27 July 1693.

Bible. ‘Bible’ 23 November 1669.Bleiswyk, Johan Cornelisz. van, Een dagelijkse Bibel-lees-ordre behoudens yders christe-

lijcke vrijheydt (1674) of: Jaarlykse Bibel-balance ende dagelyks harmonye-boeck (Delft 1674). ‘Jan Corn. van Bleijswijck m’envoija en don un livre de sa composition, contenant une methode curieuse de lire les saijntes escritures’ 25 October 1675.

Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas, Le Lutrin, poème héroï-comique (1671?); L’Art poétique (–1671). ‘de nieuwe satires van Boijleau, te weten zijn Lutrin en l’art poétique’21 May 1675.

362 appendix ii

Bosc, Pierre du, Sermons sur divers textes de l’Ecriture Sainte (Rotterdam 1687). ‘les sermons de monsr. du Bosc’ 24 August 1687.

Brandt, Gerard, G. Brandts Historie der Reformatie, en andre kerkelyke geschiedenissen, in en ontrent de Nederlanden (Amsterdam 1671). ‘les livres de Brant Histoijre de la Réformation dans l’église’ 3 March 1679.

Brandt, Gerard, Het leven en bedryf van den heere Michiel de Ruiter, hertog, ridder, en c. l. admiraal generaal van Hollandt en Westvrieslandt (Amsterdam 1687). ‘l’histoijre de l’admiral de Ruijter’ 30 December 1686.

Brune, Jean de la, La vie de Charles V, duc de Lorraine et de Bar, et généralissime des troupes impériales (Amsterdam 1691). ‘la vie de Charles V de Lorraine’ 31 May 1692.

Bruyère, Jean de la, Les caractères de Th eophraste avec Les caractères ou les moeurs de ce siècle et la clef, en marge et par ordre alphabétique (Paris 1697). ‘les caractèrs de Th eopraste’ 11 January 1700.

Burnet, Gilbert, Eenige brieven, behelzende een verhaal van het gene . . . voorviel op een voyagie door Switzerlandt, Italien, een gedeelte van Duitslandt, etc. in den 1685 en 1686 (Amsterdam 1687). ‘les lettres de Burnet’ 24 August 1687.

Burnet, Gilbert, Histoire de la réformation de l’Église d’Angleterre (London 1683). ‘l’histoire de la réformation angloise de Burnet’ 30 November 1685.

Callières, François de, Des bons mots et des bons contes: de leur usage, de la raillerie des anciens, de la raillerie et des railleurs de nôtre temps (Paris 1692). ‘Bons mots et bons contes des antiens et modernes’ 14 January 1693.

Chamberlayne, Edward, L’Estat present de l’Angleterre: avec plusieurs réfl exions sur son ancien estat; traduit de l’Anglois d’Eduard Chamberlayne [par de Neuville] (Amsterdam 1669). ‘un livre intitulé l’Estat présent de l’Angleterre, par Eduard Chamberlaijn’ 30 September 1669.

Chanut, Pierre, Mémoires de ce qui s’est passé en Suède, et aux provinces voisines, depuis l’année 1645 jusques en l’année 1655 . . . tirez des depesches de monsieur [Pierre] Chanut . . . Par P[ierre] Linage de Vauciennes. (Cologne 1677). ‘un traijcté contenant en troijs tomes ce qui est passé en Suède et aux provinces vaijsines depuis l’an 1645 jusqu’en l’an 1654, tire des depesches de monsr. Chanut, ambassadeur de France en Suède.’ 5 January 1677.

Chardin, Jean, Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes Orientales, par la Mer Noire et par la Colchide (Amsterdam 1686). ‘le voijage de Chardin’ 21 November 1686.

Charpentier, François, Deff ense de la langue françoise pour l’inscription de l’Arc de Triomphe (Paris 1676). ‘un livre . . . compose par monsr. Charpentier . . . que l’inscription de l’Arc de Triomphe qui se bastit a Paris pour le roij devoijt etre françoijs et non pas Latine’ 5 July 1677.

Corneille, Pierre, Suréna, général des Parthes (1674). ‘Suréna général des Partes’ cata-logue 1677.

Corneille, Pierre, La mort d’Achille, tragédie (Amsterdam 1676). ‘La mort d’Achille’ catalogue 1677.

Costa, Jérôme a [Richard Simon], Histoire de l’origine et du progrès des revenus ecclé-siastiques (Frankfurt 1684). ‘Hijstoijre de l’origine et du progrèz des reveneus eclé-siaticques par Jerosme a Costa, protonotaire apostolicque’ 16 January 1685.

Cromwell, Oliver, Literae pseudo-senatus Anglicani, Cromwellii, reliquorumque per-duellium omine ac jussu conscriptae a Joanne Miltono (Amsterdam 1676). ‘Lettre Cromwelli a Miltono’ catalogue 1677.

Daillé, Jean, Traicté de l’employ des saincts pères, pour le jugement des diff érends, qui sont aujourd’hui en la religion: (Geneva 1632). ‘l’usage des pères faict par monsr. Daijllé’ 10 January 1679.

Drelincourt, Charles, Réponse de Charles Drelincourt à la lettre écrite par Mgr le Prince Ernest, landgrave de Hesse, aux cinq ministres de Paris, qui ont leur exercice à


Charenton (Geneva 1662). ‘un livre de Drelincourt, estant une response à un prince de la maijson de Hessen’ 7 February 1692.

L’Estat présent de la religion en Allemagne (n.p. 1671). ‘l’Estat présent de la religion en Allemagne’ 7 January 1672.

Fénelon, François de Pons de Salignac de la Mothe, Avantures de Télémaque, fi ls d’Ulysse, ou Suite du quatrième livre de l’Odyssée d’Homère. (Th e Hague 1699). ‘5 tomes d’Télémaque’ 9 January 1700.

Figueroa, Garc. de Sila, L’ambassade de Figueroa en Perse (1617–1624), contenant la politique de ce grand empire, les moeurs du roy Schach Abbas, et une relation exacte de tous les lieux de Perse et des Indes où cet ambassadeur a esté . . . trad. de l’Espagnol par Abr. de Wicquefort (Paris 1667). ‘Figueroa en son ambassade en Perse’ 16 October 1671.

Fontenelle, Bernard Le Bouyer de, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Paris 1686). ‘Fontenelle de la pluralité des mondes en 5 entretiens’ 21 August 1686.

Galardi, Ferdinand, Réfl exions sur les mémoires pour les ambassadeurs et response au ministre prisonnier, avec des exemples curieux et importantes recherches (Ville-Franche 1677). ‘des réfl ections sur le livre de Ficfoort touchant son traijté des ambassadeurs’ 16 March 1677.

Groenewegen, Henricus, Sleutel der prophetien, oft e Uitlegginge, van de Openbaringe des apostels Joannis (Th e Hague 1677). ‘Groenewegen Apocalipsis’ catalogue 1677.

Hornius, Georgius, Kerkelycke historie, van de scheppinge des werelts, tot ’t jaer des Heeren 1666. Aengehecht met een korte wereltlyke historie van ’t begin der eeuwen tot den selven tijdt. (Amsterdam 1683). ‘traduction de Hornius en 2 volumes’ 14 August 1700.

Huisseau, Isaac d’, La réunion du Christianisme ou la manière de rejoindre tous les chrestiens sous une seule confession de foy (Saumur 1670). ‘intitulé la réunion du christianisme, imprimé a Saumur’ 2 January 1672.

La Guilletière (= Georges Guillet de Saint-George), Athènes ancienne et nouvelle et l’Estat présent de l’empire des Turcs, contenant la vie du sultan Mahomet IV (Paris 1675). ‘un livre qui porte pour titre Athènes antienne et nouvelles’ 6 December 1675.

Larrey, Isaac de, Histoire d’Angleterre, d’Ecosse, et d’Irlande; avec un abrégé des évène-mens les plus remarquables arrivez dans les autres états (Rotterdam 1697). ‘l’histoijre d’Angleterre de monsr. de Larreij’ 3 December 1704.

Le tombeau des controverses, ou le royal accord de la paix avec la piété (Amsterdam 1672). ‘intitulé le tombeau des controverses’ 5 January 1672.

Le nouveau Mercure galant: contenant tout ce qui s’est passé de curieux (–1677). ‘Mercure galant’ catalogue 1677.

Lucas, Richard, La morale de l’évangile . . . Traduit de l’Anglois (Amsterdam 1686). ‘la morale de l’évangelie, traduit de l’angloijs’ 13 September 1687.

Maimbourg, Louis, Histoire du grand schisme d’occident (Paris 1678). ‘le grand schisme d’occident’ 17 November 1684.

Maimbourg, Louis, Histoire du schisme des Grecs (Paris 1677). ‘le schisme des Grecs’ 2 December 1684.

May, Louis du, Le prudent voyageur, contenant la description politique de tous les États du monde, de l’Asie, de l’Afrique et de l’Amérique et particulièrement de l’Europe, où sont dépeintes. . . . les maisons royales et autres familles illustres . . . (Geneva 1681). ‘un livre au 3 tomes intitulé le prudent voijageur’ 19 February 1684.

Mazarin, Jules, Lettres du cardinal Mazarin. Où l’on voit le secret de la négociation de la paix des Pirenées: (Amsterdam 1690). ‘Lettres du cardinal Mazarin touchant le traijcté du Pijrenées’ 19 February 1693.

Mézeray, François Eudes de, Abrégé chronologique, ou, extrait de l’histoire de France (Paris 1669). ‘l’abrégé de Mizeraij’ 24 August 1675.

Mézeray, François Eudes de, Histoire de France depuis Faramond jusqu’à maintenant 3 vols (Paris 1643–1651). ‘Mizeraij’ 3 January 1669.

364 appendix ii

Molière, Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault, Psyché: tragédie (–1671). ‘une tragi-comedie nommée Psiché, compose par Molière, Corneijlle et Quinault’ 4 January 1672.

N.N., Lettre d’un désintéressé à un sien ami, touchant le titre d’ambassadeur, avec lequel les princes d’Allemagne désirent d’envoyer leurs ministres au congrès de Nimweguen; et les diff érences que quelques-uns tâchent de susciter entre les électeurs de l’empire et les susdits princes (31 décembre 1676) Avec une pièce en latin, de la même matière (Aix la Chapelle 1677). ‘Lettre d’un desintéressé sur une question ventilée a Nimweegen touchant le titre d’ambassadeur’ catalogue 1677.

Nieuhof, Joan, Het gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen keizer van China. (Amsterdam 1670). ‘une ambassade vers la Chine, nouvellement imprimée’ 24 January 1670.

Noir, Jean le, Les nouvelles lumières politiques pour le gouvernement de l’église, ou l’evangile nouveau du cardinal Palavicin révélé par luy dans son Hist. du Concile de Trente (1676). ‘Le troijsiesme et d’un inconnu, qui souve le titre de l’Évangeli nouveau reproche au cardinal Pallavicin’ 5 July 1677.

Pascal, Blaise, Pensées (Paris 1670). ‘Les pensées de mr. Pascal’ 28 May 1671.Poisson, Raymond, Le Baron de la Crasse: comédie (1662). ‘le Baron de la Crasse,

comédie nouvelle en ce temps’ 12 January 1672.Prodez de Beragrem, Pierre-François, Mémoires de Pierre-François Prodez, de Beragrem,

marquis d’Almachen, contenant ses voyages et tout ce qui lui est arrivé de plus remar-quable, le tout fait par lui-même (Amsterdam 1677). ‘Mémoijres de Francoijs Pradez, marquis de Bergagren’ catalogue 1677.

Pure, Michel de, La Vie du maréchal de Gassion (Paris 1673). ‘le 4iesme tome de Gassion’ 4 February 1786.

Rabutin, Roger de, comte de Bussij, Lettres; Nouvelle édition avec les réponses (Amsterdam 1698). ‘les lettres de Bussij Rabutin’ 9 October 1698.

Racine, Jean, Phèdre et Hippolyte, tragédie (Paris 1677). ‘Phèdre et Hijpolite tragédie’ catalogue 1677.

Raguenet, François, Histoire d’Olivier Cromwell (Paris 1691). ‘la vie de Cromwell’2 June 1692.

Rapin, René, Du grand ou du sublime dans les moeurs et dans les diff érentes conditions des hommes, avec quelques observations sur l’éloquence des bienséances (Paris 1686). ‘Rapin du sublime dans les moeurs. Item son observations sur l’éloquence dans les bienséances’ 21 August 1686.

Rapin, René, La comparaison de Platon et d’Aristote, avec les sentimens des Pères sur leur doctrine, et quelques réfl exions chrestiennes (Paris 1671). ‘un livre de la comparaijson de Platon et d’Aristote’ 5 November 1676.

Rapin, René, Réfl exions sur la philosophie ancienne et moderne et sur l’usage qu’on doit faire pour la religion (Paris 1676). ‘Le second livre est de Rapin, jesuijte, intitulé Réfl exion sur la philosophije antcienne et moderne’ 5 July 1677.

Relation des diff érents arrivéz en Espagne entre D. Jean d’Autriche et le cardinal Nitard (Cologne 1677). ‘une relation des diff érents arrivéz en Espagne entre d. Jan d’Autriche et le cardinal Nitard aux années 1668 et 1669’ 16 March 1677.

Relation du siège de Maestrick (Paris 1676). ‘un journal de siège de Maestricht’26 January 1677.

