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Books on the move: public book auctions in the Dutch Republic - mainly in Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague and Leiden

Also based on research by Svend E. Veldhuijzen and Johan Gerritsen

The appearance in  of the first edition of Books Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic - (), edited by Bert van Selm, inspired three fellow book historians to make an inventory – independently of each other – of eighteenth- century public book auctions in the cities of The Hague, Groningen, Leiden and Amsterdam. Their choice of the eighteenth century initiated from the avail- ability of serial source material – archive sources and newspapers – for this period which made it possible to compile repertories of book auctions in these cities. These four data collections form the core of the Repertorium van Nederlandse publieke boekenveilingen - () which is linked to Bibliopolis, the electronic national history of the printed book in the Netherlands. This database contains details of over , book auctions. Thus on average more than a hundred auctions a year in which some tens of thousands of books changed ownership. Foreign visitors to the Republic often expressed their amazement about the large number of book auctions. As yet there is no really well founded explanation for the many sales and also there is no confirmation that more auctions were held here than in other countries. One theory which is regularly put forward is that the succession laws in this country forced the heirs to sell in order to be able to share out their inheritance. This explanation is – certainly as far as the eighteenth century is concerned – too simplistic because the public auction was used by book dealers as a means of disposing of large quantities of anti- quarian and second-hand books which had often been specially purchased with a view to selling them off in one go. This article is set out in two parts. The first part includes a review of the ’s sources followed by a survey of the particular information sources and

 Book sales catalogues of the Dutch Republic, -, ed. B. van Selm (Leiden -).  www.bibliopolis.nl. Also in book form: Bibliopolis. Geschiedenis van het gedrukte boek in Nederland, comp. M. van Delft & C. de Wolf (Zwolle etc. ). The  is edited by H. van Goinga.  Within the database ( december ) , auctions have been recorded. However among these there are not only sales of book collections but also a few auctions consisting entirely of print collections and the occasional auction of collections of art and paintings.  O.S. Lankhorst, ‘Les ventes de livres et leurs catalogues XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles’, in: A. Charon & É. Parinet, Les ventes de livres et leurs catalogues XVII e-XX e siècle (Paris ), pp. -; -. D. Vanysacker, ‘Impressies en bekommernissen van een Italiaans prelaat op doorreis in de Neder- landen ()’, in: De achttiende eeuw,  (), pp. -.  O.S. Lankhorst, art. cit. (n. ), pp. -.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,  Quærendo ⁄- Also available online – www.brill.nl Quaerendo 35,1-2_455_65-95I 5/25/05 5:17 PM Page 66

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. Title page of the auction catalogue of the library of Herman Boerhaave, Professor of Medicine in Leiden, . Photo courtesy by Amsterdam University Library.