DOCSLIB.ORG

Raadpensionaris De Witt, 3.01.17, Inv.Nr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Raadpensionaris De Witt, 3.01.17, Inv.Nr Nummer Toegang: 3.01.17 Inventaris van het archief van Johan de Witt, raadpensionaris van Holland, 1653-1672 Versie: 18-05-2021 H.J.Ph.G. Kaajan en J.H. de Vries Nationaal Archief, Den Haag 2018 This finding aid is written in Dutch. 3.01.17 Raadpensionaris De Wit 3 INHOUDSOPGAVE Beschrijving van het archief.....................................................................................11 Aanwijzingen voor de gebruiker...............................................................................................12 Openbaarheidsbeperkingen......................................................................................................12 Beperkingen aan het gebruik....................................................................................................12 Materiële beperkingen.............................................................................................................. 12 Aanvraaginstructie.....................................................................................................................12 Citeerinstructie.......................................................................................................................... 12 Verwant materiaal.....................................................................................................................13 Beschikbaarheid van kopieën....................................................................................................13 Verwante archieven................................................................................................................... 13 Beschrijving van de series en archiefbestanddelen................................................15 A Archief van Johan de Witt als pensionaris van Dordrecht, raadpensionaris van Holland en West-Friesland en particulier persoon, 1648-1672........................................................................15 A.1 Minuten van uitgaande missiven........................................................................................................15 A.2 Ingekomen missiven, ambtshalve ontvangen....................................................................................17 A.2.1 van Generaliteitscolleges en -functionarissen............................................................................17 A.2.1.1 Staten-Generaal...................................................................................................................17 A.2.1.2 Gedeputeerden en commissarissen op 's Lands vloot en te velde....................................17 A.2.1.3 Colleges ter Admiraliteit......................................................................................................18 A.2.1.4 Directies van de extraordinaris équipage...........................................................................18 A.2.1.5 Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie...................................................................................18 A.2.1.6 Directie van de Levantse Handel........................................................................................19 A.2.2 van bovengewestelijke instellingen...........................................................................................19 A.2.3 van gewestelijke instellingen......................................................................................................19 A.2.4 van plaatselijke en regionale colleges en functionarissen binnen Holland..............................19 A.2.5 van instellingen en functionarissen anders dan bestuurscolleges binnen Holland.................22 A.2.6 van overige afzenders binnen de Republiek..............................................................................22 A.2.6.1 Geünieerde provincieën......................................................................................................22 A.2.6.1.1 Gelderland...................................................................................................................22 A.2.6.1.2 Zeeland........................................................................................................................22 A.2.6.1.3 Overijssel.....................................................................................................................23 A.2.6.1.4 Stad en Ommelanden.................................................................................................23 A.2.6.1.5 Drenthe........................................................................................................................23 A.2.6.2 Generaliteitslanden............................................................................................................23 A.2.6.3 Buitenlandse vertegenwoordigers in de Republiek..........................................................23 A.2.7 van Nederlandse diplomaten in het buitenland........................................................................23 A.2.7.1 