TERRA INCOGNITA: THE BEUDEKER COLLECTION IN THE MAP LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY

TERRA INCOGNITA: THE BEUDEKER COLLECTION IN THE MAP LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY ANNA E. C. SIMONI F E W scholars apart from a small circle of main...
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TERRA INCOGNITA: THE BEUDEKER COLLECTION IN THE MAP LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY ANNA E. C. SIMONI

F E W scholars apart from a small circle of mainly Dutch initiates are as yet acquainted with this outstanding collection, the riches of which deserve to be more widely known. The name 'Beudeker Collection' or 'Beudeker Atlas' commemorates the eighteenthcentury Dutchman who compiled these twenty-four large folio volumes, bound in gold-tooled white vellum, placed at Maps C.9.d.i-ii, e.i-13. Each volume contains an average of a hundred to a hundred and fifty leaves, on to and between which large single or several smaller prints have been mounted, and into which some complete books and extracts from others have been inserted in a carefully designed sequence. The whole forms a comprehensive display ofthe Low Countries, comprising the United Provinces (roughly equivalent to the modern Netherlands), the Spanish/Austrian Netherlands (roughly equivalent to modern Belgium plus French Flanders), and Luxembourg, from their earliest beginnings up to the compiler's own time, with additions by later owners right into the nineteenth century. Both topographical and historical material is used, whether factual, allegorical, heraldic, or in any combination of these, enlivened with portraits of important inhabitants of individual localities, pictures of archaeological finds, of a scientific instrument here, a typical or unusual industry there. A long series of Dutch political and religious dignitaries concludes the set. Twenty of the volumes have their own title-pages, specially printed to define their contents, and many also have a preface explaining the purpose and principles underlying the compilation, again printed just this once. The title-pages are mostly dated 1718, though those ofthe volumes dealing with the province of Zeeland are dated 1717 (Maps C.9.d.ii and C.9.e.i). One volume (Maps C.9.d.io), intended as a supplement to the three volumes devoted to Amsterdam (Maps C.9.d.5-7) and so described on their title-pages, contains the famous book by Jacob van Campen on the Town Hall of that city, now the Dutch royal palace; two books of engravings by Hubertus Quellinus of sculptures made by his brother Artus for the Town Hall, in the edition by Frederick de Witt of 1665; and Joost van den Vondel's long poem on the inauguration of the same building. This volume makes do with the title-page ofthe first of its constituents, dated 1648. Another (Maps C.g.e.ii), which begins with the sumptuous work De Zegepralende Vecht . . . La Triomphante Riviere de Vecht by Andries de Leth, sports that book's title-page, dated 1719. The volume on the towns in those areas which were directly 143

administered by the States General rather than by an assembly of their own (Maps C.9.e.io), and the volume of portraits ofthe Counts of Holland, the Dukes of Brabant, and the Regents ofthe Netherlands (Maps C.9.e.i2), have title-pages without a date; that of portraits of other persons of importance to the political and religious life of Amsterdam (Maps C.9.e.i3) has no title-page at all. The dates are, however, misleading, in that the contents extend further, with prints dated throughout the 1730s and 1740s. There are frequent instances of additions made after a volume had been bound, where maps or genealogical tables or other matter can be seen to have been inserted between leaves, or pasted on to the blank sides of items previously bound in. The portrait collection in the final volume includes a group of four all bearing the date 1758, and someone has added the Dutch official report ofthe battle of Waterloo, published on 23 June 1815 as Buitengewone Nederlandsche Staats-Courant A^ 1815 N^ 6, to the volume of maps of the Seventeen Provinces (Maps C.9.d.i(i2)). The basis ofthe collection is the justly renowned Blaeu Stedeboek or Town Book ofthe Netherlands,^ dismembered, and its sections rearranged to suit the collector's aims. Besides maps, plans, views, and other prints with or without additional letterpress, there are a small number of original drawings of great interest. Several of these have recently been used for research into Dutch architectural history.^ Many prints are known to be very rare or are here represented in specially early or otherwise unusual states. With very few exceptions the prints are of the highest quality. Many of them are hand-coloured, often exquisitely so, and because they have been little used are still in an excellent state of preservation, the colours being remarkably fresh and brilliant. The earliest items in the collection are town plans from the 1572 edition of Ciuitates orbis terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, with their charming pictures of inhabitants in local costume. These and the majority of the later prints from the last quarter ofthe sixteenth to the middle ofthe eighteenth centuries are of course individually well known, but here they are found in a rich context, unlikely to occur so frequently outside the Netherlands themselves, and their study is enhanced by their physical proximity to the British Library's other resources. Nor should the aesthetic interest and sheer pleasure provided by the material be ignored. As an example ofthe enchantment to be had, I need only mention the volumes devoted to palaces and country houses with their intricate gardens (Maps C.9.e.7-9). This was not quite how the collector saw them. His intention was didactic, as he makes abundantly clear in his prefaces. In several of them he begins by saying that his beloved country, and in it especially his native city of Amsterdam, has been brought to its present state of importance and civilization from humble and difficult origins, requiring hard labour and constant vigilance in winning the land from the water and protecting it ever after from this natural enemy and from foreign tyranny. His curiosity as to how this was achieved, and achieved in so relatively short a time, was the inspiration behind the collection. In enlarging, even doubling and trebling Blaeu's Town Book, he wanted to accomplish and then surpass Blaeu's own aim, thwarted only by death, of eventually publishing a supplement. In this way his work should now be able to assist in the 144