Schweinitz, David von, Méditations sur la mort, au sujet de diff érens textes, de l’Écriture, tirés des Evangiles et Epîtres qu’on lit pendant l’année. . . . Ouvrage composé en ale-man par D. de Schweinitz. Mis en françois par un de ses parens du même nom de la branche de Crain. (Berlin 1699). ‘que monsr. le Baron Scweijnits m’avait envoije . . . se sont des méditations sur la mort’ 26 September 1700.

Siri, Vittorio, Il mercurio overo Historia de’ correnti tempi (Geneva 1647). ‘les mercures de Vitorio Cirij, historien Italien’ 10 February 1693.


Sully, Maximilian de Bethune, baron de Rosny, duc de, Mémoires ou oeconomies royales d’estat, domestiques, politiques et militaires de Henry le Grand (–1638). ‘les mémoijres de monsr. de Sully, Rosnij ou de Bethune’ 22 August 1674.

Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, Nouvelle relation de l’intérieur du serrail du Grand Seigneur (Cologne 1675). ‘un livre de l’intérieur du serraijl du grand Turcq par Tavernier’ 6 March 1677.

Teding a Berkhout, Paulus, Disputatio juridica inauguralis de vulgari substitutione. . . (Leiden 1700). ‘mon aisné m’envoia aussij sa thèse a l’occasion de sa promotaire’ 5 June 1700.

Temple, William, Mémoires de ce qui s’est passé dans la chrétienté, depuis le commence-ment de la guerre en 1672, jusqu’à la paix concluë en 1679 (Th e Hague 1692). ‘le livre de Tempel touchant la paijx de 1678’ 28 May 1692.

Tomasi, Tomaso, La Vie de César Borgia, appelé du depuis le duc de Valentinois, descrite par Th omas Th omasi. Traduit de l’italien . . . (Monte Chiaro 1671). ‘la vie de duc de Valentinoijs’ 14 August 1677.

Turretin, François, Predikatiën over verscheide texten der H. Schrift uur gedaan door François Turretin . . . Uit het Fransch in ’t Nederduitsch vertaalt door A. Godart (Utrecht 1678). ‘un presche de Turretin, du choix de Moise’ 14 September 1692.

Varillas, Antoine, Histoire de François I (Th e Hague 1682). ‘l’Histoijre de Françoijs premier par Varillas’ 26 January 1685.

Varillas, Antoine, La pratique de l’éducation des princes: contenant l’histoire de Guillaume de Croy, surnommé le Sage, seigneur de Chiévres, gouverneur de Charles d’Autriche qui fut empereur cinquième du nom (Amsterdam 1684). ‘la pratique de l’éducation des princes par Varillas’ 11 January 1685.

Vassor, Michel le, Histoire du règne de Louis XIII, roi de France et de Navarre (Amsterdam 1700–17.). ‘le premier tome de Vassor’ 12 February 1700.

Vauban, maréchal de [Sebastian le Prestre, marquis de], Projet d’une dixme royale: qui supprimant la taille, les aydes, les douanes d’une province à l’autre, les décimes du clergé, les aff aires extraordinaires et tous autres impôts . . . (n.p. 1707). ‘la dixme roiale du maréchal de Vauban’ 8 February 1708.

Velius, D., Chronijck vande stadt van Hoorn: daarin des selven begin, opcomen en gedenckweerdige gheschiedenissen, tot op den tegenwoordigen jaere van 1604 (Hoorn 1604). ‘un chronique de Hooren’ 14 June 1677.

Viau, Th éophile de, Les oeuvres de Th éophile de Viau (1631?). ‘Th éopile’ 1 January 1669.

Vrigny, Philippe le Clerc de Juigné de, Défense du parlement d’Angleterre, dans la cause de Jaques II (Rotterdam 1692). ‘un livre bien relie la cour de monsr. de Vrignij, qui en estoit l’autheur. Il legitimait les procedures du parlement contre le roij Jacques’ 10 September 1692.

Vrigny, Philippe le Clerc de Juigné de, Lettre de monsieur de Vrigny, contre les antitrini-taires, les tolerans, et les moralistes. Avec des remarqves sur un livre latin, intitulé, La religion naturelle (1693). ‘lettre de mr. de Vrignij contre les antitrinitaires, tolerans et moralistes’ 30 January 1693.3

Wicquefort, Abraham de, Mémoires touchant les ambassadeurs et les ministres publics (Cologne 1676). ‘un livre de Fikfort contenant ses mémoijres touchant les ambas-sadeurs’ 10 November 1676.

3 Possibly directed against Petrus Chauvin, De naturali religione (Rotterdam 1693).

366 appendix ii

Printed matter inserted in the diary of Jan de Boer (1747–1758)

Th is appendix gives an overview of the printed matter that Jan de Boer inserted into his diary. Th e newspapers, illustrations, books, pamphlets, periodicals and govern-ment publications are enumerated for each year. Pamphlets are accompanied by their number in Knuttel, Catalogus.

Diary 1747Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 51, 52, 53.Illustration: ‘zyne hoogheyd den heere prince erfstadhouder’.Illustration: ‘haare koninglijke hoogheyd’.Illustration: ‘de inname van Bergen op Zoom’.Gebed tot gebruyk van de Roomsch Katholyken op de Woensdaagsche bedestonden

(n.p. 1747).Formulier des gebetes . . . geleesen . . . In de Roomsche kerk De Papegaey (n.p. 1747).Boere praatje tusschen Klaas en Gys, over de vreugde bedryven in de tegenwoordige tyds

omstandigheid (Utrecht 1747) Kn. 17703.Pro Patria (Amsterdam: A. van Huissteen 1747) Kn. 17722. Blydschap en erkentenisse der Roomsch Catholyken in Nederland (Amsterdam 1747)

Kn. 17723.Op het verzoek van bescherming voor de Hollandsche Roomsche Catholyken (Amsterdam

1747) Kn. 17724.Pro Patria (Amsterdam: H. Beekman and Th . Crajenschot, 1747) Kn. 17725.Het Roomsch Rot Goet Paater-jot (1747) Kn. 17726.Het Roomsch Rot Goet Paater-jot. Klinkdigt (Harderwijk 1747) Kn. 17727.4

Vergelijkinge Christi met den Roomsche Paus (1747).De vyft igste penning wel besteed: of Onzydige aanmerkingen over de liberale gift e van

twee ten honderd van alle roerende en onroerende goederen der in- en opgezetenen deezer provincie (Th e Hague 1747) Kn. 17764.

De ware gevoelens der roomsche katholyken wegens de pligten van de onderdanen, ten opzigte van de hoge overigheden, voorgesteld in eene leerreden over Matt. XXII:21 (Amsterdam 1747) Kn. 17730.

Copie van een nader request (Rotterdam 1747) Kn. 17799.Notifi catie (Amsterdam 2 mei 1747).Placaat tot het doen van een liberale gift e . . . (Th e Hague 12 september 1747).Naader publicatie . . . (Th e Hague 7 October 1747).Publicatie . . . (Th e Hague 8 November 1747).Waerschouwinge . . . (Amsterdam 9 November 1747).Waerschouwinge . . . (Amsterdam 15 November 1747).[No title] – ‘Acte van betaling van de liberale gift ’. Printed form, with blank spaces for

the name and the amount donated.

Diary for 1748Oprechte Haerlemse Dingsdaegse Courant no. 41.Illustration: ‘doop van de erfprins’.Illustration: ‘het plunderen en vernielen der pagtershuysen’.Illustration: the signing of the peace in Aachen.

4 Reprint of Kn. 17726 with the addition of seven other poems.


Copia-Requeste aan de wel ed. groot agtb. heeren burgermeesteren en de vroedschappen der stad Amsteldamme (1748) Kn. 17979.

Origineele copy. Wy ondergeschrevene in de wyk sorterende onder de . . . capiteyn Christiaan Scholten (Amsterdam 1748) Kn. 17980.

De hooft -offi cieren van de wyk no (1748) Kn. 17982.Regtmatige beschuldigingen der Amsteldamsche burgery aangaande hunne ovrigheidt

(Middelburg 1748) Kn. 18028.De voornaamste poincten en articulen by de zogenaamde Welmeenenden ter verdeediging

voorgestelt. Getoetst . . . aan de handvesten (Middelburg 1748) Kn. 17973. Copie. Aen zyne doorluchtige hoogheit (1748) Kn. 17998.Kluchtige inval (1748) Kn. 18025.Loon na verdienst (1748) Kn. 18031.De groote en wonderlyke droom, gedroomt door een burger in Amsterdam, nu woonende

tot Haarlem (Amsterdam 1748) Kn. 18061.Rapport, gedaan aan verscheiden kooplieden der stat Amsterdam vergadert den 11 den

september 1748 (Amsterdam 1748) Kn. 18046.Billyk verzoek der Amsteldamsche burgery, aan zyne doorlugtige hoogheyd op nieuw

voor te stellen (1748) Kn. 18056.De caracters der opper-baasen, die haar zelven als hoofden hebben uit de . . . Cloveniers

Doelen tot Amsterdam opgeworpen (‘Gedrukt tot Rapenburg, alwaar de voose raap uithangt’ 1748) Kn. 18071.

Zinnebeeldige graf-schrift en, op vyft ien . . . opper-baasen, der zogenaamde muitelingen, dat met . . . augusty 1748. in de stads Cloveniers Doelen tot Amsterdam zyn begin heeft gehad (1748) Kn. 18074.

Raap, Daniël, Verdedigende aanmerkingen wegens het voorgevallene tot Amsterdam, zoo in . . . November 1747, als in August en september 1748 (Amsterdam 1748) Kn. 18067.

Waarschouwing en publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 4 July 1748).Publicatie. Aan myne Heeren van den Geregte der stad Amsterdam . . . (Amsterdam 12

August 1748) Kn. 17981.Wij Willem Carel Hendrik . . . (10 August 1748) Kn. 18083.Copia. Requeste aan de . . . [with the council’s fi at or approval] (Amsterdam 1748) Kn.

17995.Notifi catie . . . (Amsterdam 7 September 1748) Kn. 18013.Notifi catie . . . (Amsterdam 14–15 September 1748) Kn. 18047.Waerschouwinge . . . (Amsterdam 1 October 1748).[No title] Resolution of the war council (17 October 1748).Ordonnantie op het stuk der begraaff enissen (Haarlem 1748).

Diary 1749Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 60, 116, 125, 134, 150, 153.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 81, 94, 105, 106, 107, 108, 120, 122, 125, 146, 147, 152,

156.Haerlemse Saturdagse Courant no. 28.Leydse Maendagse Courant no. 117.Illustration: ‘vergadering der patriotten in . . . Amsterdam . . . 1748’.Pater, Lucas, Leeuwendaal hersteld door de vrede; zinnespel (Amsterdam 1749).De weergalooze Amsterdamsche kiekkas, vertoonende de prince van Oranje en Nassauw,

en al wat hy hier gedaan heeft omtrent de oude regeering (1748) Kn. 18033.Raap, Daniël, Zedige overweging wegens de afgeschaft e middelen der consumptie (1749)

Kn. 18223.Twee propositien van zyne hoogheid. Eerstelyk om . . . in plaatse van de afgeschaft e pagten

te introduceeren een . . . hoofdgeld. . . . Ten tweeden . . . tot herstelling van de binneland-sche fabriquen en in het byzonder die van de zyde manifacturen (1749) Kn. 18225.

368 appendix ii

Klaar bewys dat de gemeene lieden, uit . . . billykheid . . . verpligt zyn. De lasten des vad-erlands; te helpen draagen: strekkende . . . ter wederlegging van . . . Zedige overweeging wegens de afgeschaft e middelen der consumptie door Daniel Raap (Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18224.

Plan van een generaal en classicaal familie-hoofdgeld, verzeld van een project om de afge-schaft e pachten by wyze van collecte in te vorderen (Leiden etc. 1749) Kn. 18254.

Pieter Bakker ontmaskerd. Behelzende eene verdeediging der handelingen, van den Amsterdamschen kerkenraad, gehouden met Pieter Bakker (Amsterdam 1746) Kn. 17553.

Doelezang (Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18234.Zang (1749) Kn. 18233.’t Amsterdams buurpraatje, gehouden van een meenigte welmeenende patriotten, in de

Kolveniers-doelen (Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18235.Plan voor de generaale provincien om te remplaceeren de . . . pagters &c (1749) Kn.

18228.De geheele stad in rouw, of de klaagende burgers aan haar regeerders over ’t vervallen

van haar regt (Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18236.De gevonde brief, verloren in het uitgaan van het avondschool van de geleerden

(Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18237.Den vrygebooren Hollander, of Orangje patriot no. 35, 25 August (Amsterdam 1749).Publicatie. De Staaten van Holland en Westvriesland . . . (Th e Hague 22 April 1749).Notifi catie . . . 22 May 1749.Publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 5 July 1749).Order in welke de ommegange . . . (Amsterdam 1749) Kn. 18239.Placcaat. Staten van Holland en Westvriesland . . . (29 July 1749).Publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 11 August 1749).Notifi catie . . . (Amsterdam 26 August 1749).[no title] Printed appeal, in which De Boer claimed that he should not have to pay 53

guilders, the amount of the assessment, but 33 guilders, 7 stuyvers and 5 cents.[no title] Printed form ordering the addressee to appear before the local tax offi cials

to be assigned to a tax group.Generaal placaat op de invordering van des gemeene lands middelen (Th e Hague 1749).[no title] government order fi xing the maximum price of bread.