Denemarken........................................................................................................................23 A.2.7.1.1 Vaste vertegenwoordiging..........................................................................................23 1647-1656: Frederick de Vries..............................................................................................23 1657-1672: Jacob le Maire....................................................................................................24 A.2.7.1.2 Bijzondere gezantschappen.......................................................................................24 1656-1658: Coenraed van Beuningen, Godard Adriaen van Reede van Amerongen en Matthijs van Vierssen...........................................................................................................24 1659-1661: Govert van Slingelandt, Pieter Vogelsangh, Pieter de Huybert en Willem van Haren....................................................................................................................................24 1665: Godard Adriaen van Reede van Amerongen.............................................................25 1667: Godard Adriaan van Reede van Amerongen.............................................................25 1670-1671: Johan de Witt Johansz........................................................................................25 1672: Daniel Oem van Wijngaerden.....................................................................................25 A.2.7.1.3 Overige correspondenten...........................................................................................26 A.2.7.2 Duitsland.............................................................................................................................26 A.2.7.2.1 Vaste vertegenwoordiging..........................................................................................26 A.2.7.2.1.1 bij de keizer en bij de Rijksdag............................................................................26 Gerard Hamel Bruynincx (1664-1690)............................................................................26 4 Raadpensionaris De Wit 3.01.17 A.2.7.2.1.2 te Aken................................................................................................................26 1664-1670: François van Wachtendonck........................................................................26 A.2.7.2.1.3 te Frankfort aan de Main....................................................................................26 A.2.7.2.1.4.1 1669-1672: Abraham Malapert...................................................................26 A.2.7.2.1.4 te Hamburg en Lübeck........................................................................................27 1652-1675: Matthias Römer............................................................................................27 A.2.7.2.1.5 te Keulen.............................................................................................................27 1653-1659: Lucas van Hof..............................................................................................27 1659: Hendrik Holwegh...................................................................................................27 1659-1666: Gerard Hamel Bruynincx..............................................................................27 A.2.7.2.2 Bijzondere gezantschappen.......................................................................................28 1654: Coenraed van Beuningen, Epo van Bootsma en Rudolph Wilhelm baron van In- en Kniphuizen , gedeputeerden naar de vredesonderhandelingen tussen Zweden en de stad Bremen.................................................................................................................................28 1657: Abraham van Beveren, extraordinaris gedeputeerde naar de bisschop van Münster en de stad Münster..............................................................................................................28 1658-1659: Johan Isbrants, extraordinaris ambassadeur naar de keurvorst van Brandenburg........................................................................................................................28 1665-1666: Arent Jurrien van Haersolte, extraordinaris gezant naar de hertogen van Brunswijk-Lüneburg.............................................................................................................28 1670: Jean Bertram de Mortaigne, commissaris extraordinaris te Münster......................28 1671: Daniel (Oem) van Wijngaerden, Godard Adriaen van Reede van Amerongen, Adolph Henrich baron van Ripperda en Bernard
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Tulip Symbolism in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Emblem Book