instruction of others. He regularly ends a preface with the wish that a future beholder might view it with as much profit and pleasure as it had cost him exertion and expense in bringing it together. But on all his own title-pages he declares disarmingly, in only slightly varying phraseology, that the items in this volume were 'uyt liefhebbery by malkander gebracht': brought together as a hobby. Who was this amateur in the true sense ofthe word? Christoffel Beudeker was born at Amsterdam in 1675 and died there in 1756. In 1748 he published at his own expense a long poem on his 'museum' and library, entitled De sprekende konstkamer. Vertoonende het regte gebruik der boeken, konsten en natuurkundige wetenschappen, in zedige gedachten voorgesteld (The speaking cabinet of the arts, displaying the correct use of books, arts, and natural sciences, exhibited in moral reflections). In its 188 pages the poem also deals with his collections of coins and medals and natural objects, especially shells. The 'moral reflections' are typical ofthe man: his verse translation ofthe Psalms, destined for Batavia, Surinam, and Woerden in Holland, appeared in 1739 and ran to a second, revised edition, published at Amsterdam in 1750.^ It included also translations from the German of 190 Lutheran hymns. In both the Sprekende konstkamer and his translation ofthe Psalms, laudatory verses by his friends and relations describe him as a lovable and cheerful old man whose rosy cheeks and bustling enthusiasm belie his grey locks. He had already left his mark in prose as early as 1723, though only the name of Claas Bruin appears on the title-page of a book in celebration ofthe country seat of Soelen outside Amsterdam, which Beudeker had acquired a couple of years earlier."*" Beudeker commissioned this poem which, not content with a description ofthe site, the house, and the garden, discourses on practically the whole history of man, and Beudeker himself supplied the historical and philosophical annotations he considered necessary for the right understanding of the poetry, an opportunity to display all his learning. These notes show him indeed as a man of wide reading, but they remain chiefly anecdotal snippets, interspersed with quotations in prose and verse (some of which may be his own) and all in a high moral tone. He also left an as yet unpublished, beautifully written, and richly illustrated manuscript, entitled Oudheden van Amstelredam (Antiquities of Amsterdam), now preserved in the Municipal Archive there together with various other writings which have been drawn on and praised by historians.^ In his poem on Soelen Claas Bruin mentions the owner's particular joy in his great gate which was to be opened only to his friends. This has been seen by some as a sign of misanthropy in Beudeker, surely wrongly: a country retreat should be just that, freeing its occupants from the strain of city life and the demands of all and sundry, while admitting their friends. And Beudeker seems to have had plenty of these, among them poets and historians like Daniel Willink and Gerard van Loon who acknowledge his encouragement, advice, and the freely given access to his numismatic and print collections. To sum up then: a man with an uncomplicated mind, a little pedantic, but lively, communicative, rejoicing in what he has and knows, and eager to let others share in his treasures. Little was known about his life until the middle ofthis century when the Amsterdam archivist W. F. H, Oldewelt drew attention to him^ and at last corrected the erroneous 145