Diary 1750Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 14, 95.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 1, 9, 27, 45, 76, 93.Haerlemse Courant nos. 3, 95.Leydse Courant no. 83Illustration: ‘vertooning van ’t inrukken der burgermilitie in Haarlem’, ex. Barent

Greve.[no title] petition to Willem IV from burghers of Th e Hague.Brief, geschreeven van een heer aan zynen vriend, die op 3. january 1750 . . . te Haarlem

is gearriveert (Amsterdam 1750) Kn. 18264.Graf-schrift en voor den wel edelen groot achtbaaren heere, den heere mr. Jan Six, heere

van Hillegom en Vromade &c. (Amsterdam 1750) Kn. 18259.Op het overlyden van den wel edelen grootachtbaaren heere, den heere mr. Jan Six, heere

van Hillegom en Vromade &c (Amsterdam 1750) Kn. 18260.Brief van eenen Rotterdammer aan zyn Amsterdamsche vriendt (Amsterdam) Kn.

18265. Brief van een Antwerpenaar aan zyn Amsterdamsche vriend, over zyn correspondentie

met den vermaarden Rotterdamsche patriot (Amsterdam 1750) Kn. 18266.


Grafschrift en. Voor den deugdlievenden, recht- en vryheid minnenden heer Harmen Coops Fledderus (1750).

De klagende maegt van Holland, verzeld van keer-dicht, waer in de lasteringen . . . tegen de hooge overigheid . . . wederlegd worden (1750) Kn. 18261.

Een waaragtige beschryving, of droevig verhaal uit Steenwyk . . . hoedanig dat men daar een heer van aanzien heeft . . . onregtvaardig ter dood gebragt (1750) Kn. 18270.

Sententie tegens Harmen Coops Fledderus, binnen Steenwyk. Den 24 april 1749 (Ams-terdam 1750) Kn. 18268.

Request . . . Oostzanen, Oost Zaandam (1750).Koff y en thee. Ordonnantie, waar op in . . . Holland en Westvriesland . . . by collecte geinnet

sal werden den impost op de consumtie van de koff y en thee. . . . Innegaande met den eersten ianuary 1750 (Th e Hague 1750).

Consumtie van den tabak. Ordonnantie, waar op in . . . Holland en Westvriesland . . . by collecte geinnet sal werden den impost op de consumtie soo van de rook- als snuyft abak. Ingaande met den eersten ianuary 1750 (Th e Hague 1750).

Diary 1751Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 26, 30, 38, 43, 128, 131, 137.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 12, 31, 51, 82, 76, 100, 132, 143.Leydse Courant nos. 16, 27, 117, 118, 119, 132, 133.Gazette de la Haye 25 October 1751.[no title] conditions for participation in anniversary celebrations.Op de verkiezinge van den wel edelen grootachtbaaren heere, den heere mr. Hendrik ter

Smitten, raad in de Vroedschap &c. &c. &c. tot burgermeester der stad Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18290.

Weêrklank op het vaers tot tytel voerende Op de verkiezinge van den wel edelen groot achtbaaren heere, den heere mr. Hendrik ter Smitten, raad in de Vroedschap &c. (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18291.

Op de verkiezing van . . . Hendrik ter Smitten, tot burgermeester der stad Amsteldam (1751) Kn. 18292.

Lyste van de capiteynen, luytenants . . . aangesteld zyn by de . . . krygsraad (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18293.

Aan Jan Romans, kollecteur van ’t gemaal (1751) Kn. 18294. Meyer, Johannes, Eere, na waarde: voor den wel edelen, achtbaaren en gestrengen heere,

den heere Pieter van de Poll, aangesteld tot bailjuw van Amstelland, &c. (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18295.

Daniel Raep’s patriottische bedryven (1751) Kn. 18297.De klagende maegt van Groningen, verzeld van aentekeningen, waer in de beswaernissen

jegens de hooge overigheit . . . gestaefd worden (1748) Kn. 18161.Spoore aan de keurdicht-maakers (1751) Kn. 18299.Een zamenspraak tusschen een verstoorde wyn-handelaar, predikant en boer, voorgeval-

len in de Haarlemmer trekschuit, over het doen van den eed der wyn-handelaars (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18303.

Uit Dordrecht. Extract van een brief van een vriend aan zyn vriend tot Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18305.

Brief en aanmerking op de zoogenaemden Dortschen brief Kn. 18306.Brief van Henricus Wachloo, gewezen collecteur van de boter aan zyn vriend Daniel

Raap, verwaanden previlegie-zoeker (1751) Kn. 18307.Antwoord van Daniel Raap . . . op den brief van Henricus Wachloo (1751) Kn. 18308.Publicatie. De gezamentlyke wynkopers knegten (1751) Kn. 18310.Men zal op aanstaande woensdag . . . vertoonen . . . de inquisitie of eed door dwang

(Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18312.

370 appendix ii

Naamlyst der voornaame heeren wynkopers, welke . . . den eed gepresteerd hebben (1751) Kn. 18317.

Men zal [etc.] . . . Op maandag . . . zal men vertoonen de dood van eerlykheid en trouw (1751) Kn. 18314.

Samenspraak tusschen een eedweigerenden Rotterdammer, Amsteldamschen doelist en gezworen wynkooper (Rotterdam 1751) Kn. 18318.

Copye van een merkwaardige missive schreeven door den vluchtende collecteur Pieter Reiersz uit het land van Onrust (1751) Kn. 18320.

Ommering, Adriaan van, Op het schielijk afsterven van . . . Willem Carel Hendrik Friso (Amsterdam 1751) Kn. 18332.

Aert en inborst des prinçen van Orange (Th e Hague 1751) Kn. 18333.De Nederlandsche Spectator no. 76.Quotizatie Biljet, op het middel van de coff y, the &tc (1747).No. Quatisatie billiet van den impost op de koff y en thee (1751).[no title] tax form.Waarschouwinge . . . (Amsterdam 9 July 1751).Publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 8 September 1751).

Diary 1752Haerlemse Courant no. 37.Illustration: ‘Afb eelding van het droevig ongeluk, door ’t instorten van de koningssluis

t’Amsteldam den 16 Januaryj 1752.’Illustration: portrait of Willem IV.Illustration: ‘Lykstatie van wijlen zijn doorluchtigste hoogheid . . .’Op de afb eelding van zyne doorluchtige hoogheid . . . (Amsterdam 1752).Copia (1752). Consideratien over het stuk van de manufacturen en fabrycquen, gemaakt ter occasie van

het examen van de verhandeling over den koophandel der Vereenigde Nederlanden, by propositie van zyne doorlugtigste hoogheid den 27 August 1751. ter vergadering van haar ed. groot mog. Overgegeeven (1751) Kn. 18382.

Extract uyt het register der resolutien van de . . . Staaten Generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden [24 December 1751–29 January 1752] (Th e Hague 1752).

Extracten uyt de resolutien . . . Staten van Holland (1752).

Diary 1753Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 15, 51, 58, 116, 133, 149.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 22, 53, 80, 107 t/m 112, 136.Haarlemse Courant nos. 10, 21, 34.Ode aen . . . Christian Scholten van Aschot (1753) Kn. 18403.Hans-Michel, of de geschonde en herstelde eght van de gewaande gouverneur van

Surinaamen. Bly-spel (Amsterdam, ‘gedrukt over de brouwery van’t wapen, daar de vrouw, kamenier, en kindermeid, gelyk zyn beslapen’, 1753) Kn. 18404.

Aan de lasteraars van . . . do Jacobus Tyken (Amsterdam 1753) Kn. 18402.Waarheid, lievde en voorzigtigheid, of T’zamenspraak ter vermydinge van agterklap en

kwaadspreekenheid (Amsterdam 1753) Kn. 18405.Voor advies van den heere van Renesse, met de klagende maagt van Utrecht, en eenige

andere gedigten daar toe betrekkelyk (1753) Kn. 18406.Zaamenspraak tusschen den Amsterdammer Frans Canter; en den Hollandschen

Mercurius Weetgraag, gehouden in de civiele gyzeling te Amsteldam, en behel-zende . . . alle . . . proceduuren der bewindhebberen van de O.I. Comp. tegens den eerstgemelden (‘Vrystad’ 1753) Kn. 18407.


Copia. Testament of uyterste wille van . . . Daniel Raap. Testament of uyterste wille In den name Lucifers (1754) Kn. 18408.

Publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 17 January 1753).[no title] Printed form from a local tax offi cial, ordering De Boer to pay coff ee and

tea tax.

Diary 1754Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 128, 135.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 14, 30, 73, 76, 85, 88, 109, 127.Haarlemse Courant no. 25.Leydse Courant no. 29.Rotterdamse Courant no. 32.Illustration: Josephus de Longas.Illustration: portraits of governess, Prince Willem and Princess Carolina.Anno 1754. Op donderdag den 15e january worden alle opperbaazen van den Doele ter

begraavinge verzogt (1754) Kn. 18422.Anno 1754 Op donderdag den 17e january worden alle Doelisten ter hellevaart verzogt

(1754) Kn. 18423.Beuls disperatie over het afsterven van Daniel Raap (1754) Kn. 18424.Copia testament of uyterste wille van . . . Daniel Raap (1754) Kn. 18425.Copia van de laaste codicille, of alleruiterste wille van wylen Daniel Raap (1754) Kn.

18427.Hans Michel of de geschonde en herstelde eght (Amsterdam 1753) Kn. 18404.Op het afsterven van den valschen prievilegiezoeker D. Raap (1754) Kn. 18431Catelogus van diverse soorten . . . porceleynen . . . Als meede eenige boeken, die den over-

leedenen zelfs heeft geschreven. alles nagelaten door Daniel Raap, hooft der doelisten (1754) Kn. 18435.

Eenige lyk- en graf-dichten op het afsterven van . . . Daniel Raap (1754) Kn. 18437.Uit- en sleedevaart van den romp des oproermaker Daniel Raap (1754) Kn. 18439.Pertinent verhaal uit Amsteldam van . . . de begraaff enis van . . . Daniel Raap (Utrecht

1754) Kn. 18442.Onzydige vyfl edige beschouwing van het gepasseerde omtrent het lyk . . . van Daniel Raap

(Leiden 1754) Kn. 18444.Appendix van veele fraije . . . schilderyen, nevens een party . . . manuscripten . . . verzameld

door wylen D. Raap (1754) Kn. 18446.Op de zinnebeeldige en statieuse prent der begrafenisse van Daniel Raap (1754) Kn.

18447.Op de afb eelding van de aankomst van Daniel Raap, in het onderaardsche ryk (‘Gedrukt

op het slot van Loevestyn’ 1754) Kn. 18448.Copy van twee brieven uit de hel geschreeven door Daniel Raap, aan zyn huisvrouw

(‘Gedrukt onder het kruis, voor het Doele-gespuis’ 1754) Kn. 18450.Zegen-wensch, aan den eerwaarden en geliefden heer, den heer, Johannis Babtista

Wymans, beroepen tot priester te Amsteldam, in het Maagden-huys (Amsterdam 1754) Kn. 18464.

Lauwer-krans, gevlogten, om ’t hoofd van den zeer eerwaarden heer den heere Johannes Baptista Wymans, op zyn intree predicatie (Amsterdam 1754) Kn. 18465.

Het overloopend opgekropt hert (Th e Hague 1754) Kn. 18420. Het gedrag der stadhoudersgezinden verdedigt (1754) Kn. 18414.Lof- en klink-dicht, op de burgermeesterlyke en vermoogende aanstelling tot het hoogleer-

aar-ampt der godgeleerdheid, in den persoon van den eerw: heer, Petrus Curtenius (Amsterdam 1754) Kn. 18460.

Eerkroon voor den hooggeleerden heere Petrus Curtenius (Amsterdam 1754) Kn. 18461.

372 appendix ii

Eere-palm voor hun edl: groot achtb: heere burgermeesteren der stad Amsterdam, op het aanstellen van den hooggeleerden heere Petrus Curtenius (Utrecht 1754) Kn. 18462.

Karmans kermis wensch, opgedragen aan alle de heeren, koopleden, burgers en inwoonders der stad Amsterdam (17540) Kn. 18452.

Plegtig feest off er . . . Josephus de Longas (Amsterdam 1754) Kn. 18466.Lofreden op de plegtelyke aanstelling van den zeer eerwaarde heere den heere Albertus

Ahuys, catholyk priester, Als pastoor in de Vinkestraat (1754) Kn. 18467.Nieuwejaars gift aan de Nederlandsche . . . juff ers, zynde Een nieuw lied tegens de gespik-

kelde huwelyken (Th e Hague 1755) Kn. 18477.Chanson nouvelle sur les aff airs du tems en France (1754) Kn. 18471.Publicatie . . . (Amsterdam 14 May 1754).

Diary 1755Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 14, 15, 16, 29, 50, 104, 123, 132, 142, 144, 146, 147, 150,

156.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 7, 82.Leydse Courant no. 49.Advertentie [probably a circular informing the public that the post offi ce was moving

from Rokin to NZ Voorburgwal: ‘spread the word’.]La Fargue, Aanmerkingen over’t plan van . . . lt. adm. C. Schryver, tot redres in de vervalle

zeedienst en zeemagt der Republique (Th e Hague 1755) Kn. 18481. Het pertinent en zeer omstandig verhaal, wegens de schrikkelyke . . . wreedheid, betoond

van een bakkers-knegt, aan een Frans predikant . . . Jean Henri Francois (Amsterdam 1755) Kn. 18483.

Silo, Adam, Brief van den kunst schilder Adam Silo, aan zeeker heer. Wegens den Hollandsche scheeps bouw, belasterd en bekladt in de Boekzaal van . . . juny 1755 (Amsterdam 1755) Kn. 18482.