    Tulip symbolism in the seventeenth-century Dutch emblem book 0 Tulip symbolism in the seventeenth-century Dutch emblem book Research Master’s Thesis Utrecht University Faculty of the Humanities Art History of the Low Countries Emily Campbell 6114563 Supervisor: Prof. dr. Thijs Weststeijn Second reader: Prof. dr. Els Stronks Date: 10 July 2019 Title page illustration: Roemer Visscher, Emblem V, Sinnepoppen, I. Amsterdam, by W. Iansz., 1614, p. 5., shelfmark: OTM: OK 62-9148. Collection of Allard Pierson. 1 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Why study the tulip in Dutch emblem books? 4 Relevance to the Field 7 Research Questions 8 Theoretical Context 9 Methodology 20 Chapter Overview 23 Chapter 1: What is the historiography relating to the symbolic function of the tulip in seventeenth-century Dutch art? 24 1.1 The Emergence of Emblematics 24 1.2 Tulip Symbolism in Dutch Flower Paintings 26 1.3 Confusing Accounts: The Phases of the Tulipmania 29 Chapter 2: The Tulip as a Symbol of Virtue 39 2.1 Devotion 39 2.2 Chastity and Honorable Industry 44 2.3 The Multiplicity of Creation 49 Chapter 3: The Tulip as a Symbol of Vice in Roemer Visscher’s Sinnepoppen 57 3.1 Pre-iconographic Analysis 57 3.2 Iconographic Analysis 58 3.3 Iconological Analysis 61 Conclusion 70 Images 73 Appendix: List of Tulips in Dutch Emblem Books (1600-1700), in chronological order 84 Bibliography 105 2 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been the largest undertaking of my life. First, thanks are due to my thesis supervisor, prof. dr. Thijs Weststeijn, for assisting me with this, my first, thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Early Modern Low Countries 4 (2020) 2, pp. 181-204 - eISSN: 2543-1587 181 Discrediting the Dutch: A French Account of the Year of Disaster for Arab Audiences Rosanne Baars and Josephine van den Bent Rosanne Baars is lecturer in History at the University of Amsterdam. Her most recent book, Rumours of Revolt. Civil War and the Emergence of a Transnational News Culture in France and the Netherlands, 1561-1598, will be published by Brill in May 2021. She has also published on maritime history and Dutch-Ottoman diplomacy. Her research interests include the reception of news and media, diplo- matic history, early modern France, and the Ottoman Empire. Josephine van den Bent is postdoctoral researcher at the history department of Radboud Univer- sity Nijmegen, investigating water management in Middle Eastern cities (c. 700-1500) as part of the nwo-funded project ‘Source of Life’. Her PhD thesis (University of Amsterdam, 2020) analysed the representation of the Mongols in the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria, c. 1250-1350. Her research interests include ethnic stereotyping, urban organisation, and the medieval and early mod- ern Middle East. She is also editor-in-chief of the semi-academic journal ZemZem. Tijdschrift over het Midden-Oosten, Noord-Afrika en islam. Abstract Recent historiography has demonstrated how Istanbul became part of a European media landscape in the seventeenth century. This article argues that European coun- tries not only targeted the Ottoman Porte but also tried to reach Arabic-speaking audiences in other major Ottoman cities, such as Aleppo. It does so through an anal- ysis of a remarkable source, an Arabic manuscript pamphlet written by a Frenchman in Aleppo in January 1673, which tells the story of the exploits of Louis xiv in the Dutch Republic during the Year of Disaster.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Philopater, De Radicale Verlichting En Het Einde Van De Eindtijd'
    ‘Philopater, de radicale Verlichting en het einde van de Eindtijd’ Wiep van Bunge bron Wiep van Bunge, ‘Philopater, de radicale Verlichting en het einde van de Eindtijd.’ In: Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman 26 (2003), p. 10-19. Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bung001phil01_01/colofon.htm © 2004 dbnl / Wiep van Bunge 10 Philopater, de radicale Verlichting en het einde van de Eindtijd The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory Wiep van Bunge Dat de Nederlandse Republiek rond 1700 reeds geruime tijd een broeinest was van filosofisch radicalisme, mag na de publicatie van Jonathan Israels Radical Enlightenment als bekend worden verondersteld.1 Je kunt met Israel van mening verschillen over de kwaliteit van dit radicalisme, over de invloed die het had gedurende de achttiende eeuw in Nederland en elders, en over de moderniteit van deze radicale Verlichting, maar dat vanaf het midden van de zeventiende eeuw in het voetspoor van Descartes en Spinoza met name binnen het gewest Holland plots ideeën circuleerden die grotendeels haaks stonden op de dominante, christelijke traditie, dat staat nu wel vast. Ook over de precieze omvang van deze vroege Verlichting, en dus over de representativiteit van deze radicalen zullen de specialisten nog lang van mening verschillen. Maar dat die radicalen er waren, dat valt niet langer te ontkennen. Israels boek komt dan ook niet uit de lucht vallen. Ruim twintig jaar gelden was het de Amerikaanse historica Margaret C.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Wij Hebben Met Schade Ende Schande Geleerd, Dat Die Sigh In