date of 1723 given for his death by A. J. van der Aa in his biographical dictionary, the only general reference book to mention him so far.^ Now Dr I. H. van Eeghen, whose knowledge of Amsterdam's history is unrivalled, has published a biographical sketch of Beudeker.^ She traces his descent from the Lutheran branch of a mainly Roman Catholic family of German origin, traditionally engaged in the sugar trade. Like his father before him Christoffel eventually became manager of a refinery, and later owned his own very successful business. Marrying an heiress in 1707 must have helped to put him financially at his ease. It is not certain when he began collecting for his atlas; but he states in his prefaces of 1718 that it had already taken him many years. By 1718 (when he also signed the preface to the volumes with title-pages dated 1717) he must also have spent a considerable amount of money. In De sprekende konstkamer of 1748 he declared that he was completing his vastly enlarged set of Blaeu's great work in memory of its original compilation a hundred years earlier. But he had not finished even then: it was surely Beudeker himself who added, inter alia, the set of maps by the Hattingas dated 1753 to his volume of Zeeland, When Beudeker's daughter Maria Geertruy, the only one of five children to survive beyond infancy, married Jacob Brandt in 1727, the wedding poems not only called the bride 'as sweet as if made of sugar', but expressed great admiration for her father's collections, and especially his atlas ofthe Netherlands.^ This daughter, and after her her son, also called Christoffel, became owners ofthe atlas which originally consisted of twenty-seven volumes. It was sold at auction in Amsterdam in 1778.^*' With the assistance of Professor H. de la Fontaine Verwey, Dr van Eeghen has also succeeded in establishing an outline of the subsequent history of the atlas. It passed, apparently directly from the family, into the ownership of Everard de Burlett, and it is described on page 9 ofthe auction catalogue of his estate, dated 17 April 1807.^^ The purchaser was a certain Ruyghrock who paid 335 guilders for his prize. It next occurs in an Amsterdam auction catalogue of 1811, most of the items in which had been the property of Baron Diederik van Leyden.^^ However, from a manuscript note in a copy of this catalogue preserved at Leiden University Library, Dr van Eeghen infers that the atlas had come from another owner. ^^ Perhaps it had been Ruyghrock's property until then. The Dutch map historian Cornelis Koeman asserts that finance minister Isaac Jan Alexander Gogel (1765-1821) then owned the atlas, although without providing a source for this statement. ^"^ If correct, it could mean that the atlas remained in the possession of Gogel's widow until her death in 1849; certainly her husband's numismatic collection only came up for sale at the auction of her effects in 1850. These facts and hypotheses still leave the next ten years unaccounted for, nor is there any information on the date of, still less the reason for, the separation ofthe three volumes no longer present from the main body of the atlas. At a guess, they probably contained further portraits, including those of scholars and artists referred to in the description in the De Burlett auction catalogue. ^^ One at least ofthe three lost volumes may also have had a title-page, and perhaps a preface, to all the portraits. But portraits can be collected by someone not interested in maps, still less in preliminary matter no longer applicable, and it may now be impossible or very difficult to trace Beudeker's lost volumes. They had 146

become separated by i860 and so, alas, had the printed catalogue of the collection, mentioned in the same auction catalogue. ^^ On 20 July i860 the London booksellers T. & W. Boone of Bond Street offered 'a most interesting and extensive Collection of Portraits, Views, Prints, Maps and Drawings relating to the History and topography of Holland, arranged and mounted in 24 Atlas folio Volumes, bound in Vellum' to the Trustees ofthe British Museum for the sum of ^200. ^'^ This was a great deal of money and it took the Trustees, to whom five volumes were submitted on approval at their meeting in January 1861, nearly a year to decide on the purchase. The volumes now bear the acquisition stamp of 2 July 1861. Their present arrangement and numeration no longer correspond to their original logical sequence which has been reconstructed by B. van't Hoff. ^^ Within each volume the leaves have been numbered in pencil in a system which tries to distinguish the Blaeu material from Beudeker's additions. This was not always successful, and there are also occasional errors in actual foliation. The individual prints have not been numbered. The choice of illustrations for this article has been far from easy. In the end I decided against the kind of maps and straightforward views which students would expect to find in the Map Library, interesting and attractive though so many of those in the Beudeker Collection are. Instead, I have attempted to select a small number from among those prints the presence of which might come as a surprise to the scholar. The following reproductions are only a tiny sample from this treasure trove which contains one Rembrandt etching among the portraits, several works by Hollar, a great number by Romeyn de Hooghe, Jan Luiken, and Claes Jansz Visscher, to name but a few ofthe better-known artists. My choice has been guided, however, by subject matter rather than by the fame of the engravers. In the descriptions and interpretations I have been helped by colleagues at the British Library and in the Netherlands. I am deeply grateful to them all, but the responsibility for any errors is mine alone. For the descriptions I have made constant use of Frederik Muller, De Nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen (Amsterdam, 1863-82; referred to as Muller followed by the number ofthe print), the Katalogus der historie-, spot- en zinneprenten betrekkelijk de geschiedenis van Nederland, verzameld door A. van Stolk. Beschreven door G. van Rijn (Amsterdam, 1895-1923; referred to as Van Stolk followed by the number ofthe print), and F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts (Amsterdam, 1949, etc.; referred to as Hollstein followed by the number given to the print under the artist's name). Details of other works used are given at the end of each description. A VILLAGE DANCE (fig. l)

