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Koninklijke Bibliotheek Acquires a Unique Collection of Alba Amicorum

Koninklijke Bibliotheek Acquires a Unique Collection of Alba Amicorum Notes and news KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK ACQUIRES A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF ALBA AMICORUM The Koninklijke Bibliothcck has succeeded in acquiring a unique collection of alba amicorum from the end of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, which was in the possession of the prominent Frisian Van Harinxma thoe Slooteii family. Ncvcr before has such a collection, built by members of one noble family, been put on the market. These alba, which are extremely luxurious productions, are veritable treasure-houses of splendid coats of arms, beautiful illustrations derived from the Bible and classical mythology, and numerous contributions from well-known savants. With more than 4r?o alba amicorum and poetry albums from the sixteenth up to and including the twentieth centuries, the Koninklijke Bibliotheck holds the largest collection in the Netherlands. From their very beginning alba have been closely interweaved with university environment. Students did not restrict themselves to one university but for their education and cultivation they visited a number of European universities, where they collected contributions from professors and fellow-students. This aspect was documented in a very special way by the alba of the brothers Juw, Homme and Pieter van Harinxma, who traversed France around r6,;o, after hav- ing first been educated at the universities of Franeker and Leiden. Alba amicorum were not the exclusive domain of men, women also practised the genre to their hearts' content. The number of women's alba is, however, decidedly smaller and it is therefore exceptional that the Van Harinxma collection contains as many as four. The most beautiful of these is Juliana Roussel's album, which is covered with a unique black brocade binding and consists completely of vellum. A variety of Frisian young ladies had their coats of arms often accompanied by illus- trations of flowers symbolizing certain virtues - incorporated in it. The album of Gccrtruydt van Engelsteed is also a curious one, with several men courting hcr on paper while her eventual spouse, Frans van I)onia, symbolized, as it were, his con- quest with a magnificent gouache of a triumphant commander-in-chicf during battle. The collection was already known from a 1857 publication in the De F?T/<? Frie.s periodical, but the eleven books had not been seen in public since an exhibition in rgr5. However, they did not lie forgotten in a cupboard, is shown by the fact that the Queen's Commissioner for Friesland, P.A.V. van Harinxma thoe Slooten, put Homme van Harinxma senior's album repeatedly before members of the royal fam- ily for them to sign it, when they were paying a working visit to Friesland in the first half of the twentieth century. Purchase was only possible by the generous support of various cultural funds, including the Prof. Mr. Herman de la Fontaine Verwey Stichting and the Vereniging Vrienc1cn der Koninklijke l3ibliotheek. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Quaerendo Brill

Koninklijke Bibliotheek Acquires a Unique Collection of Alba Amicorum

Quaerendo , Volume 30 (3): 250 – Jan 1, 2000
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2000 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0014-9527
eISSN
1570-0690
DOI
10.1163/157006900X00101
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Notes and news KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK ACQUIRES A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF ALBA AMICORUM The Koninklijke Bibliothcck has succeeded in acquiring a unique collection of alba amicorum from the end of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, which was in the possession of the prominent Frisian Van Harinxma thoe Slooteii family. Ncvcr before has such a collection, built by members of one noble family, been put on the market. These alba, which are extremely luxurious productions, are veritable treasure-houses of splendid coats of arms, beautiful illustrations derived from the Bible and classical mythology, and numerous contributions from well-known savants. With more than 4r?o alba amicorum and poetry albums from the sixteenth up to and including the twentieth centuries, the Koninklijke Bibliotheck holds the largest collection in the Netherlands. From their very beginning alba have been closely interweaved with university environment. Students did not restrict themselves to one university but for their education and cultivation they visited a number of European universities, where they collected contributions from professors and fellow-students. This aspect was documented in a very special way by the alba of the brothers Juw, Homme and Pieter van Harinxma, who traversed France around r6,;o, after hav- ing first been educated at the universities of Franeker and Leiden. Alba amicorum were not the exclusive domain of men, women also practised the genre to their hearts' content. The number of women's alba is, however, decidedly smaller and it is therefore exceptional that the Van Harinxma collection contains as many as four. The most beautiful of these is Juliana Roussel's album, which is covered with a unique black brocade binding and consists completely of vellum. A variety of Frisian young ladies had their coats of arms often accompanied by illus- trations of flowers symbolizing certain virtues - incorporated in it. The album of Gccrtruydt van Engelsteed is also a curious one, with several men courting hcr on paper while her eventual spouse, Frans van I)onia, symbolized, as it were, his con- quest with a magnificent gouache of a triumphant commander-in-chicf during battle. The collection was already known from a 1857 publication in the De F?T/<? Frie.s periodical, but the eleven books had not been seen in public since an exhibition in rgr5. However, they did not lie forgotten in a cupboard, is shown by the fact that the Queen's Commissioner for Friesland, P.A.V. van Harinxma thoe Slooten, put Homme van Harinxma senior's album repeatedly before members of the royal fam- ily for them to sign it, when they were paying a working visit to Friesland in the first half of the twentieth century. Purchase was only possible by the generous support of various cultural funds, including the Prof. Mr. Herman de la Fontaine Verwey Stichting and the Vereniging Vrienc1cn der Koninklijke l3ibliotheek.

Journal

Quaerendo – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2000

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