    ‘Wij hebben met schade ende schande geleerd, dat die sigh in een schaep verandert vande wolven werd gegeten.’1 Staatse onderhandelingen met het Engelse Gemenebest en het Engeland van Karel II (1658- 1662). Leiden, 23 september 2020 1 Willem Nieupoort aan Johan de Witt, 25 december 1654. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Archief van Johan de Witt (hierna NA), 3.01.17, 1662. Inhoudsopgave Inleiding p. 2 Hoofdstuk 1: Bergen van Goud en IJzer. p. 8 Hoofdstuk 2: ‘Wy [wierden] voor boesem vrienden gehouden.’ p. 13 Het Traktaat van Marine p. 14 De Noordse Oorlog p. 18 Oranje en Stuart p. 24 Conclusie p. 29 Hoofdstuk 3: ‘Une pomme de discorde.’ p. 31 Navigatie, Commercie en Visserij p. 33 De vrede met Portugal p. 42 De educatie van Willem III p. 47 Conclusie p. 53 Conclusie p. 54 Bronnen p. 57 Bronnenuitgaven p. 57 Literatuur p. 59 1 Inleiding ‘On Tuesday May the 29. His Majesty [Karel II] made his Entrance into the City of London: and it is very remarkeable that Tuesdays are […] to be observed in our Almanacks. It was on a Tuesday that my late Lord King Charls, Father to this present King, was beheaded. It was on a Tuesday that this King was born. It was on a Tuesday that he received the intelligence at Brussells, that a way was made for his inauguration in England. It was on a Tuesday that he came from Brussells to Breda. It was on a Tuesday he was Proclaimed King.’2 De bovenstaande inleiding op een lofdicht voor koning Karel II geeft een kort overzicht van de gebeurtenissen die de weg plaveiden voor de Restauratie van de Engelse monarchie in 1660.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt,The Hague, Collective Violens, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2636q95m Author DeSanto, Ingrid Frederika Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt, The Hague, Collective Violence, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672. A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Ingrid Frederika DeSanto 2018 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Righteous Citizens: The Lynching of Johan and Cornelis DeWitt, The Hague, Collective Violence, and the Myth of Tolerance in the Dutch Golden Age, 1650-1672 by Ingrid Frederika DeSanto Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles Professor Margaret C Jacob, Chair In The Hague, on August 20 th , 1672, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johan DeWitt and his brother Cornelis DeWitt were publicly killed, their bodies mutilated and hanged by the populace of the city. This dissertation argues that this massacre remains such an unique event in Dutch history, that it needs thorough investigation. Historians have focused on short-term political causes for the eruption of violence on the brothers’ fatal day. This work contributes to the existing historiography by uncovering more long-term political and social undercurrents in Dutch society. In doing so, issues that may have been overlooked previously are taken into consideration as well.
    [Show full text]
  • 164238 Frans Grijzenhout.Pdf
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Between memory and amnesia: the posthumous portraits of Johan and Cornelis de Witt Grijzenhout, F. DOI 10.5092/jhna.2015.7.1.4 Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Published in Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Grijzenhout, F. (2015). Between memory and amnesia: the posthumous portraits of Johan and Cornelis de Witt. Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.5092/jhna.2015.7.1.4 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:23 Sep 2021 Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art Volume 7, Issue 1 (Winter 2015) Between
    [Show full text]
  • Alcohol, Tobacco, and the Intoxicated Social Body in Dutch Painting
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2-24-2014 Sobering Anxieties: Alcohol, Tobacco, and the Intoxicated Social Body in Dutch Painting During the True Freedom, 1650-1672 David Beeler University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Scholar Commons Citation Beeler, David, "Sobering Anxieties: Alcohol, Tobacco, and the Intoxicated Social Body in Dutch Painting During the True Freedom, 1650-1672" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4983 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sobering Anxieties: Alcohol, Tobacco, and the Intoxicated Social Body in Dutch Painting During the True Freedom, 1650-1672 by David Beeler A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Liberal Arts Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Annette Cozzi, Ph.D. Cornelis “Kees” Boterbloem, Ph.D. Brendan Cook, Ph.D. Date of Approval: February 24, 2014 Keywords: colonialism, foreign, otherness, maidservant, Burgher, mercenary Copyright © 2014, David Beeler Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................................................ii
    [Show full text]
  • Nummer Toegang: 1.02.01 Inventaris Van Het