This fine print, said to be very rare, is both famous and puzzling. It was made by Jan Saenredam, the father ofthe painter Pieter Saenredam, in 1596, as the signature shows. It has no title, but is generally known as the 'Peasants' dance around the church at Assendelft'. The Latin verses engraved underneath are difficult to understand and their 147

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author, given as 'Emporg' has yet to be identified. Though obviously portraying a confrontation of age and youth, the circumstances and meaning of the print have given rise to varying interpretations. The most recent and best explanation is that proposed by H, van de Waal, who links the scene with an old German story, found in several places, of villagers dancing around their church on Christmas night, disregarding their priest's objections and condemned by his curse to keep dancing without a break for a whole year. They are then released from their torment by the bishop who comes on a visit, but some of them die at once, others soon after, and the survivors are left with shaking limbs for the rest of their hves. Saenredam, then, used the familiar scenery ofthe village where he lived as a background for a picture ofthis story, which was later assumed to refer to an event that took place there. There remain other problems. It is easy enough to see the dancing couples circling the church, the young man at the end of the chain waving a jug, others idling by the houses or drinking at the inn, while the couples in the foreground are shown in greater detail as they amuse themselves in love, drink, the playing of a viol, etc., and at the same time arguing with the old man who looks out ofthe window, a book in one hand, the other pointing reprovingly towards the merrymakers who certainly do not intend to take his advice. But what is the meaning ofthe vine that climbs up the old man's house? Is it to show what labour and foresight will bring about, while their improvidence takes delight in the burdock on the left which gives them only burrs? A young lady in the centre is smelling a carnation: the transience of sensuous pleasure? At the vine, a dog resembling a miniature lion barks at the old man: are his ignorance and animal nature symbolical of the young people's? A strong wind blows through the trees and bends the grass, as well as billowing the dresses of the young women: is it the wrath of God which is so forcefully described in the Latin verses as inevitably directed against dancers in holy ground? It is also possible to find in this picture the common topos of the five senses in the various actions ofthe merrymakers, contrasted with spiritual hfe exemplified by the old man. Yet the charm which the artist has bestowed upon the whole scene, and especially upon the many young men and women, the liveliness of their movements and expressions compared with the solemnity ofthe old clergyman's face and gesture, make one suspect that Saenredam was not wholly unsympathetic to youth and its pleasures. The print is known in three states: without the publisher's signature; with it (as here: 'C. J. Visscher excudit'); and with the addition ofthe word 'Assendelft' above the church. Muller Supplement, 1050A. Van Stolk, 975. Hollstein, 133. H. van de Waal, Drie eeuwen vaderlandsche geschied-uitbeelding 1500-1800 ('s-Gravenhage, 1952), pt. i, pp. 252-4; pt. 2, pp. 119-20, pi. 94. Maps C.9.d.8(8o). THE EMBLEM OF *IN LIEFDE GHETRAUW' (fig. 2)

In 1602 the Haarlem chamber of rhetoric, a poetry and drama society, 'Het Wit Angierken' (The White Carnation), whose motto and alternative name was 'In Liefde Getrouw' (Faithful in Love), issued an emblematic print, dedicated to the city fathers in 149

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