J.G.M., Historische en natuur-kundige aanmerkingen over de zeldzame aard- en water-schuddinge die . . . op den 1 November 1755 . . . voorgevallen is (Leeuwarden 1755) Kn. 18484.

Chronykje, of Naauwkeurige beschryvinge der aard-beevinge, of water-beweeginge, welke is voor-gevallen op zaturdag, den eersten November, 1755 (Amsterdam 1755) Kn. 18485.

Boekzaal, July 1755.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, December 1755.

Diary 1756Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 1, 2, 24, 26, 71, 123.‘s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 78*, 111, 123*, 124*, 125*, 126*, 135*, 144*, 156*.5

Haarlemse Courant nos. 4, 18, 21, 26.Leydse Courant no. 130.[No title] Poster advertising a concert on 6 October 1756: Miss Bugniani and Mr

Marenesi to sing Stabat Mater by Pergolesi and to dance several ballet scenes.Brief van een koopman te R. aan een zyner vrinden te A., ter gelegenheid der overgeleverde

memorien van de heeren d’Aff ry en Yorke (Amsterdam etc. 1756) Kn. 18508.

5 Th e items marked with an asterisk are no longer in the manuscript. Th ey were removed at some point in time and placed in the newspaper collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands).


De tegenwoordige verwarde staat van het protestantendom, en het zekerste middel tot desselvs redding voorgestelt. By Een beminnaar der protestanten (Amsterdam 1756) Kn. 18501.

T’samenspraak tusschen een koopman van Berlyn, een van Dresden, een van Hamburg, en een Saxe boer. Over de tegenswoordige oorlog tusschen de keyserin, koningin van Ongaryen, en Bohemen, en de koning van Pruysen (Amsterdam etc. 1756) Kn. 18502.

Loft rompet, ter eere der habile en theoretische scheepsbouw en tot glorie van C. Schryvers plan (Rotterdam 1756) Kn. 18541.

Het gedrag der Engelschen, omtrent den staet der Vereenigde Nederlanden, in den voor-gaenden en tegenwoordigen oorlog (Amsterdam etc. 1756) Kn. 18528.

De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, January 1756.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, February 1756.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, May 1756.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, July 1756.

Diary 1757Amsterdamsche Courant no. 71.’s-Gravenhaagse Courant nos. 5*, 62*, 77* (Kn. 18648), 80.’s-Gravenhaagse na-courant 13 May 1757 (Kn. 18547).Haarlemse Courant no. 21.Rotterdamse Courant no. 88.Illustration with poem: ‘Zedenrijke bespiegeling omtrent opregtheid en bedrog’.Het egt en waar karakter van den heere raadpensionaris Johan de Witt . . . overgesteld

tegen het valsch en wanschaapen karakter, onlangs in’t licht gegeven (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18570.

Naaukeurig verhaal van al het gepasseerde, seedert het gevangen neemen tot het eynde der executie van des konings moordenaar Robert Frans Damiens (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18546.

De blasende Postilion of Praag, stormenderhand ingenomen door de koning van Pruisen.Volgens missive uyt Kolberg gedateert den 19 juny 1757 (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18549.

Gebed, door een juff rouw gedaan . . . smeekende voor de goddelyke bystand en voorspoed der onderneemingen van zyn koninglyke majestyt van Pruissen Kn. 18551.

Aanspraak aan de Nederlandsche Poeten [ode to Frederik II] (1757) Kn. 18552.Missive uyt Neurenberg, gedateert den 5 july 1757 (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18550.Noodzakelyke aanmerkingen van den kerkenraad van Amsterdam, op de . . . betooginge

van regtmaetig bezwaer, door d s . Tyken (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18643.Tyken, Jacobus, Briev van D. Jacobus Tyken, aen den E. gewoone kerkenraad van

Amsteldam . . . tot het doen van protest (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18642.Jacobus Tyken, Volzekere betooginge van rechtmaetige bezwaer (Amsterdam 1757).Extract uit het berigt in de Boekzaal der geleerde waereldt van january 1753 . . . vervat-

tende het gerechtelyk onderzoek nopens de uitgestrooide lasteringe ten nadele van dominus Jacobus Tyken (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18644.

Kulenkamp, G., Eenvoudig en waarachtig verhaal, aangaande de zaak van ds. Tyken en den ouden diacon dk. Brouwer (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18641.

Europische Staatssecretaris, January 1757.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, April 1757.Boekzaal, August 1757: handwritten copy of an ‘advertissement’.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, December 1757.De heeren es-en-dertig raden der stad Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1757) Kn. 18637.

374 appendix ii

Diary 1758Amsterdamsche Courant nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 72, 90.Haarlemse Courant nos. 37, 38.Utrechtse na-courant 14 July 1758.Illustrations:‘Praag, door den koning van Pruisen belegerd in 1757’.‘Schweidtnitz door de Oostenrijkers belegerd in 1757’.‘Francois de 1e Roomsch keizer’.‘Marie Th eresia Roomsch Keizerinne’.‘Lodewijk de XV Koning van Vrankrijk’.‘George de IIe koning van groot Brittanje’.‘August de IIIde koning van Polen’,‘Frederik de IIIde koning van Pruissen’.‘Adolph Frederik, koning van Zweden’.‘Elisabeth Petrowna keizerinne van Rusland’.‘Josephus aartshertog van Oostenrijk’.‘Frederik Willem kroonprins van Pruissen’.‘Leopold grva van Dan, Keizerl Gen veldmarschalk’.‘De grave van Nadasti keizerlijke veldmarschalk’.‘De prins van Soubize . . .’.‘Ferdinand hertog van Bronswijk’.‘Afb eelding van ’t afb randen der kraamen op het Binnenhof in ’s Hage op den 10

may 1758’.‘Afb eelding van het springen der kruitmakerij Sollenburg.’Merkwaardig verhaal van een wonderboom [near Haarlem].Sanctissimid. N.d. Benedicti (Rome 1758) [edict issued by Benedict XIV, in Latin].Request van agtien leden van de vroedschap van Haarlem (Arnhem 1758) Kn. 18704.Opwekking van Nederlands Leeuw (1758) Kn. 18665.‘Doorlugtige koninklyke princesse!’ [Appeal of 7 December 1758 to Her Royal Majesty]

(Amsterdam 1758) Kn. 18699.Den klagende Hollander, over het gemis syner goederen en voorregten (Amsterdam

1758) Kn. 18666.Brief van, zyne koninglyke hoogheid, August Willem, prins van Pruissen, geschreeven op

zyn sterf-bed, aan den koning zyn broeder (1757) Kn. 18648.Staatkundige Historie van Holland [August 1757] en Maandelijkse Nederlandsche

Mercurius [August 1757].6

Nederlandsche jaerboeken, November 1757.De Philantrope no. 1 (1757) [only the ‘brief aan Pieter le Clerq’].Nederlandse Spectator no. 237 (1757).De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, August 1758.De Nederlandsche Maandelijke Post-rider, December 1758.

6 Th e two periodicals, the fi rst being a history of Holland published in several parts (this one dealing with the 13th century) and the second being a survey of the news, were published with a single title page.


Books mentioned in Jacoba van Th iel’s diary

[Author, title (fi rst edition). Title description as in the diary, date]

Manuscripts and unidentifi ed titlesMss: sermons of Petrus Isaäcus de Fremery.Mss: sermons of Nicolaas Hoogvliet.Mss: sermon of Rev. De Koning.Mss: Th eodorus van der Groe, ‘geschreeve verklaaring over het geloof ’ 15 August

1768.——, Verzen van een juff rouw aan haar geest [possibly Cornelia Juliana de Lannoy,

Aan myn geest (Breda 1766)]. ‘verscheyde vaersen . . . als dat van een juff aen haer geest’ 30 May 1768.

——, Bundeltje [possibly Een nieuw bundeltje uitgekipte geestelyke gezangen, ten dienst aller bond-, en gunstgenoten van Jehovah, den drie-eenigen, en algenoegzamen God; opgestelt door verscheide godvrugtige zangers en zangeressen; waar by een aanhangsel, komt van eenige ziels-opwekkende gezangen en gedigten . . . druk, vermeerdert met een twede aanhangsel van eenige gezangen en gedichten, door R. S. [=Rutger Schutte] (Dordrecht 17xx)]. ‘een versje in het bundeltje’ 20 August 1768.

——, Oefenschool [possibly Algemeene oefenschoole van konsten en weetenschappen31 vols. (Amsterdam 1763–1782)]. ‘las ik wat in het Oefenschool’ 12 May 1769.

Bank, Henricus van der, Sermon. ‘Intrede-leerrede . . . die zijn Eerw te Raemsdonk gedaen had’ 15 March 1768.7

Boston, Th omas, [possibly Des menschen natuur in deszelfs vier-voudige staat. Van eerste opregtigheyt, geheele bederving, begonne herstelling, en voltrokke gelukzaligheit of elende. Vertoond in verscheyde praktikale redenvoeringen . . . [transl. from the English by Abel van Keulen] (Amsterdam 1742); Eene beschouwing van het verbondt der genade, uit de heilige gedenkschrift en: Waar in de onderhandelende persoonen, die dat verbondt hebben aangegaan, hoe en wanneer het gemaakt zy, deszelfs deelen, zoo wel voorwaardelyk als beloovende, en de bestiering van het zelve, ieder afzonderlyk over-woogen worden (Leiden 1741)]. ‘eenige passagies in eenen Boston’ 5 March 1768.

Calas, Aanspraak aan zijn vrienden [possibly Voltaire, Zwanenzang of laatste klaagtonen van Jean Calas op het moordschavot; naar het Fransch door P.A. Pla. (Rotterdam 1765)]. ‘de aanspraak van Callas aen zijne vrienden bij het sterven gedaen’ 4 June 1768.

Cats, Jacob, [no title specifi ed]. ‘las ik wat in Cats’ 27 May 1769.Doddridge, Philip, ‘uittreksel uit systema’ [probably the book to which Goodricke

wrote a rebuttal: Het bedrog gepleegt in het zogenaamd authenticq uittreksel uit de akademische lessen van Dr. Ph. Doddridge, en deszelfs ongenoegzaamheid, om te kunnen strekken tot een getuigenis van zyne leer en stellingen, aangetoont: benevens een voorafgaanden brief aan . . . W. Peiff ers. (Groningen 1769)]. ‘het uttrekzel uyt het sistema van Doddridge’ 9 February 1769.

Eenhoorn, Wilhelmus van, Leven op de belofte [possibly Eusooia, ofte wel-leven (Amsterdam 1746/47)]. ‘een hoofdstuk van Eenhoorn over het leven op de beloft e’ 5 February 1769.

7 It cannot be ruled out that this was a handwritten sermon. No writings by Van der Bank are listed in present-day library bibliographies. Nor is any work by him listed in Bosma’s bibliography, Woorden van gezond verstand. Van Th iel was acquainted with the clergyman Van der Bank, but in contrast to the sermons listed under the manuscripts, she had no contact with him in the period in which she read this book.

376 appendix ii

Formey, Samuel, Over het geluk [possibly ‘Tafereel des huislyken geluk’ (transl. from French) ‘door den heer S. Formey’, Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen (1768) 1–11, 97–106, 141–149]. ‘Formey zijn beschouwing over het geluk’ 21 March 1769.

Merken, Lucretia Wilhelmina van, Verzen, [possibly Het nut der tegenspoeden, brieven en andere gedichten (Amsterdam 1762)]. ‘versen van juff . Van Merken, daerop toepasselijk [i.e. relevant to death]’ 10 July 1769.

Paludanus, Petrus, Sermon, ‘preek van do Paludanus’ 14 July 1769.8Spaller, [no title specifi ed], ‘begonden wij Spaller te lezen’ 10 December 1768.9

Book titlesAppelius, Johannes Conradus, Aanmerkingen over den bezwaarlyken en nvttigen dienst

den voornamen inhoud en het regt gebruik van ’t evangelie: eenvoudig afgeleidt uit enige evangelische stoff en (Groningen 1759). ‘een stuk in Appelius’ 20 December 1768.

De Artz of genees-heer; in aangenaame spectatoriaale vertoogen, op eene klaare en eenvoudige wyze leerende, wat men moet doen om gezond, lang en gelukkig te leeven (Amsterdam 1765–1771). ‘vertoog in den Arts’ 18 March 1769.

Bennet, Benjamin, De godsdienstige Christen in zyn binnekamer: of Verhandeling van de godvrugtige huisoeff eningen eenes Christens 2 vols (Haarlem 1744) ‘Bennet De christen in zyn binnekamer’ 21 October 1768.

Bennet, Benjamin, XX. godvruchtige bespiegelingen, oft e overdenkingen voor de plegtige en byzondere dagen des jaers en op christelyke feesttyden . . . uit het Engelsch . . . byeengebragt, vertaeld, en met toepasselyke gezangen vermeerderd, door Marten Schagen (Haarlem 1751). ‘Bennets Overdenkingen’ 4 October 1768.

Beveridge, Willem, Overdenkingen en alleenspraaken van eenen godsdienstigen christen, overde leere der waarheid (Amsterdam 1746). ‘een boekje van Beveridge’ 3 May 1768.

Bible. ‘het beste aller boeken, den bijbel’ 8 October 1768.Boddaert, Pieter, Nagelatene mengeldichten en levensbeschryvinge (Middelburg 1761).

‘het leven van Boddaert’ 5 November 1768.Boddaert, Pieter, Stichtelyke gedichten van Pieter Boddaert Corn. Zoon 4 vols (Middelburg

1731–1752). ‘de avondgedagte van den heer Boddaert’ 8 October 1767.Bower, Archibald, Historie der Pausen, zedert de opregting van den Stoel van Romen

tot op den Tegenwoordigen Tyd 7 vols (Amsterdam 1754–1768). ‘eenige passasies in de Historie der Pauzen van Bower’ 10 March 1768.