    Nummer Toegang: 1.02.01 Inventaris van het archief van C. van Heemskerck [levensjaren 1646-1702]: Gezant te Wenen, te Brussel, te Madrid, te Altona, te Constantinopel en te Parijs, 1672-1701 Versie: 15-08-2019 Th.H.P.M. Thomassen Nationaal Archief, Den Haag 1994 This finding aid is written in Dutch. 1.02.01 Heemskerck 3 INHOUDSOPGAVE Beschrijving van het archief......................................................................................5 Aanwijzingen voor de gebruiker................................................................................................6 Openbaarheidsbeperkingen.......................................................................................................6 Beperkingen aan het gebruik......................................................................................................6 Materiële beperkingen................................................................................................................6 Aanvraaginstructie...................................................................................................................... 6 Citeerinstructie............................................................................................................................ 6 Archiefvorming...........................................................................................................................7 Geschiedenis van de archiefvormer............................................................................................7 Vrijwilliger op de vloot en bestuurder
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Marketing of William III: a Religious Turn in Katharina Lescailje's Political Poetry
    Dutch Crossing Journal of Low Countries Studies ISSN: 0309-6564 (Print) 1759-7854 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydtc20 Cultural Marketing of William III: A Religious Turn in Katharina Lescailje's Political Poetry Nina Geerdink To cite this article: Nina Geerdink (2010) Cultural Marketing of William III: A Religious Turn in Katharina Lescailje's Political Poetry, Dutch Crossing, 34:1, 25-41, DOI: 10.1179/030965610X12634710163105 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1179/030965610X12634710163105 Published online: 18 Jul 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 33 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ydtc20 dutch crossing, Vol. 34 No. 1, March, 2010, 25–41 Cultural Marketing of William III: A Religious Turn in Katharina Lescailje’s Political Poetry Nina Geerdink VU University Amsterdam, NL William III (1650–1702) and his wife Mary II (1662–1695) have been praised extensively by Dutch poets. One gets the impression that the government of the King-Stadholder was widely appreciated in the Dutch Republic, while in fact his position was not uncontested and this image was partly constructed in laudatory poems. The laudations for William were univocal in their praise and particularly religious in tone. The example of the Amsterdam female poet Katharina Lescailje (1649–1711) highlights both aspects of the poetry about William and Mary. The resounding praise for William, as well as the religious tone in the poems written during the 1680s, was in remarkable opposition to her earlier political poems, written in the 1670s.
    [Show full text]
  • Dit PDF Bestand Downloaden
    tntl 124 (2008) 187-200 Henk J.M. Nellen Over doornen en distels Het gebruik van brieven als een bron voor historisch onderzoek naar aanleiding van de biografie over Hugo Grotius Abstract – The correspondence of the Dutch humanist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is used here in a cautious attempt to characterize the status of the letter written as mail – and non-fictional in character – in the first half of the seventeenth century. It is demonstrated that, at the time, the letter played a specific role in the commu- nication process. It served as a personal, multifaceted and almost chameleonic doc- ument because, as a rule, the writer adapted subject matter, style, length and the use of polite phrases to match the relationship linking him to his correspondent. The level of confidentiality expressed in the letter varied as well, fluctuating be- tween the strict intimacy of private conversation and the openness of an official publication. Furthermore, the current article argues that the ephemeral, lapidary and often veiled information conveyed by the letter calls for an inter-textual ap- proach, i.e. a continuous confrontation with other relevant sources, particularly contemporary letters. Een veelzijdige briefwisseling De titel van deze bijdrage, ‘Over doornen en distels’, stamt uit een brief van Ma- ria van Reigersberch, de voorbeeldige echtgenote van Hugo Grotius. In deze brief beklaagde zich zij over de moeizame ballingschap die vooral op haar gezin had doorgewerkt.1 ‘De swaricheyt die de Hollanders ons hebben aenghedaen voelen wij meest in onse kinderen’, schreef ze een jaar eerder al in grote bitterheid,2 en die gemoedsgesteldheid, die veel van haar brieven kenmerkt, is maar al te goed te be- grijpen, want als de brieven van beide ouders de waarheid spreken waren hun kin- deren onopgevoed, eigenwijs, spilziek, dom en lui.
