View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Groningen University of Groningen In 't land van belofte Taverne, Eduard Robert Marie IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1978 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Taverne, E. R. M. (1978). In 't land van belofte: in de nieue stadt. Ideaal en werkelijkheid van de stadsuitleg in de Republiek 1580-1680. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, 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), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 12-11-2019 Summarr- utopian tractates.Thel projected In thepromised land: in the newcin' architectonicand spatial *hole r itself. Another maniÍèstationof th Idealand realit.vin Dutch city planning cal and arithmetical svstemsthat rvere built. The circle rvasthc id r -;8o-r68o block, and other Írred ratios gore and building units. These tor.rr deducedfrom Platonicand Pvthar In the secondhalÍ'ofthe sirtccr citl' planning reached the \ortl Simon Stevin, notablv his L"un,ltt ofcities; c. r6oo),contain evidcnr The historl'of citv planning in the Dutch Republic has receivedlittle Italian sourcesof trvo kinds: arcl seriousattention to date.That is not to sav that the handbookson citr and the scienceof Íbrtification, lr planning simp[_vprss Holland bv. Quite the contrlrr': both Gutkind cin'. The inÍluence of Stevin's and Mumford devotelong chaptersto the seventeenth-centurvexten- demonstratedin the u'orkingsoÍ'r sion of Amsterdam, rvhich thel' see as a triumph of Baroque citv maticque,an engineeringschool r planning. The idea of establishinga scienti These authoritiesand others, such as Lavedan and Rraunfels,basc neerswas conceived jointlv br Ste their interpretationof the historicalmaterial largelv on Gerald Burke's latter'sprojected reorgrniz;rtion o survev of the clevelopmentof the Dutch ton n, publishedin r 956, u'hich philologicaland historicalstudies in its turn reliesheavilv and too oÍten uncriticalll' on the pioneering sius. During the earll' decirdesoÍ' studl' b1'Brusmans and Petersof r 9 r o. The upshot is that our imageoÍ' engineeringschool u asan intern:r lJutch seventeenth-centurvcitv building is founded on turn-of-thc and a streamofliterature on the sr ccnturv historiographl'reflecting thc contemporaneousideas and ideals It can be shorvnthat Leiden at of suchthinkers and irrchitectsas Sitte. F-berstadt.Horvard. Stiiben and fortification but also-despite thc Berlage. print until r6.19 of the ideal citr -\ prime exarnpleof a one-sidedirnd tendentioushistorical judgment bl the countlesscommissions cr. of the development of the Dutch town is the fascinating book on vevors for fbreign-mainlv Drnis Haarlem bv the Austrian historian NIax Eisler (tgt+). In the spirit of flung fortressesand rvalled tou ns Sitte, Eislcr contraststhe bctter qualities of mediaevalHaarlem with \\,a],-the!' rvere b1'engineers unÍrrn the negative aspectsol' l:rter developments.The worst offenilers in In the Republic itself the conc Eislcr's vieu lvere-]acobvan Campen and Salomon de Brar', architects planning are n'ruchscarcer, if onlr with an outspokenaÍlnit1' for Itrlirn Renaissancenotions of building tv here to build from scratch.\\'he and planning. Eisler'sjudgments are all guided br, his lirrthright rejec- in the various extensionsof Dr tion of classicisticcitv planning and all it meant for Holland. Around r63o, u'ith the rise of I)ut The roots of classicisticcitv planning can be found in the theoriesof \r'enotice a striking rebirth of int architecture,fortification and civil engineeringthat came out of Itall' planning rmong architects(Jacoh starting *'ith Alberti in r45o and reaching a larger and larger public de Bral'and others)and in variou through the publication of illustrated treatisesin the centuriesto Íbl- stantine Huvgens, Hendrick \Ior 5.t+ low. These books were relatedto particular kinds of philosophicaland theoriesis the nlan for the ertens utopian tractates.Thev projectedan imageof the idealcin'as a rational architectonicand sp:rtialwhole retlecting the stratificationof societv itself-.Another manifestationof the classicisticideal is in the geometri- cal and arithmetical svstemsthat undcrlal the f<rrmsof cities as thev u'ere built. The circle \\'asthe ideal contour, the square the optimal block, and other fixed ratios governed the relationsof piazzas,streets and building units. These too \rerc crpressions of an ideal order, deducedfrom Platonicand Pvthagoreanvisions ofthe cosmos. In the secondhalfofthe si-riteenthcenturv thesenev'conceptions of citv planning reached the Northcrn Netherlands. The u'ritings of Simon Stevin, notablv his l,'undeoirdeningh tler steiltn (On the ordering of cities; c. r(roo),contain evidencethat his thinking uas modelledon Italian sourcesoftlrrr kinds: architecturaltheorr (Cataneo,Palladio) and the scienceof Íbrtification,rvith its indirect reflectionsoÍ'the ideal citl'. The influence of Stevin's theories on Dutch prrcticc can be demonstratedin the uorkings of the so-calledNederduvtsche \hthe- maticque,an engineeringschool attached to Leiden Universitr' (r6oo). The idea of establishinga scientifictraining school for militarr engi- neers\vas conceived iointlv bl SteYinand Prince Nlaurits irspart ol'tl.re latter'sprojected reorganization of the militarr', an aim inspired bl the philologicalancl historical studies <lf the Leiden humanist Justr.rsLip- sius. During the earlr decadesof the ser,enteenthcenturv the Leiden engineeringschool u'as an internationalcenter ofmilitarl lrchitecture, irnd a streamof literatureon the subiectcame out oÍ-theDutch presses. It can be shou'n thrt Leiden absorbedStevin's theoriesnot onlv of fortification but also despitethe fact that his book did not appearin print until r649-of the ideal citl'as well. This conclusionis borne out b1'the countlesscommissions executed br Dutch enginecrsand sur- ve1'orsfor foreign-mainll' Danish and S*edish rulers; these rvide- flung fortressesand u.alledtos'ns could simph not have beenbuilt the \1a]'thel vrereby-engineers unfamiliar rvith Stevin's città ideale. In the Republic itself the concreteouteroriths of Stevin's ideason phnning aremuch scarcer,if onlr becauscthere $ asso little opportuni- tv hereto build from scratch.Where thoscideas did come into plav rvas in the virrious ertensions of Dutch cities in the vears rsSo-I68o. Around r63o, *ith the rise of Dutch classicismin art and architecture, rve notice a striking rebirth of interest in Renaissancetheories of citl' planning among architects(Jacob ran Campen, Pieter Post, Salomon de Brav and others) and in various branchesofthe government (Con- stantineHuvp;ens, Hendrick \'loreelse).Unmistakabll basedon those theoriesis the plan for the extensionof Haarlem u.orkedout bv Salo- 545 mon de Brar in 16-1-3and r66riz and published b1'him, sith.rn viouslJ'existing situation. That extensir-ccommentar\', in r66r. De Brar''s plan is seldom cited br utter lack of political sa)'on thr historiansof citr planning in the Republic; their favoredexample is thc area,who were driven out to th( r 6 r -i plan firr the -\msterdamcanals, lvhich is commonlv consideredthc modularity, the canalsform a sh embodiment of everl'thing Dutch in seventeenth-centurr.cin' plln- of the old citl'. Seenin this ligh ning. red, with Mumford, a mature \- The long chapter on the seventeenth-centurvextension of Amster- accurateh'describedas a geome dam in Lervis Mumford's influential book of 196r, The cít.1,i, 71t,,,rr'. lined versionofthe traditional ! s'aslargelv responsible for the riseof the m)'th of the radialcanal plan a' In opening our evesto the c: a brilliant piece of urban design. This view has little foundation in master plan, the Amsterdam s historicalfact. Insofar as a careful investigationof the documentshrs policiesof other Dutch torvns,s' allorvedme to reconstructthe actual decision-makingprocess, rvhich I cut. A closelook at the varrous have interpreted in terms of the demographic,economic and cultural industrial towns as Leiden irnd chanp;esthen taking place in the citv, the onll' possibleconclusion it town like Utrecht, revealsthe sl that there was no overall plan at all Íbr the extensionof Amsterdam in rvell-organizedexpansion. the seventeenthcenturv. The link MumÍbrd postulatesbetrveen tht: Urban expansionin the Dutcl meteoric economic gro\r'th of the citl' starting in the mid-sixteenth tural airs or propagandisticdi: centur!-and the developmentof a radicalll' neu'and eÍïcient planning necessit-vto safeguardthe prosp, method is historicalll' untenable, deriving from an utterlv subjective wasthe spatialconsequence oftl view ofthe nature and function ofcitl'planning. as possible,in the interestsof in The so-calledcanal plan of r 6 r 3 wasnever formulated and discussed ing a reserroirofcheap.