Brais, Stephanus de, Uitbreidende ontleding van den brief des apostels Paulus aan de Romeinen 2 vols. [transl. from the Latin by Gerard van Velzen] (Leeuwarden 1738) ‘De Brais over de Romeijnen’ 15 December 1768.

Brandt, Caspar, Historie van het leven des heeren Huig de Groot, beschreven tot den aanvang van zyn gezantschap wegens de koninginne en kroone van Zweden aan ’t Hof van Vrankryk (Dordrecht 1727). ‘het leven van Hugo de Groot’ 18 March 1768.

Bunjan, John, Den heyligen oorlog (Amsterdam 1683). ‘een boekje genaemt de Heylige oorlog door Bunjan’ 9 April 1768.

8 Th e same applies here as to Van der Bank’s sermon. On 12 July 1769, Van Th iel, who was staying in Heukelum at the time, visited Rev. Paludanus and his wife.

9 Th e author’s name ‘Spaller’ does not occur in present-day library catalogues. Perhaps this was a slip of the pen, and Van Th iel meant to write Stapfer. Her brother-in-law De Fremery purchased work by this Swiss author from Luchtmans. Several works by Johann Friedrich Stapfer were translated into Dutch, including Verhandeling over de beste predikwyze (1757), Onderwys in de gantsche wederleggende godsgeleertheit, volgens eene wiskundige orde geschikt (1757) and a moral treatise or Zeden-leer (1760).


De denker (1763–1774). ‘in de Denker een vertoog ter verdediging van de fijne’8 November 1768.

Doddridge, Philip, De huis-uitlegger des Nieuwen Testaments, of vertaling en omschryv-ing van hetzelve: met oordeelkundige aenmerkingen en toepasselyke gebruiken 6 vols (Amsterdam 1765–1783). ‘de voorreden van Doddridges Huijsuijtlegger’ 10 May 1768.

Doddridge, Philip, Praktikale leerredenen over de wedergeboorte: waar by gevoegt zyn twee predikaatsien over het zalig worden uit genade door het geloof en eene over de noodzakelykheid der zorge voor de ziele (Amsterdam 1746). ‘dat deel van Doddridge over de wedergeboorte’ 29 December 1767.

Doddridge, Philip, Predikatiën gedaan voor jonge personen, over deze navolgende onderwerpen . . . II Christus in de ziele een gestalte krijgende . . . IV De godtvruchtige jeucht tot een vroege nachtmaalhoudinge genoodigt . . . (Rotterdam 1752). ‘begon ik nog een preek in Doddridge te lezen, dragen tot opschrift : de godtvrugtige jeugt tot een vroege nagtmaelhoudinge genoodigt’ 21 December 1767.

Engelberts, E.M., Bespiegelingen over de vier getyden des jaars 4 vols (Amsterdam 1769) I. Proeve van bespiegelingen in den lente (1769) II. . . . zomer (1769) III. . . . herfst (1765) IV. . . . winter (1768). ‘de Bespiegelingen over den herfst die door do. Engelberts, schoon er zijn naem niet onder staet, geschreven . . . zijn.’

Fordyce, James, De vriend der jonge juff rouwen. In XIV redenvoeringen 2 vols (Ams-terdam 1767). ‘het boek genaemt De vrient der jonge juff ., door den heer Fordyce’ 6 November 1767.

Haren, Onno Zwier van, Derde deductie, ter zyner noodwendige zuiverigne van de lasterlyke gerugten en imputatien tegenhem verspreid en ingebragt (Leeuwarden 1762). ‘een deductie voor jonker O.Z. v. Haren over ’t geval met zijne kinderen’20 November 1767.

Henry, Matthew et al., Letterlyke en prakticale verklaring . . . beschreven door . . . Matthew Henry [et al.] 47 vols (Delft 1741–1792). ‘een vertoog over het leven van Abraham door Henry en Stakhouze’ 6 November 1767.

Hervey, James, Godvruchtige bespiegelingen over den nacht, den starrenhemel en den winter (Amsterdam 1756). ‘de 2 deelen van Herveys Bespiegelingen’ 29 December 1769.

Hervey, James, Godvruchtige overdenkingen, onder het beschouwen der grafsteden en van een bloemhof benevens een uitweiding over de werken der scheppinge (Amsterdam 1754). ‘Herveys Beschouwing over de grafsteden’ 25 August 1768.

Hervey, James, Verzameling der godvrugtige en stigtelyke brieven van wylen . . . Jakobus Hervey. Uit het Engelsch vertaeld. Met een voorafgaend levensberigt van denzelven (Amsterdam 1762). ‘een enkelde brief in de Godvrugtige brieven van Hervey’20 July 1768.

Hirzel, De wysgeerige landman of Jacob Gouyer, een landbouwer en wysgeer te Wermetschweil, naby Zurich, in de bestiering zyner landeryen en huishouding, de opvoeding zyner kinderen, zyn godsdienst en zedelyk karakter [transl. from the French] (Deventer 1767) ‘de wijsgeerige landtman’ 3 November 1767.

Hofstede, Petrus, Bloemen, gestrooid op het graf van Willem Carel Hendrik Friso, prinse van Oranje en Nassau, erfstadhouder enz. enz. enz. of, Lofspraak over deszelvs afk omst, deugden, gaaven, geleerdheid, en voortreff elyke daaden; beneff ens, een troostrede aan Haare Koninglyke Hoogheid Anna (Rotterdam 1752). ‘de Bloemen van do Hofstede gestrooit op het graf van Friso’ 1 April 1769.

Honert, J. van den, Des Heeren wynstok in Nederland, met desselvs voorledene, tegenwoor-dige, en mogelik toekomstige lotgevallen, beschouwd en beredeneerd in eene kerkelike redevoering over Psalm LXXX: 15–20, . . . te Leiden . . . den XIIIden Maart 1748 (Leiden 1748). ‘Sheeren wijnstok in Nederland, een biddags predicatie gedaen door heer J. v.d. Honert uijt Ps: 80 vs 15–20 in ’t jaer 1748’ 9 March 1768.

378 appendix ii

Hoogvliet, Arnold, Arnold Hoogvliets Mengeldichten 3 vols (Delft 1738–1753). ‘Hoog-vliets Mengelingen’ 6 February 1768.

Immens, Petrus, De godvruchtige avondmaalganger, tot een heilig, heilryk en heuglyk genot van het hoogwaardige Avondmaal des Heeren bestuurd en aangemoedigd, door een schrift maatig en gemoedelyk bericht aangaande het geloof, het verbond der genade en een Godewaardig gebruik van dat heilige bondzegel (Middelburg 1752). ‘Verhandeling over de verzekering als een vrugt van het zaligmakend geloof van den godvrugtigen Immens’ 6 October 1767, ‘over het genadeverbond’ 17 October 1767.

Kemp, Johannes van der, De Christen geheel en al het eigendom van Christus in leven en sterven, vertoont in drieenvyft ig predikatien over den Heidelbergschen Katechismus, waer in de Hervormde geloofsleer wordt bevestigt, tegen de voornaemste dwaelgeesten verdedigt, en ter betrachting van de euangelische godtzaligheit aendrongen (Rotterdam 1717). ‘de catechismuspreek van vd. Kemp’ 10 October 1767.

Newspaper. ‘de courant’ 30 January 1768.Leeuwarden, N.S. van, De bevestigde christen, aangespoort om met alle yver de heilig-

making na te jagen . . . (Amsterdam 1725). ‘Van Leeuwaerden’ 24 October 1767, ‘Van Leeuwaerden zijn Bevestigden christen’ 2 January 1768.

Lodenstein, Jodocus van, Uytspanningen, behelzende eenige stigtelyke liederen en andere gedigten (Utrecht 1676). ‘Lodensteyn’ 10 October 1767.

Luyken, Jan, Des menschen begin, midden en einde; vertoonende het kinderlyk bedryf en aanwasch, in eenenvyft ig konstige fi guuren, met Goddelyke spreuken en stichtelyke verzen; (Amsterdam 1694). ‘in Luyken eenige vaersen op deeze omstandigheyd toepasselijk [nl. Het sterfb ed van Van Eck]’ 17 March 1768.

Maendelyke uittreksels, of de Boekzael der geleerde werelt 1–193 (1715–1811). ‘het voorname van de Boekzael’ 6 October 1767.

Marmontel, Jean-François, Belisarius (Amsterdam 1768). ‘het boekje van den Belisarius door de heer de Marmontel’ 4 June 1768.

Marmontel, Jean-François, Uitmuntende verhaalen van merkwaardige gebeurtenissen3 vols (Amsterdam 1768). ‘een verhael van Marmontel’ 28 June 1768.

Moulin, Pierre du, Verhandelinge van den vrede der ziele en de vergenoeginge des geestes; Mitsgaders overdenkingen en gebeden op elken dag van de weke: neff ens een voorbereiding tot het H. Avondmaal [transl. from the French by H. Dullaart] (Amsterdam 1740). ‘het hoofdstuk van het regtveerdigmakend geloof uijt Du Moulin’ 21 October 1767.

Nieuwe vaderlandsche letter-oefeningen, waar in de boeken en schrift en, die dagelyks in ons vaderland en elders uitkomen, oordeelkundig tevens en vrymoedig verhandeld worden 1–5 (1768–1771). ‘de Letteroefening’ 7 October 1767.

Orton, Job, Gedenkschrift en van het leven, karakter, en geschrift en, van . . . Philip Doddridge . . . (Rotterdam 1768). ‘het leven van Doddridge’ 4 July 1769.

Outrein, Johannes d’, Het gouden kleinoot van de leere der waarheid die naar de godsaligheid is, vervattet in den Heidelbergschen Catechismus (Amsterdam 1719). ‘D’Outreijn de voorbereijdselen tot den catechismus’ 16 April 1768.

Peiff ers, Wilhelmus, Geloofs-vastigheit van een waar, schoon ongeletterd christen, tegen de hedendaagsche zeer gevaarlyke verleidingen van grouwelyke menschen (Amsterdam 1766–1768). ‘Peiff ers Geloofvastigheijt &c’ 20 October 1767.

Peiff ers, Wilhelmus, Sodoms ongerechtigheit en straff e, weleer op ’s Heren uitdrukkelyk bevel door zynen knecht Ezechiel . . . aan Jerusalem ten spiegel voorgestelt volgens Ezechiel XVI. 49, 50, nu . . . aan de Gemeente van Amsterdam, ter gelegenheit van den algemenen dank- vast- en bededag op den 2 Maart 1763 (Amsterdam 1763). ‘Peijff ers Biddagspreek over Ezechiël 16 vs. 49–50’ 30 March 1769.

Placette, Johan la, De godvruchtige nagtmaal-houding. Oft e De wyze om heiliglyk en nuttiglyk het Heilig Avondmaal te genieten [transl. from the French by Johannes d’Outrein] (Dordrecht 1716). ‘Placette Godtvrugtige nagtmaelhouding’ 30 March 1769.


Poot, Hubert Korneliszn, Gedichten van Hubert Korneliszoon Poot 3 vols (Amsterdam 1759). ‘een versje in Poot’ 13 April 1769.

Prideaux, Hemfrey, Het oude en Niewe Verbond aen een geschakelt in de geschiedenissen der Joden en der aengrenzende volkeren, sedert het verval der koninkryken van Israel en Juda tot de komst van Jezus Kristus 2 vols. [transl. from the English by Joannes Drieberge] (Leiden 1723). Prideaux ’t Oud en nieuw verbond aaneen geschakelt’ 11 January 1768.

Psalmen. ‘zongen wij nog eens Psalmen’ 18 October 1767.Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm, Verzameling van hekelschrift en 5 vols (Amsterdam 1763–

1774). ‘Rabeners Hekelschrift en’ 9 April 1768.Ruysch, Meynardus, Den uitgever van het egt, dog zonderling voorstel van Ds. M.

Ruysch, als eenen ongegronden klager over en kwaadspreker van D. Ruysch, door den selven in ’t hemd gezet (Delft 1768) [rebuttal of Egt doch zonderling voorstel door M. Ruisch, predikant in het Woud . . . nu, om veler oogen te openen, door den druk algemeen gemaakt (Amsterdam etc 1767)]. ‘Defensie van do Ruysch tegen het egt voorstel &c’ 2 June 1768.

Schelle, Joannes van, De voortrefl ykheden van Messias Koningryk: voorgestelt in 20 kerkelyke redevoeringen over het 11e en 12e hooft st. v.d. Profeet Jesaias: waer achter is gevoegt deszelfs vertaelde akademische redevoering over den gelukstaet der chris-tenkerke, die voor de laetste Euangelydagen bewaert is (Leiden 1761). ‘Van Schelles verklaering over Jes. 11/12’ 10 October 1767.

Schutte, Rutger, Stichtelyke gezangen, op de beste Italiaanschen, en eenige in dien smaak nieuwgemaakte zangwyzen; by verscheidene gelegenheden gedicht, en met aanmerkin-gen, Tot verstand van eenige stukken uit de H. Schrift , verrijkt 4 vols (Amsterdam 1762–1787). ‘zongen wij nog eens uijt Schutte’ 10 October 1767.

Sluiter, Wilhelm, Eybergsche sang-lust, mitsgaders Vreugd- en liefde-sangen (Amsterdam 1687). ‘las wat in . . . Sluiter’ 11 March 1768.