    [Show full text]
  • Terugblik Op Alblasserdam
    Terugblik op Alblasserdam Deel II door Hennie van der Zouw Een tweede bundel van Columns eerder verschenen op www.alblasserdam.net Column 19 t/m 36 1 Hennie van der Zouw publiceerde al eerder onder het pseudoniem H.V. Anderz: Voetbal: Voetbalfinales Het Internationale Clubvoetbal Schaatsen: De Olympische Geschiedenis van het Langebaanschaatsen. Editie 2013 De Olympische Geschiedenis van het Langebaanschaatsen van 1924 t/m 2014 Onder eigen naam verscheen: Terugblik op Alblasserdam Deel I (Column 1 t/m 18) 2 Terugblik op Alblasserdam Deel II De verzamelde Columns van Hennie van der Zouw Deel II: Column 19 tm 36. Zoals eerder verschenen op www.alblasserdam.net Met dank aan het Internet en Fotosketcher. Bewerking omslag en andere afbeeldingen: Hennie van der Zouw. Eerste Druk. November 2016. Brave New Books. 3 Copyright © 2016 H.V. Anderz. Toestemming wordt verleend tot het kopiëren, verspreiden en/of wijzigen van dit document onder de bepalingen van de GNU Vrije Documentatie Licentie, versie 1.2 of iedere latere versie uitgegeven door de Free Software Foun- dation; met als Omslagteksten voor de Voorkant en met als Omslagteksten voor de Achterkant. Een kopie van de licentie is opgenomen in de sectie getiteld “GNU Vrije Documentatie Licentie”. 4 Voorwoord Vanaf januari 2013 doe ik vrijwilligerswerk bij het Papendrechtse internetbedrijf www.bezichtig.nu, wat sinds 2016 bekend is onder de naam www.avant.nl. Daar hou ik o.a. de nieuwswebsites van de Drechtsteden bij. Dit werken aan nieuwswebsites stimuleerde me om nog meer te gaan schrijven. Zo heb ik inmiddels onder pseudoniem al een viertal boekjes over schaatsen en voetbal gepubliceerd.
    [Show full text]
  • Caveat from the Archive: Pieter Van Dam's Beschryvinge Van De Oostindische Compagnie and Crisis Management
    Friedrich, Susanne. “Caveat from the Archive: Pieter van Dam’s Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie and Crisis Management.” Journal for the History of Knowledge 1, no. 1 (2020): 12, pp. 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/jhk.15 SPECIAL ISSUE Caveat from the Archive: Pieter van Dam’s Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie and Crisis Management Susanne Friedrich Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, DE [email protected] This article considers the dynamics between the ideals of good governance, crisis, introspection, and routine. It centers on the Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie (Description of the [Dutch] East India Company; hereafter, VOC), commissioned in 1693. Compiled by the company’s secretary Pieter van Dam over the course of more than a decade, this work charted the VOC’s organization, areas of operation, and internal processes. The Beschryvinge originated from a perception of crisis among the directors stemming from the company’s decreasing profitability and illicit behavior among those in its service. The directors’ sense of crisis resonated with a growing awareness throughout Europe that good governance required information on administrative actions and procedures. Their concern led to a series of initiatives aimed at providing better means of obtaining such information. Charged with synthesizing the company’s sprawling archive into a more practicable compendium, the VOC’s leading bureaucrat used little and large tools of knowledge to mold the company’s operational practices into a coherent whole, thereby putting the perceived crisis into historical perspective. Ultimately, van Dam’s Beschryvinge contradicted the directors’ fears that the company was inefficient.
    [Show full text]