Velzen, Gerard van, Godtvruchtige overdenkingen over de staat onzer ziele voor Godt, en enige der wezenlijkste plichten der ware godtzaligheit, naar de leidraadt van zom-mige uitgezochte plaatsen der Heilige Schrift ure (Leeuwarden 1745). ‘Van Velzen over . . . den staet onzer ziele voor God’ 19 May 1769.

Voet, Joannes Eusebius, Godelief vertroost [no edition found]. ‘Voets Godelief vertroost’ 18 December 1768.

Voet, Joannes Eusebius, Stigtelyke gedichten, en gezangen van Joannes Eusebius Voet (Dordrecht 1746). ‘het avondlied uijt Voet’ 14 October 1767.

Vollenhove, Joannes, J. Vollenhoves Kruistriomf en gezangen (Th e Hague 1750) [fi rst edition. Kruistriomf: 1656 – fi rst edition Gezangen: 1686]. ‘Vollenhoves Kruijstriumph’ 14 February 1768.

Watson, Th omas, Alle de theologische en practicale werken, van den godvrugtigen en zeer geleerden heer Do. Th omas Watzon . . . Behelzende veele uytmuntende predicatien, bestaande in stigtelyke en zoetvloeyende bedenkingen, verklaringen en toepassingen van eenige voorname uytgezogte plaatzen des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments (Dordrecht 1744) [fi rst ed. 1666]. ‘las . . . in Watzon’ 29 August 1768.

Watts, Isaak, De nedrigheit vertoont in het voorbeeld van den H: Paulus alwaar de voor-name springbronnen van de zelve geopent, en de verscheidenderlei voordelen daar van opengelegt worden, teff ens met gepaste aanmerkingen over de daartegengestelde zonde [transl. from the English by J.A. Mensinga] (Groningen 1745). ‘Watss De nedrigheijd van een christen vertoont in den apostel Paulus’ 16 October 1768.

Watts, Isaak, Hand-leiding tot het gebed, of Eene onpartydige en redelyke onderrigting over de gave, de genade, en den geest des gebeds, met duidelyke bestieringen, hoe dat een ieder Christen daar toe geraken konne [transl. from the English by Daniel Gerdes] (Amsterdam 1745). ‘Watts zijn Handleijding tot het gebed’ 26 October 1768.

Winckelman, Jacoba Petronella, Samenspraak tusschen eenen min ervarenen en meer geoeff enden christen over de betamelijke geschiktheid des harten voor, rechte

380 appendix ii

werkzaamheid op, en behoorlijke betrachting na het houden van een plechtigendank-, vast- en bededag. Tot onderricht en bestier van zulken, die deezen dag den Heere zoeken waar te neemen (Middelburg 1761 – 2e druk). ‘dat boekje (schoon niet met haer naem bestempelt) van juff . Winkelman of gesprek van een min ervarene en meerder geoefende over hetgeen ons voor, op en na den bededag te doen staet’ 10 February 1768.

Winckelman, Jacoba Petronella, Stichtelijke gedichten, nagelaaten door wijlen . . . Jacoba Petronella Winckelman. Benevens eene beschrijving van haar ed. godzalig leven en gelukzalig sterven (Middelburg 1763). ‘een versje in het boek van juff . Winkelman’ 27 October 1767.

Young, Eduard, De Centaurus geen verdichtsel. In zes brieven, aan een vriend, over de in zwang gaande leevenswyze der menschen (Amsterdam 1768). ‘een boek genaemt De centaurus geen verdigtzel’ 8 May 1769.

LIST OF SOURCES

Egodocuments

(listed by their number in R. Lindeman, Y. Scherf and R.M. Dekker, Egodocumenten van Noord-Nederlanders uit de zestiende tot begin negentiende eeuw (Rotterdam 1993)).

(77) David Beck, Spiegel van mijn leven; een Haags dagboek uit 1624 edited by Sv. E. veldhuijzen. Hilversum (Verloren) 1993

(124) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms 129 D 16. Diary (1669–1712) of Pieter Teding van Berkhout

(267) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms 71 A 8–12. Diary (1747–1758) of Jan de Boer(336) GA Rotterdam, ms 1264. Diary (1767–1770) of Jacoba van Th iel(58) Het aantekeningenboek van Dirck Jansz edited by P. Gerbenzon. Hilversum

(Verloren) 1993. Diary (1604–1635) of Dirck Jansz(63) Utrechts Archief, library no. V F 26. Diary (1610–1625) of Cornelis Cornelisz

Jonkgesel(65) Stadsarchief Deventer, Stadsarchief Republiek II, inv. no. 147. ‘Memoriaal’

(1615–1624) of Hendrik van Haexbergen(73) Hermanus Verbeeck, Memoriaal oft e mijn levens-raijsinghe edited by Jeroen Blaak.

Hilversum (Verloren) 1999(81) Regionaal Archief Leiden, FA Hubrecht, inv. no. 21. Diary (1647–1667) of Jan

Hubrecht(99) Coenraad Droste, Overblyfsels van geheugchenis, der bisonderste voorvallen in het

leeven van den Heere Coenraet Droste, terwyl hy gedient heeft in veld- en zee-slaagen, belegeringen en ondernemingen, als ook mede syn verdere bejegeningen aan en in verscheyde vreemde hoven en landen 2 vols. Leiden (Brill) 1879

(100) Gloria Parendi: dagboeken van Willem Frederik, stadhouder van Friesland, Groningen en Drenthe 1643–1649, 1651–1654 edited by J. Visser. The Hague (Nederlands Historisch Genootschap) 1995

(120) Gerard Udinck, Tot tijdverdrijf in ballingschap (1663–1665). Dagboek van Gerard Udinck, een Groninger gildeleider uit Westfalen edited by Hermann Niebaum and Fokko Veldman. Groningen (Wolters-Noordhoff ) 1988

(125) GA Zaanstad, Persoonlijk Archief Honig, doos VII. Diary (1669–1729) of Claes Arisz Caescooper

(127) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms 122 D 4. Diary (1670–1678) of Isaac Pool(130) J.A. Grothe, ‘Dagelijksche aanteekeningen gedurende het verblijf der Franschen

te Utrecht in 1672 en 1673, gehou den door mr. Everard Booth, Raad-Ordinaris in den Hove provin tiaal van Utrecht en Oud-Raad ter Admiraliteyt, uit de papie ren van Booth’, in Berigten van het Historisch Genootschap (1857), pp. 3–166

(131) J.F. Gebhart Jr., ‘Een dagboek uit het “Rampjaar” 1672’, in Bijdragen en Mededelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 8 (1885), pp. 45–116

(138) UB Leiden, ms BPL 127 AH. Diary (1675–1723) of Jacques Basnage de Beauval

(140) Elisabeth van der Woude, Memoijre van ’t geen bij mijn tijt is voorgevallen. Met het opzienbarende verslag van haar reis naar de Wilde Kust 1676–1677 edited by Kim Isolde Mulder. Amsterdam (Terra Incognita) 2001

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(144) GA Zaanstad, library no. 00.782. Diary (1678–1679) of Georgius Henricus Petri

(146) GA Rotterdam, Archief Pest- en Dolhuis, inv. no. 148. Diary (1679–1703) of Jan Brouwer

(154) Utrechts Archief, FA Huydecoper, inv. no. 108–109. Diary (1684–1689) of Joan Huydecoper

(158) Constantijn Huygens Jr., Journaal van Constantijn Huygens, den zoon, van 21 October 1688 tot 2 Sept. 1696, 3 vols. Utrecht (Kemink) 1876–1888

(170) Historisch Centrum Overijssel, collectie kopieën (no inv. no.). Diary of Aleida Leurink

(171) Hoge Raad van Adel, FA Van Spaen, inv. no. 85. Diary (1699–1728) of Alexander Bernhard van Spaen

(183) Maria de Neufville, Verhaal van myn droevig leeven edited by Tony Lindijer. Hilversum (Verloren) 1997

(191) GA Zaanstad, library no. 10.147. Notes (1713–1742) by Gerrit Jacobsz Nen(192) Noord-Hollands Archief, coll. losse aanwinsten, in. no. 1527. Diary (1713–1722)

of Lambert Rijckxz Lustigh(200) NA, FA Berg, inv. no. 620. Diary (1718–1720) of Maria Bagelaar(221) Stadsarchief Amsterdam, ms. B54. Diary (1732–1772) of Jacob Bicker Raye.

See also: Het dagboek van Jacob Bicker Raye, 1732–1772 selected and edited by Fr. Beijerinck and M. G. de Boer. Second edition. Amsterdam [s.n.] 1960]

(241) Noord-Hollands Archief, hss. verz. Rijk, inv. no. 5. Diary (1738–1747) of Jacobus Barnaart jr.

(249) Abraham Chiam Braatbard, De zeven provinciën in beroering. Hoofdstukken uit een Jiddische kroniek over de jaren 1740–1752 van Abraham Chaim Braatbard translated from the Jiddisch and edited by L. Fuks. Amsterdam (Meulenhoff ) 1960

(256) UB Utrecht, ms OE 42–45. Diary (1745–1752) of Johannes Wassenaar. See also: Eenen wandelaar naar den Heemel, of het heilig leven en zalig sterven van Johannes Wassenaar (. . .) voornamelijk uit deszelfs gedenkschrift en opgemaakt en in’t licht gegeeven door Johannes van Diesbach, Th e Hague (Pieter Brouwer) 1770

(266) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms 74 H 9. Diary (1747) of Abraham de Bruyn and Jacob Timmers

(268) Regionaal Archief Leiden, Leidse Bibliotheek, inv. no. 787. Diary (1747–1749) of Frans van Mieris

(277) Hoge Raad van Adel, FA Van Spaen, inv. no. 190. Diary (1749–1750) of Elisabeth Agnes Jacoba rijksgravin van Nassau la Lecq

(342) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms 130 D 7/C 3. Diary (1768) attributed to Johanna Maria van Goens

(355) W.H. Dingeldein, ‘Een Ootmarsums burgergezin in de Patriottentijd’, in idem, Uit leven en werk van W.H.Dingeldein, Enschede (Van der Loeff ) 1988. Diary (1772–1799) of Wennemar Hendrik Dröghoorn

(360) Aafj e Gijsen, Het dagverhaal van Aafj e Gijsen, 1773–1775 edited by J.W. van Sante. Wormerveer (Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland) 1986

(362) NA, FA Delprat, inv. no. 31–32. Diary (1773–1774) of Daniël Delprat.(424) Het dagboek van Magdalena van Schinne (1786–1795) translated from the French

and edited by Anje Dik. Hilversum (Verloren) 1990(463) Clara Cornelia van Eijck, Mijn waarde vrindin. Een Gents journaal (1790–1791)

edited by Joost Rosendaal. Hilversum (Verloren) 2000(529) Zeeuws Archief, FA Mathias-Pous-Tak van Poortvliet, inv. no. 383. Diary (1799,

1801) of Johannes de Fremery(537) Westfries Archief, coll. Verloren, inv. no. 694. Dagboek (1799–1801) Johanna

Maria Nahuys

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Archival and Printed Sources

Stadsarchief Amsterdam, FA Brandts, inv. no. 1183–1187: Records of expenses of Maria de Neufville 1757–1772.

Regionaal Archief Leiden: Stads Archief II, inv.no. 4092: notebooks kept by tax collectors. Stads Archief II, inv.no. 4129: tax register of 1749.Notarieel Archief, inv. no. 169: notary Nicolaas Wolff , 1756, 1757, 1763.Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials [DTB].Leidse Bibliotheek no. 6050: Luchtmans Family Tree.

GA Rotterdam:Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials [DTB].Notarieel Archief.Oud Stads Archief, inv. no. 924: Overschie church book of accounts.

GA Delft , Losse aanwinsten Delft , inv. no. 1290: minutes kept by Pieter Teding van Berkhout.

Nationaal Archief: FA Teding van Berkhout.

Bibliotheek van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor het Boekenvak, Archief Firma Luchtmans Leiden: Particuliere Grootboeken, 1756–1769, 1770–1780, 1781–1794, 1795–1828.

Noord-Hollands Archief: Ms. 140: Korte Chronyck oft e beschrijving van Haarlem.Archief St. Elisabeths of Groote Gasthuis, inv. no. 579: notebook and book of poems

of Lammetje Jansz van Sittert.

Stadsarchief ’s-Hertogenbosch: Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials [DTB].Archief van het Gereformeerd Burgerweeshuis, inv. no. 910: register of coffi ns sold.

Beck, David, De tropheën of zeghe-teeckenen van de Nederlandschen Mars. Tweede deel, Delft (Jan Pietersz Waelpots) 1622

Beck, David, Gelderlants Triumph-dicht oft e danck-segginge aen den alderhoogsten over de heerlijcke, wonderbare, schielijcke overwinninghe ende verlossinge der stadt Wesel uyt het Spaensche jock, Arnhem (Jan Jansz) 1629. Reprint in Victory-liedt gherijmt tot truymphe over den heerlijck ende wonderlijcke veroveringhe der stadt Wesel, Amsterdam (Paulus van Ravestein) 1629

Bennet, Benjamin, De godsdienstige christen in zyn binnekamer: of, Verhandeling van de godvrugtige huisoeff eningen eenes Christens translated from the English by Marten Schagen. Haarlem (J. Bosch) 1744

Benoist, Elie, Histoire de l’Édit de Nantes: contenant les choses les plus remarquables qui se sont passées en France avant et après sa publication, a l’occasion de la diversité des religion, 3 vols. Delft (A. Beman) 1693–1695

Bleyswijk, Johan Cornelisz van, Een dagelijkse Bibel-lees-ordre behoudens yders Christelijcke vrijheydt, Delft (Abraham Dissius) 1674

Bleyswijk, Johan Cornelisz van, Jaarlykse Bibel-balance ende dagelykse harmoye boeck, Delft (Arnold Bon) 1675

Boekzaal 1767–1768

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Bosc, Pierre du, Sermons sur diverses textes, Rotterdam (Reinier Leers) 1687Brakel, Wilhelmus à, Logiké latreia, dat is redelyke godsdienst in welken de goddelyke

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INDEX

Benoist, Elie 148, 162–64, 168, 173, 174, 181, 187

Benthem, Salomon van 19Berensteyn, Paulus van 128Beringhen, Th éodore de 163Bertaut, Jean 83, 84, 101, 104, 107Beveren, Abraham and Elizabeth van

173Beveridge, Willem 306Bible 22, 80, 91, 149, 151, 265, 269,

279, 306, 307, 314reading of 16, 31, 86, 89, 94, 95, 99,

101, 102–03, 109, 172–73, 174, 186, 323, 324, 334, 344

Bije, Willem de 71Bleyswijk, Johan van 163, 172, 173Bleyswijk, Maria van 117Bloemaerts, Catharina 56Boddaert, Pieter 301, 302, 306, 319,

323, 324, 326, 331, 333, 334Boekzaal (periodical) 259, 269, 303,

306, 315, 316, 319, 326, 336Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas 152, 155,

158Book history 1–3, 7, 17, 91Books

auctions, auction catalogues of 22, 87–88, 89–90, 157–160, 161, 228, 269, 306

borrowing of 27, 92–93, 104, 162, 228, 246, 318–19, 346

circulation of 86collections of: see Librarydistribution of 18, 78, 89, 154,

160–61, 241–44, 339, 346foreign production 86in probate inventories 20–22, 23, 36,

37, 61, 88–89, 157, 228, 307production of 8, 15, 17, 18, 25, 28,

115, 153Booksellers 18–20, 89–90, 158, 161,

251, 311Book trade 18, 154, 207Bookshop 89–92, 100, 109, 113, 160,

214, 242–43, 249, 257, 346records of 18–20, 310–317

Booth, Abraham 314, 315

Abbadie, Jean 173Accounting and diary writing 47–48,

64, 122, 259Aitzema, Lieuwe van 145, 158, 159,

161, 166, 167, 168, 169Album amicorum 70, 75Allestree, Richard 151Amelang, James 34, 51, 200Andersdochter, Sw 101Appelius, Johannes 299, 316, 323, 324,

328, 334, 336aristocratisation 114, 116, 120, 126,

128–129, 137, 166, 186Arschot, Sara van 43Artz, de (periodical) 303Aubigné, Th eodore Agrippa d’,

Tragiques 82, 87Auction catalogues: see books in—Aulnoy, Marie Catherine d, Mémoires

175Autobiography 34, 137Avril, Philippe 156

Badius, Otto 54Bagelaar, Maria (diarist) 279, 308Baggerman, Arianne 26, 28, 37Bakker, Pieter 246Bank, Henricus van der 283Barthes, Roland 5Basnage de Beauval, Jacques (diary)

121, (Histoire de la religion) 149, 175Bassompierre, François de 146, 163Baudartius, Willem, Veelaus

vastel-avond-spel 79, 92, 110Becher, Ursula 28Beck, Abraham 45, 53Beck, children of David 43, 45, 62Beck, Hendrick 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 66,

73, 77, 88, 90, 95, 96, 99, 107Beck, Odilia 45, 53Beck, Stephan 43Beck, Steven 61, 90, 92, 93, 94, 96Bellay, Joachim du 67Belle, Roeltje van 43, 50, 60, 65, 67Belle, Seger van 55, 60Bennet, Benjamin 276–77, 295, 300,

305, 321, 222, 323, 329, 332, 333, 334

416 index

Booth, Everard (diarist) 121Bor, Pieter 159Bosc, Pierre du 151, 163, 173, 176,

184, 185Bossuet, Jacques 149Boston, Th omas 314, 315Bower, Archibald 302, 331Braatbard, Abraham Chaim (diarist) 201Brais, Stephanus de 305, 316, 326Brakel, Wilhelmus à 274, 295Brandt, Gerard 146, 148, 158, 162, 169Breckerfelt, Herman 41, 51, 53, 55, 56,

57, 58, 59, 65, 66, 69, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 96, 100, 101, 107, 110

Brewer, John 25, 29Brieux 171Brinck, Ernst 70, 75Brouwer 236Brouwer, Gijsbert de 270, 286, 289,

291, 292, 329Brouwer, Han 11, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,

24, 35, 312Brouwer, Jan (diarist) 122Bruijn, Cornelis de 309Brune, Jean de la, Vie de Charles V

146, 158Brunswick-Bevern, August-Wilhelm

duke of 233Bruyn, Abraham de (diarist) 202Buchanan, George 90, 100Buchelius, Arnoldus 37Buisman, J.W. 219–220Bunyan, John 307Burgh, Cornelis van der 191Burke, Peter 13, 182Burnet, Gilbert 148, 149, 153, 177

Caedimus 84, 92, 104Caescooper, Claes Arisz (diarist) 121Calas, Jean 303, 304, 331Calligraphy 60, 70Calvin, John 82Canter, Dirk 87Casteleyn, Abraham 261Catechism 15, 80, 85, 89, 102, 282,

325, 337Catholics 234, 244, 248Cats, Jacob 66, 78, 83, 84, 85, 92, 94,

100, 104, 105Cavallo, Guglielmo 8Censorship 207, 245–46Certeau, Michel de 7

Chanut, Pierre 146, 163, 171, 183Chardin, Jean 146, 158, 168, 171Charpentier, François 184Chartier, Roger 7, 8, 12Chateauneuf, marquess de 132Chronicle 198–200

diary as 47, 121, 200–03, 280Church service: see sermonsCivilité, etiquette 114, 125, 134, 153,

180, 186Clergy, ministers 238, 267, 270, 299Clerq, Pieter le 236, 258Cocceians 150, 185, 299, 300Communication studies 13Concile de Trente 169Conventicles 256, 282Conversion 272–274, 279, 291, 296,

297, 303, 334–335Corneille, Pierre 151Correspondence 55–60, 132–35, 289–93

and conversation 55, 57and supply of news 56, 218, 221style of 58–59, 133–35theory of 58, 289, 291

Correspondents 55, 132, 289Country life 166–67, 183Courant, ’sGravenhaegse 218, 221, 225,

226, 229, 230, 231–33Courant, Amsterdamsche 189, 193,

201, 218, 220, 221, 225, 226, 227, 229, 230, 231–33, 238, 239

Courant, Leydse 232Courante uyt Italiën 79, 94, 261Crajenschot, Th eodorus (bookseller)

250, 251Croix du Maine, François de la 84,

85, 87Cruijsse, Adriaan van der 51, 52, 53,

54, 56, 62, 69, 70, 74, 92, 96, 107, 110

Daillé, Jean, Traicté 159, 184Darnton, Robert 7, 8, 25, 28, 36, 221Daun, Leopold von 231, 233Davis, Natalie Zemon 33Dee, John 31Deimier, Pierre 83, 87Dekker, Rudolf 33Delprat, Daniël (diarist) 278Demaria, Robert 29Democratic institution 195, 252Denker (periodical) 303, 306, 308, 337Descartes, René 146, 149, 159

index 417

Diarytypes of 45–48, 121–23, 200–03,

278–81writing of 45, 48, 120, 64, 123–125,

136, 196–200, 275–78, 293–97, 342Dibbits, Hester 21Dictionary 193Dijkveld, Everard Weede van 181Doddridge, Philip 299, 300, 302, 305,

316, 318, 326, 330, 331, 336, 338Doelists 194–95, 213, 215–16, 234,

237, 245Domesticity, discours of 266, 322Dorp, Dorothea van 58Dorp, miss Van 317Drake, William 30–1Drelincourt, Charles 163Dröghoorn, Wennemar (diarist) 309Droste, Coenraad 132, 133, 155, 161Du Verdier, Antoine 84, 85, 87, 104Duncan, Joan 261

earthquake, news reports on 130, (of 1755) 218–221, 259

Eck, Otto van 26, 28, 37Education 43, 61, 268

and literacy 23, 62–63Eenhoorn, Wilhelmus van 330Egodocuments and history 3, 32–37Ellemeet, Cornelis de Jonge van 128,

130, 155Elzevier, Jacob (bookseller) 89, 90Emijs, rev 283Emmius, Ubbo 198–200Engelberts, Mathias 302, 322Engelsing, Rolf 15–17, 29Enlightenment 16, 26, 219–20, 305

protestant 280, 284–85, 299, 331Equicola, Mario 80, 91Erasmus, Desiderius 57, 58, 139Estienne, Henri 87, 93Ethics, books of 304Exempla 182Eyck, Clara Cornelia van (diarist) 309

Family archive 137Ferguson, Robert, Ondersoek 159Fontenelle, Bernard le Bouyer de 152Fordyce, James 299, 304, 306, 313, 316,

329, 334, 335Formey, Samuel 337Fox, Adam 12François, Jean Henri 219, 238–240

Fremery, Catharina de 272, 282, 283, 286, 290, 291, 296, 321, 329, 332

Fremery, Jacobus de 315Fremery, Johannes de (diarist) 271,

283, 290, 308, 315, 330Fremery, Nicolaas de 271Fremery, Petrus Isaäcus de 270–71,

285, 289, 294, 298, 310, 311–13, 318, 322, 327, 339

Friendship 50, 66, 71Frijhoff , Willem 31, 207

Geyl, Pieter 195Gift , books as 162–63, 173, 318Gijsen, Aafj e (diarist) 280, 308, 329Giron, Moses 193Goens, Johanna Maria van (diarist) 278Government publications 215, 224,

256–57Graal, Abraham (bookseller) 243Graeff , Pieter de (diarist) 121Graffi gny, madame de 29Grand tour 113, 117, 132, 159Grave, Jan de 73, 96Groe, Th eodorus van der 298Groot, Cornelis de 134Groot, Willem de 47Grotius, Hugo 47, 303, 331Gueudeville, Nicolas 147Guevara, Antonio 88

Habermas, Jürgen 205Haes, Jacob Pieter de 87Haexbergen, Hendrik (diarist) 47, 48, 64Handwriting

and family history 136in administration 139

Handwritten text 11, 14reading of 77–79, 150, 162, 296, 298scribal publication 75–76

Hanover, princess Anne of 218Haren, Onno Zwier van 303Harvey, Gabriel 31Hauterive, marquess d’ 132Heijting, Willem 12Heliodorus 88, 100Hendricks, Jacob 66, 71, 74, 91Henry, Matthew 319Héroet, Antoine 88, 100Hervey, James 302, 305, 308, 314, 315,

316, 318, 322, 324, 327Heussen, Hugo Franciscus van 199Hilten, Jan van 79, 261

418 index

Hirzel, Hans Kaspar 306, 313Historio Continuatio 79, 93, 108, 110Historiography 145, 203History and religious controversy

148–49Hofman, Jacob (bookseller) 242Hofstede, Petrus 299Hogendorp, Carolina van 320Holberg, Ludvig 309Hollebeek, Ewald 286Hondius, Petrus 166Honert, Johan van den 306Hooft , Pieter Cornelisz 57, 58, 66, 76,

78, 87, 108, 159Hoogvliet, Nicolaas 282, 283, 284, 282,

298, 332, 338Houssaije, Amelot de la 154Huguenots 82, 129, 162, 163Huisseau, Isaac d’ 149, 184Humanism 30–31, 42, 107, 138, 145

humanist reader 85–86, 89, 109, 114, 115, 135, 169, 185, 312, 344

Huydecoper, Joan (diarist) 121, 122Huygens, Christiaan 117, 132, 150,

152, 157Huygens, Constantijn jr. 117, 150

diary of 155–156, 180Huygens, Constantijn sr. 58, 66, 72,

76, 78, 82, 182Huygens, Lodewijk 132Huygens, Paul 135Huygens, Susanna 130, 133Huytsteen, Arent van (bookseller)

247–49, 250, 251

Immens, Petrus 323Italiaensche waerzegger 94

Jacobi, miss 317Jansz, Dirck (diarist) 48, 101Jodelle, Étienne 83, 84Johnson, Samuel 29Jongh, miss De 291, 292Jongste, Gerrit de 212Jongste, Jan de 196Jonkgesel, Cornelis (diarist) 47Josselin, Ralph 33Journal intime, diary as a 281, 293, 296

Keblusek, Marika 12, 88, 106Kemp, Johannes van der 299, 307, 308,

320, 321, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 334, 336, 337, 338

Kemp, miss Van der 320

Kempius, Cornelis 199Kinship, family ties 50, 54, 128, 132,

135, 270, 282, 289Kleerbezem, Cornelis 245–46Kloek, Joost 18, 207Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb 28Knobbert, Volckera 128Knuttel, W.P.C. 224–25Koghen, Dirk van der (diarist) 213Koning, rev. De 298Kool, Marijtje 268Kruif, José de 20–21, 23, 35, 36Kruseman, A.C. 18Kuijk, family Van 281, 283, 294, 320, 327

Lafargue, Daniël 202, 244Langel, Jean 238–240Langue, Willem de 53Lannoy, Cornelia Juliane de 330Larpent, Anna 25, 29, 30Lasswell, Harold 13Lavallée, Joseph 309Leeuwarden, Nicolaas van 269, 306,

323, 333Leeuwen, Maria van Leyden van 165Leisure, pastimes 182–83Lespaul, Isaac 135Leti, Gregorio 156Leurink, Aleida (diarist) 122, 201, 280Library 87, 114, 142–44, 156, 162, 191,

261, 268–69, 306, 310Lieburg, Fred van 307Lis, Pieter Hendrik van 308Literacy/illiteracy 1, 3, 9, 12, 17, 55, 60,

65, 76, 341women and 60, 76, 280, 288–89

Literatureclassicism in 151the sublime in 152

Lodenstein, Jodocus van 300, 302, 306, 307, 308, 327, 328, 334, 336

Luchtmans (bookseller) 164Luchtmans, bookshop of 311–17Luchtmans, Constantia 310, 311, 316Luchtmans, Maria 289, 291, 311, 313,

316, 317, 321Luchtmans, Samuel and Johannes

(booksellers) 310–11Lustigh, Lambert Rijckxz (diarist) 201Luzac, Elie 237, 246, 252

Macfarlane, Alan 33Magazines 147, 221, 222, 258–59, 261,

303, 323, 337

index 419

Maimbourg, Louis 148, 149, 154, 175Maistre, Paul le 238, 240Mander, Karel van 79, 87, 93, 97Manuscript: see handwritten textsMarguerite d’Angoulême 82Marmontel, Jean François 304, 305,

307, 326, 329, 331, 335Marot, Clément 68, 82, 84, 86, 87, 88,

105, 106Mascuch, Michael 35Maurits, prince (stadholder) 52, 61,

63, 71, 72May, Louis du 146, 167, 175, 184Meades, Anna 309, 330Media,

history of 1–2, 5, 13interaction between 11–12, 42, 51,

110, 186, 219–22, 234, 240, 263, 347–48

Meerdervoort 133, 164Meeteren, Emanuel van 159Memoires, diary as 123Memory, writing and 60, 65, 131,

136–38, 141, 179, 186, 342Ménétra, Jacques-Louis 34Mercator, Gerard 79, 93, 99Mercure Galant 147Merken, Lucretia van 315, 330Mess, Johannes 320Mexia, Pero 87, 88, 104Mézeray, François de 142, 145, 158,

162, 164, 165, 168, 170, 171, 174, 176–77, 179, 180, 182, 183

Microhistory 35–36Mieris, Frans van (diarist) 202Mijnhardt, Wijnand 18, 207Miller, Mathijs 52Molesworth, Robert, vrye staats-regering

147Molière 158Momma, Wilhelmus 148Montaigne, Michel de 87, 88, 98, 104,

105, 107, 159Montenay, Georgette de 82, 87, 93Moor, Bernhard de 53, 91, 96Moor, David de 53, 57, 59, 66, 67, 71,

73, 74–75, 78, 88, 93, 96, 107Morgenwecker 79, 88Moulin, Pierre du 306, 313, 316, 323,

328, 335Muller, Martin 80, 95Munster, Arent van 193Muses en Deuil 90Music 52, 53, 193, 268, 282, 327

Nahuys, Johanna Maria (diarist) 308, 330

Narborough, John 156Nassau la Lecq, countess of (diarist)

280Natural science 152Nen, Gerrit, Jacobsz (diarist) 201Neufville, Maria de 227Nevius, Sara 295News

history of 204–08in conversation 12, 51, 56, 110, 130,

206–07, 214–14, 238Newspapers 27, 29, 92, 94, 100, 104,

110, 147, 155, 175, 201, 204–05, 218, 239, 252, 259, 279, 303production of 225–26distribution of 226–28reports in 229–34

Nieuhof, Johan 146, 154Noir, Jean le 184Noot, Geertruijt 43Noot, Jan van der 86Nothe, miss 133Novels 17, 266, 293, 305, 309, 317, 330

O’Donnel, James 5Offi ce 95–96Oosterdijk, family 285Orphanage 130Ottway, Sheila 35Outrein, Johannes d’ 307Overbeke, Arnout van 147, 162Overschie, Anna Jacobsdr van 51, 52,

55, 77, 92, 110Overschie, cousin Van 96Overschie, Odilia van 55Oyers, Johannes 268, 282, 289, 290,

291, 292, 294, 296, 327, 330

Palesteijn, Pieter 15Paludanus, Petrus 319pamphlets 12, 147, 159, 206, 216, 218,

222–24, 234–56sale of 241–43in public 243–45production of 247–51

Pascal, Blaise 151, 176Patriots 195, 252Pauw, Adriaan 114Pauw, Reinier 71, 77Pearson, Jacqueline 322, 329Peiff ers, Wilhelmus 299, 300, 306, 314,

315, 319, 326, 300, 333, 337

420 index

Pelckmans, Paul 29Peletier, Jacques 83, 98Pepys, Samuel 28Petrarch 67Philopater 150Physico-theology 302, 303Pietism 265, 272–75, 278–81, 282, 285,

297, 305, 307, 322, 324, 331Pitt 171Placette, Johannes la 300, 306Pleiad 67, 68, 69Poetry

commission of 71history of 67, 82, 86in education 62–63occasional 69–72pastoral 59, 67, 107religious 296, 300–02, 325;

Political notes 139–41Pollmann, Judith 37Poot, Hubert Cornelisz 296, 306, 320,

326Pope, Alexander 309Poppings, Christina 57, 74, 87Portugal, princesses of 180Postman, Neil 5Potgieter, Karel (bookseller) 226Poupo, Pierre 69, 84, 103, 106, 108Presentation of the self 32, 35, 37, 54Press; see newsPrevost, Jean 84, 90Prideaux, Humfrey 302, 306, 331Printing Press 1, 247Prints 257Psalms, singing of psalms 52–53, 101,

327Public sphere 205–08, 252Pure, Michel de, Vie de Gassion 146Putmans, Gerard 141

Raap, Daniël 235, 237, 244, 245, 246Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm 304, 305,

315, 327Rabutin, Roger de 162Racine, Jean 151, 155Ranson, Jean 25, 28, 36Rapin, René 150, 152, 176, 184, 185Rational philosophy 149–50, 152, 185,

311Raye, Jacob Bicker (diarist) 201Raymond, Joad 206Reading

aloud (to others) 74, 77, 100, 173–74, 321, 328–332, 337

aloud 100–01and churchgoing 106, 173, 300, 325,

332and etiquette, good breeding 115,

153, 169, 179, 180, 185as a pastime 97–99, 167–68, 182–83,

319–21, 345–46as construction of meaning 2, 5–8,

10, 30, 106, 183–85, 230, 254–56, 260–61, 332–35

behaviour 10, 25–32places to read 94–96, 164–65,

322–23, 345preferences 19–22, 28–30, 86–89,

155–60, 307–09, 315–17rereading 171, 325silent 100–01speed 169–70time of 96–98, 166–67, 319, 345–46ways of 4, 16–17, 25–27, 28–31,

99–105, 169–79, 297, 304, 323–32, 344–45

women and 143–44, 266, 307, 313, 322, 329, 339

Reading matter, classifi cation of 24date of 85, 154–55, 305–06language of 84, 153, 305, 309

Reading public, size of 8, 10, 11, 12, 17, 19–23, 114, 298, 346

Reading revolution 15–17, 27–30, 265in the Nederlands 18–23

Reitsma, widow 283, 316Relation du siège 147Representativeness 35–36Revolt, protest 194–96, 209–11Rhetoric 57–58, 68, 107Rhetoric, chamber of 66Richardson, Samuel 309, 316, 317,

330Rietveld, rev 286Rijcke, miss 317Rijser, Helena 267Rinderpest 207, 286Roche, Daniel 34Roeper, Jacobus de 242Ronsard, Pierre de 67, 69, 82, 83, 84,

86, 87, 88, 103, 105, 106Roque, Siméon-Guillaume de la 83, 84,

87, 91, 99Rousseau, Jean Jacques 25, 28Ruijs, Ghijsbert 69Ruijsch, Catharina 67Ruysch, Coenraad 117Ruysch, Elisabeth (I) 171, (II) 117

index 421

Saan, Lodewijck van der (diarist) 227Saenredam, Pieter 105Sautijn Kluit, W.P. 204Schelle, Johannes van 299, 300, 316,

319, 323, 324, 326, 327, 332Schinne, Magdalena van (diarist) 280,

309, 330Schmidt, Cornelis 114, 116Schoonderhave, Eva 53, 74Schrijver, Cornelis 218, 259Schurman, Anna Maria van 70Schutte, Rutger 302, 308, 324, 325,

327, 330Schweinitz, David von 159, 163, 173Seaver, Paul 34Self-examination 272–76, 293, 322Selm, Bert van 105Sermons 102, 242, 283–85, 286, 298,

325collections of 151, 173, 298–300,

307, 336Seven Years’ War 230–33, 257Sharpe, Kevin 30Shepard, Th omas 308Simon, Richard 185Singing: see psalmsSiri, Vittorio 163Sittert, Lammetje Jansz van 341Sleidanus, Johannes 79Sluiter, Wilhelm 306, 330Smallpox 286Smilde, Arend 312Smith, Paul 86Social capital, dairy writing and 122–23,

126Social network 49–51, 54, 126–29,

281–82Sources, reliability of 198–200, 203, 208Spaen, Alexander Bernhard van (diarist)

123Spaen, Alexander Sweder van 280Spaller 326, 337Spectators 258, 266, 303, 322, 339Speech 14–15, 49–54, 129–31, 282–87,

342 (see also News)and religion 52, 282–84, 287and etiquette 180–81

Spies, Marijke 207Spinoza, Benedictus de 150Stadlander, Hendrik 216Starter, Jan Jansz 100States of Holland 52, 69, 119, 129, 130,

139, 140, 162, 164, 168, 181, 256States-General 45, 52, 117, 119, 236

Stel sisters, Van der (also: de Groot), 282, 289, 290, 316, 319, 330

Strick, Maria 70Stronks, Els 266, 308Sully, Maximilian duc de 163, 171, 183

Taffi n, Jean 104, 106Tasso, Torquato 69, 103Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste 147, 158, 183Tax, tax riots 20, 45, 191, 192, 194,

209–10, 213, 215, 235, 242, 253, 256–57, 267

Teding van Berkhout, children of Pieter 133, 136, 141, 142–44, 153

Teding van Berkhout, Jacoba 135, 155, 162

Teding van Berkhout, Joan 130, 132, 135

Teding van Berkhout, Paulus 116, 137–38

Teepken, Christiaan 216Temple, William 146, 153, 156Th iel, Anna van 270–71, 275, 281, 282,

295, 296, 313, 318, 320, 321, 322, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 337, 339

Th iel, Jan van 268, 270, 278, 286, 289, 290, 315, 328

Th iel, Johanna van 270, 285, 289, 291, 292, 329, 331

Th iel, Roeland van 267–68, 306Th omason, George 260Tijl, Martinus (bookseller) 19–20Timmers, Jacob (diarist) 202Tjeenk Willink, W.E.J. (bookseller) 20Tragedische Historiën (Histoires

tragiques) 87, 97, 104Tromp, Harper Maartensz 141Tuinman, Carolus 193Turner, Th omas 27Turretin, François 151, 173Tyken, Jacobus 236, 246, 255, 259

Udemans, Godefridus 80, 106Uranie, l’ 91

Vaderlandsche Letteroefening (periodical) 303, 306, 316, 323, 326, 337

Vaeck, Cornelis (bookseller) 90Valcooch, Dirck Adriaensz 62Varillas, Antoine 179, 182Vauban, Sebastian marquis de 171Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, Jean 84, 91,

103

422 index

Velde, Jan van der 70Veldhuijzen, Svend 41, 45Velius, D. 155Veluanus, Joannes 80, 100Velzen, Gerard van 316, 333, 334Verboon, mr 319Verheije 134Vermeer, Johannes 115–16Viau, Th éophile de 184Virgil 68, 69, 107Visscher, Anna Roemers 57, 66, 74–75,

78, 87, 108Visscher, Tesselschade Roemers 57, 66,

72, 78, 108Voet, Johannes 302, 308, 314, 316, 324,

325, 327, 332, 333, 335Voetians 148, 150, 299, 300Vollenhove, Joannes 306, 326Voltaire 219, 303, 309Vondel, Joost van den 68Voogd, N. de 195Vooys, C.G.N. de 61Vorst, Jacomina van der 116Vrigny, Philippe de 163Vrij, Willem de 69Vrije, Cornelis de 130Vroedschap (city councel) 119, 128,

140–41, 168, 181

Waesberghe, Van (bookseller) 91, 100, 202

Wagenaar, Jan 202, 203, 236, 237, 248, 252

Wagens, Mathijs Sebastiaensz (bookseller) 91

Wallington, Nehemiah 34Warnout, Maria 191Wassenaar, Johannes (diarist) 279, 308Wassenaar-Rosande, baron 128Watts, Isaak 314, 326, 327, 336Watzon, Th omas 306Westerbaen, Jacob 83–84, 85, 92, 104,

106Willem III (stadholder, king of England)

119, 147, 148, 189Willem IV (stadholder) 193–95, 202,

212, 213, 226, 229, 235, 247, 253, 255Willem V (stadholder) 215Willemsz, Evert 31Winckelman, Jacoba 300, 302, 306,

316, 318, 323, 325, 333, 335, 337Witts war 236–37Wolff , Betje and Aagje Deken 289, 309Woolf, D.R. 180Woude, Elisabeth van der (diarist) 280Writing, teaching of 61–63Wymans, Johannes 235

Young, Eduard 306

Zuylen, Belle van 309

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